On Saturday morning Jeff, Danielle, Alesa and I headed to Lake Havasu City for the weekend with Bridget staying home to watch the dogs. We had rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Bullhead City for Saturday night but wanted to visit Lake Havasu City on the way. Drove south of Phoenix to miss the city traffic and picked up I-10 just west of the city. We then headed north just before the California border. We enjoyed the desert scenery and the mountain vistas and the scenery changed as we reached the Colorado river valley just south of Lake Havasu. In the city we crossed the London Bridge and did a little sightseeing before parking and walking along the river below the bridge. We had lunch under the bridge and along the river, which was very crowded for the weekend, and drove north to Bullhead City. The route took us across the river and through Needles, California before we crossed back over the river into Arizona. We checked into the motel and then back in the car to tour Bullhead City. We wanted to get down to the river but everything was so crowded we drove across the bridge into Laughlin, Nevada to see the river from the other side. Laughlin is a casino town with a half a dozen or so giant casinos along the river. We drove through town and stopped in a bar on the edge of town for a beer. There was a gambling 'screen' at each seat at the bar so Jeff and Danielle gambled while Alesa and I just drank our beers. I think Jeff and Danielle each won a few bucks before cashing out. We then drove south along the river and up in the hills before crossing back a few miles south. The bartender had told us of the shuttle boat across the river from Bullhead City to the casinos. So, when we got back we parked and took the boat across the river to the casinos. Surprisingly, both the parking and the shuttle were free. There were a number of parks along the river but they were very crowded with a $20 entry fee. There were jet ski rentals everywhere in town and there were many trucks towing trailers with a couple of jet skis and the river was crowded with jet skis speeding up and down the river. The shuttle successfully dodged the jet skis as we crossed the river and we walked around the casinos for a while before boarding the shuttle to cross back into Bullhead City. We stopped at an Irish pub for a beer before having pizza at a local pizza place and heading back to the motel. Our room had a great view of the river to the Northwest and across the valley of the mountains to the Northeast. We all crashed, except Jeff who tried to walk to the river which was a block away but all the accesses were privately owned with no trespassing signs. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the motel and headed out. We went back to Nevada to cross the river at the Davis dam just north of the city but it was closed to traffic (which we knew ahead of time) so we backtracked and drove further west into the Nevada mountains because the views were spectacular. We also drove a little on a back road. The area along the Colorado River is truly a lush playground among the mountains and the desert. We were very impressed by the area and did extra touring in the area as Jeff and Danielle are thinking they may spend a lot of time in the area. We took the southern route to get here and now we are taking the northern route back through the Arizona mountains. Along the way we saw a mountain off in the distance which prompted every to say 'Is that mountain flipping us off?'. Of course. we had to get a picture. We passed though Kingman, Arizona along historic Route 66 and stopped at a gift shop. We stopped in Wickenburg for lunch at the Hassayampa Smokehouse. We were actually headed to the Horseshoe Cafe but we were stopped at the door because they had run out of food. Huh? Anyways we walked down the street and were very happy with our meals at the Smokehouse. We also discovered their 'Real Dill Bloody Mary'. Had a nice ride through the desert and made a small detour to Sun City and stopped at the outlets next to State Farm stadium in Glendale. It was an outstanding weekend topped off with drinks in the pool followed by a few episodes of "FUBAR" on Netflix.