February 2015 - Palm Springs, Kristi and Jason's visit, Cibola, Ogilby Road, and Alpine

 February 01 - Taking Advantage of the Sunshine

Today is our last day here in Borrego Springs and with the sun back out, Ray took a short trip up S3 to get some photos he wanted but the weather has been pretty cloudy.

Looking at the town of Borrego Springs

Now that is an Ocotillo Patch, either already had it's bloom or just getting ready.

Tomorrow it is off to Oasis Palms RV Park just outside of Indio to wait for Kristi and Jason to arrive from Saskatoon. Good times.

February 2nd - Palm Springs

Today we made the long journey .... 30 miles to Oasis RV Resort in Thermal California. About 45 minutes from the Palm Springs Airport where Kristi and Jason will land on Wednesday Yeah! We left at 9am and were checking in by 10 am....

Anyways we decided to go for lunch after settling in.  Ray read an article in one of the RV Times magazines that our friend Steve Colibaba shared with us, about the Jackalope Ranch Restaurant in Indio. The food is good (fairly expensive) but the dining in the garden with all of the waterfalls sold us. It would be spectacular at night with all of their lighting. Great beer on tap as well. Having a wedding on their grounds would be fabulous. No actual Jackalopes were spotted (in fact there were only pig statues at the entry)!

Palm Springs with Kristi and Jason - February 4 to February 7th

We picked up Kristi and Jason at the Palm Springs Airport Wednesday, February 4th. We decided to fly them down on our airmiles for a weeks visit as who wants to be in Saskatoon at -30C.!! When they arrived it was 82 degrees F. They both change clothes before we could leave the airport. The first stop was lunch at the Emporer Buffet (of course!).

At the Oasis Palms RV Resort in Thermal, a 40 minute drive south, we have all enjoyed the hot tub and picking all of the fresh fruit we could eat. Kristi and I have been making fresh juice for breakfast and for happy hour drinks. Both Kristi and Jason are very helpful and so easy company to have in a small space.

They have a large outdoor pond with a fountain ... dogs can swim.

Outdoor pool and hot tub. 

Kristi making our morning orange juice.

Morning campfire and coffee.

View up the road from our campsite with the moon setting.

Even though it has been warm, the passenger side of the coach is in the shade all day and there is a nice breeze that comes through so very nice to sit outside and read. Or in Kristi's case, study for her upcoming final written medical exam on March 31st. In between we took a short drive into the Painted Canyon and walked the short trail up to the end where the ladders start. It was quite pleasant as it was about 80 degrees outside as most of the walk is in the shade. Getting 4 people out the door seems to take a little longer than when it is just Ray and I. lol On the drive back we stopped in Mecca at a Mexican restaurant that some guy in the RV park recommended for the best food. After eating there, we have to agree!

Notice the four people in the middle of the picture?

Time for lunch.

"I think my mouth will open big enough!

Those two kids are goofy!

Yesterday, we stopped at a couple of consignment stores on the way to go visit the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. Here is a picture of Jason hamming it up.

Jason pimping it out!

What a neat experience. The tram car rotates 360 degrees as you climb up from about 2600 feet to the top at 8515 feet. Jason wasn't impressed as he doesn't like heights plus the spin.  Up we go!

As soon as we landed  it was off to the Peaks Restaurant for lunch as Kristi is starving. They served us great burgers, grilled salmon and Kristi ordered her favourite, linguini. We were all happy with our meals except Ray's salad was nothing special that was with the salmon.

Now that Kristi is filled up with food, we walked up to all of the viewing platforms overlooking the Coachella Valley. You could really see the San Andreas Fault line down the valley.

Yes there was snow up there.

That line through the centre is the San Andreas Fault

The Salton Sea in the far background

Visitors Centre and restaurant

And back down we go:

As I was driving us all back home from the tram across the valley to connect with I-10 East we ended up in a huge dust storm ... at one point I could not see the road! Wow. The kids sure are getting their money's worth (our money) as Jason really wanted to see a Haboob.

Wikipedia states:  (A haboob (Arabic: ﺏﻮﺒَﻫ‎ habūb "blasting/drafting") is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current. Haboobs occur regularly in arid regions throughout the world.

Here it comes.

Where did the road go! 

