Elvis is in the House

We played a couple of games of golf in Sun City and then drove to Bullhead City, Arizona which is across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada. This was supposed to be our launching point for our drive back home but with a cold front moving into the U.S. north-west and -20C temperatures and snow in Calgary we decided to prolong the trip for a few more days. On one of those days we golfed at a local course and discovered Elvis' new hideaway on the 11th hole.......we had been to Memphis in search of him last year to no avail.......this time we were not able to get inside the house, unlike the mansion in Graceland, and he didn't answer the door when we knocked but we were pretty sure he was hiding inside (see pictures above supporting our belief).

With no improvement in the northern U.S. weather picture, and in fact it was getting worse, we drove south to Lake Havasu where the temperature was still close to 20C and sunny. We had not been there before and wanted to see the reconstructed London Bridge in this city which was established in 1964 (only 46 years ago) shortly after Robert McCulloch, from Los Angeles, purchased 13,000 acres from the Arizona government for less than a million dollars. He then proceeded to build a waterfornt resort and retirement community which has now grown to 50,000 people. McCulloch was also the one who bought the falling (actually sinking) London Bridge from the City of London in 1968 for $2.4M and then had it shipped and reassembled in Lake Havasu (doubling his cost). After the bridge was put back together he dredged a channel to create an island to further showcase the bridge. Quite a story.

While we were able to avoid the slot machines in Laughlin casinos, we couldn't pass up the temptation of a fabulous slot canyon at the south end of Lake Havasu which had many good hiking trails. The 10 km Crack in the Mountain trail took us thru a very narrow canyon with one challenging 10 foot rock slide which I had to negotiate back up when I realized later that my sunglasses had fallen out of my pocket prior to the slide (I found them). The end of the trail was at Lake Havasu in a deserted cove with great views where we had a light lunch. We made the return trip along the ridge trail which bypassed the slot canyon and led us to a few more geocaches along the way together with some more stunning views.

Yesterday we played golf at Emerald Canyon, a beautiful track and challenging walk that no one else seemed to want to take on. It was a nice finish to our golf season.

This morning we drove 4 hours north to Mesquite, Nevada.........including a trip over the recently opened Hoover Dam bypass bridge........ where we will spend the night. It is still 15C and sunny here but it will get much colder overnight and as we head further north. In the morning we have an appointment to get the van winterized so that we don't have to worry about the water lines freezing for the rest of our journey home. If all goes well we should be back in Calgary on Friday, suffering the winter chills with everyone else.