A Time and travel Warp

12 June 2006
Howdy from Cowboy Country

Today was a weird and wonderful day.
I rode along part of Route 66 which had that feeling of a time warp. Passed lots of very old cowboy towns with their original buildings, wagons/carts and real cowboys too. Added to this time warp was a travel warp which took me over the original London Bridge and then the Eiffel tower.
No! I am not loosing my marbles.















I left the quaint little town of Seligman with it's route 66 memorabilia and rode into a small town called Kingman and stopped at one of my favourite Subway grub stops. Sat down to have brunch and read the postcards next to the table. There was one with a photograph of London Bridge in the USA.
Yes! That is right!
The London Bridge that was built in London in 1824 is now in the USA.
I checked out the location and headed South, way off track, to go and see this bridge. It is at Lake Havasu City in the middle of the desert on the Colorado river. The ORIGINAL London Bridge, spanning across a section of the Lake.
It was bought by McCulloch Oil Company in 1968 and was dismantled in London, each piece numbered, shipped and trucked to Lake Havasu where it was reassembled and completed in Oct of 1971.
If you don’t believe this I can’t say I blame you but I saw it, rode over it, touched it and everything else to confirm that it was real and it is.

There it is. The original 1824 London Bridge





Together with the British flag















At the tourist information they recommended I visit a town on Route 66 called Oatman. It was backtracking from where I had just come from but was a bit further North. I rode there and “blow me over with a feather” there was this very old cowboy town with the original pub, hotel and supplies store with cowboys wearing guns and all. It was like being in a time warp.
They got touchy when one of their local pony’s took a shine to mine and threatened to shoot me if I didn’t leave town soon.
















I left in a hurry and continued North and found myself riding passed the Eiffel Tower, Venice, Luxor in Egypt together with a massive glass pyramid and several other world renowned sites. I am in Las Vegas.














It is absolutely amazing and soooo real. They have taken this desert town and turned it into a massive gambling mecca. Each casino is built as some famous part of the world.
I visited various casinos and was gob smacked to see the extent and detail of the buildings. It is super impressive. And all this from gambling? They got NONE of my smackeroos. I am too much of a Potgie.

Ciao
Ricky