It’s Very Hot In Lake Havasu City

A Dam Fine Idea

Tonight’s destination is Lake Havasu City in Arizona, only 166 miles away but I have a couple of stops enroute. I decided to get on the road as soon as possible today as some uncertainty surrounds the first stop. I drive down the Strip to leave town after leaving the hotel at 10 am, partly to say I’ve done it but also to see what’s changed.

Las Vegas Strip

It was good to pass some of the iconic hotels but they’ve certainly increased the density of buildings on the Strip over the past 20 years. As I remembered from previous visits though there is still plenty of construction going on these days, as well as a few empty plots of land. I assume this is where outdated hotels have been razed to the ground and new ones will someday rise in their place. The Strip detour adds some minutes to my journey because traffic was very heavy, which I didn’t really expect. And of course multiple traffic lights. Whatever, it is what it is.

When I planned the route for today pre-trip, I was surprised to find an engineering marvel along the way – the Hoover Dam. I thought that was definitely worth a stop. I assessed the tour options and found the biggest problem was that I could not pre-book the Guided Dam Tour. It was only on sale on the day. The Dam’s website suggested getting there early but even then warned there might be a long wait to get on a tour. Given there was nothing I could do about that, I decided I’d just have to see what happened on the day. I did need however to leave the Dam by 1.30 pm to get to my second stop in time later on.

“Roll Up for the Mystery Tour” *

Hoover Dam leaflet

I checked out today’s tour availability during lunch at the rest area yesterday. I’d also read previously that tours might not run at all on any given day due to operational reasons with the Dam. At lunchtime yesterday though, the Guided Dam Tour was running. I did discover however that I could book a Guided Power Plant Tour. It also said you could upgrade this Tour to the Guided Dam Tour on the day. There was no pre-set time given for the Power Plant Tour so who knows what would happen. I booked it so that at least I’d hopefully have some sort of tour today. Time slot willing, that is. However the website also said that the Visitor Center and Observation Deck were closed for renovation.

Having wanted to get to the Dam by 10.30 am it is 11 am before I park in the Visitor Garage. There’s a ticket desk in the Garage. The docent tells me Power Plant Tours run every 15 minutes and that I can upgrade the tour in the Visitor Center. I pick up my pre-booked Power Plant Tour ticket.

Hoover DamTour ticket

Once inside the Center my Power Plant Tour is verified so I enquire about an upgrade. It is 11.20 am now and the lady tells me I can get on a Dam Tour at 12 noon through to 1 pm. The Dam Tour follows straight on after the Power Plant Tour which starts at 12. Both tours are 30 minutes each. I’m amazed – happy, but amazed. The place is quite busy with lost of people in the Center. It becomes apparent though that whilst everyone is doing a Power Plant Tour, for some reason only a few upgrade for the Dam Tour as well. Most strange, I think. Why come all this way and not do the whole thing?

“All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall” **

Hoover Dam entry wristband

When my tour is called up there’s firstly a ten minute introduction film about the Dam. Then my tour should start. Unfortunately, during the film, an elevator broke down delaying the tour start by 15 minutes. We do eventually get going. Later on the tour, I ask our guide a question. His answer is that when the Dam was built they designed it from the outset with the ability to host tours. So all the ‘underground’ tunnels and walkways we’re in, deep inside the structure of the Dam’s wall, were integral to the Dam’s design. We are literally walking inside the Dam.

The Power Plant Tour ends up in the Power Plant Room. Well, Room doesn’t really describe it, more like a vast aircraft hangar. It houses the Nevada-side electric generators. There’s a similar hall on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

Lots of facts and figures pepper the guide’s talk. It’s all very interesting and it seems somewhat exclusive to be in this inner sanctum.

The Power Planters-only are then ushered away and we Dam Tourers continue on with the rest of our tour. A guide takes us through more tunnels and we are shown an air vent in the wall of the Dam where you can look out over the southbound Colorado River and the new road bridge that crosses it. Finally we go up in an elevator to emerge on the top of the Dam, on the roadway that runs across it.

On the northside of the roadway, the view is of Lake Mead.

Lake Mead panorama

The southside view is of the Colorado River valley.

On top of the Hoover Dam looking south panorama

“Take ’em on to the bridge!” ***

You can still drive across the Dam today but it now goes nowhere, other than to a parking lot on the Arizona side. In days of old US-93 used to run across the Dam but in the early 1960s officials identified this route to be dangerous and inadequate for projected traffic volumes. A plan was designed and in 2010 the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge carrying Interstate 11 and US Route 93 over the Colorado River was opened.

I decided I could do without driving over the Dam as I had a good walkabout on it when we emerged from the tours. Another factor is that you can’t actually see anything whilst driving across the Dam because the roadway’s walls are deliberately built high enough to prevent that, and for safety.

It’s time to leave. I look in the café for a sandwich but they’ve sold out. I then realise however that I’m not actually hungry. On the way out back to I-11 there’s a parking lot where you can park and then walk up to the Memorial Bridge. They built a walkway next to the road to allow tourists to see the view.

