Between Holidays Trip to the Desert

The Saturday after Thansgiving we did our family get together at my sister and brother in laws. They go to Brock's side of the family. When we had our house, we use to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house but have gotten together on the following Saturdays at Kristi and Brocks since we started living in the MH. We had a good time with good food. Besides Kristi and Brock and us, others there were my niece Heather and her hubbie, Ryan, niece Kori and her boyfriend Nick, my Dad and Chris and Karol Casey and Michael didn't make it as they were racing their boats in Parker. We are headed to that area Tuesday and since not that far away, have decided to come back to the area for Christmas.
Tuesday we made the 6 hour drive to Cattail Cove State Park, where we have stayed before. We got a great spot with a good view of the water. Only two sites in the front area and so we have a large site with no one on our passenger side that faces the water.

Cattail Cove has 61 sites and is tucked in between hills and away from the main highway. It is so serene and quiet, especially at this time of the year. Lake Havasu was created when the Colorado River was dammed  by Parker  and the lake  is 45 miles long. During peak seasons it is very busy with all types of boats making their way up and down the lake area. This campground also has a couple of nice hiking trails that wind through the hills and along the water. We took advantage of that while here. The park is also nicely landscaped with many different types of trees and includes a cactus garden. There is a small beach area where dogs can run around and they are also allowed on the trails so very pet friendly.

They have a few dog parks in Lake Havasu and we visited both. One is in town near the London Bridge and along the waterfront. We had been there before. We also tried a new one which was at SARA Park, which is a large park, with baseball fields, in line hockey, a bmx raceway, hiking trails and other sports related activities. The dog park is divided into two areas, one just for small dogs. Savannah was a little shy as she sometimes is but did play around with some of the dogs.  there were a few other Cavaliers there and one dog that played with a basketball. He would run with it by his side and it was very funny to watch. He really had a lot of energy and kept running around with it for a long time.

We also went into town for grocery shopping several times as we had really depleted our lair when the MH was due to go into the shop. We got a few days of rain. The rest of the time has been mostly cool though we got a few days nice enough to sit outside and enjoy our wonderful view. Today we are going to head to Lake Havasu Park, which we had checked out earlier in the week It is another nice state park on the water and we made on line reservations for a spot that is right on the water. We love Cattail but wanted to try another place while we are here. We will stay until Monday when we head back to So Cal for Christmas get togethers.                                                                                                                                                

Kayaking with Sailor Savannah

We decided to try out our inflatable 2 person boat first as we weren't sure how Savannah would do kayaking.
We walked over the boat to the shore. It was pretty choppy as the winds were starting to come up but it was still a nice paddle and Savannah sat on my lap and was just fine looking around and then settling in for a nap.

Another day we went to the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuse to paddle in our hard shell kayaks

The Refuge is between Lake Havasu and Parker right off Highway 95.  It is 6,105 acres  and has one of the last stands of cottonwood willow forests along the Colorado River.  As we paddled down the river we saw cattail, cottonwood trees and saguaro cactus. The unique ecosystem creates a good habitat for both resident and migratory wildlife. It was a beautiful place to paddle. 

We did have a little adventure or at least Savannah did. She started in Joe's boat and had her paws hanging over the side of the boat and leaned too far and fell in. Luckily she had her leash on and thought she was swimming to get back to the boat, Joe had to pull her close and get her out of the water. Joe gave her to me and she finished the trip sitting on my lap, shivering from cold or being scare but was fine after awhile and we had no further incidents. We decided to use the hard shells in the future and will put our inflatable in storage when we stop off in Newport on the way up North.                                                  

Parker and Lake Havasu, AZ

AFter having to make an overnight stop at Temecula RV to have slide adjusted again and a few other things fixed, we were finally able to get back onto the road for next chapter in our current life style. We knew we would be getting there Thursday night and so decided to stay at the Blue Water Casino in Parker. We have stayed there before and is a good overnight place to stay especially as it is free which a lot of the Casinos are for RVers. On Friday, April 1st, we decided to check out some different campgrounds. One of them was Cattail Cove State Park, which we stayed at for a few days last year before ending back to Newport. One of the sites that is nearest the river with an unobstructed view happen to be open and so we decided to reserve it right away. We got signed up and then went to pick up our motorhome and got back to Cattail and set up late afternoon. The weather is hot in the ninetys. We wanted warm weather but yikes what a change from the 60s at Newport. But won't complain. Cattail is right on Lake Havasu and has 61 campsites and a boat launch which gets a lot of use. It has a large parking area and so is extremely popular in the summer when all the boaters arrive. Lake Havasu, by the way, was formed when the Colorado River was dammed near Parker.



Sunset View from our Motorhome



The campground is surrounded on two sides by hills heading towards the lake at one end. There are quite a few trees planted throughout the park. In fact many of them have markers identifying them, such as Willow, Cottonwood , Lemon and Sissoo. There are trails for hiking. Most of the beach area is off limit to dogs. However, there is a small section where they are allow. Savannah is very happy for that as she likes hunting for shells to eat and seems to like the water. When we were at Blue Water Casino we took her down to the river. She walked right in and even swam a little. This is the first dog we have had since our dog Sky that we had when our kids were growing up that liked to swim.

Yeah, my own beach

Joe enjoying the view