We are on the road again. Sorry, I was remiss in my nightly blogging, however,I do have a good excuse, I did not have access to the Internet! I also tried to post some pictures tonight, but the download time was taking so long, I canceled it before I even got the first one loaded. Had an easy drive today, just covered 257.8 miles, bringing the total trip mileage to 7,774.7 miles. We have now reached our most southerly point of the trip and come first light, we will be riding out 0n the northward bound part of our trip.

Have spent the past two days visiting family and good friends, however, I was really slack on taking photos and I kick myself for that. Spent the next day after arriving in Wickenberg, AZ back tracking the previous day route for about 30 miles to a small town by the name of Wilhoit, AZ. My mothers brother, my Uncle Ted and his lovely wife Virgie live there after he retied from the copper mines in Baghdad, Az. We had not seen them in 40 years (October 1967) but it was just like we had seen them on a regular basis - it was so neat to see them and they both look so good. Uncle Ted reminds me a lot of Don, but you can also see the reassemblance of Larry and myself, tall and slender. We had a great time visiting with them.

We returned to Wickenberg to continue our visit with John and Ann, they have such a neat home and John does one good barbecue. Bob James's daughter,George, came up from Phoenix to have dinner with us, it was good seeing her once again. She has a second home that is vacant in Phoenix and offered it to us for the night, so we coded in the address in Suzie and in the dead of night headed down the highway. Freeways, traffic, 6th largest city in the U.S. and Suzie takes us to the front door without a hitch! I know I love her! Her second house is huge, sits within just a few miles of downtown Phoenix yet the lot is 2.5 acres, completely fenced in with chain link fencing as one time it was a riding academy. The adjoining properties are the same size and predominantly horse related, although, I was awakened this morning to the crowing of a rooster, just before daylight. Dutch had a great time, he was able to run free!

By coming in on Friday night, it put us just a short distance by freeway to Donnie's and Thida's home - freeway being the operative word. Once again, Suzie directed us through all the traffic and lane changes without a hitch, I know I love her, to their front door. If fact we were so stealth that we caught Donnie cleaning the house with an apron on! The have a beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood. After seeing John and Ann's home and now Donnies and Thida's home, I am so envious of their access to landscaping material - I could go wild down here! Their backyard is to die for, landscaped very nicely with a pool and cascading water fall, it is great. We had such a great time seeing them, even tho we saw them in Alaska just a few months ago. Dee Dee came over as well as their mother, we had not seen Patty since Don and she had separated. Had a real good visit with her and enjoyed seeing her again. Something else to keep in mind is that Donnie is a very good chef when it comes to barbecue, he may be useful at the HITW on his next visit. Got to see Nikki very briefly, this was their homecoming weekend and she was very involved in the school projects. They did give us a tour of several landscaping businesses looking for some items that your mother was wanting, Donnie is now on the look out for a weather vane and brass bell! For some reason, I do not think he has any discipline as to how they may come into his possession - the acorn does not fall far from the tree.

Although, we would have liked to stay longer, we thought it best to at least clear the city for the night so we could get a fresh start in the morning. We cleared it out right, come first light we will be within just a few miles of the London Bridge! Tonight, arriving in Parker, we also went to California, but it was by mistake and not Suzie's fault, she tried to talk us out of it but we knew we were right, until we saw the sign welcoming us to California. She brought us out of Phoenix today with a half dozen changes on the freeway, the setting sun in the west and in our eyes, without a hitch. Terry even complimented me on well I had handled all the traffic and lane changes - but it was Suzie that did all the work - I really do love her! Tomorrow, we have an easy day, tour the area here at Lake Havasu (sic) and then just a short drive into Laughlin, Nevada. I am hoping to hit the bank there and make some rather large withdrawals with out a large deposit. Probably spend a couple of days there handling the banking transactions.

As for temperatures, on Friday we were hitting 92 degrees and even warmer today, the highest I saw was 97 degrees. It really surprises me how people withstand the heat down here. It was hot so I drove around with my windows down to keep cool - almost every car I saw had their windows rolled up, I do not understand how they were keeping cool under conditions of this type. Blogging may be a little light over the next couple of days, unless I hit the big one and then you will know. No word from me, I am loosing!