Excitement on the River

We went for a boat ride with some friends. We rode in their big Ranger boat -- very nice. They are staying at an RV park right on the river next to the Imperial Dam. We saw lots of interesting birds and ducks. We explored every little channel and small lake along the river above the dam both on the Arizona side as well as the California side. One small lake had warm springs in it and you could see the bubbles coming up . The water around the springs was 71 degrees while the rest of the river has water in the 50's. We saw bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish, carp and stripers swimming around waiting to be caught.

We were on our way back and got within a 1/4 mile of the RV park -- right next to the dam and the motor died. No problem, use the trolling motor, wrong, the steering cable broke. So now we are dead in the water and the boat has no anchor and no paddle. There was a push pull pole that was about 8ft long so us ladies used it to "paddle". The guys worked on the trolling motor until it could be used by hanging on to the top of the head to steer while running the footpedal. It was awkward but it worked. My friend Betty and I were just glad to be moving away from the dam. The water is right up to the top and where we were there was no more wall to stop you from going over -- thats the picture I took -- along with the one of the dam itself. We were never in real danger because we were within shouting distance of the RV park and could have screamed for help. We weren't being pushed toward the edge and as we trolled to the dock the big motor finally started.