Standin' on the Corner at London Bridge and Eating Roadkill

Contrary to the song, London Bridge is NOT falling down.  It was, at one point, but they dismantled it and moved it to Arizona.  That was our first sight of the day after spending the night in Lake Havasu City.

And yes, that is Santa's sleigh boat being pulled by low flying reindeer.  There was a Christmas boat parade the night before.  We saw it.  I tried to get some shots of it, but we had to park too far away for me to be able to get the camera to focus right on the lights in the dark.  I got a decent video of the Christmas lights on the bridge, though.  Bruce is pretty awesome when I'm trying to get certain shots or videos.  Traffic wasn't really light (though it wasn't bumper to bumper), and he drove over that bridge multiple times.  Something distracted me every - single - time.  This one is the best.  At the end, I was distracted by the boat parade on the lake.  After that, it was all over for driving back and forth over the bridge!

Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is a neat little town that was built around London Bridge.  The developer bought the bridge and had it reassembled to his new real estate development to attract tourists and home buyers.  He was soundly roasted for this scheme, but apparently, he had the last laugh.  The town appears successful, and people (like us) do come to Lake Havasu City to see London Bridge!  There's not much else there, though.  It's one of those towns where everything looks the same, and signs can't be high enough to read.  It's a beautiful lake, and we talked about coming back sometime to play on the lake, but we probably won't.  On the way out of town, we found the local Wal-Mart and got a new SD card.  When I put it in my camera the camera worked!!  So happy it was just the SD card and not the camera itself!

Our next stop was Seligman, Arizona.  We stopped for lunch at the Roadkill Cafe.  This place (both the town and the cafe) will require multiple stops to do it right.  Let's start with the food.  That's how we did it when we were there.  The menu is awesome!  In fact, it's so awesome, I had to pick up a copy of it to take home.  I had the No Luck Buck, which is just a really good French dip sandwich.  Bruce had the Surprise Burger (an Ortega Burger).  According to the menu:  "This burger recipe was smuggled over the border by Mexican bandidos so long ago nobody can remember.  Served on a fresh ciabatta roll, this Black Angus burger is covered with a big Hatch green chili, Havarti cheese and pico de gallo.  Feel free to ad some fresh jalapenos if you dare.  (Rolaids sold separately)."

Big Bad Jerry Bruce Adams has gotten rather complacent with the mild jalapenos we've been subjected to in Washington recently.  He decided to just take a big bite of that green chili!

Can you tell how that worked out for him?

I tried to get the tears that were welling up in his eyes from that hot pepper!  He wasn't able to eat anymore of the burger.  Nibbled on some fries, but mostly, he watched me eat and took his burger to go!

The whole place is really neat.  There is a room off the dining room that houses the bar (the OK Saloon) and gift shop.  I had a bite of Bruce's burger and ate my French dip.  Bruce ate his for dinner.  Highly recommend the place.  We'll be stopping by here again!

After lunch, we explored a little bit of the town.  There are loads of interesting places here, including the Snow-Cap Drive-In, which was closed for the season.  Lots of places to eat and stay, including this tipi!

As we pulled out of Seligman, one of us satisfied from lunch, the weather turned once again.  We went from shirt sleeves to snow and cold in Flagstaff.  What a difference about 1,500 feet of elevation can make!

Back down about 2,000 feet, it was a beautiful day in Winslow, where we stood on the corner for a little while.

On the corner across the street, the one from which this picture was taken, has a store that sells Eagles paraphernalia.  It also plays Eagles music all the time so that it can be heard throughout the square.  They have a squished penny machine outside the door.  Bruce had to have all the pennies!!

And I had to have a bathroom, so I went in to get change.  The guy gave me change, and we searched through all of his pennies to find the shiniest ones.  When I got the change, he pointed to the bathroom, where a tip jar was conveniently placed on the back of the toilet!  I used them both!

While I was actually standing on the corner, some locals came by, and I'm sure it amazes everyone, I spoke to them.  Winslow is the one place I have ever been where they say they love their tourists.  Not only do they say it, but they practice that.  The Route 66 logo is painted in the middle of the street on the corner.  As I was taking pictures, traffic would stop until I put my camera down.  Granted, there wasn't much traffic, but I did stop two cars while I was taking pictures.

There are all kinds of things along the interstate marking Route 66.  Interstate 40 was laid parallel to Route 66 in some places, but in many places, Route 66 was replaced by the interstate.  That makes the portion of I-40 from Santa Monica to Oklahoma City packed with kitschy statuary and things.  We had to stop near the Arizona/New Mexico line to see the dinosaurs eating an Indian village!  It was the Painted Desert souvenir shop, which was cute as could be.

After checking things out here, we ran from the dinosaurs all the way to Albuquerque!