Today is going to be a short one as we spent most of the day driving and when we arrived at our destination it was too hot to do much more than sit in the shade and sip cool drinks.
Our destination for the day was Lake Havasu City in Arizona. It is a relatively new vacation/snow bird destination founded in 1964 on a wide spot on the Colorado River. It is known for extreme temperatures and the London Bridge. When the founder of the town was struggling to get the towns name on the map he decided to buy the London Bridge which was in the process of being replaced by a more modern bridge in London. As the bridge was removed each piece was marked and staged to be shipped across to Arizona to be reassembled on the Colorado River. It is rumored that the founder originally thought he was buying the Tower Bridge which is the famous landmark bridge everyone knows from London and not the relatively non-descript London Bridge. As goofy as the plan sounds it worked, the London Bridge is the second most visited tourist spot in Arizona after the Grand Canyon, and it got Lake Havasu on the map.
We knew that we risked it being a little hot as temperatures in the summer can reach 115 Fahrenheit (46 Celsius). We thought it is only May so worst case would be something in the low 90’s. When we arrived it was 103F (39.4C), which even intrepid travelers like us find a bit much. So after we hooked up we hunkered down in the shade and hoped for a breeze which never came.
We decided to brave the heat to walk down to the river at sunset. It was a beautiful sunset over the river. This is also a big water sport playground so we watched some of the boats come in to be hauled out of the water for the day, this is always entertaining as some of the drivers technique for backing the car and trailer into the water is not so good and can result in some hilarious interaction between the driver of the boat and the driver of the trailer.
Now we are settled in and since we have access to electricity we are wimping out by running our AC to cool down Scout before bedtime. The plan is to head over to the bridge tomorrow morning before the heat gets too bad.