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2008
To see our complete Photo Album at our
Webshots Site.
To see a summary map of our route,
click here.
April
30 This is pre Phins to the
West day. PTTW has a Kayak trip we signed up for. We met at the hotel at 1pm.
There is about 45 parrothead heading out to the river. Like all good
parrotheads, we have our beverages with us. We put in at Big Bend Park and had
an 8 miles trip down the Colorado River to the AVI. There were a few swimmers
(people who fell in). Jim and Diane and John helped a couple. I was already
ahead of them and just waited. The trip was great. When we got back we had
time to change and get ready for the “Party on the island”. The entertainers
tonight are Bob Karwin, John Reno and Tony Baloney. We had a taco buffet,
Coronas and Margaritas. Judith and Ralph showed up and were Buffett virgins.
They had a good time, but had to head home tomorrow.
29
We decided to take
a Casino River Walk today. We started at the Golden Nugget in downtown Laughlin
and made it to the Colorado Belle. We went to Joe’s Crab Shack for lunch and
then headed back to the AVI. We had to get more sun, so off to the pool we
went.
28
We went out
golfing at Chaparral Golf Course. We didn’t tee off until around noon and it
was already hot, around 90. We golfed nine holes. We were ready for something
cold. We went back to the cow and made margaritas. We had to get out of the
sun so we sat under our overhang. Our neighbors, Judith and Ralph came over.
Ralph is from New Zealand and Judith used to be a Captain of a fishing boat in
Alaska. Now they live in Colorado and sell propane fire pits by traveling to
different functions in their cow. After a while we decided to head to the
casino and played some craps, blackjack and video poker.
27
We decided to go
on a Dam hike today. Actually it’s Davis Dam. We walked around the dam and
then stopped for a Mexican lunch. We got back and headed to the pool a little
gambling and dinner at the buffet.
26
TMU is over and
today our friends Jim and Diane are flying in. We picked them up at the airport
and headed over to Margaritaville for lunch. Then we all headed back to the AVI
Resort and RV Resort. We relaxed at cow and went over to the casino to do a
little gambling. We found a video poker bar we liked, so we hung out there for
a while.
22 - 25
We left early to drive up to Vegas. We are
staying 4 nights at the Rio Casino Resort. I have to teach at the Trams
TMU conference. John is going to be spending time at the pool. We
did get to go to the Voodoo Lounge on the 51st floor of the Rio for a Trams get
together. We met our friends Candy and Traci for dinner one night.
For the Trams Graduation party we were at the Mirage's new area called BARE.
19 - 21
I had some clients come to Laughlin, so I
worked with them and John worked around the cow.
12 - 18
These days we spent time at the pool, did a little
gambling, worked on domestic stuff and I had TCI work I had to do.
11
Today I am working
on my TMU presentations for the upcoming conference in Vegas. John cleaned the
outside of the cow. Then we enjoyed the sun outside overlooking the golf
course.
10
We headed over to
the Avi casino this afternoon. We played some blackjack, craps, slots and had a
buffet for dinner. Then we came back and just relaxed at the cow.
9
Our first day in
Laughlin. We headed up to town and checked out the casinos, we had lunch at the
Colorado Belle. Then we stopped at the visitors center and chamber of
commerce. Then we had to go to the RV parts store for some cow supplies and
Walmart for miscellaneous items and groceries.
8
Moving day. We
were on the road and headed out of LA by 8am. Traffic was not bad since we were
going out of the city. We made it to the AVI casino and KOA campground by 2pm.
We have a nice site overlooking the golf course. We got all set up and then
walked over to the casino to check it out. They have a very nice pool area and
also a sand beach along the Colorado River. The river is very high and really
moving. We can’t believe how clear it is down here. Up in Utah it was very
muddy looking.
7
Domestic day. We
did laundry and packed stuff up in preparation for our move tomorrow. We did
take a nice walk on the beach. We stopped at “The Shack” for a cocktail. It’s
the same little place I stopped in when I was down for a Trams training session
years ago.
6
With our buddies
gone, we didn’t know what to do, so we hung around the cow and did some grocery
shopping.
5
This morning we
got up and decided to go out for breakfast. We found a Denny’s not far from the
campground. After breakfast Kyle and Jessica had to pack up and get ready for
their flight. We headed over to the airport at 1pm. American let John and I go
down to the gate with Kyle and Jessica. Afterwards we hung out at the cow.
4
We got up and was on the road by 930am. Were heading
to Universal Studios in Hollywood. We wanted to stop for breakfast, but we
couldn’t find anywhere on the way. It worked out fine. We got to the park and
were able to do everything including the Mummy 4 times. We really had no lines
to wait in. We wish we could have gone to Fear Factor, but it was closed
because they were filming. Every attraction we went to was great. Terminator 2
was 3D and Shrek was 4D. Waterworld was very cool.
