The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 6

Leaving Las Vegas is not as easy as Sheryl Crow makes it sound. Because of a bewildering amount of construction on the south side of Las Vegas and that city's apparent pathological aversion to directional signs, we ended up on I-15 south rather than U.S. 95 south, an error that would've taken us to Barstow for the night, as opposed to Lake Havasu. Fortunately, we were able to hang a left onto 164 to take us back where we needed to be. We made a pit stop in Nipton, Calif., a tiny Mojave town that makes Luckenbach look like a major urban center. It was planted smack-dab in the middle of a desert basin wholly surrounded by mountains, a landscape that looked for all the world like it came straight out of the movie Tremors. Shortly after crossing the border back into Nevada, we met a sign announcing we were now on a scenic Joshua Tree highway. Which was great, except we were an hour behind schedule and as there was a substantial drop-off on either side of the road, pulling over wasn't easily achieved. Near a bridge over a dry wash we did find a shoulder, and got out for some (very) brief shots. My EF 50mm 1.8 lens, which had seized up earlier because of the sandstorm, threatened to begin working again. But it was only a threat. In the end, I managed to get only one shot, the image below, with my EF-S 10-22 lens. Not bad, but I'd hoped for so much more with these fascinating trees.

Amazingly, we made it the rest of the way to Lake Havasu City without any additional adventures. The place has grown dramatically since we last visited 15 years ago. Big box stores, outlets, fast food joints... Whereas London Bridge had been the main draw way back when, today it was relegated to a curious afterthought.

London Bridge (not to be confused with the more visually striking Tower Bridge) was built to span the Thames in 1831. When it came time for replacement, an American businessman bought it and had it shipped stone-by-stone to Lake Havasu, where it was reassembled in 1971 as the central attraction for a resort community. A tourist-friendly "English village" was built up around it with fountains (above) and an array of shops and restaurants.

Nothing lasts forever, though. The English village has definitely gone downhill since last we visited. Lots of vacant retail space was evident. We had lunch at an overpriced hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. Fortunately, the food was pretty darn good. Unfortunately, their vintage 1980s arcade games didn't have vintage 1980s prices.

We looked up the decline of the English village online, and you can probably guess what we found. The owner and the city got into a pissing match. The owner wanted to bulldoze the place and build condos. The city wanted to maintain the tourist destination. So the owner decided to let the place rot until the city gives in to his demands. Sad, but typical.

For every paddle-wheel steamboat like the one above still active in Lake Havasu, there's a closed dinner theatre or pub there on the waterfront. We wandered around in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, and saw several dozen other tourists. Most of them were like us, desperately looking for some kind of entertainment around London Bridge and finding nothing. From what we could tell from the short-term rental advertisements, the Lake Havasu waterfront now caters more to college students looking to drink and party. Because goodness knows college students don't have enough places to drink and party as it is. But hey, at least nobody's lobbying to dismantle London Bridge itself... Yet.

A full gallery of road trip photos can be found here.
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 1
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 2
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 3
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 4
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 5
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 7
The 2011 Griswold Family Adventure pt. 8

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