Back to London - or is it?

In London

View more photos 

I am awake at before 5am, and wake Steve at 6am to get an early start.  Its 400 miles to the Grand Canyon, no hope of getting there today, but we can bite a big chunk off.

We begin to notice that the RV has a lot of problems.  Firstly it is really slow, thats partly our fault as it can go fast, we are just scared of it!  But its very depressing knowing that your top speed is 60mph, especially for me as I do like a bit of speed, Im not one to go slow.  Secondly, we notice that it is guzzling the fuel.  And I mean guzzling.  We have spent $270 dollars on fuel so far, done about 600 miles.  Thats a lot of money down the drain.  It has a V10 engine, thats probably why the woman laughed when we said we were needing 4000 miles of mileage allowance when we rented it!

London Bridge, Arizona, USA

View more photos 

Thirdly, the air-conditioning for the kids is rubbish.  We are alright in the front, but they are roasting, and it takes a while for the air to cool from the front.  95 degrees at times, its not fun for them.  I try various things, like opening windows, putting on the generator whilst moving, etc, but none seem to work better than shutting all windows and letting the cab air-con seep back.

You wouldnt believe how tired I feel this evening.  Its been a long, hot, hard day.  So much so that Im going to have to bail out and finish the blog tomorrow.  Sweet dreams all.

Okay, Im back.  We punched in "Grand Canyon" on the gps, and looked at the route.  Over 400 miles it quoted, and a route via Phoenix. I then change it to take the shortest route, and this is reduced by 100 miles, but is on slower roads.  Now considering we are in a RV going slow isnt really an issue.  So we choose the slow route with less mileage.  The gps is okay, but you need a map too, else it sends you down blind alleys quite a bit.

Doesnt London Bridge sit better here?

View more photos 

I see that the attraction "London Bridge" is en-route so we decide to stop in and take a look.  Its at Lake Havasu which holds records for being the hottest town in Arizona.  And boy was it hot there.  I think it was around 101F, maybe slightly more.  It gets upto 130F in the summer, thats ridiculous.  It seems to be in the middle of the desert, is quite a big place, with London Bridge stuck in the middle of it.  I must say London Bridge doesnt look out of place there, they have built around it quite nicely.  It is all a bit odd though as music is playing, and there are english type shops around, and well its just strange.  Apparantly it is the 2nd biggest tourist attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon! 

We all enjoyed seeing it though, it gave us a "sniff" of home, and I think made us even more homesick than we already are. 

We then drive onwards, as trying to escape the heat.  We are told Kingman is a bit warmer so head there.  We would have liked to have driven further, but both of us are really tired, and the kids have had enough too, so we stop at Kingman in a RV park.

It takes a long time to get the kids to sleep, the heat has really got to them today, and the driving.  Steve and myself are shattered, we literally fall into our beds and sleep.