On Tuesday, Nov. 22nd we left home and arrived at the O'Donnals in Springville, Utah later that afternoon. I spent most of the next couple of days helping Laurie prepare for Thanksgiving dinner while Dad got involved in fixing some problem with lights in their family room. On Thanksgiving day there were nearly thirty people at the Ockeys for dinner. Kellen's parents from Laramie, Wyoming were there along with the entire Ockey clan including daughters and sons in law, the O'Donnal family, Leon, Chrissy, Brendon and Dad and I. Laurie had prepared an awesome Thanksgiving dinner and we all had a wonderful time together with football on TV and playing games later in the evening.
We then spent the next three days visiting each of our three children and their families in Springville and Payson and were able to spend some quality time with each over the holidays. It felt good to grow closer to each family with the time spent. Leon took Dad and Brendon to the park in Payson for an afternoon of tree rappelling. They had a great time and Leon said Dad was a natural at climbing some forty-five feet up into one of the giant trees there. Dad also greatly admires the skills Leon has developed and his attention to detail and safety. Leon is starting a venture in this sport and we wish him success. His web site for anyone interested in learning more or seeing pictures is
http://treerappel.com.
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| A couple views from almost 50 feet up in the tree |
On Monday morning, the 26th of November we headed South and stopped in St. George where we intended to visit our former Salt Lake City neighbors, Murray and Collene Taylor, but both Dad and I were just getting over colds and Collene's health was such that she could not risk an infection. Murray was able to come and visit with us for about an hour and we also met an interesting couple from Northern Utah, David Allan and his wife Edna. They were faithful church members and had served a mission. David was a scientist who had worked with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado and had built a beautiful solar home. We then proceeded to Boulder Beach campground near Las Vegas on Lake Mead for two nights. We spent the day there walking across the new bridge below Boulder Dam and then went into Las Vegas to just browse up and down the lower end of the strip. We got there coincidentally on an afternoon when there was a NASCAR championship celebration going on in front of Planet Hollywood followed by a "victory lap" of about a dozen race cars up and then back down the strip for a few blocks. The roaring engines and squealing tires brought back memories for Dad of his teen years when he loved drag racing. As we explored in the new-to-us Aria Resort we saw some beautiful Christmas trees.
From there we then traveled to Lake Havasu City where we stayed at the Windsor Beach State Park for another couple of nights. While there we took the shuttle across the lake to the Indian casino on the California side of Lake Havasu just to check it out.
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| Lake Havasu City in background |
The main attraction was the lighted boat parade on Saturday evening where about thirty boats of all sizes proceeded out from the London Bridge onto the lake and then back. The boats were each decked out with elaborate lights, music, people and animation on board. Like most parades there were various themes but the most prevalent was Christmas. While waiting for it to get dark for the parade we witnessed the most gorgeous sunset you could imagine.
On Sunday morning we attended church in the Acoma ward where, after I introduced us in Sunday School, a man approached Dad and said he was Khalil Jones, Dad's lab partner his first year in Electronics at ISU. This was a major surprise for Dad and goes to show how small the world is sometimes. Dad had not seen Khalil for over forty years. From Lake Havasu we continued on to Quartzsite that Sunday, December 2nd, where we registered at the BLM La Posa West Long Term Visitor Area for two weeks out on the desert just south of town.
After we got set up we went to visit Phil Mortensen, Dad's old friend from work at both Telemation in Salt Lake and AMI and our friend from our BMW motorcycling days in the 1980's.
He spends all winter here every year and is all alone at his usual campsite but all his fellow former camp neighbors have reasons for not being here this year. Phil gave Dad some info on how to get added features from our camera with some tweaks from the internet. The next day we walked into town where I picked up some stones to make wire wrap jewelry for granddaughters. Later Phil brought over some of his homemade sourdough baguettes and I prepared a salmon dinner after which Phil helped Dad finish setting up our camera to take high dynamic range photos. Dad is anxious now to try it out on a sunset. We also had a lot of fun reminiscing about good old times together. We have since gone geocaching several times with one found at the top of the "Q" hill at the edge of town.
We have also gone to an art exhibit at the Senior Center,
taken a bike ride to see rock art displayed at various locations around town,
tried out metal detecting with no luck but saw a neat old abandoned rock structure,
checked out the town's Christmas light parade Saturday evening and
attended church services on Sunday with a huge crowd of silver-haired folks. Sure is different from back home.