It only lasted a short distance but there was a lot of dust in the air all of the way home. When we arrived home, Ray walked the dog and I picked some fruit for margaritas, Jason went for his walk and Kristi settled in to study for an hour. Later the guys went to have a hot tub and Kristi and I chatted in the shade of the coach. A lovely day. After dinner, left overs so easy, we had our campfire in the can. Kristi and Jason are still on Saskatoon time (2 hours ahead) and Ray and I are used to going to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 so no one has issues of going to bed early. Good thing with our small home.





Is it bedtime yet! Both Freya and one of her favorite people Jason, are already mostly asleep.

The kids have two more days here and then it is back to Saskatoon. I think we will probably just keep close to home so they can relax for their last couple of days. Today was a pool day for them.

This park has been awesome as our friends Wayne and Karen Stolth told us. New owners took over January 1st. They own the farm across the road, with date palms and veggies etc. This property is about 40 acres apparently and has 3 big fresh water wells which was the drawing card for their purchase as water is like gold here in the desert. They are pouring lots of money into the place with upgrades and increasing the size of the park including a bathroom house previous owners started 20 years ago and never finished. Ann, the manager, walks the park and delivers cookies to all the dogs. She also bakes fresh cookies with coffee every morning at the clubhouse for the park residents. They have a huge communal campfire pit and happy hours start at 4 pm. Last night, and every Saturday night, they have potluck dinners at the clubhouse for everyone. We opted not to attend this time as the kids are here. The best thing though is a no leash policy for all dogs. You sign a waiver and your dog is allowed to be off-leash with you at all times. Yeah for Freya. Although the sites are a little tight ... we managed to get one with a row of orange trees between us and the door side so it was not too bad. We will certainly come back here.


January 10th - Visiting the Living Desert with Kristi and Jason

After a day of rest and relaxing in the shade, the kids enjoying the pool, and Ray in the hot tub we decided to visit the Living Desert here in Palm Springs for the last day of Kristi and Jason's visit. We started off early to beat the heat and still leave most of the afternoon available for the kids to go back to the pool for a few hours. It gets up to 84 - 88 degrees F which is about 29 to 31 C. here by 1 pm.


Ray actually was able to take a picture finally of a wild roadrunner that ran through camp. (Kristi spotted it so Ray was on the chase!)

Roadrunner

The Living Desert have wonderful gardens displays with a North American section and an African section with the corresponding animals of the areas. All the animals they have are rescues and usually cannot be released back into the wild and they actually all appear to be well taken care of.

Bighorn Sheep (Almost standing like a statue until Jason started talking to it and it finally moved!)

Mexican Bull

Mexican Wolf

Tortoise

Meercat

Javelina

Jaguar

Giraffe

Mountain Lion having a snooze.

Of course Kristi had to visit the petting zoo. A little disappointing as there were only goats.

The Gardens:

Boojum Tree

Standing in front of an Oregon Pipe Cactus.

Our Lord's Candle

The Butterfly Garden had several butterflies and moths hovering around. Unfortunately Ray was unable to chase them down and get a picture with their wings open. Here is a Painted Lady that Ray tried to capture. The rest of the pictures I took from google to give you an idea of what they look like, simply gorgeous.

This is what it should look like (from google)

There is a tram that takes you around the park that we decided to make use of so that Ray and Jason did not have to walk the whole thing. It was quite amazing to see. They even had a model railway that was pretty cool.

Kristi and I waiting for the tram.

Mt Rushmore in back and a red light district beside the church.

After a couple of hours it was off to the Olive Garden for lunch before heading back to the RV Park and straight into the hot tub for Ray and Jason. A great time was had by all. It sure was great to see them.

Kristi and Jason hamming it up ... and that is my margarita!

We dropped the kids off at the airport on Tuesday morning, did a bit of shopping and then back to the coach to have our last afternoon of relaxing. Tomorrow is laundry and cleaning day to get rid of all of the sand, and desert dust that has accumulated. Then on the 12th we've decided to head down to the Yuma area for a week or so before heading to San Diego.

February 13 - Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

After spending a whole day cleaning and doing laundry at the Oasis Palms RV Park it was time to hit the road again and get back to some nature. Enough of condo camping! We will miss the hot tub and fresh fruit though!

