Don Holmes,
Coming to Havasu

By Bobbi Holmes

            In June 2011, Don and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. Yet, we actually met 39 years ago during Easter week at Havasu Palms, on the California side of Lake Havasu.  Easter fell on April 2 that year. Ironically, as I write this, it is April 2, 2011.

When it was Easter Week 

            In those days we did not have spring break in Havasu, we had Easter vacation. I remember my friends from California celebrated Easter vacation the week before Easter Sunday, while local Arizona schools celebrated Easter vacation the week after Easter Sunday. (Or, was it the other way around?)
            I was a senior in high school that spring, and Don was a college student from California. One of his roommates, Gary, happened to be a good friend of mine. Gary’s aunt and uncle owned a vacation home at Havasu Palms, and he had been coming to the Palms since he was a young boy. That spring was my fifth Easter living at Havasu Palms.
            Gary invited a group of his friends from California to spend the week. Don arrived a few days after the rest of the group, driving over the rugged 12-mile dirt road into Havasu Palms with another friend – in the friend’s Porsche.
            Don and his friend arrived late that evening, questioning their decision to accept Gary’s invitation to such a remote location, especially considering they arrived in a Porsche.  Exhausted and dusty, Don crashed that night on a cot outside one of the trailers in the park, only to be abruptly woken in the middle of the night by a wild burro who decided to sniff Don’s face, before letting out a loud snort.
            That was Don’s introduction to Havasu Palms. He never imagined he would move there 19 years later.

 Before Moving to Havasu

            Don and I met that week, but it wasn’t until a month or so later, when I visited Gary in California, that our romance began. After we both finished college, Don and I were married in 1976. Don earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics, while I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.
            Our son, Scott was born in 1979, and our daughter, Elizabeth, in 1982. After college Don worked for Huffy Bicycles, and then for Helene Curtis. He left Helene Curtis to start a spa shop in Victorville. When our kids were little I stayed at home, yet eventually started a community paper in Wrightwood.
            My parents continued to live at Havasu Palms, running the remote lakeside resort. We visited them frequently, on weekends and holidays. Even before I moved back to Havasu, it was part of my children’s and husband’s life. Next page>>

(About the photo: This photo was taken back in the 1970's. It's Don and me, and the London Bridge - Bobbi)