The studio tour was great. We saw the Psycho House, Jaws, King Kong, War
of the Worlds and a bunch more. Kyle and Jessica didn’t like the Blues Brothers
because John and I were dancing. On the way out, we all got our favorite
snacks. John had kettle corn, Jessica had a funnel cake, Kyle had full throttle
and I had a sundae. We got back around 730pm. Then we worked on photos and
took it easy. There were a bunch of fires on the beach and someone had
fireworks.
3
This morning we had to work on our journal together.
We haven’t worked on it all week. So we watched the beach and worked on our
journal. We headed out and got to Hollywood around 1130am. We were able to
park right at the Kodak Theater. We walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. John
had his picture taken with Elmo. We saw Snoopy, Captain Jack Sparrow, The Hulk,
Batman, Rambo, The Flash and others. They were all just walking the boulevard
like us. We stopped at Mann’s Chinese Theater and were able to get photos of
some of the stars hands in the cement but the entrance was blocked off.
Tonight is the premier of Street Kings with Keana Reeves. The red carpet is
out and the stars will start arriving at around 530pm. On the back side of the
Kodak Theater, we were able to get a great view of the Hollywood sign. We moved
on and went to the Hollywood Wax Museum and then to the Guinness World record
museum. Afterwards we stopped for a snack and then made our way back to the
cow. We wanted a closer shot of the “Hollywood Sign”, but we got messed up in
traffic and missed it. We still did a lot of walking today, but not as much as
the last few days.
We started dinner and enjoyed the beach and the waves from our campsite.
While the waves were crashing, we enjoyed our dinner outside. After dinner it
was time for sunset. John and Kyle had our beach fire pit all ready. I walked
down to the waters edge to get some sunset photos with the waves crashing in
front of the sun setting. Then Kyle came down by me. We were watching the sun,
then we saw a fin. Then another and another and another. The dolphins were
back. While Jessica and I were watching, one dolphin jumped completely out of
the water for us. We watched a couple minutes then went back to the fire. We
all enjoyed our beach fire until the last of the wood burned away. Our
neighbors gave us an applause for our great fire. Another wonderful day.
2
Our first
morning in LA. Kyle and I were getting ready to go and John and Jessica were
drinking coffee and watching the birds in the ocean from the rear window in the
cow. They noticed dorsal fins and ran out to the beach. A pod of dolphins were
passing by. They watched the dolphins for a while and when they came back to
the cow, they showed us pictures of the Dolphins they saw.
We are heading up to Santa Monica today. We are walking again. Hopefully
not as far as the last few days. When we got to Santa Monica we found a place
to park and saw a bunch of tents set up on the road. They had a farmers market
going on. We walked around and checked out what was for sale and then headed to
the beach.
We were able to see the pier and ferris wheel. We walked out on the pier
and saw fisherman and all types of vendors. There was a man playing music for
tips. He was very good. We moseyed on back down the pier and headed south.
Our goal today is to make it to Venice Beach. We stopped at muscle beach.
Jessica and I climbed the ropes and I did the rings. This was way to much for
the boys. John did sit on the swing. We continued on down the bike path.
There is a 22 mile bike/walking path the runs along the beach. We could walk
all the way back to our cow. Right now we are 10 miles away. We made it to
Venice Beach and had lunch at “The Sidewalk Café”. During lunch we were
listening to a man playing a full size piano on the walkway for tips. Venice
brings out a lot of unique individuals, of which we saw today. There are some
performers that want tips and others that just want a handout. We did see one
guy, that said he was a wino and needed money to by beer. He was all dressed up
and had a big hat. After lunch we checked our pedometer and we had walked 5
miles. That meant we also had a 5 mile walk back. The return was only about 3
miles because we had done the farmers market and pier. When we finally made it
back, we were DONE, DONE, DONE!!
1
Today is
moving day. We went through our checklist and were ready to hit the road by
8am. Our neighbors came out to say goodbye to us. Bill told us the highway was
closed and we couldn’t leave. Out cow was completely closed and ready to go.
Finally Bill told us “April Fools”. So we did leave. The drive was not bad at
all.
We got to Dockweiler Beach State Park Campground in Los Angeles at 11am.
Our campsite is right on the beach. We could not get any closer. We got all
set up and organinzed and then headed out to the beach. We were going to go for
a short walk. After 4.5 miles we made it to Marina Del Ray. We needed some
food and a rest. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant that overlooked the
marina.
We knew we had a 4.5 mile walk back. We got back in time for sunset. We
set up our chairs. We were chilled and our feet were cold, so we buried them in
the sand while the sun was setting. After sunset, the party animals that we
are, we headed inside, turned on the heat watched a little TV and then went to
bed.
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