We left fairly early on Thursday morning, stopped at the Walmart in Brawley for provisioning for the next 2 weeks and then onto a new highway. S78 between Brawley and Blythe is a 2 lane highway in pretty good condition. It was neat going through the North Algodones Wilderness Area with the sand dunes right up to the road. There are mini portable towns with stores set up at this time of year,

This is what it looked like (from google)

Once past the dunes the road became more up and down with big dips through the washes. We passed Olgilby Road, through the border checkpoint and continued up through Palo Verde. Ray decided to go down 32nd through to Neighbors Road to get to the Refuge. We found out later we took the "long way" in and there was a much shorter way to get there. Oh well.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and were directed to the BLM land right across the road from the center. Ray and I received a warm welcome from Murlene Anderson, friends with Nina and Paul from Wheelin' It. After unhooking the car we drove over the "scary cattleguard", that had a rung separated and was bent to check out the spots of where to set up. We probably would not have gone over the cattleguard with the coach at all except I knew that the Wheelin' It bunch, Technomadia and Bayfield bunch have all crossed it with their large coaches in the past two weeks.

After picking out our "perfect" spot we scooted over and picked up the coach. We were all set up within a half an hour and were sitting outside in the shade with our afternoon bevie. What a great place. We turned our clocks ahead an hour for Arizona Time which is okay as March 7th when we are back in California Daylight Savings begins so we will already by acclimatized.

Looking across at the Visitor Center

Friday morning we woke up after sleeping soundly as it is absolutely quiet here. The only thing we heard through the night was some donkeys braying in the distance. After toast and coffee we went back to the Visitor's Center to meet with Murlene and JoAnne and Rick to get our instructions for the auto tour and info about other areas of the Refuge. We decided to do the auto tour first, about a 2 mile square dirt road around birding areas. We are about one month late to see thousands of birds, but there still is a significant amount around.

Grass fields they plant and flood when the majority of the birds are here.

They make habitat for burrowing owls as well. We were very lucky to spot this guy.

Sandhill Cranes

This is looking down the Colorado River from a bridge by the Levee Road.

I drove us back to River Road and we continued until we came to the sign for Hart Mine Marsh.

There seemed to be lots more birds in this area. We drove through the Marsh and here are some of the things we saw.

It was wonderful seeing water, greenery and mountains all around. The road through the marsh connected back up with the Levee Road (the dyke along the Colorado River). We continued on to Cibola Lake.

We continued a little further to the Cibola Lake Overlook. Once up there, you can see some fishing in the lake. Across to the left was a little community called Walter's Camp with some very nice looking houses. There was also a basket to cross the river for what reason we did not know.

After our 2 hour tour it was back to camp for lunch and then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the shade reading. We did go for a walk up the back of us though and saw a bunch more spots to camp in. There are burrow trails everywhere.

This is the old water pump for stock at the bottom of the campsite by the road with a loading ramp for cattle. Fortunately the wind does not affect it too much because when it starts to turn it squeals!

Another gorgeous day. We had a campfire at dusk and enjoyed the setting sun and then the stars for awhile before turning in for dinner. A very mild evening.

February 15th - Levee Road Campsites

Yesterday, we decided to drive down Levee Road, along the Colorado River checking out the free campsites. First we decided to check out the shorter way to Highway 78 that Rick at the Visitor's Center told us about. Right at the turn to go to Highway 78 is the Oxbow Lake BLM campsites on the California side of the Colorado. There is a camp host and the fee is $15/night. However you can get an annual pass for $75 which works for Oxbow, Senator's Wash and a site in Ehrenberg. So if you were staying for longer than a week this would be the way to do it. They have trash disposal, pit toilets, picnic table and some sites have habachi's. The draw for Oxbow Lake, a short off-shoot of the Colorado River would be kyaking and fishing. Sorry Steve Colibaba, we did not ask anyone how was the fishing! lol

Lots of room for our "beastliness".

Next it was back across the bridge to the Arizona side of the Colorado, made a left turn and started down the Levee Road. About 5 miles down the road from Neighbor Road there were several campsites at Gould Wash with lots of room for RV's of any size. All the way along the road there are many OHV trails for those that like to quad or side x side.

This area below was a little tight further up the little side road but this guy even had rods in the water for fishing.

This was my favorite one, private and right on the river. Over the bank to the right was a large wash you could walk.

Further down the road was the Mohave Wash, about 10 miles from Neighbor Road from the south and about the same if you came from the other direction from Ehrenburg. This area had even more choices for large units. 

