Riding the lake with Havasu City in the background.
The Colorado River runs through the desert landscape of Arizona. It is testament to the water’s super-high specific heat capacity that there is a river there at all, despite the dry heat of the Arizonian desert. Not only does the water remain, but it gathers in this huge lake called Lake Havasu.
This is where my good friend Don and I went for a week. We chilled out (in the RV’s air condition, once we found a way to steal electricity from the neighbouring spot to keep it going) and did pretty much nothing apart from drink, eat, sleep and play around with the two jet skis we had brought along.
The jet skis were brilliant. While Don managed to overturn his several times, I stayed on almost perfectly. I fell of once while jousting with Don, but at least I took him down with me.
Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu is breathtakingly beautiful. Bluest water framed by distant dry mountains, all underneath an impossibly large sky. There was this viewpoint called the trophy stand, right next to our RV. I loved sitting there and just watch the world go by, having nothing to do but just relax and enjoy. It takes a lot to get me to do nothing, but this really hit the spot.
We almost didn’t make it though. We had a number of little accidents throughout the trip. The compressor died, the generator grumbled and our jacks didn’t go down (well, our jack’n’cokes did of course). We had a little mishap with a power cord being caught up in a motor and breaking and so on. But, Don managed to fix pretty much all of it. Nice to have a mechanic around!
Copper Canyon Jump (Not me, but I followed)
London Bridge
The most famous landmark in Lake Havasu is the London Bridge. Yep, the original London Bridge. In 1962, the English figured that the bridge wasn’t strong enough for modern traffic and sold it to a crazy American real estate prospector who rebuilt it, stone by stone. (and now continues to have modern traffic going over it…)
Relaxing at London Bridge
But there was genius in the madness. The bridge served as a tourist attraction and is why there is a Lake Havasu City at all. Now for the myth debunking section of this post. It is often claimed (as I have until I read up on it) that the crazy American intended to buy Tower Bridge, but mistook it for London Bridge. The crazy American (time to name him perhaps? Robert McCulloch) denied this rumour. Then again, if I had bought the wrong bridge and shipped it halfway across the world, I’d probably deny it too.
Edit: One of my awesome readers left this wonderful comment on the London Bridge! Thank you!
El Mirage
Ahh, a DRY lake bed. Damn.
We left for Lake Havasu far too late, and we wouldn’t make it there until well after dark. So, we decided to stop at a dry lakebed state park called, called El Mirage. The ground is the same kind of packed dust as found at Burning Man. The main difference between El Mirage and Burning Man (apart from 60’000 people) is that instead of a speed limit of 5 miles per hour, El Mirage has no speed limit. People come here to break speed records and drive around as fast as they can. We did too, on our little gas-powered bikes. Fun!
Hi! Look just amazingly beautiful!
I am SOOOO jealous. What fantastic fun.
OMG, I’m so proud.
Thank you for these articles… Just wanted to say that though I’m in High School now, when I graduate, I intend to live a lifestyle like this. I just have one question though, so you obviously make a decent salary, because you can afford an RV and Jetskiis. May I ask how you make money? Like what’s your occupation?
Well, the motorhome belongs to Don and we borrowed the jet skis from a friend of his. But, I do work. I’ve written many posts on my money situation throughout the last three years and one on my current work. Go have a look at the older posts and you’ll find it!
Interesting post and great pics – looks dreamy. Your information sharing of these beautiful and amazing places you visit are always given in a combination of your own inimitable style together with your personal experience, I like that.
As an aside and without sounding too pedantic, the ‘original’ London Bridge was in fact a succession of wooden Roman built bridges followed by Saxon and Norman built ones. The first stone bridge was built in medieval times, lined with multi-storey buildings which overhung both the road and the Thames river and lasted for, I believe about 600 years. It survived a number of fires and relentless alterations and collapses until it became decrepit and could no longer accommodate the burgeoning traffic.
The most famous London bridge is of course the one you mention, not least because of it’s controversial (at the time) sale to Robert McCulloch. Built in the 19th Century, it replaced the old medieval one and was in fact beginning to sink by the 1920’s. The Nursery Rhyme ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ is believed to be based on this and it’s predecessors turbulent history. Interestingly (or maybe not) the reconstruction of the bridge at Lake Havasu involved building a steel frame on which the original stonework was cladded. So, there you have it!
Wow, Phil, thank you for that comment! I didn’t know any of that. I love it when my writing is corrected/improved in the comments. I’ve added a link from the post to you comment. 🙂 Thanks!
Your very welcome Gustav, my pleasure. Wow, thanks for adding the link! 🙂
I just moved to Lake Havasu City from very very rainy N.W. Washington state; and I absolutely love LHC! THANKS FOR THE NICE READ 🙂