Friday September 13th we left the campground and picked up I-17 South to Arizona Highway 74 West. Along the way we passed a lot of Saguaro Cactus.
Yes, that was Bev at work clicking pictures as drove down the highway.
We exited onto Arizona Highway 74 West to U.S. Highway 60 which we followed West to Arizona Highway 72. Highway 72 is a very straight road that runs through the desert. Just South of Parker, AZ we picked up Arizona Highway 95 to our destination. Highway 95 is also the major route that goes through Lake Havasu City, AZ.
The desert in this area has been getting plenty of rain as you can see from the green. The green wouldn't last though because Earp, CA is bone dry and very hot.
It was a very scenic 4 hour ride to our new home at Emerald Cove Resort.
Today, Sunday September 15th it is very, I mean very hot. My outside thermometer, which is in the shade, is reading 111 degrees. Stepping out the door is like getting into an oven. At least we are on the shore of the Colorado River which looks cool.
Notice the campground is not very full. Things start picking up around here the end of October. It is just too hot for people to hang out at the campground. The people that are here have boats and spend their days on the Colorado River.
Although there is not a lot of activities here at Emerald Cove Resort at least every evening they have karaoke at the pools. Notice I say "pools", they have two of them one covered and one in the sun. They also have a bar at the pools which is needed because even after dark it is still in the upper 90s. Beer sales are good.
Yesterday was our touring day. We headed up Parker Dam Road, Crossed Parker Dam and headed North on Arizona Highway 95 to Lake Havasu City. Lake Havasu City is the location of the relocated 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967.
This is the view as we approached the London Bridge.
The pock marks on the bridge are from aircraft strafing the bridge during World War II.
Here are some views of the canal and Lake Havasu City from the bridge.
This is the Visitor Center which we checked out.
The Visitor Center has a painting of the London Bridge as it was in London England along with many photos and loads of information.While there we picked up a hiking stick medallion for the bridge. We use the hiking stick along with the medallions as a memory stick so we know where we've been.
The 1831 London Bridge was the last project of engineer John Rennie and completed by his son, John Rennie the Younger. By 1962, the bridge was not sound enough to support the increased load of modern traffic, and was sold by the City of London.
The purchaser, Robert McCulloch, the chairman of McCulloch Oil corporation, was the founder of Lake Havasu City, his retirement real estate development on the east shore of Lake Havasu. McCulloch purchased the bridge to serve as a tourist attraction to Lake Havasu, which at that time was far from the usual tourist track. The idea was successful, bringing interested tourists and retirement home buyers to the area.
Originally, the deserted Lake Havasu vacant land was given to the State of Arizona by the Federal government. The federal property was an abandoned landing strip for the Military. McCulloch made a deal with the State of Arizona and received the property for free with a promise to develop the land. The problem was that the real estate agents could not bring in prospective buyers, because the land was in the middle of nowhere and very arid and hot.
MuCulloch's real estate agent, Robert Plumer, learned that the London Bridge was for sale and convinced McCulloch to buy it and bring it to the area to attract potential land buyers. The initial response from McCulloch was "That's the craziest idea I have ever heard.", but after consideration, he decided to go ahead with the purchase. Plumer then arranged with a cargo shipping company that was going to sail a newly built ship from Great Britain to the U.S. without any cargo. Plumber said they would pay for all operation costs of the sailing, which was far less than the going rate shipping costs. The bridge facing stones were disassembled and each was numbered. After the bridge was dismantled it was transported to Merrivale Quarry where 15 to 20 cm was sliced off many of the original stones. The bridge arrived in pieces at the Port of Houston and then was transported overland to Lake Havasu City, where re-assembly began in 1968.
The original stone was used to clad a concrete structure, so the bridge is no longer the original after which it is modeled. The reconstruction took slightly over three years and was completed in late 1971. The bridge was not reconstructed over a river, but rather it was rebuilt on land in a position between the main part of the city and Pittsburgh Point, at that time a peninsula jutting into Lake Havasu. Once completed, the Bridgewater Channel Canal was dredged under the bridge and flooded, separating Pittsburgh Point from the city, creating an island. The bridge thus now traverses a navigable shortcut between the Thompson Bay part of Lake Havasu south of Pittsburgh Point, and the remainder of Lake Havasu to the north.
After it was reconstructed, new prospective land buyers were interested in coming to see the London Bridge and take a tour of properties for sale. Land sales improved and McCulloch recouped all of his expenses for the purchase and shipping of the bridge. Since the cost of the land was nothing the sale of the properties paid for the bridge and more. Recent years have seen a large amount of development in the area of the bridge to increase tourist interest.
The bridge's relocation was the basis of a 1985 made-for television movie "Bridge Across Time", also known as "Arizona Ripper or Terror at London Bridge". In the film, a series of murders in Lake Havasu is attributed to the spirit of Jack the Ripper, whose soul is transported to the United States in one of the stones of the bridge. Also, the movie "Falling Down", the title of which references the nursery rhyme"London Bridge Is Falling Down", has a Los Angeles policeman's wife who wants to relocate to Lake Havasu City after he retires.
After we left the bridge Bev had to check out a local Bead store. (She can't pass by a Bead store without checking it out.)
As we drove around Lake Havasu City we passed by a Red Robin Restaurant and of course you know we had to stop for lunch/dinner. (Did I mention we love to eat out?) We both over-ate but we hummed all the way back down the highway. ( I had the Whisky River Barbecue Burger and it was fantastic.)
On the way back home to the Winnebago we crossed over Parker Dam and took a few photos.
Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world. In fact, what you see is only one quarter of its 320-foot height. The other 235 feet plunge deep into the Colorado riverbed. Parker Dam is a monument to the men and machines that built it between 1934 and 1938.
To quench the thirst of Southern California, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California created Parker Dam and Lake Havasu. In 1941, water began flowing out of the reservoir, through MWD's Colorado River Aqueduct, and into Lake Matthews near Riverside. In 1985, Lake Havasu began supplying water for the Bureau of Reclamation's completed Central Arizona Project , which conveys water 336 miles to Phoenix and Tucson. Lake Havasu now provides water for nearly 15 million people on either side of the river.
On the way down Parker Dam Road we took a detour into the back country to check out the sights. All the land around the dam is owned by the Metropolitan Water District. You can see how dry it is around this area.
Back on Parker Dam Road heading down the Colorado to the Emerald Cove Resort we saw many other resorts along the river. During the winter season the place is filled with tourists and the river filled with boats.
Well, I guess this is enough for today. I know - I know I didn't show photos of our travels for the last 3 weeks around the Cottonwood, AZ area. I wanted to bring you up-to-date now and go back to Cottonwood on the next blog.
Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them. See you on the next blog.
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