The view out the front window if we decided to stay here.

About 5 miles south of Erhenburg there was the A7 Lake area with a multitude of choices either right on the A7 Lake or directly on the Colorado River. 

After our adventure we fueled up in Erhenbug at the Flying J (where the road comes out) and drove back over the river to Blythe to have lunch. The only place we found with an outside Patio so Freya could come was Rebel Barbeque. It turned out to be great food and sitting outside in the shade in 84 degree weather.

You can just see Freya's ears over the table to the right of my arm.

It was a very enjoyable couple of hours travelling along the Colorado River. Nice to see water and green after quite a few months in the desert. We watched a program a few years ago called the "Paddling Brians" who paddled from the beginning of the Colorado River right to almost the end where it goes into Mexico. They did have to portage around the dams though. It was kind of neat to see what they would have seen. http://www.ovguide.com/tv_season/paddling-bryans-season-2-264348

February 16th - Happy Hour with new friends at Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Spent the day at camp yesterday. The biggest job on my list is to try and fix our icemaker after researching possible causes of failure. It called for me to empty the freezer, take the door off and defrost the whole thing for a couple of hours and make sure that the spring in the paddle was in place all in hope that the ice maker would start up again. Meanwhile Ray changed out water filters. So after about 3 hours we put the bottom drawer back on, plugged the fridge back in, turned the icemaker on and crossed our fingers. Yeahhhhh it was worth it we are now back in the ice business. I think that some water had frozen in the intake line to the icemaker when the water filter inside the fridge became plugged so defrosting it seemed to be the fix.

We were invited for Happy Hour with our new friends who volunteer at the refuge, so I made up some puff pastry appetizers and with the cooler full of cold bevies across the road we went at 4pm.

Lots of great stories and an enjoyable hour and a half. Rick was leaving at 4:30 am the next morning to catch a flight out of Phoenix so we said our goodbyes and went back to the coach. Here are a couple of pictures.

Deb, Rick and JoAnn Morgan, Murlene and Joe.

We decided to have a campfire and watched the sun set and moon rise. Another lovely warm evening.

Here is a link to a blog post regarding insights after 3 years full-timing. I was nodding at each point as I am sure everyone else would. lol http://rsanityrvtravels.blogspot.com/2015/02/things-ive-learned-while-full-timing.html

February 19th - To Parker via Hwy 95 AZ, over the Parker dam and back the Ehrenberg Parker Highway

Yesterday we decided to take a round trip to Parker, see the Parker Dam departing via Ehrenberg looking for some BLM campsites. It was a long day and even though I did all of the driving and stopped lots for Ray to stretch, he was toast when we got home ... to bed with an icepack and strong drink in hand shortly thereafter. After an hour or so he and the icepack were good enough to sit outside in his reclining chair for the rest of the afternoon.

The Ehrenberg-Parker Highway along the east side of the Colorado is nothing but large farms growing hay. Very flat, very green and very straight road. Nothing much to comment on. Seemed to take forever to get to Parker.

Once in Parker, we stopped at the Crossroads Cafe for brunch and were shortly on our way again up Highway 95 towards Lake Havasu to cross over at the Parker Dam. While passing the Steakhouse I noticed Steve and Dianne Calibaba's truck sitting in the parking lot so we made a U-turn for a quick chat. They were on a Parker shopping day and had stopped for lunch. Next we stopped at the Buckskin Mountain State Park, and yes we would fit. $33 for full-hookup, with the sites a fairly good size. Small park though, so reserving in advance probably a must at this time of year. We put Freya in for a swim at the boat launch, the water crystal clear.

The next stop was River Island State Park, where there is electric and water for $25/night. The sites were not too bad but closer together than Buckskin Mountain but very little river frontage so we would probably stay at Buckskin over this one. There was a small Tiffin Club from the surrounding area with about ten rigs scattered through the park.

The Parker Dam is next up on the list. Ray tried to get a picture going over the bridge looking at Lake Havasu but they have netting all the way along so very poor pictures.

View from the California side.

They have signs posted everywhere to watch out for the wild burros on the highway. They were not kidding! Here is one of the many we saw right by the road.

