A day trip to Oatman and Kingman

Just 50 miles north of Lake Havasu is the ghost town of Oatman. To get there you need to travel on old Route 66 which is a historical highway. It is not in the best of repair and probably the windiest (it winds around; its not windy) road I ever driven on. Top speed is around 35 miles an hour.

The town is mostly the original buildings with the usual trinket shops but you don't usually see burros with the run of the place. They were quite docile but I did see one almost knock a small girl over trying to get her cotton candy.

One of their claims to fame is that they stage a gun battle on the main street. They use real guns but fire blanks. Once the shooting starts, its hard to remember that; its loud and smoke and smells from the powder are realistic. If you notice, the gun slinger in red is shooting right at me. I don't think he mean to, just a lousy shot I guess.

Irregardless of the reason, innocent by-standers get caught in the cross-fire.

Its amazing how quickly you revive when someone wants to dip your head in a water trough filled with black water of indeterminate origin.

Between Oatman and Kingman Hwy 66 climbs and descends using switchbacks and steep climbs and drops. Here is one of the peaks where we stopped. Directly below me are about 30 or more crosses on the side of the hill. Most have plastic flowers or some mementos attached. Maybe it gets hotter than we think here. No idea why they are there.

We kept seeing "beware of wild burro" signs and laughing until I came racing around a steep drop and switchback and there they were in the middle of the road. They graciously went into the ditch so I wouldn't have to.

We got to Kingman around 2 PM and stopped at "Mr D's on Route 66" for lunch. It was a real authentic diner with Formica counter tops and vinyl chairs. Route 66 is a real tourist draw and their diner is original from the 50's. Lots of signed pictures on the walls. When I saw Oprahs signature I just knew it had to be good. One of her diner of the month selections I presume.

After lunch we went across the street to the park and looked at the train.

Day Trip around Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu was created when the Parker dam was built so we went to see it. Its the worlds deepest dam with 320 feet of its height below the river bed. Doesn't look like much above though. It uses the water in Lake Havasu to generate electricity.

The lake is a huge recreational area with lots of resorts and boating where there once was only desert. Its amazing what water means.

Walking around we came across this Road Runner (he's under the tree to the right).

And of course we saw a rabbit as well. Anyone who used to watch cartoons will remember the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show. I believe it was filmed in this area :-). Maybe these are relatives.

After a long day of walking and exploring, we took a break and refreshed ourselves.

Today was the day the Xmas lights were turned on at the London bridge so we went down to see them. I see a present under the tree for me!

For years, every Xmas we take Kyle to Waterloo park to look at the lights and displays and then have a hot chocolate. So it just seemed right to have a hot chocolate after looking at the lights of the London bridge Xmas lights. These weren't nearly as nice, or as cold. We won't be there this year Kyle, so make sure mom and Andy take you.

London Bridge

One of the reasons we wanted to stay at Lake Havasu was to see London Bridge. In 1967 the owner of the McCulloch chain saw company bought the London Bridge from the city of London for $2,460,000.00. It cost him another $2.7 million to transport and re-assemble at Lake Havasu. There was no town at that time; he bought the land the city sits on and created his own town. His idea was to create a tourist attraction and then sell land to create a tourist destination. The city is now about 55,000 people.

The bridge consisted of 10,276 granite blocks each of which was shipped from London through the Panama canal to California where they were put on trucks and shipped to Lake Havasu. Most of the blocks were so large only one could be put on a flatbed at a time. The bridge travelled 7000 miles to get here. It is 930 feet long, 49 feet wide and weighs 22 million pounds.

There are miles of walkways up and down the canal. Buildings built along the canal are of English design to keep with the theme of the site. You feel like you're walking along an English street, except for the sunshine and lack of damp fog.

The bridge was actually constructed on dry land with deep footings put into the desert sand. After the bridge was finished, a dredge was brought in and actually created the canal by joining the lake by cutting off a point of land and creating an island.

After a heavy morning of history lessons and walking, we crossed the bridge and stopped for lunch in a Mexican restaurant. This is the view from the patio. A good Cervesa always tastes better after a long walk in the hot sun.

The landscaping around the bridge and buildings was beautiful and made us glad we went there for the day. Although the Mexican food gave us both heartburn, but no gas, thank goodness.

Mesquite Nevada to Lake Havasu Arizona

When you get up in the morning and this is the view out of your front window you know its going to be a good day. Our first day at Mesquite, guys with a portable wash trailer stopped and asked us if we would like our RV washed. I had been trying to figure out how to clean it and for $50.00 I said go ahead. A job that takes me all day, they had done in an hour and Harvey just gleamed. They washed the windows, the wheels and shammied everywhere. Not a water spot or missed spot anywhere. Now instead of hiding our faces and slinking into our unit we can walk proudly into a gleaming jewel.

During the four days we stayed here, we gambled a little, had some great meals out and went for long walks. Carmen even found time to get a few stitches in. The temperature is around 34 C and I caught myself complaining about the heat. What was I thinking? It wasn't that long ago we were standing in snow.

Once the sun goes down it cools quickly and you need jackets to go out. Our last day so we went to the Casa Blanca casino and had supper. Roast beef plate for $4.99, and $1.50 beer, hows that for a deal. We gambled away a few bucks and went back to get ready to leave the next day.

An hour after leaving Mesquite, we got to Las Vegas. It was great planning; we arrived at 9 AM on Sunday, figuring that the traffic would be light because who would be going to church in Sin City? Traffic wasn't bad so I guess our cynicism paid off.

But of course you can never tell about road construction. All the orange signs are saying construction ahead, one lane, expect delays, and they were right. Eventually we got through Vegas but it took awhile.

Finally got to the Colorado river. It separates California and Arizona and is used to form lake Mead at the Hoover dam and also forms Lake Havasu at Parker dam. All in all, an important river.

Got to our campsite at Campbell Cove RV resort in Lake Havasu City. This is a picture taken from our side window at our site so its not too bad a location. We will be here for a week but shouldn't be bored; there's lots to do around this area.

Fillmore Utah to Mesquite Nevada

Its been a great break in the driving but we need to get going so here I am disconnecting all the hookups and getting ready to go.

We stopped for lunch at a wayside stop just south of St. George Utah. The terrain has been pretty much what you see here, not much green and a lot of brown plants and rock.

Shortly after lunch we hit the Arizona border which is just a few miles wide before driving into Nevada. No one told us about the descent through a long winding canyon with cliffs and drop offs on each side. I put on the engine brake and rode it down the steep grades for almost the whole trip through the canyons. We must have dropped 5000 feet in a couple of miles. Once I was comfortable with the engine brake being able to keep our speed under control I relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

I can't say the same thing about Carmen. If she hadn't had her seat belt on I'm sure she would have crawled under table and hid. Between the sharp curves, the steep grade, the narrow roads and the semi's flying by it was about as close to a thrill ride as I've had while driving. All in all an exhilarating experience. I couldn't talk Carmen into going back and doing it again though.

By mid afternoon we had arrived at Mesquite. We parked at the Oasis casino RV park and, because we are ahead of schedule, we decided to stay for a few days. It had nothing to do with the fact that there were casinos all around us.

Taking a break in Fillmore Utah

We arrived at the RV park in Fillmore around 3:00 PM. We have been driving every day since we left Calgary just to get out of the cold weather. Today, as we drove, we could feel the temperature rising and actually turned the heater off for the first time since leaving home. The campground in Fillmore was a great place to stop and rest for a couple of days.

So here I am resting on our first break from driving for awhile. The sun is nice and warm and I'm soaking it up.

As I relax from my strenuous labours of driving for a day, Carmen gets a chance to do some house cleaning. I'd help but there just isn't enough room for 2 cleaners.

After house cleaning, Carmen did a couple of loads of laundry in our onboard washer/drier and then decided to catch up on her correspondence. I think I was still trying to relax during all this.

Of course I knew there would be a price to pay for lazing around all day and sure enough, I had to make supper. Well, barbecue a couple of burgers anyway. What a tough life! I could get used to this. This was the first time it was warm enough to wear short sleeve shirts and get the barbecue out. I think we've left the cold for good.

Idaho to Utah

Overnite at our campsite in Downey, the wind blew a little tumbleweed in. It was just a little guy so we let it go.

Because there were no services at the site, we had to go to a water stand to put water in our freshwater tank otherwise no toilet or coffee.

It was another day of beautiful sights with another mountain picture (shouldn't be many more). As we drove into Utah and towards Salt Lake City we could feel, for the first time, the temperature starting to rise and heat from the sun. I think we are finally out of the colder areas. Salt Lake City was multi-lane and hi-speed so we didn't take any pictures going through. We did see a camper overturned going the other way with their stuff all over the road. First accident we've seen on the trip. Hope its the last.

Reached our campground in Fillmore Utah early and went shopping for some essentials. Its a great campground and warm here so we're going to stay a couple of days.

Montana to Idaho

After a long days drive through Montana we stayed overnight at Dillon, about 50 miles south of Butte. Lovely drive through mountains and high passes. So far we have had nearly the whole campsites to ourselves. Not many people going south I guess. At this campground we went over to our neighbouring motorhome for a visit and a drink. Nice people from Lethbridge. They had to stop and repair their awning after wind gusts as well; misery loves company. Promised to look them up in Yuma.

On the road from Montana to Idaho the next day. We stopped for lunch at "Hells Half Acre" rest stop in Idaho. It was an old volcanic site and very rugged. It was a light day of driving so we decided to stop and see the site.

The area is a desert and very dry and hot in the summer and -30F in the winter so the vegetation is much different than at home.

Millions of years ago this was a lava flow and sometimes a crust formed and the lava drained leaving a dome which has collapsed over the years. Although its hard to tell, behind me is a huge bowl of lava crust which has fallen in. I'm trying not to do the same.

Got to our days end at Downato Hot Springs at Downey Idaho. The problem with travelling late in the year is that attractions like the hot springs are closed. Oh well. No services except hydro but the view was nice.

Day 2 in Montana

Here is where we camped. By ourselves except for a rabbit that camped under our car.

We woke up to very gusty winds.

How gusty you ask? 2 miles down the road our awning was blown loose from its moorings and cloth, arms, and sundry items were blowing in the wind; literally. After a panic stop and lots of grabbing and re-furling we managed to salvage some semblance of what it once looked like. Using Velcro, cord and ingenuity we managed to re-attach the awning so we could continue. The winds were gusting to nearly 100 KM/ HR and kept trying to get under the awning and redesign its parts so we drove at 35 MPH for over 2 hours until the wind died down to only 60 or 70 KM/HR.

Once we could actually take our eyes off the awning for a moment we realized what beautiful country we were travelling through. The flat prairie suddenly changed to rocky hills with grasses and trees stunted by the poor soil and the strong winds. The farther we went, the bigger the hills and steeper the grade; so much for my gas mileage.

Finally, after 8 hours of white knuckle driving in head winds, cross winds and yank the door from your hand winds, we arrived at our days rest. the sunset alone almost made up for the days problems. Who am I kidding; I'd trade this sunset anyday for the half hour of hell it took to salvage the awning. But, tomorrow's another day.