Our ride from Las Vegas to Lake Havasu
brought us once more into the solitude of a desert. There was not
much to see compared to what we saw already and the road was as
straight as it could be just going up and down the lifted elevations
(would not call those hills). Once more we also tried to escape the
snow which was announced to fall on Las Vegas in a few days. Course
South it was then.
We changed our original plan to go back
to Death Valley for the New Year because my rear shock was still not
fixed and Skippy did not wanted to get stranded again there :D
Now one must admit that I do listen to
Skippy. If it would have not been her pushing me I would have gone
back to Death Valley – what could possibly go wrong this time?
We checked in at Motel 6 in Lake
Havasu, our room was a closet and the bed would be just fine for me
... alone. Luckily we could change the room the following day to
something bigger with two beds, at least that guaranteed I got some
sleep (Skippy does snore!).
The snow finally caught us in Lake
Havasu and the temperature was -2C in the night (I checked Helsinki
and they had same temperatures over there .... why did we come to
Arizona????).
We entered 2015 without even noticing
it. Somehow our travel changed our perspectives to New Year very
much. In Finland 2015 already started many hours ago and the first
just woke up from their hang-over, folks in New York toasted HNY two
hours ago and 500m from our motel to the East – just across
Colorado River – there was California and they would still need to
wait for one hour to do the same. That was too awkward and so we
focused on our little time bubble and watched another episode of
Castle from our laptop :)
Snow in Lake Havasu, Arizona is exceptional.
Lake Havasu / Colorado River
Lake Havasu channel and Lake Havasu
"Downtown" from London Bridge.
I felt that I had been too long in the
motel and it was time for another ride. Since Skippy already drove a
few kilometers of the Route 66 it was now my turn. My plan was to
make a day ride from Lake Havasu via Oatman to Kingman and back to
Lake Havasu. A peaceful ride on paved roads (my rear shock was still
leaking a bit, thus no gravel this time).
The sun was shining, the sky was blue
and the temperature was manageable (+8C or so). Oatman appeared to be
full in tourist mode. Plenty of gift shops advertising their stuff
and cars parked all over. The main road was blocked by cars and I
heard from some other folks that they just had a “shoot out”
there :D
Yeah - I did hear some shots from far
away. As I waited for the street to clear, I admired those burros
going back and forth all over the village and coming to people's car
as soon as they saw a hand ... there might be some food. Some kiosk
even sold burro food. Maybe not the smartest choice?
A few miles later the road was closed ...
WTF? Why would the road be closed? No info of why anywhere! All cars
but one made a U-turn or took the gravel road to Boulder City. The
purpose of my ride was to ride along Route 66 or at least the Byway.
Taking such a detour made no sense. Thus the only choice was to keep
on riding passed the “road closed” sign and following the one
truck which kindly ignored the sign as well.
Road to Oatman
Burro party :D
After a short while there was a segment
where half of the street was covered in snow and ice. That might have
been the reason for the closure or it was the consequence of it. A
mile later I saw a bunch of guys, asked them and they confirmed that
snow and ice was the reason for the closure. USA! What would Finland
be if roads would be closed during the 6 months of winter? I even
still had a winter tire mounted on the back :D
Nasty ice on the road.
... and some more.
Lunch break at the summit (about 1000m above sea level)
Of course I went and it was all fine. No
worries at all – maybe in the night when it is dark it might be a
different story.
The road was real fun and soon I
reached the other road closure sign. After that it was all open and
straight letting me reach Kingman in no time. Mission accomplished!
@Kingman
Snow behind the power house.
LGB - another dead dinosaur.
Been there - done that!
Oh no!
Went to see the movie "Wild".
Cactus Garden at Lake Havasu Statepark.
Breathtaking sunset. This picture does not even come close to its real beauty.
Go Vegan with Vegenaise!
Already for a few weeks I got more and more restless and some inner voice in me (and Skippy) told me that it was time to move on. Looking at the things we still wanted
to see and do in Canada and USA, taking into account what we
experienced so far, looking at our financial situation, calculating
distances and costs we both had the same feeling: it was time to head
south and experience Central and South America!
Rough Plan for Central and South America (about 30tkm).
Skippy had energy to make another travelogue. Welcome to our reality show :D
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