Lake Havasu Pyrotechnic show..Kingman..Oatman..Chloride...
From Congress AZ we next headed back to Lake Havasu.  We stopped overnight at a RV park on the way at Hope, enjoyed the cactus gardens and scenery here.

Had a chuckle at their sign as we left the town of Hope.  It's like they know!

Every year Lake Havasu has a huge pyrotechnic show that last 3 nights.  We had been to this even two years ago and just had to come back.  There is at least 3 hours of constant fireworks set to music.  Sometimes the fireworks are so intense you just hold your breath.  Lake Havasu is a pretty town located along the Colorado River at the border of Arizona and California. 

Here we caught up with Doug and Kay.
Next we headed to the Kingman AZ area and are staying at a little RV park in Golden Valley just outside of Kingman.  Kingman became famous during the days of Route 66.  We had never been here before so thought we would explore while waiting for the weather to get a bit warmer...alas a cold front has kept the whole state at lower than normal temperatures.  It had been warmer than normal all winter...oh well!  There are a couple of old mining towns here that are fun to explore.  Chloride is a short distance from us.  The residents here have collected junk from days past and are decorating their yards with the upcycled junk. 

Had lots of fun driving up and down the old dirt streets. 

This is a fishing pole....a telephone pole with metal fish made from old implement parts and metal on it....get it....

On a short drive up into the mountain there are murals painted on the huge boulders.  



Another ghost town in the area is Oatman.  While the residents here are not as artsy decorating their yards they do have a daily gunfight, little tourist shops, and of course a resident burro herd! 

The amazing thing to me about Arizona is how fast the terrain and scenery can change.  We drove up the mountain to the Hualapai County Park. 

Just that fast we are in the ponderosa pine trees again.  Up here we found a herd of female elk with last years offspring.  No Bulls.  They are not tame or fenced in but they are definitely used to people. 

As we were driving around Al saw a SQUIRREL! 

Laughlin NV is about 30 minutes from us.  Laughlin is on one side of the river and Bullhead City AZ is on the other side.  Mostly a gambling area...and no we did not gamble...but we did check out some parks and found a trail that led to some petroglyphs.  Nice walk and just a little bit warmer here...about 65. 

Doug and Kay left Kingman last week end and by the time of this posting they should be back up in MN.  It should be warming up this week, last week was rainy and in the 50's.  There are a few more places around here to explore....like Hoover Dam before we leave.  We plan to be in the Prescott and Sedona area in about 10 days.  They have been getting some snow up there, not much but a bit colder there.  Hopefully this cold system works its way out of Arizona as we plan to be up there for at least 3 weeks.  65 and sunny is very welcome!