Lake Havasu City, AZ

Kingman, AZ is the home of the Gold Star "Power House Museum and Visitor Center".  The building itself is an old electrical power station, ergo the name.  Inside there were displays honoring a local artist, the history of the trail that came through Kingman for servicing immigrants to the West Coast and finally  "Route 66".  Since Sandy and I drive a Chevrolet Bolt which is an all electric car and a Chevrolet Volt which is a mostly electric car, we were especially interested in the room full of electric automobiles, mostly antiques, but one built by some students from the The Ohio State University named the Buckeye Bullet, that set the electric car speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats of 320 miles per hour.  

Studebaker Automobile covered in Halloween Gauze.  My family owned one of these when I was young.

Sandy had a poodle skirt when she was a little girl.

                                              

Electric Cars and the Buckeye Bullet

Buckeye Bullet

Across the street from the museum is a classic "Route 66" diner, Mr. D's.  Sandy and I ate here about 15 years ago.  The place hasn't changed since the 50's so there certainly was no change in the last 15 years.  The operative color at Mr. D's is pink.

To stay on the Original Route 66 Sandy and I crossed the famous and infamous Sitgreaves Pass.  As passes go Sitgreaves is not particularly high at only 3,653 feet high.  However, the road is narrow, maintains a 12% grade and is full of hairpin-blind-switchbacks.  To make matters worse, the road is carved out of the north side of the mountain meaning the westbound travelers, like us, were driving with the passenger wheels precariously close to the falloff which mostly had no guardrails.  I gripped the wheel with white knuckled hands, looking solely at the forty feet of road directly in front of me and praying for the safe delivery from this devilish gap in the mountain.  (I am certain that the Sitgreaves pass beats the best revival meeting when it comes to bringing a man to God).  Sandy took picture after picture, so it was her photographic efforts that now allow me to see just exactly what the road and the scenery looked like.  In reviewing these pictures it doesn't look as scary as it was.  I guess it is the kind of thing that you have to experience yourself.

We finished the day by driving down to Lake Havasu City, AZ.  This place is probably best known as the location of the relocated London Bridge.  The bridge, purchased for 2.4 million dollars and relocated to the Arizona desert for another 7 million dollars.  It was originally built over dry land, the navigable channel beneath the bridge was dug after the bridge was reconstructed creating an island in the lake that now the London Bridge connects to the mainland.  Crazy stuff?  Yes, but crazy like a fox. The Lake Havasu City area which was undeveloped desert now attracts around one million tourists per year.  Sandy and I had dinner at a restaurant that had a great view of the bridge.  What else would I order at a restaurant that overlooks the London Bridge, but fish and chips.

The beauty of the day is that we were able to stay on the original route 66 roadbed all the way to to the California border.  This is actually the longest stretch of unaltered Mother Road on the entire route.  In so many other places the original roadbed has been buried by newer road construction.  The Sitgreaves Pass was a bit stressful, but that drive was worth it to see Sandy and a donkey in a stubborn contest.