Tucson to Portland, Oregon via Wickenburg? Hub Pages Link

2009

Hoover Dam bypass construction 2009

Storm over the Colorado River 2010

Note: Check out the pictures from my Hub Pages Post called 11 Picture of a Man Made Marvel. Be sure to click on the images I have posted here and look at them in full size on your computer screen. It is amazing1

Going home is always an adventure. We have traveled from Tucson to Portland Oregon in the spring for many years. We try to make each trip a new adventure but it is getting harder with each passing year. Are we missing some new way home? I cannot imagine.
Sometimes we go through Palm Springs, then through Los Angeles and up I-5. We have gone all the way to the Pacific Ocean and up the coast on 101. We have stopped in the Napa Valley on the way home. One year we stopped at Lake Taho after spending some time in Death Valley and taking a route on the east side of the Sierra Nevadas. We have also gone to Reno from Las Vegas and spent a night there before driving home to Portland. One year we stayed in Sedona for a couple of nights.
For the last few years we have been making the trip over Hoover Dam. Watching the bridge being built has been fascinating. I have a chronology of the building of the bridge that looms over the dam and the Colorado River. (Click on the link above) The amazing structure that is now the bypass bridge was completed this last summer. We will travel over that bridge this year. I hear all you can see is concrete walls. The story is they don't want drivers to be distracts by the wonder of this place. Tourist might wreck!
But, as with any journey, the way you complete your travels is by taking the first step. Our trip will start out with a short drive to a small community called Wickenburg. This will be the third year we have started our trip home with this short drive. I love to start out this way. Wickenburg is a sleepy little community about 60 miles north of Phoenix. The big event for Wickenburg in April was a meeting of the Arts and Culture Commission on April 28th. That's it! We eat at the golf course and do a little shopping down town. It is an easy first day of driving.
After packing up and preparing the park model for the summer, we are usually very tired. We will get up late, finish our preparation, have breakfast at the Congress Hotel in downtown Tucson and drive until we need a break. Our life is good because we have a very loosely planned schedule.

View looking up 2010

We will stay in Las Vegas on the second night. Our friends will join us in Wickenburg for a game of golf on Friday and we will drive to Las Vegas afterwards. We have a night in our timeshare at World Mark on Las Vegas Avenue. On Saturday night we will stay on Nellis Air Force Base and play golf on the base. Sunday will be the day we decide which road we will take home from there. Our choices are all good. We can go through Utah or we can stay in Nevada and spend the next night in Reno. Who knows. Right now I don't care. I am tired and bed is calling my name.
Safe travels.

b

Five Little Ducks...stories played out!

The children's song about the little ducks leaving the nest to fly away has always been one of my favorites. Every mother has seen their babies fly away and rejoiced. Life comes full circle. Animals live that same cycle. Babies grow up. Birds leave the nest. Life goes on. So when the three ducks show up every year near my patio I am not surprised. But I am puzzled that it always seems to be the same three. Something just doesn't seem right. It appears the one did not fly away at all. Five little ducks Went out to play Over the hills and far away. The mommy duck went "quack, quack quack," Four little ducks came swimming back... And then Three Two and One. A drake, a female duck (a hen) and a not quite a drake but still not a hen gather here on the 5th green of the golf course. She leads and the other two follow along obediently. They eat, sleep, and guard each other. Each and every day this time of year they come. I have not named them. Jinxing them would be very pos...

How to be a 12 Month Snow Bird

Vacation Rental in Mexico I live around snowbirds 6 months of the year. I have heard those people say that they all want to live the "snowbird" lifestyle when they go home. But it just is not possible. They are isolated and cold. Social activities with friends and beautiful weather are greatly missed when they return to the realities of their "real" life. One couple I visited with lately returned to Florida this morning where they own a home. The woman is a nurse and works in the summer. They are not going home until May this year. It is too cold in Michigan in the spring so they are hoping to extend their good weather season by simply staying away. Besides that they love their Florida lifestyle a lot. Last week I visited with a woman that lives the snowbird lifestyle year around. No going home to the Midwest in the spring. They essentially vacation 12 month out of the year. And I thought their solution for avoiding unpleasant weather and keeping their lifestyle in...

If You Build It, They Will Come...Maybe!

It all began with a antique window in front of a local shop. It had been painted yellow, the glass was loose and all of the hinges and latches were gone. My old friend Betty would have approved...she would tell me it was just broken enough and damaged enough for me to drag it home. When my dear husband saw it, he wondered what he was meant to do with it. Imagine his surprise when he was presented with the plan to build a small neighborhood library exchange. It wasn't the first time he had heard me ask "How hard could it be?" Now it is six weeks later and we mounted the darling little library exchange on two posts in our front yard. I love it. Now the question is, will they come or has the time passed when people actually read something made of paper? Our association president stopped by and admired the box but left after telling me that he only read books on his Kindle. We will see. Would you bring a book and take a book? b+

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