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The iconic London Bridge - yes, it is the 'real' London Bridge, the oldest antique in the world.

Sally with our wonderful Kingman hosts Larry & Cindy Lewis. We miss you both already!

An interesting concept - a Monte Christo. It's a deep fried meat sandwich that you put honey or jam on. As awful as it sounds, it was actually quite tasty.

The girls at Parker Dam with Neil Ott.

Stay tuned for tomorrows summary of our goings on today - kayaking the Colorado, the funniest lunch so far and the 'soiree' tonight...

And the people will come......

Who would have thought a man could have so much vision to create a town forty odd years ago and get people to come because he wanted cheaper costs for his business...
Lake Havasu is just that town and yesterday..Monday I think...we started a very busy vocational day and learnt a lot about this place- that sort of just appears in the desert an hour and a half from Kingman.
Our morning began with breakfast in the company of District Governor Jeanie at International House of Pancakes (IHOP to the those in the know). This experience was to scar me for life as I think I was served the biggest waffle I had ever seen (Caroline made me do it) while Sally and Sarah attempted a mountain of pancakes that reached unknown heights hidden under fruit compotes. I am sure Peter was also set for the day. It was nice to meet with Jeanie (thank you YUM) and share a little of our journey so far. Neil our handler and Steve our trusty driver also partook in this memorable breakfast.
Steve then took us to the Chamber of Commerce where we met up with Arizona outbound team member 2009, Jenny Coke.It was great to touch base again and we were introduced to a dynamic team dedicated to making Lake Havasu a tourist and business development destination. We appreciated the time of Lisa (knew it all!), Doug (started only a few weeks ago and found time for us) and Garry (AKA James Bond)and I think we could have chatted all day!
Lunch was at a combined Rotary meeting of the three clubs in town (London Bridge, Sunrise and lake Havasu). We gave our presentation and enjoyed the views to the famous bridge that is a big water feature the anyones scale of things.
Off to the council and to Charlie Cassens acting CEO, who shared how the town with a population of 55,000 (to be confirmed in the census this year) runs and a little about it's management including the water issues . We then headed to the town museum and took in some history of the town with the London bridge purchased for just over 1.3 million and shipped to the states after being carefully dismantled and the pieces numbered...Yes they did know which bridge they were buying...Caroline purchased yet another cookbook in the gift shop and we all enjoyed the model displays, advertising and films(classic 1960s) to encourage people to move here as well as the fantastic Indian baskets.
A quiet walk under the bridge with a snow cone to cool us down completed our day in town.
We then headed up the hill to the edge of town limits and Deans beautiful home for drinks and a view of the lake second to none. Thanks Dean and please look after those hummingbird babies.
I returned home to my hosts, Gloria and Tom, for a lovely dinner and chat. I had hoped to hear more Cyotes (as I had the night before) but alas the evening was still and the moon full.
Lake Havasu has been a big surprise for me. I think it an amazing venture to bring people to a planned town and encourage them to stay and create a community where before there was nothing but desert. Google it and see for yourself. Perhaps the saying is true..Only in America!

WORK!! - isn't that a 4 letter word?

As indicated from Caroline's last missive we were to have a day of working with the Rout 66 Rotary Club on some maintenance at Recreation Area 3 in Hualapai Mountain Park (about a mile from where I'm staying with Larry and Terri Thornton).

We all fronted there around 9-9.30 (with the exception of Caroline who was a bit later due to her host having to unexpectedly go to work). The girls were set the task of washing down the bathroom walls of a hut at the site prior to painting and then set about painting it. I set off to dig some holes for the horseshoe pits (and beautiful holes they were to - except somebody kept filling them in with sand!).

Around 11.30 Larry Lewis suggested that we needed another cultural experience and offered to take us in to Kingman to see what was happening with the Harley Davidson event in town. I agreed that this was an opportunity to good to miss so we left the Route 66 team to their devices and headed down the mountain. We dropped in to Larry's place (magnificent) so that he could pick up his Harley and his wife, Cindy, drove us in to town.

I have never seen so many Harley's in one place! I'd hate to think of the total value of the bikes that were there but ther were thousands - and all gleaming (they do love their bikes!). After having a good wander around the bikes and the Harley shop Larry and Cindy took us off for another US experience to have lunch at the local Cracker Barrel Restaurant. There was a shop attached to this eatery and Caroline managed to find another cookbook (your in for a taste sensation when she gets home Scott!)

We went back to the Harley show to see if Larry had won the raffle (another Harley) but he was unsuccessful. Heading back up the mountain we checked out the work of the Rotary team (they achieved so much in the day - about 40 from the Club plus support for Bull Head Rotarians - and were just cleaning up and settling in to a BBQ when we arrived. We needed more food like a hole in the head but sat around talking with our hosts and others until we all headed off to our respective homes.

I have been stayin with Larry and Terri on top of the Mountain (6500ft) with great vistas all around. It was amazing coming home on Thursday evening with heavy snow and the car (truck) having some difficulty with the wet conditions - but Larry got us through. This was an Arizonan experience I didn't expect but it was beautiful to see.

Off to Lake Havasu today - beautiful morning and expected to be 94F down trhere. Watch this space!

Photo Montage!!

Grand Canyon West!! Everyone should google Grand Canyon Skywalk - amazing experience!

Caroline and Lucy!

Wilfred, Sarah, Kirsty & I

Sedona on the jeep tour!

