February 4, 2009

The River

I hereby apologize. I'm about to post a bunch more "point and shoot out a moving car window" pictures. Of a place I love. Along a drive that evokes numerous childhood memories.

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A drive to my favorite place, that my dear sweet husband suggested we could just "swing by" on our way home (where "swing by" = tacking 3 hours onto our journey home, after two former long days of driving). All because he knows I love this place beyond reason.

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Please ignore the bug-splatter windshield. Aren't the mountains pretty?

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In 1970 my grandparents sold their bowling alley and left big city life behind when they bought a humble mobile home park below the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. We visited (from Northern California) at least once or twice per year. My brother and I usually spent one+ week per summer with my grandparents on the River.

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And at least once a week, Grammy and I would drive into Lake Havasu City to get groceries. Each grocery run usually included lunch (with a rootbeer float!) at Dairy Queen, which was very yummy. This particular joint below did NOT exist on that piece of dirt when I was a kid. Or we wouldn't have been eating at Dairy Queen!

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Meet the corniest tourist trap ever. We often stopped in there, too. They had a neat candle shop that I liked to rummage through. Grammy humored me. They also had a bunch of shops that sold "real pieces" of the London Bridge. oh bother.

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It's only about a 30 minute drive between Lake Havasu City and my grandparent's place, but despite the gorgeous scenery, that seemed like a f-o-r-e-v-e-r drive when we were zipping along in Grammy's green Hornet without air-conditioning in 115* weather! All we wanted was to be back at the River and jumping in it.

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This drive really hasn't changed much in 30+ years.

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We always knew we were getting really close to home as we crossed the Bill Williams River (a tributary that dumps into Lake Havasu, which is just a dammed up portion of the Colorado River).

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We had to just drive right by Grammy & Papa's old place. It was sold a few years back. No more mobile homes. Now it's six homes and a gate that blocks entrance (so no pretty sunset pics from the dock. sigh). But no problem. I figured we could just take nice sunset pics from the dam. But alas, there's high security on the dam now. No stopping. No pedestrians allowed. So this is the best I got. Too bad, so sad.

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Over the dam, on the California side of the River, you can see their old place: the 4th & 5th docks from the bottom left.

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And now there's just one more stop on our brief 2 1/2 day road trip - y'know, the 2 1/2 day roadtrip that I've turned into 12 days of posts :-). Last post tomorrow.

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11 comments:

Heather said...

I thoroughly enjoyed your stroll down memory lane, Susan-- I always love returning to some of my favorite childhood stomping grounds, too, especially the ones I shared with my grandparents. There's just nothing like a little bit of nostalgia ;)

And wow, the CA mountains are amazing! I'm very familiar w/ the Blue Ridge here in VA, but our ranges don't look anything like that! Spectacular~

Tracy P. said...

I love that there are places in this world that feel as though they belong to you, and you're just letting all those other people enjoy them too. Imagine how God must feel, knowing that in his case it's actually true!

Ally said...

Thanks for sharing! It is so beautiful there, well worth the drive I am sure.

Melinda said...

Great post! Thank you so much for sharing your memories and experiences.

Heidi said...

I love places like that.... they feel like a piece of you, of who you are. Thanks for sharing your memories, and of course the photographs of a gorgeous piece of our world!

angie {the arthur clan} said...

My grandparents had an old mobile home a piece of property they owned on a river and some of my best childhood memories are from that place. You're post completely took me back to the days when they were still here and we were fishing off of their dock.

(And what a sweet hubby you have to do that for you!)

Unknown said...

I love all of these... I love the color the most. All of the blues and browns... two of my favorite colors together. :)

fxmixer said...

How awesome! And what a spectacularly beautiful time of day you were there.

Teri said...

That is so cool that you got to take the little extra drive to the place that holds so many memories for you. I love these pix, even if they are out the car window. Heck, ESPECIALLY since they are out the car window.

I do this same thing a lot.

Anonymous said...

Love the first photo, and also the first photo of the Big Dude driving. Beautiful. And also love the fact he suggested driving the extra 3 hours there! Wow. For us, a 3 hour drive is long enough all by itself!!! Cool how he loves you and you know it.

Melissa Stover said...

what a beautiful drive. i love the sky in that first picture.