Caleeeforneeeaa

Didn't make it to Winslow for the car show, because it was too windy to fly. So we stayed home and enjoyed the milder weather.
It's been getting nicer and nicer, with the high on Friday being no more than 99 degrees. I know that doesn't sound that great but it's a treat compared to 175 degrees.
Then yesterday, Saturday, the high was somewhere around 70 degrees. Woohoo!
We traveled to California to pick up a little airplane (called a Smith Mini) and a big old huge bar that Steve's boss will be using in the restaurant he's building here in Havasu.
The plane will be hung from the ceiling, like this one that's over in Mike's hangar in Long Beach:


On the way home, we took the route through Palm Springs, where there's a large wind farm.

Each of the blades on those windmills is longer than a semi truck and trailer, and the motor housing, where the blades are attached takes up an entire semi trailer. We've seen them going down the interstate, presumably from the manufacturer to the wind farm for installation. What a monster.

Woe is Me

We won't have time to make the four hour drive to Winslow for the car show on Saturday, so Steve, his boss, Shay, and I will be flying in the lear jet to it.
Should take about 45 minutes to get there. I think that's pretty funny, flying in a lear jet to a one horse town for their car show.

Shay and I were bored yesterday as we were home alone and there was nothing to do. Well there was plenty to do but I didn't want to do it. So we played with my camera in the back yard. Here's one of the shots:

Another Reg

Did another voter registration last night, during the CRBIA's symposium on Prop 201. For those of you not in Arizona, it's a huge scam that the unions have put on our ballot. So I took the opportunity to have a little table at the entrance. I was shocked that more people didn't show up for this meeting, because if this Prop 201 passes it will put a lot of people in the construction industry, real estate, and banks out of work.

Car Adventure

Saturday, Steve was on his way back from a glamorous excursion to northern Indiana, in his boss's newly customized Peterbilt truck. We've spent too much time apart this month so I climbed in the car and met him in Winslow which is about 4 hours East of Havasu. It was nice because if I hadn't gone up there I wouldn't have seen him until sometime on Sunday.
First, I must explain the truck. We flew back to Boston to get this truck back in the spring of 2006. It was sort of restored; a 1979 semi truck with a super duper engine in it and some of the interior had been done. But the rest was still quite rough. Steve began researching the shops in Arizona who could handle the amount of work the truck needed, and at the same time he did some work on it himself. We spent a lot of time driving to Phoenix trying to wrangle the needed work but in the end the job got done by a place called ICT in Indiana. It took them nearly a year, because Steve's boss was really good at adding changes and such. The end product is a masterpiece, though.


Where we stayed in Winslow is an adventure in itself. Rodney Rucker is a rare vehicle collector and he has a pretty good sized piece of property that he's developing into a car museum. Some of the collection is in storage in California, but some was available for me to photograph in Winslow. Rodney was not what I'd expected. He is a pleasant guy who speaks with a very soft voice, and apparently has a very twisted sense of humor. I say that because we were looking at the "RollerSkate Car" of his and he said he built it as a "joke." That's some joke!
Here I am in the cockpit of the Roller Skate Car:


He has built hot rods and pure monsters, all with the attitude that it's all about having fun. Here's one of the country's first monster trucks, that Rodney built back in the days before Bigfoot was even popular:


The stage coach is powered by a big block engine, and it will be our ride around town when we return for the car show this coming weekend:


Many who remember the Monster Garage show with Jesse James will probably recognize this shopping cart:


And those who desire to be a drag racing Liberace might enjoy this little creation, a piano car that can be driven down the street as the keys are played:


There's the wine barrel car:


Not pictured are the tractor cars, which are enormous monstrosities that are just what the name means; cars that have been made from tractor parts. I will get better opportunities for pictures of those because we will be back to Rodney's place very soon. Also I didn't get a picture of the Scissor-Lift car that was used in the movie the Great Race. It was Jack Lemmon's car. Rodney also owns the original "Eleanor" from Gone in Sixty Seconds. It is in storage.

Besides the weird stuff, Rodney is the owner of several awesome collector cars. His driveway in front of his house had a Mustang, Roadrunner, Corvette, Fairlane, GTO, Galazy 500, and geez I can't remember the rest. They were all 1960's era cars. Beautiful.


When Rodney gets closer to having his museum done, I will go up with the video equipment and get some interview footage as well as footage of each of the cars. Should be a good show.

Voters Abound

We had a short voter registration drive, with the help of a couple of community leaders. Buster Johnson (County Supervisor) and Sam Scarmardo (former City Council) hung out with us in front of Walgreens for a few hours, and helped tremendously.
Robin and I were happy that we had shade, steady traffic, and two great helpers to bring in the people.



We were certainly discouraged by many people, who told us that it would be a waste of time and that voter registration drives in the past were very unsuccessful.
We didn't have huge expectations, but after counting our registrations we were happy to report 20 new sign-ups in just 2 1/2 hours!!!

Hey, Autumn is Next WEEK!!

But it's still hot here. Not as hot. But still. You know.

Last weekend we went out on the pontoon boat (Steve won't let me name it the HMS Shagatsea) not to be confused with the Bayliner which we call the SS Minnow.

It was just Steve, Shay, and I, and the lake was perfect. Not too many people out there. We headed up river, thru what is known as the Topock Gorge and Devil's Elbow. Lots of great pictures....

The first one is Steve very gracefully hopping up on the boat to relocate it on the beach we visited:


Shay quickly made himself at home.


We had a body building competition:


We floated under the train bridge a little


I may have figured out why people have been telling me that Shay reminds them of Owen Wilson:


Sometimes we went fast:


I like this picture, it shows how calm the water was where we were sitting:


After about 5 hours on the water, we headed home for dinner. Just in time to avoid too much of a sunburn. In two weeks, the weather will be changing and we'll be able to frolic all day without getting exhausted from the heat. Can't wait.

Work, Work, Work

Work is consuming me somewhat right now. Trying to figure out how to streamline things and make them easier, more flowing. I sure have met a lot of new people doing this stuff, which is different for a person like me who's been around this town for 20 years.

Last night Steve and I did something different, we actually went over to hang out at some friends' house. They have a pole in their garage. And by pole, I mean the kind that go go dancers use. After dinner we adjourned to the garage and turned on the "How to Pole Dance" instructional video. Nobody was brave enough to jump up there and try it, so of course I did. I really wanted to try it, I have been hearing how great pole dancing is for exercise (really, not kidding!) and so I stuck with it all the way thru the 45 minute video.
Pole dancing isn't a bunch of swinging around. It's controlled, slow, steady movements using a LOT of upper body strength. I couldn't believe how difficult it was. Now I have two new bruises on my legs and some sore hands and shoulders. But I'm hooked! I want to try it some more! But that would require a pole. And some time. I have neither.

This Saturday, Robin Schilling and I are having a voter registration drive in front of the local Walgreens store. She's in the Lake Havasu Republican Women with me. We used to do fundraisers for the Humane Society together, several years ago. It gets hot after noon, so we're not going to stay out there and melt. Once we're done with that, I'm meeting Steve in Chloride. It's a mining town that's about 90 minutes away from here in the mountains. There's an antique truck show every year on the third Saturday in September, and Steve's always in it. It's a nice change of pace, a chance to go see a very pretty town, and we have fun chatting with the other truck owners. Maybe this year I'll finally talk Steve into staying overnight there. They have a really old hotel and dirt streets, and I think it would be fun to stick around and hang with the locals. Or not....