10/13/14 - London Bridge

We stayed in Laughlin, NV last night.  I started the morning in the car with the freedom pop so I could get a stronger internet connection.  The motel internet was $10 dollars with no guarantee on speed.  The down load speed was better then some of the hotels where we have stayed. Thanks for letting me borrow the pop, Evan.

We stayed in the tower next to the casino

We went into our hotel café, the Loading Dock  for a breakfast buffet.  We waited in line for our made-to-order omelets and went through the buffet for yogurt, fruit, sweet rolls, bacon and sausage.  As we were finishing up I heard a plate brake behind me, and noticed the bus person that was clearing the table next to us was on the phone.  I thought it was funny that she would have to call for clean up for a broken plate.  About that time Joe said, "man down," and I turned around to see there was a senior citizen, who had been in line at the buffet, on the ground.  The man's family was all around him.  He was breathing and talking to them.  The security staff showed up with an AED and oxygen.  He  looked OK, but they were keeping him down until the EMTs arrived. Most people left the line and took there seats except for one other senior who pushed her way through the group around the fallen man to get to the bacon and sausage then took her plate to a table to eat.  Maybe she had a bus to catch.  That was a unusual way for all of us to start the morning.

London Bridge

We headed out.  I was unable to get tickets for the Hoover Dam Tour at a time that would fit our impromptu schedule, so Hoover Dam was out and so was Las Vegas.  We decided to see The London Bridge at Lake Havasu.  We were able to drive over the bridge and then parked at the visitor center and walked around taking pictures.  It is an impressive bridge.  I was trying to figure out how they assembled it piece by piece over water. We went to the visitor center and thru there museum, and they showed how they did it. they built it on dry land then dug the waterway after it was finished, I think that is cheating, but way easier then I though.

We were getting gas after our bridge stop and a fellow stopped by and wanted to know if we were in town for the car show, a four day affair starting Thursday, he was driving a red and white 56 Chevy with a very healthy drive train. He admired the T-bird, we talked cars and he then continued on his way as we did. We thought about doing the show but have lots still to do on our trip, may be next year. we drove back to Route 66 and continued on our journey.

Trains averaged 110 cars

Route 66 in this area is more then just the little side trips thru the center of towns that border on the freeway some of the time we were 10 miles away, other times we were the frontage roads for the freeway. One thing that we did notice was the number of trains that were heading east, I started timing them and a new train came by about every 7 to 8 minutes, remembering my Jr High math I figured that they were about 15 minutes apart in actual time.  one of the times we were on on the freeway due to side roads that were closed due to the flooding from a couple of weeks ago and wash outs. we passed the group from Tacoma, they also had some older cars in there group, but they were not traveling the speed limit. we acknowledged each other as we passed,

We continued on thru Amboy, Ludlow, Newberry Springs, Barstow and decided to stay the night in Victorville. tomorrow we go over the hill into the LA Basin, stop by the mfg of our radio, which we are having trouble with, maybe by where In and Out Burger started, by the way in and out Burger is 66 years old also.