Most of the BLM areas on the California side of the Parker strip have been leased to adjoining RV Resorts. There is only one now, Crossroads BLM for $5/night with only about 12 campsites (plus six in the overflow) left. Ray did not take a picture so I googled one ... imagine my surprise when it was once again our friends Dianne and Steve Colibaba and their truck from November 2012!

We continued down California Highway 95 looking for any other opportunities and found one sweet spot that would work for us when we come back this way. It is closest to Paradise Lane, right on the Colorado. This time however, we gave Freya a bath as she has been scratching like crazy since she swam in the pond at Oasis RV Resort, I think duck itch or something. Anyway out came the head and shoulders and hopefully as this is her second treatment with dandruff shampoo that this will stop all that scratching.

Paradise Lane Campsite

After this Home Jeves!

February 21st - Goodbye Dinner and Campfire before moving to Ogilby Road Friday

After being invited to a couple of happy hours by Murlene and Joe, Thursday night Ray and I invited Murlene, Joe and JoAnne over for barbequed hamburgers and a campfire. JoAnne's Rick was still out of town so would miss the get together.

It was another lovely evening and lots of laughs were shared over dinner and the campfire. Ray even gave us a short performance on the guitar.

Friday morning after packing up and saying goodbye to our new friends, it's off to Yuma down Hwy 78 and then down Ogilby Road for fuel and dump before returning to Ogilby Road for drycamping. Although it was an extra 20 miles it was almost a dollar per gallon difference in the price of diesel between California and Arizona so worth the drive.

Here a few pictures of our new "home" for the next week. We found a real "sweet" spot with sand for Freya, trees for me and the coach is positioned great for solar. Our closest neighbour is hundreds of yards away. We are down American Girl Mine Road.

Ray took a short drive down the road towards the mine. Not much to see but here is a couple of pictures.

The operating American Girl Gold Mine.

Old mining equipment.

We will be here for a week until it is time to go to San Diego for March 1st.

February 25th - Old Tumco Gold Mine

It was cloudy on Tuesday, so we decided to drive the short way up the road and check out the Old Tumco Gold Mine. We had a nice walk but there is not much left of the old townsite. After checking out the information board regarding the points of interest we started our walk. The first stop was the well. This well apparently served the commercial district and was one of several wells on the Tumco property. With demand for water so high in temperatures of over 120 degrees F. in the summer, in 1894 they began to pump water directly from the Colorado River.

About 25 feet down to the bottom of the well.

 

Stop #2 was the west neighbourhood. This area was buried by a flash flood of tailings in 1900. Not much left that we could discern. There are lots of spots with rusted old cans.

Rusty cans all over old foundations.

Stop # 3 was a rest area that had a listing of the time line for the town.

Rest Area 

Stop #4 was the Miners Club. A company run saloon with pool tables etc. All that is left is a hole in the ground from it's cellar.

The Saloon

Stop #5 was the old hospital next door to the saloon that would have been 40 x 40 foot square, with a wrap around porch. Freya seems to know what Ray is going to take a picture of as she clambered up by herself and sat down waiting for us.

Back side of hospital

                            Front side of hospital.

The next stop is the Fuller House, we think that as just a slab of concrete so Ray didn't take a picture.

Stop #7 is the Stamp Mill. You can just make out two separate foundations to the top left and right of the picture below.

Stamp Mill Foundations 

Stop #8 and #9 was the Cyanide Vats and Cyanide tailings.

Cyanide Vats

It has been quite windy for the past few days with mini dust storms that keep us mostly inside. It even sprinkled a little on Monday morning. Ray and the dog brave it sitting out of the wind on the side of the coach. Planned to have a campfire but it has been too windy. Yesterday we drove in to Yuma for a few groceries and planned to go to the Outback Restaurant to have a rib steak. 2 years ago we had the best ribeye steak ever there. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed permanently, so back to camp for lunch instead. There was sand traveling across the road at the entrance to the freeway coming from the Imperial Sand Dunes. The wind kept up all afternoon and evening shaking the awning toppers but we were still able to watch TV as we have some trees behind us that are helping to break the wind. The wind finally calmed down by midnight and we awoke to a lovely non windy morning. The house flies here are absolutely relentless. We are packing up today and will leave tomorrow for another location that we have just found out about a short distance down I-8 towards San Diego. It will help shorten our drive on Sunday to Escondido RV Resort.

Here are a couple of pictures from Monday night with all of the clouds moving in.

