Day 64-65: London Bridge is Falling Down

Well, not really. In fact, it was falling down in 1968 when it was purchased for about $2.5 million and then transported to the desert where it was reassembled for another $7 million. Okay. Here's the whole story.

Quartzsite was empty.

 

It's hard to imagine that in just two weeks, nearly every camping spot in the campground will be occupied, many of them for the entire winter. In January, the population in and around Quartzsite will go from 3,500 to ~400,000. And as far as I can tell, the only thing that people do here is look for gems and sit out the winter.





I got up Saturday morning thinking I was cutting northeast to Prescott and then north to Williams to try to find a lost uncle. Well, he's not lost, I just can't find him. His phone number just keeps ringing with not answer. But then I got to looking at maps and discovered that Lake Havasu City was just 90 miles north. And Lake Havasu City is where London Bridge was reconstructed after the British sold it in 1968. I stopped along the way to take a picture of the landscape before it became canyon lands. You know, the older Harrison Ford gets the better I look.

The landscape did change and became steep and rocky. I drove through the canyons as I approached Lake Havasu with the ever-present saguaro cactus giving its three-finger salute. All along the way I passed travel trailers and motorhomes headed south to Quartzsite.

 

Lake Havasu is beautiful, though I had the bad timing to get there just in time for the Budweiser International Drag Boat races, which meant roaring boats until sundown and then a few rowdy partiers until early in the morning. But Lake Havasu State Park was beautiful. I sat out under the awning and grilled a steak while looking out across the lake toward California. It was beautiful! Little wind (apparently unusual) and crystal clear skies with temperatures in the low 80s. 

 

Paul Harvey would have said, "Page three, the rest of the story." In 1970, my college production of Hamlet was selected to tour northern England for two weeks, followed by a week in London. It was exciting and chaotic, and if you are following my story on SOL, nothing at all like that. I was excited to go to London and see the famous London Bridge. Well, I really wanted to see Tower Bridge, which is the scenic bridge, but London Bridge was the one we all knew from the time we were toddlers and sang "London Bridge is falling down."

 

As it turned out, it was. Actually it was sinking and in a bold move, Robert McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu City, bought the bridge and had it reassembled to bridge a man-made canal that separated what used to be Pittsburgh Point Peninsula into an island. All that was left was the new London Bridge, and it wasn't even opened until 1973. What a waste of a trip to London! :)

 

 

Well, 43 years later, I finally made it to see London Bridge. I walked under it and across it and drove on it. I've finally been to see London Bridge.

 

On Monday, 10/14, I headed north, bidding this childhood nursery rhyme good by. Now I'm into 1960s television. You can guess about this one until I post in a couple of days.