Arizona Trip
Day 2: Friday, 9/16/11
miles traveled: about 250
destination: Lake Havasu, AZ  (to see the London Bridge)


We started the day in Mojave, CA.  Just tooling around the town, we chanced upon an Army-Navy Surplus store.  Tom likes military surplus stores, so naturally we stopped to look around.  It was crammed ... STUFFED with every sort of excess military gear that you could possibly image and probably some that you couldn't.  At least, I couldn't.

Outside there was a small helicopter available for purchase.  I kid you not.  This particular helicopter was used in the Arnold schwartznegger movie, "The Sixth Day".  I've never seen the movie, so I couldn't tell you if the proprietor was shucking and jiving me on that point.

Mojave also has a Spaceport.  At the entrance they have a static display of what Tom said was an F4 .... I'll take his word for it cuz if a plane isn't a Cessna and it isn't a passenger jet, I don't have a clue what it might be .. especially military ones. :-)

On our way out of town, we passed by Edwards AFB.  I observed this FAST little white jet, screaming across the sky.  It disappeared fairly rapidly.  Not long afterwards, a bigger, gray plane came chasing after it.  Now this bigger, gray plane *looked* like it might be a fighter jet because it has long, pointed projectiles under the wings.  I watched them until they weren't visible any longer.

Now we were REALLY out of Mojave and headed east.  Interstate 40 and Route 66 are the same road at this point BUT there is *also* an historic Route 66.  The historic Route 66 is the REAL one.  The merged road is for modern convenience.  Given the choice and knowing that we didn't have a hard deadline to meet, we decided to travel on the historic Route 66.  To mark the historic road, there are Route 66 shields painted on the roadbed. 

This road was heavily traveled in times past.  There were thriving businesses and occupied homes along it.  But once the modern day Interstate 40 was built ... no more than 1/2 mile away!! ... the historic Route 66 declined.  It was so sad to see the boarded up buildings and abandoned homes lining the sides of the road.  People used to make a living by catering to the travelers here ... stores and motels ... but no more.  There's no stopping on the Interstates, so such businesses couldn't exist there.  Yes, there are exits so you can travel on the historic Route 66, but if you're already on the Interstate unless
you really WANTED to travel more slowly, there's no reason for you to leave I40.  Without the tourist, all the businesses went *poof* and the people living there relocated.

For a while the roadbed was still very nicely maintained and we just zipped along.  But at some point, the surface became degraded.  It was obvious that surface was distintegrating, as you could see the old surface underneath.  At this point, the roadbed was *so rough* it was like riding a on a washboard.  Tom mentioned that his kidneys were getting a real workout and he'd probably be peeing blood for a week.  :-)

After a while, the novelty of riding on historic Route 66 lost its appeal and we returned to I40.  Tom's kidneys thanked him.  :-)

The landscape hasn't changed since Bakersfield.  It's dry, barren, rocky.  It's unrelenting.  There is no color other than brown, gray and charcoal.  There are places that definitely look like old lava flows.  The plants are a gray-green in color and small.  After all, this *is* desert country. :-)

Our first glimpse of the Colorado River!

We arrived at Lake Havasu City around 5:30pm.  It was 102 degrees.  Stepping out of the car was like entering a blast furnace.  Oh. My. God.  I could feel the moisture being sucked out of my skin.

We had reservations at Lake Havasu State Park.  Unfortunately, the ditzy blonde (and she really, really was) ranger had misunderstood WHEN I wanted the reservation (tonight, not last night) and the site she had reserved for us was now occupied by someone else.  ::sigh::  We drove around, found a site that looked to have more shade than the other sites and snagged it for ourselves.

Did I mention it was 102 degrees?

The entire point of this destination was to see the London Bridge.  This is an authentic bridge that, at one time, had spanned the River Thames in London.  If memory serves me correctly, the Brits were replacing it and some entrepreneur purchased the old one, relocated it to Lake Havasu as a tourist attraction.  I don't think Lake Havasu City has any other purpose in life than to be a site for the old London Bridge.

Since it was late in the afternoon, we weren't quite sure what the scoop was with the London Bridge.  As far as we knew, there was a closing time for it.  So, after securing our new campsite, we scurried to the London Bridge.  Fortunately, it doesn't have an admission fee ... it is simply a way to cross a stretch of water to get to the other side.  There is an indoor mall (THANK GOODNESS!) where the shops are located ... typical tourist type stuff and not worth mentioning.

It was dinnertime and we had our evening meal at The Barley Bros., consuming their house specialty of "all you can eat" fish-n-chips and beer.  *I* limited myself to the 2 big chunks of fish; Tom had another serving of 2 pieces.  He waddled out the door.  We were also kinda hoping that the temps had dropped some .... no such luck.  :-(

It was getting darker and we still needed to set up camp.

Did I mention it was HOT outside?

Back at camp, we thought that the tent would inhibit any stray breezes that might find us.  Sleeping under a lean-to sounded like an excellent idea.  We had chosen our campsite because it did have some scrubby trees.  It was from these trees that we we strung our lean-to.  A substantial amount of time later, we were irritably HOT and the victims of scratches and swatting little ANNOYING bugs away, but the lean-to was set-up.

We sat down in front of our empty campfire ring, relaxing with our beers.  The annoying bugs were attracted to the lanterns.  They were attracted to our sweaty skin and our exhaled carbon dioxide.  It wasn't 100% relaxing.

Did I mention it was frickin' HOT?

At one point, Tom noticed a BIG BLACK THING moving at a rapid place on the ground.  He followed it with his flashlight; it was a humungous bug.  Knowing that if that Texas-sized bug came crawling over us in the lean-to, I'd make a skylight in the lean-to.  He wasn't so thrilled with the idea either.

Therefore .... at 8:30pm, full dark, by the light of the lanterns, we set up our tent ... which, in retrospect, we should have done in the first place!  The lean-to idea sounded good but the bug situation made it intolerable.  (this picture was taken the next morning)

Did I mention it was HOT?

Between the heat and the bugs and not having a lot of battery power left for the computer, we decided to go to bed.  It was 10pm. Truly unheard of for us to retire at that time!  Inside the tent, there wasn't a breath of air.  Fortunately, we had packed battery-powered portable, personal fans.  They quietly ran ALL NIGHT LONG and kept it tolerable.

Unfortunately, there are party boats on the lake.  They have a circuit that seems to end exactly opposite our campsite.  These suckers are LOUD and they stay put for a LONG TIME ... well past the socially acceptable quiet time of 10pm..  Really, *really*, REALLY obnoxious.  I felt like launching an RPG at them.

While the *mattress* was certainly better than last night's, there was absolutely nothing else to recommend this area to us.  I sincerely doubt we will revisit it.  (Aside to Catherine: they have one bookstore, Hastings, fairly large.  We were on our way out of town and didn't visit it.)

We got up the next morning at .... are y'all sitting down? ... 6:45am.  It was just dawn.  We wanted to break camp and be on the road before the air heated up.

We had a few errands to run before leaving Lake Havasu City and whilst doing so, we took a tour of the place.  Granted, we didn't explore ALL of the residential areas, but the ones that we did see was a lot of nice looking single family homes, most built in Southwestern architecture.  But EVERY SINGLE DANGED one of them ... I mean ALL of them ... were "landscaped" with gravel and rock and scrubby plants.  There wasn't a single blade of grass anywhere.  Now I realize that with the temperature being so frickin' HOT, it would take a lot of water to maintain a lawn (which is a water thirsty plant).  However, with the stucco houses, the asphalt roads and parking lots, the concrete sidewalks AND the rock hardscape .... this place simply RADIATES heat.  The only tolerable spots are air-conditioned interiors.

My goodness gracious ... HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE HERE?  and WHY????