Gettin' our kicks

November 4, 2021

Lake Havasu City tourist day

Today was a non-biking day, mainly because Don had an early appointment at the Toyota dealership to have some routine maintenance done on our truck. Nothing serious - just oil change, tire rotation etc. That ended up eating up most of the morning.

This afternoon we decided to play tourist and make the drive to Oatman. It was only about an hour away and we had skipped that portion of Route 66 when we biked that route a few years ago. So I packed up some cold drinks and snacks, and we hit the road.

It was a beautiful drive on a REALLY winding, hilly road through the desert! Luckily there wasn't much traffic. I sure couldn't see us pulling the trailer through here.

Before long we arrived at Oatman which is a funky, fake Western town with lots of gift shops everywhere and ramshackle old homes. And the wild burros! Boy, did we see the burros! Wandering up and down the main street, as well as a few out in the desert.

Many stores sold alfalfa cubes so you could feed them. I didn't bother with that but just had to laugh at all of the tourists getting their selfies feeding/petting the docile creatures!

Don bought a couple of Route 66 stickers for our door and we wandered through a few shops, then called it good and headed out, continuing up to the summit of Sitgreaves Pass. The scenery was absolutely stunning! Between the rocky pinnacles and desert views, it is definately an area to see if you can.

But maybe not on a bike. That would be very challenging with the climbing and numerous narrow switchbacks on the road. It might be hard to get off the road when cars passed you. We were glad we had chosen to bypass this area when we did our tour.

It would be interesting to research why this particular route was chosen for '66 since following the valley floor where the interstate is now is much flatter. Just carving out a road through these mountains had to have been difficult!

Once we summited the pass, we continued down the other side to Kingman and returned to Lake Havasu.

After a quick dinner, we got ready for our evening's activity of dancing at the Elk's lodge. Tonight was karaoke night and we had been told that people did dance to the music. So I'm giving it a try.

It ended up being a successful night for me! By wearing an ankle support, I was able to dance without any pain. It helped that most of the singers selected music that was slower music - mostly older country songs. So it was very low key.

Some singers were pretty good while thers couldn't keep the beat which was challenging, but there were a few other people dancing. A couple of times we were the only ones on the floor which was decent sized and moved well.

But we only stayed a little over an hour and didn't try to dance to every song. I even bought some nice jewelry on our way out the door. One of the lodge women here accepted donations of jewelry that was resold and the money given to a local charity. Always happy to help a worthy cause!

It was so nice to have such a short "commute" to the lodge - we just walked across the lot to the trailer!

I'm hoping I didn't stress my ankle tonight and will have to see how things are feeling tomorrow as there is more dancing available, this time with live music.

Today we drove to Oatman, a former gold mining town on Route 66.

Heading up to the summit of Sitgreaves Pass involves lots of steep, winding roads as you cross these mountains. Very scenic!

We found Oatman to be a touristy, funky old Western town loaded with gift shops. Apparently several movies have been filmed here over the years.

Well, hello there! Coming into Oatman we were greeted by a small herd of "wild" burros that stood in the middle of the road. Obviously this guy was used to handouts from cars! One stood in front of us and wouldn't move. Don had to nudge it out our the way with the truck!

Coming down from the summit toward Kingman, we found this sign. It was right on the money! I did read later that the reason Route 66 went this way over the mountains to Oatman was because in the 1920's, the town was a thriving gold mining community. Businesses in the town wanted people to visit so were able to talk those planning the original route into building the road over Sitgreaves Pass. Later there was another realignment of '66 through Yucca, AZ to avoid this treacherous section.

Tonight we danced to karaoke music at the Elk's lodge. Not too crowded on the floor. Most people were just eating dinner and having drinks. This woman was brave - wearing thongs while her partner wore cowboy boots!

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