It is of course very hot and I was unsure about doing that but then realise that I probably won’t be back here and I’m sure it’ll be a good view. I hike up the steps a few minutes later and it is a very good view indeed. A spectacular view, in fact. The Dam and Lake Mead in the background creates a stunning vista. It is an eagle eye’s view but maybe not for those with vertigo… Definitely worth it though in my book.

Kingman Revisited

US-93 S approaching Kingman

Back in the car, I exit the lot and find my way onto I-11 S / US-93 S and drive into Arizona. It is 100º F / 38º C with clear blue skies. Damned hot. The drive down to Kingman is uneventful but also uninteresting. Straight as an arrow, mostly flat with a few gradual hills in places but nothing of interest to see in the desert.

I go over Coyote Pass at 3737 feet nearing Kingman and then it’s downhill into the city. My second stop is here at a place I could not get to on the Route 66 road trip in 2019 – the Route 66 Museum. A puncture on the way to Kingman delayed me because the spare wheel limited my speed to 50 mph. I then had to get the tyre fixed in Kingman. By the time that was done, the Museum was closed.

Kingman Visitor Center leaflet

But now, like Yosemite, I’m here at last. I arrive at the Museum at 3.05 pm. It closes at 4. And the very nice lady at the entrance then says she can’t be bothered to take my entrance fee as they are nearly closing so I can go inside for free. Result! It’s quite a bit different inside from the other Route 66 museums I visited five years ago. The Kingman museum has great emphasis on the roots of how Route 66 came into existence, going back to early settlers in wagons who initially created the route along the 35^th Parallel. This was something I didn’t know about before.

After that initial section however, unlike some other museums there’s not a lot of original stuff and too many reproductions. Overall however I liked it. I am glad I stopped by and as I said, I did learn something new. Such as the 35^th Parallel was chosen as the cross-country route because it never got too cold. It hardly ever snowed and the flip-side was it didn’t get too hot either like it did further south. It was seen as a medium, trade-off route for travellers going from coast to coast that would be viable all year round.

Lake Havasu City For The Night

I-40 W, Kingman

I see signs on the highway as I’m leaving Kingman for Historic Route 66 for the road to the Oatman Highway, bringing back memories. Oh boy, was that a drive… I’m now on I-40 W but as perhaps expected there’s nothing to see or report other than it’s getting hotter. I leave I-40 at exit 9 to take AZ-95 S towards Lake Havasu City.

Lake Havasu City leaflet

A boring drive from Kingman ends at the Holiday Inn Express Hotels & Resorts – London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. I park outside Reception and retrieve my bags in the 111º F / 44º C sweltering heat to enter the air-conditioned cool inside. I am in the city where the original London Bridge was re-located to and re-opened in 1971. London Bridge now crosses the narrow Bridgewater Channel that leads from Lake Havasu (actually the Colorado River) to Thompson Bay. I chose a room that overlooks the Bridge (at a slight cost uplift) and some of the Lake. When researching the route, Lake Havasu City was halfway from Las Vegas to tomorrow night’s stop, and the ‘attraction’ I will visit enroute. When I then discovered London Bridge was here, that sealed the deal.

I of course just had to drive over the Bridge, which was a little detour before pulling up at the hotel. I walk down to the English Village after unpacking, which is literally next to the hotel. This is a commercial collection of shops, restaurants and a marina in the shadow of the Bridge. The marina has a shit-load of f***-you powerboats that must cost a fortune to buy and whose only purpose would be to go extremely fast on Lake Havasu. I guess there must be some appeal to some folks but just doing that every weekend, every year…? Each to their own, eh?

Driving across London Bridge

Lake Havasu City has a hot desert climate with extremely hot summers, mild winters, and very little rainfall. The highest temperature ever recorded in the state was 128 °F / 53 °C in 1994. Wow.

“Ride, Sally, ride” ****

I walk across the road around 7.45 pm and into a shopping mall parking lot. I’m here to visit Mustang Sally’s Saloon for dinner. I popped in earlier to check they served food. They did. The Saloon is a dive bar that also features a live band most nights. Tonight is no exception with Stormy Davis’ Blues Revue due on stage at 8 pm.

I sort a beer out sitting at the bar but as I saw earlier, the food menu is not great, with little variety. I end up having NY Strip Nachos. They are not too bad, the meat is good, but the portion was way too large as usual.

Hotel room view

The band starts up. They play covers and are decidedly average I’m afraid. There are also very few people in the bar so there is no atmosphere. So much so that I rarely turn around from my bar stool to watch the band. I just listen as I eat, drink, watch baseball and do diary. It’s reasonable background music I suppose.

A guy takes over lead vocals from Ms Stormy after a short band break. But he’s a bit of a shouter, not a decent singer though. Time to leave anyway. A couple of the bar staff talked to me through the evening about what my “book” (diary) was all about. One engaged with me quite a bit talking about Yosemite. No dead deer to report on this time though.

London Bridge at night

I walk back across the parking lot to the hotel in the very warm night air. I do a little more diary in my room then hit the sack. Today was a more typical day on the road. Two “sights” to visit and some driving albeit not particularly interesting, topped off with an OK night in a bar. A good road trip day.

* Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles

** Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd

*** Get Up, I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine by James Brown

**** Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett