This morning we headed out for a drive to Lake Havasu. It’s about a 90 min. drive from where we are south of Quartzsite. The drive was very nice. Once we got about 10 miles past Quartzsite the terrain became more rugged. There were a lot more hills and it seemed like we were winding through small mountains. We first past through part of Parker, Arizona and then continued up towards Lake Havasu.

Does anyone know what Lake Havasu is famous for? Those of you who have already been to Arizona probably already know. The answer is London Bridge. In 1962, the city of London England sold the famous London Bridge to an American businessman named Robert McCulloch. He planned to dismantle the Bridge, move it to the middle of the Arizona desert and build a town around it. Most people thought he was crazy.

London Bridge was built in the 1830’s and had, over time, become structurally unsound for motor traffic. Remember the old song “London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down”? The old London Bridge was an icon of London. So Mr. McCulloch brought the Bridge for $2.7 million, and in 1967 his crew began to remove the granite stone sheathing from the Bridge and marked each block so that they could be reassembled again in Arizona. The construction of the bridge in Arizona began in 1968 and was completed in 1971. As turned out, Robert McCulloch was right. People did come and Lake Havasu has become a prime tourist attraction. Many people live there and it has become a popular destination for snowbirds in the winter.

We went almost directly to the Bridge. Parking was easy and we spent some time wandering around the Bridge area and taking pictures. There is a tourist information centre right there as well. And…… right across the road there was an In-n-Out Burger restaurant. We didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to have an In-n-Out Burger so we stopped there for lunch.

We drove to the north end of Lake Havasu to check out an AOR Park called Lake Havasu RV Resort. It looked very nice from the road. We might be back here to stay for a few days before we return to Ontario.

On our way back to Quartzsite we took a side trip to see the Parker Dam. It was just a couple of miles out of the way. We were able to drive across the Dam itself but the road was very narrow. No trucks or RV’s allowed. The weight restriction was 20 tons but the width of the road was the biggest problem. Built on the Colorado River, the dam was completed in 1938 and is 328 ft. high; 235 ft. of that is below the riverbed. It is actually the highest dam in the world. It was an interesting stop.

Back on the road, and headed home we arrived just in time for happy hour and enjoyed chatting with the group for a couple hours.

We had a very nice day today. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the high temp today was 75F or 23C for us Canadians. That’s it for today, hope you like the pictures.

Ken