Our travels to the London Bridge in Arizona

England’s London Bridge in Arizona you say… really it’s there we saw it for ourselves.

Outside it’s minus 30 Celsius (23 F), I sit in our cabin, wood fire stoked and reflect on our trip south last winter. The memories are awesome urging us to repeat again this winter even with our dollar in the tank around 70 cents and possibly going lower. By the time I finish this article we just may say it’s only money and live on the edge of poverty.

Back to the London Bridge, it’s not in London, England anymore but situated in Lake Havasu, Arizona, which is kinda cool as we could drive there with our truck camper to see it in person.

We left one of the highlights of our trip Valley of Fire (featured in a past blog) after skipping Las Vegas Nevada. Not sure of the highway number as we took backroads to Henderson over to 93 south to Kingman south again on 40 to 95, the only road into Lake Havasu City. North of Lake Havasu we overnighted on our first BLM land, the Havasu Wildlife Refuge, free camping on public land. This off grid camping is available throughout Western United States and was very appreciated by us Canucks. In doing my research I ran across one of the best ambassadors for Arizona on YouTube, Russ from his channel RVerTV.  Russ taught me everything I know about dispersed camping on BLM land and LTVA camping in Arizona. It was a pleasure to actually meet him in Quartzsite and thank him in person, my kinda move star.

Lake Havasu is a large reservoir formed by the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. It sits on the border of Mohave County, Arizona and San Bernardino County, California. We really enjoyed the area but Lake Havasu City is a real tourist trap with approximately one million people visiting each year to see one of its main attractions, the London Bridge. If you’re into lots of entertainment, boating, fishing, nightlife and many events hosted as well as shopping there is plenty of opportunity to do so. We only really visited the bridge and the tourist visitor’s center which covers a good acre of land. After eating at a Fish and Chip shop, yes a British style restaurant, what else would be near the London Bridge, we checked out many of the interesting shops.

The beauty of travelling in a truck camper is one has no room to purchase a lot of “things”. During our walk around the area I remember Russ (RVerTV) mentioning they had sightseeing cruises of the Lake and area that were kinda expensive. Charlotte and I stood watching a big Ferry loading at the dock; the sign said $5 each. Thinking it was a deal and off season we would take the sight-seeing tour. Well we got the tour right across the lake to a casino. We just drove through Nevada where every gas station is a mini casino, so we waited ten minutes and took the ride back. We got our money’s worth as I was able to talk to a resident of Lake Havasu that grew up there when it was just a village on a dirt road, the changes he has witnessed. The community was first established during World War II as Site Six, an army Air Corps rest camp on the shores. In 1959 Robert P McCulloch purchased 3,353 acres on the east side of the lake along Pittsburgh Point, a peninsula that he would eventually create by digging a channel into an island. Four years later he would purchase 13,000 acres of Federal land which would eventually be incorporated as the city Lake Havasu in 1963. In 2020 the population was 57,144 and growing as a recreational resort city.

London, England was replacing the London Bridge and in 1968 Robert P McCulloch purchased it for 2.5 million US at auction. An Arizona company was hired to disassemble it, mark each stone and have it shipped to California where it was transported by truck to Lake Havasu. The same company then re-assembled it over the channel he had dug at a cost of seven million US dollars.  It took three years to be completed; I would hate to think what that would cost today. So when, “London Bridge was falling down”, Robert P. McCulloch salvaged it and it now resides in Arizona. It’s definitely a beautiful sight and well worth the trip to see it. If you have ever owned or seen a chain saw with the name McCulloch on it or some power equipment it was manufactured by the McCulloch Motor Company owned by Robert P McCulloch.

There is much more to the story of Lake Havasu and the London Bridge, this was the 25 cent version, you will just have to check it out for yourself. If you are travelling in a RV North is the Wildlife Refuge BLM land, across the Lake in San Bernardino County the Lake Havasu State Park and nearby Cattail Cove State Park, worth checking out.

From there we headed to our truck camper rally in Quartzsite, our only planned destination.  The London Bridge was one highlight, others were, naturally our rally, the Dwarf Car Museum and Valley of Fire all featured in previous blogs. If you’re interested you can pull them up on our site menu. Enjoy the photos and my take on the London Bridge. Enjoy your time wherever you are, travel safely and respect our natural lands.

Now the urge to travel and explore has been re-ignited may have to roll some of those pennies we have been saving and cash them in, even though we may need more to spend in US dollars. We don’t need to spend on more “stuff” just more memories so stay tuned and I will share as much as I can. Thanks to those who subscribe and the many comments I get. For some reason when I try to answer it appears they do not get out still working on that, forgive me I’m 74 and technically challenged. The site now has had close to 40,000 views that keep me motivated to continue. Thanks.

Next up: Perhaps more Arizona or some winter camping…stay tuned.

Gerry and Charlotte (practicing Nomads)

E mail communications: gerry@studiowest.ca