July 2, Day 2 Road Trip
London Bridge is Falling Down
The temperature at Lake Havasu is 1 million degrees! 1:16 PM Jul 2nd, 2009 via Twittelator
OK, we survived our first night in the camper, but barely. Temperature gauge, is off the charts. The gauge inside the un-airconditioned camper reads to 90 degrees only, but the needle is far past 90, literally off the charts. It’s hot.
I was warned about traveling through the desert in July, but I thought, “how bad could it be?” Last night I slept with wet wash cloths on my forehead, at least it was wet 2 minutes before it hit my head. At least the campground we camped the last night, provided us with a lake to swim in in the morning. Miro, Steve, Henry and I all got into the lake and cooled down for a couple of hours in the morning before we hit the road for another leg of traveling.
We hit the road around 11:00 just before we had to either renew our camp spot for the night or depart. We had water hook ups so we were able to show before leaving, but the camper systems are quite primitive. Steve said our next camping spot will be further up Lake Havasu. It’s all the same to me, but happy to climb into the air-conditioned cab of his macho white van. Miro seems to be nonchalant about the whole trip since camping and off-roading isn’t something we did together and sees it as nothing special and is happy as long as he has his DS to play. As we set off driving through the desert, Steve is starting to get annoyed with Miro about not paying attention to the surrounding scenery. Admittingly so, it is beautiful, but on day 2, it’s kind of more of the same, but I’m content to be feeling the first internal emotions of freedom. Yes, that feels good.
We have entered our third state on our 3rd day of our trip, crossing into Arizona. Our first stop would be the London Bridge but not before we took a little off road adventure, camper in tow, based on a little side road artery on Steve’s GPS system. He said he thought it would be a treat. I was open for anything and off we went. The road was a bumpy up-hill, down-hill, curvy, dirt path, lined with miles and miles of cactus, Joshua trees, and the occasional green-brownish bush.
We were literally out in the middle of no-where-land, and I find myself wondering what would happen if the van with the trailer in tow were to blow a tire or get caught in a sand trap. We approach an abandoned car rotting on the side of the road, riddled with bullet holes. I think this is the point I heard the theme song from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in my head play, as a tumble weed raced by the van window. Henry panted, sitting comfortably on my lap and Miro continued with his RPG digital journey, as Steve clearly had a smile on his face. He was in his element and loved being in that moment.
I on the other hand was less than excited, but in the moment, nonetheless, absorbing all it had to offer. Watching the repeating landscape as we bobbed up and down on the unpaved road, my mind drifted , almost meditatively. I thought about all the things that I’ve never experienced before, and realized that my life and Miro’s was about to change in a way I couldn’t even imagine. New experiences about to unfold, many of which we simply couldn’t anticipate, and this is just one of them.
Bump, rock, tumble, cactus, desert, dirt…. Done. Filed under “new experiences, no need to repeat”.
We emerged back into civilization, just outside of a desert city suburb. Newly paved roads and traffic symbols lined the streets, with the signs displaying the names of the track home planned communities, homes for sale, soon approaching. Just after one o’clock, we made finally made it to the London Bridge in the city of London, which happened to be a very touristy spot. Not London England, but London Arizona. I’m not quite sure of the history of that bridge, but after a little research, I realize it was built based on the 1831 London Bridge which spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. Read more from the wikipedia link here. he city was quaint, smack dab in the middle of nowhere, slightly upscale and touristy, and capitalizing on the lake’s recreation. Nevertheless, there was not a break from the heat and the outside temperature was well into the 100s.
http://twitpic.com/92iz5 – Who knew the London Bridge isn’t I’m London anymore!? 1:32 PM Jul 2nd, 2009 via TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/93ufx – Beautiful view!!!!! 7:51 PM Jul 2nd, 2009 via TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/93wey – Mr. Crawfish!!! 8:06 PM Jul 2nd, 2009 via TwitPic
After an hour of walking around, seeing the bridge and the boats, we set out to find our campground for the night. We drove looking for a campground on the river and after a couple of hours of looking for the perfect spot, Steve was advised to cross over the river back into Nevada. We did so and eventually found a free campground on the beach, the shore of the Colorado river on the Nevada side.
Miro and I were both excited to get there, and jump into the water. Nothing like a couple of bloody marys, the cool water of the Colorado River, neighbors with jet skis and sandy beach to relax into. So that is what we did and yes, Miro put down the DS and got into the river…
Steve was being (mostly) good, not trying too much to hit on me, just the verbal innuendos, but nothing serious. There was this sorta machismo thing going on though and I could tell when we started socializing with the people around us at the campground and the river, he had pride in the fantasy that this was his little family. I overhead on of our neighbors ask what his “wife’s” name was and he said “Lainie” without correcting their assumption about our relationship. I just let it go…
And that about sums it up, Day 2 of the Roadtrip.