Enough Said :-)

The Palace Bar on Whiskey Row, Prescott

Peter taking his fill at the Page Springs Winery.

SNOW! in the car on the way through Seligmen to Kingman!

Our freezing Jeep tour!!

There are no words

Good morning (Saturday morning) from Caroline at my "host dad's" desk at his office. By the way - it is appropriate to call somebody your "host dad" when he's three years younger than you???

Anyway, yesterday was the most incredible day!

Our day began with a good fun meeting with the Route 66 Rotary Club - complete with Sargeant-at-arms dressed as a biker in honour of this weekend's Harley-Davidson event in Kingman. Thanks to all the members of the Club for being a great audience :).

Then Larry drove and Mary Kay accompanied us on a great adventure. First stop, the Route 66 Museum where we met with Joshua, who works for the Chamber of Commerce. We owe much gratitude to Joshua -

First, because he introduced us to members of the Route 66 Association and we made a great connection with the most famous touring route in the world. [Penny, Nick and all my KAW colleagues - I took notes and got some good info to tell you about.]

THEN, Joshua also organised for us the Best Day! We all travelled up to the West Rim of Grand Canyon to spend the day with a most amazing man, Wilfred Whatoname [pronounced Wha-TON-a-meh] who is the son of the Chief of the Hualapi tribe. We were invited to experience the Skywalk. Hoo hah. Some of us never thought we would do it... Sarah in particular conquered a great fear by walking on a glass floor 4,000 feet above the canyon floor. Mary Kay also was extremely brave, bouyed up by the strength of Wilfred who held her hand. Meanwhile, Larry jumped up and down a lot and freaked us all out...

We came back to a lovely reception with the Club at Nate's gorgeous home. Everybody here is so kind and friendly.

I have to go now as we are helping Rotary on a works project in Kingman. I just want to say a huge thank you to Joshua for setting it up, Larry for driving, Mary Kay for joining us, and especially Wilfred and the other members of the Hualapi who were beautiful and welcoming. When Wilfred blessed us at the end of our day and taught us how to greet one another with a handshake that enables you to feel the heartbeat of your friend, we were rendered unable to speak for emotion and gratitude. Sorry that this description is inadequate - there just are no words.

Let it snow...

SNOW! In Arizona! In Spring...

Today was our travel day to Kingman. After our freeezing day in Sedona yesterday, i was well prepared with LAYERS of clothes.

We enjoyed seeing the lovely Mayor of Prescott, Marlin Kuykendall again and meeting with him and his dynamic team to discuss our trip so far and also their future plans in tourism.

After saying a sad farewell to Jim and John (thanks again!!!!!) Norm drove us to Seligman. Seligman, for those of you playing at home, is where the cartoon movie CARS was based.

On the way there it did snow! I personally have not seen snow actually fall before, so was super excited!

We arrived in Kingman and had a tour of the towns two Musuems, and have settled into our hosts homes. Tomorrow we will present to the Kingman Sunup Club and afterwards will be heading to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon!! There is a Skywalk there that is going to be amazing.. more tomorrow...

When i find my camera cable i will put some of our fantastic photos up!

Arizona cold? Never! apart from odd Wednesdays...

Today was another early start as we joined Prescott Sunrise Rotary Club. We made the most of sharing with new friends from our time in Prescott and presenting to the members of the largest club in town. Don't forget to put our flag out next week!

It was then off to Sedona with Don on board sharing the plans for District Conference. We hope many Rotarians will join us for this unique experience of the Canyon (and us) as well as an opportunity to get together with fellow Rotarians.

Jim our tireless coordinator and driver was taking us only so far and then Richard took over as we headed to the red rocks and busy roads of this tourist town. Richard took a little while to adjust to us Aussies after driving the Indian team. After identifying roadkill skunk and the accompanying scent he concentrated on the interstate drivers instead of helping us to read the road signs.
We did stop over at the National Park Forestry Centre. I personally was intrigued by the scat display which amused Richard and kept us inside away from the wind.
Those clouds looked ominous!
We all enjoyed our quick tour of Richard and Renata's fantastic home. The views were awesome ! Richard makes some wonderful iron art which we also admired.

Then onto Sedona Rotary club to share our presentation # two for the day. (We are getting pretty good at it now!). It is great to meet so many people who have travelled or know someone who has been to the country we love. Thank you for welcoming us.

The day grew colder but our adventure was only just beginning. Thanks to the generosity of John we took our seats in an open jeep to face the hills of Sedona and head up into the wilds. It was less than seven degrees before the wind chill.
So dangerous we had to sign a waiver, so cold our noses were running and so rough bras broke free in distress! David our fantastic driver did not stop sharing great stories, interesting facts and gave us the inside scoop on some celebrity gossip. It was another great G.S.E. experience and will be a great story for our return. At least laughing kept us a little warmer.

When we got back we had no time to waste- getting back into the van to head towards Montezuma's Well, a fantastic natural spring in the middle of nowhere the Indians had used hundreds of years ago. We had a quick walk, took photos and then back into the van to defrost.

We were pleased to see Jim and Don back at the rendezvous point for the trip home. Thank you to R and R for all their hard work in Sedona and thanks also for letting Lucy the sausage dog share our time too.

Tonight I have enjoyed artichokes for the first time and a great chat with my special hosts Walt and Pat. What a wonderful couple they are. It has been a great 'almost' week and I will be sad to hit the road tomorrow as we head toward Kingman and new adventures. Perhaps we will have double figure temperatures too. Lets hope the road isn't as rough...