February 27th - Viejas Casino and Hotel, Alpine CA

Yesterday we packed up from Ogilby Road, (American Girl Mine Rd) and made our way to Alpine California. This will break up the trip to get to Escondido on Sunday. What a pretty drive over the mountains. I did not get any pictures as the windows were covered in dust and dead bugs from the desert and somehow I did not realize that we would see the views we did. We climbed from the desert floor at sea level to the highest elevation of 4,180 feet. 

Our destination is the Viejas Casino and Resort just east of the town of Alpine. What a great place to stop for a few days. Lots of room in the parking lot and green grass and trees to walk about. Ray and I joined their V-Club which entitles you to 20% off meals in the resorts restaurants. We had lunch in their cafe which was pretty good and the beer on tap, Karl Strauss Amber, is fantastic. Tonight we will go to their buffet. We walked by it yesterday to check it out. Lots of seafood, wonderful slabs of prime rib and tons of other choices. It is about $26/person but it includes free beer, wine and champagne so when you add it up it is pretty reasonable ... especially with 20% off. Today we plan on doing a little touring of the area before the showers begin this evening.

I'm REALLY enjoying this grass guys!

February 28th - Lake Jennings Auto Tour

Yesterday we started off by going downtown to Alpine  to the suggested "best breakfast place" in San Diego County which was Janet’s Montana Cafe. The prices seemed a little high until you actually saw the quantity of food they delivered. Wow. Everything is homemade including the bread. They have a whole display case of fresh baked pies (Chocolate/Pecan Yumm). Ray and I both took our other half of the omelet and hashbrowns home with us for breakfast today. The cafe is really neat and even though the inside seating area is on the small side they seem to turn over the tables very quickly. They have great outdoor seating but it was too cold yesterday with the wind. We would definitely go back. To fit the Montana theme they even have antler chandeliers.

After full bellies I drove us to Santee Lakes to check out camping opportunities for future reference. The campsite is much bigger than we anticipated. There are quite a few sites that we would fit. just past lake 7. Lots of dog walking opportunities in the area. They have a pool and hot tub. It is a very pretty regional park. In the fall and spring they stock the lakes with fish. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures at the time.

After a quick stop at Walmart and Costco we were back on the road to see Lake Jennings. It is quite an interesting place. Great views from some of the campsites perched on top of the hill. There were only about 15 sites we would fit in and most of them were taken. But not a bad place to go to for a change.

For years I grew one inside and never saw a Jade Plant flower.

A flowering Yucca

Here are some pictures of the campsites and views. Most of the really great ones were tent sites or small truck and camper size.

That is a walking trail all around the top of the hill.

One of the campsites we might possibly fit in . They are very generous with the space between campsites.

 

This is the road you come in on ... quite windy.

Lake Jennings is a reservoir that is stocked for fishing. No swimming allowed, not even the dog. Understandable though if it is drinking water. Most of the trails around the hill are okay for the dog on leash but the bottom trail near the water is off limits.

Time to go home and sit outside before the sunshine disappears as forecasted. Ray reclined with ice on his back and I relaxed with my book.

We decided to go to the Buffet at the Casino for dinner. What sold me was the huge prime rib that they carve for you. I have been missing beef down here as it is so expensive it is not often on our menu. We tried a few days ago to go to the Outback in Yuma but it was closed down. The beef was pretty good but it ended up being the seafood that we loved.  Beer, wine and champagne all unlimited and best of all Friday was Margarita night. The price per person was $26 less 20% with the V-Club card, but with the drinks and all the seafood we more than got our money's worth. Total was $41 plus tip.

Hummmmm, what shall I eat first!

We were very full when we got home, Ray walked the dog and we settled in for the rest of the evening. With the time change for us from Arizona time back to Pacific time, losing that hour seems to make us quite tired early. Oh well, we will just get used to it and the hour comes back March 7th! It was quite windy overnight as forecasted so we took the satellite dish down so we did not have to worry about it. The rain began at about 2:00 am so I am glad we did the touring yesterday.

One of the servers at the buffet is named Garrett.  We mentioned that Garrett means "lion hearted" and he said "Wow, you just blew my mind, I'm in the process of getting a lion tattooed over my heart".  He says he approaches life with a go out and grab it attitude and thought the lion would be appropriate... how right he was!