Oh to have a break!!

Last Wednesday saw us take our leave of Havasu City and head off for our 'break' in Laughlin. Neil (or 'intrepid' driver) took us via Oatman (an old mining town in the foothills but still on Route 66) to experience a little of the wild west. He promised us burros (donkeys, asses) in the main street and he was true to his word. These animals are the descendants of the working burros that were left here when the mines closed in the early part of the last century and are now (probably) the main tourist attraction of Oatman - don't know if they would work in the Highlands or Cooma. The girls managed to feed them some carrots (the thing to do) and Sally managed to buy herself a 'coke' after some difficulty! We could understand what she wanted but the woman serving her seemed to have extreme difficulty in understanding the accent even tho 'coke' sounds like 'coke' in any language and she only had about 4 items on her inventory!

We headed off to Laughlin to drop our luggage at the Colorado Belle - a Casino/Hotel on the river - and then headed off for the Hoover Dam with two members of the Indian Team - Sushma and Umesh. We arrived at the Dam after an hour and half drive and, whilst the dam is extremely impressive, we were blown away by the "OMG Bridge' that is being built just below the dam. Due to open in December it is an amazing structure and needs to be seen - put it on the 'bucket list'.

We all did a tour of the tourist part of the dam (unfortunately the full tours were booked out) and headed back to arrive at Laughlin around 7.30pm. We headed for the bar for a 'light' dinner (there really is no such thing in the US) and tried some of the local beers just to say that we had.

Thursday was a very lazy day with each of doing our own thing during the day (mainly resting, movies, resting, walking, resting, shopping, resting) until 5.30pm when we caught one of Nate's (Nathan Michaels - GSE Team member to Australia last September/October) water taxis down to his yacht for an evening out on the river. The yacht was beautiful and Nate and Charlotte were great hosts. It was lovely to meet Charlotte and also to share with them the joy of the upcoming birth (mid October) of their first child. Nate's business is very much a family affair with uncles and aunts everywhere and it was a great night out on the water with lots of food and the occasional drink to pass the time.

I know that Caroline has some pictures of all of this so we will endeavour to put some up for you to see us enjoying ourselves!

Friday was a travelling day from Laughlin down to Wickenburg (via Parker where we farewelled Steve and Neil and picked up our new driver Peter Giroux). On arrival we were met by Cindy Logan, President of the Club, at her Art Gallery business (some great art on display) and met with our hosts for the next 6 days.

Stay posted - there will be more to come!