While Stuck in Lake Havasu

Our summer did not go as expected. It was supposed to be a painless, easy transition from NYC to Austin full of family, friends and driving off into the sunset. But that plan was messed up by a broken car, a lost moving pod and several large cockroaches. The adventure should have been over and our lives back into place weeks ago but we are just now settling in.

But it was an adventure and are feeling great. But in case you are wondering what lake havasu was like (cuz I know you all are) we tried to make it as pretty as humanly possible (and since we had a whole 9 days to try, I think we did a pretty good job). So, as my new students always say, drumroll please!


Lake Havasu

We decided to take the highway up the side of lake havasu on our way to the Grand Canyon. And it was a nice, backwoods-y feeling drive. We had lots of snacks and were listening to Bossypants and it was pretty great.



We drove past Lake Havasu City and saw a sign for the London Bridge (what...!?!) and I remembered reading in a piano primer book that the london bridge had been bought and moved to arizona. So of course we stopped to look. But being 112 degrees outside we jumped out, took a picture and ran for refuge in the air conditioned car.

Just outside of the city, after filling up with $60 worth of gas, we come up over a hill and see a large chunk in the highway. Being well trained, eric doesn't swerve and we hit the chunk with a sickening thud. Suddenly the power steering goes out and we knew it was not going to be good. We pull over immediately and see gas streaming out of the bottom of the car. Luckily we weren't far from the city so Eric grabs his cell phone and starts heading back to town on foot, leaving me standing on the side of the road with a car streaming gas in 112 degree heat. awwwwwwesome. We were so lucky when some state workers stopped by with a cooler full of water and a walkie talkie with connections to the highway patrol.

We eventually got a tow to town and were dropped off at the lovely (read: cheap!) Sands "Resort"


We spent our days sleeping in, watching cable television (we now love hoarders, intervention and swamp people!) and working out in the ghe-tto motel gym.

Once the sun started to go down we would venture out for some food at one of the lovely Havasu establishments.


And then make the mile walk (after dark it is still over 100 degrees by the way) to the movie theaters. We saw 3 movies in 72 hours.


We each read a book or 2 before the week was up. We highly recommend The Social Animal (thanks sara!)

Only on our last day did we head over to the bridge for a second look. And of course, Eric had to walk across it.


I must admit, it was pretty.



And 8 days after "driving through" we got our car back from the mechanics (with a serendipitous rat-made hole in the passenger seat) we drove out of Havasu and on to Mesa.