Since 1971, Lake Havasu City, Arizona has been the new home of the London Bridge.
In 1962, it was discovered that the London Bridge was "falling down," sinking into the Thames because it was not adequate for the increase in traffic. The City of London decided to put the 130-year old bridge up for auction, and construct a new one in its place.
Robert P. McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu City, AZ, and Chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation, submitted the winning bid for $2,460,000 in 1968. McCulloch spent another $7million to move the London Bridge to Lake Havasu City which took a total of three years. The bridge was shipped by boat 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California. From there, it was trucked to Lake Havasu City where it was stored in seven-acre fenced storage compound. On September 23, 1968, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Gilbert Inglefield, laid the corner stone. Robert Beresfornd, a civil engineer from Nottingham, England was in charge of the reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. As a guideline, he had a copy of the original plans drawn by John Rennie. During the reconstruction, Mr. Beresford drew sketches of the bridge in different phases of construction. There are a limited number of these prints. When Mr. Beresford returned to England, he gave exclusive right to D & P Antique in Lake Havasu City to sell these prints. Each piece of the granite bridge was marked with four numbers: the first indicated which arch span; the second noted which row of stones; and the last two indicated which position in that row. It was discovered while dismantling the Bridge, that there were code numbers on each stone when it was originally built: Rennie must have used the same system when the sections left the quarries. Construction of a new bridge over the River Thames coincided with the dismantling of the old London Bridge. The new bridge was built directly over the old bridge. This new construction was managed in such a way so that London never lost one day of traffic while transferring from the old bridge to the new one. Reconstructing the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City was done in the same manner as the Egyptians built pyramids. Sand mounds beneath each arch were carefully formed to the profile of the original bridge arches, serving the same function as molds. When work was completed the sand was removed. A one-mile channel was dredged and water was diverted from the lake, under the Bridge, then back into the lake. The reconstructed London Bridge was dedicated in Lake Havasu City on October 10, 1971 with many British and Arizona officials participating in this event that drew 50,000 spectators.
Hmmm...this doesn't look too bad!
Looks like some hills ahead!
Yup, definately hills!
Bill leads the way through this wash.
Oh oh!
They had to rappel down this rope to continue.
Teddy made it down.
Bill & Kay too.
Terrain is getting a bit easier.
This view of Lake Havasu makes it all worth while.
They saw these flowers along the way
If you look closely, you will spot a lizard hiding under this rock.
Now, how do we get back without having to climb up that rope?
Here's the map. We'll see you there if not before.
Then we drove a few miles south of the city and found this road into a park that goes back into the desert.
We stopped at the entrance to a hiking trail and met Teresa Hellermann from Marionette, WI. We are always amazed at how small the world seems as we seem to meet people with mutual ties over and over again. Teresa kindly took this picture of us and we were on our way.
Oh well...we can alwalys take a drive tomorrow and I'd rather have a slice of her homemade bread hot & fresh from the oven anyway.
music & dancing…all complements of the park. Had a real good time.
Teddy took this picture of a cactus next to our trailer. We had rain in the night last Tuesday and it must have triggered the plant to blossom.
A classmate of Larry's from the Manistee, Michigan High School class of '56 visited us here in Havasu City over the weekend.
The river, not visible in this picture, is in the valley in the foreground just beyond the buildings.
Yesterday, Sunday, Larry G., Mary, Teddy & I took a day trip to Oatman, AZ and Laughlin, NV. Oatman is a historic western ghost town and mining camp located on old Route 66. During the day wild burros wander into town from the surrounding hills and feed on carrots and other goodies handed out by tourists. 
Periodically a wild west gunfight is reenacted on the main street in front of the old hotel.
to the Colorado Belle Casino for dinner. 
We are now pennyless and will have to move in with Mike & Toni for the rest of our lives.
Here we are on February 22, 1964...
...and here we are now.
Martinis last evening at 5:30...We assume that Dick, Jen, Greg, Tom, Carol & Wes back Appleton and Kevin in Naperville are doing their part to uphold the tradition.
I had been using a home office in previous years and that makes it a bit complicated this year figuring out the cost basis of the house.
Today we took a day trip and drove a loop up to Needles, CA, then down US 95 to Parker, AZ and back to Lake Havasu City. It was very scenic with the desert and mountain views.
Then I set up the dish so that it cannot blow over again with a mast through the umbrella hole in our site's picnic table. Played with the Garmin and am going to really like it.
Also read some more Connelly and watched the Olympics this evening. 
Our Magellan 700 went TU. I sent it in for repair but really wanted the Garmin anyway as Garmin has announced that they will be supporting Mac OSX. Soooo...now I suppose we'll have two GPS units.
I think that he was looking for a handout. There are also Gambel's Quail and rabbits running around. Hope to get some picts of the quail but they are very quick and quite shy.
