Day 8, Friday April 10th was a busy one. We spent the morning in Lake Havasu City which is mainly a resort town in the desert that has sprung up around the Lake made from damming up the Colorado River. The lake is about 45 miles long and only 3 miles across at its widest. In 1968 a man by the name of McCullough purchased the London Bridge (which was falling down) for 3 million dollars and spent another 7 million dollars to disassemble it, fly it to Arizona and rebuild it! Then a channel was dug between 2 parts of the lake to form an island and to allow water to flow under the bridge! The bridge is quite lovely, but it seems so out of place in the desert. A little "English Village" of shops, etc. has sprung up (kinda tacky) around the bridge and there are various boat tours available...the Dixie Belle (a Mississippi Paddlewheeler), the Kon Tiki (looked like something out of Disney's Adventure Land), speed boats, Water Skeeter pedal boats, jet skis, etc., all adding to collage of mismatched themes. The real show here was the assembly of boaters with really fast and sexy-looking boats and small swimsuits that come to slowly "stroll" up and down the Bridge Channel, various types of music blaring. It's kinda like dragging Main Street in Salt Lake. We sat and watched the Easter Parade (it was the day before Easter) while we ate some homemade fudge. It really was pretty entertaining. Then we were off to Oatman, an old mining ghost town that has resurfaced as a tourist attraction with wild (ha!) burros and saloons and gun fights, etc. The rest of the afternoon we drove on old Route 66, very scenic, into Kingman. This stretch was obviously the inspiration for the Pixar movie Cars. To make the journey even more fun, Dad had found a series of 6 caches named for the characters in the movie. First we found Sally, then Tow Mater and then we realized that there were clues to the coordinates of the final cache (#7--Lightning McQueen) written in the back of SOME of the log books. So, we decided to back track to Sally only to find that it DIDN'T have one!! But we did find clues in Mater, Luigi & Guido, and Doc Hudson which we found in Kingman, almost in the dark. Story continues on Day 9 and be sure to read Day 7 (if you didn't already) 'cause I posted it earlier tonight.
Arizona camper spotted outside of Lake Havasu City.
London Bridge in the background
The Bridge Channel with golf course and Lake Havasu beyond.
Just part of the party/parade!
This is one beach at Lake Havasu.
On the road to Oatman.
A "forest" of Cholla (choi-ya) cacti.
Main Street...about the only street...in Oatman.
Saloon where we ate Navajo Tacos for lunch. Oatman is named for a miner's daughter, Olive, who was kidnapped by Indians when just a child and later rescued.
Sasparilla and an old timey piano played by a manniquin (for a quarter).
Posing for fun!
Dad and a wild! burro.
Carrots were sold to feed to the burros. The babies had "No Carrot" signs on their heads. They would choke if fed.
Fancy spotted brown burro.
Gunslinger complete with wicked spurs.
The 4 characters in the gunfight. One guy has been shot, the sheriff then shot the gunslinger and then the lady pulled a pistol out of the basket of flowers she was carrying and shot the sheriff!
View of scenery leaving Oatman.
Historic Route 66.
More scenery along Route 66.
"Radiator Springs" countryside.
Sally Cache Log Book and treasure.
Tow Mater Cache Log Book with steamroller swag.
Luigi and Guido Log Book and items we traded for.
Doc Hudson (Low 'N Slo) Log Book. All of these caches were hidden on Route 66!
1 comment:
I have a sticker on my forehead too. It's a picture of cauliflower with a slashed circle over it. Cool burros --T learned a new word with that one. And hey, what's with Fred being in all the photos? I thought you could only get sasparilla at Casa Melinda's.
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