After finishing yesterday's blog, we headed for the Lake Havasu Rockabilly Reunion. This is an annual antique car show in town that includes live music, vendors, lots of beer and food booths and vintage cars. The show seemed focused more on hot rods rather than just restored cars from the 50's and earlier. They also had a lot of what they called "rat rods". These are old cars and trucks that were restored in a funky, junky sort of way. The event also included hair styling booths for men and women getting a 40's/50's hair do and pin-up girl contests throughout the day. There were a lot of women and some men in 40's/50's dress and the crowd was not just middle aged white guys, but a mix of young and old people. An adjoining carnival also brought out a lot of families.
After walking around the event for about 1 1/2 hours, we decided to go to lunch at Chico's Tacos, a local restaurant in Lake Havasu City that had been recommended to us as having the best fish tacos in town. It was excellent Mexican food (Arizona seems to have a lot of that).
After lunch, we visited the Lake Havasu Museum Of History, a small but delightful repository of local information and artifacts. There were exhibits on the natural history of the desert surroundings and the impact of the Colorado River in the past (steamboats used to deliver passengers and freight to the area in the 1800's). There was much information on the water wars of the early 20th century between California and Arizona and the building of the dams on the Colorado River.
The Indian tribes living in the area and their dispersment onto reservations in the late 1800's was depicted as being very kindly. However, to their credit, the Indians are still here and thriving by means of a large casino on the California side of the lake opposite Lake Havasu City.
The role of the WWII military in the settlement of the area was discussed at length. The large island on which we are staying was once used for bombing practice by the Army Air Force. A large boat launching site, named Site #6 for the bombing runs, retains that name to this day. The main part of the island (then a peninsula) was flattened to use as an military airfield and there were 2 or 3 military R &R centers around the lake for the recuperation of injured servicemen.
Robert McCollach, the founder of Lake Havasu City, landed his plane at the airfield in 1958 in search of a place to test his outboard marine engines. His business was based in Los Angeles at that time, but it was getting very expensive to run a business there. He immediately decided to buy most of the land he could see around him on the peninsula from the state of Arizona and to found a town there to house his employees. Fortunately, he had the money as well as the vision to carry out his plans; his purchase of the London Bridge in 1968 has already been discussed in previous blogs.
The Indian tribes living in the area and their dispersment onto reservations in the late 1800's was depicted as being very kindly. However, to their credit, the Indians are still here and thriving by means of a large casino on the California side of the lake opposite Lake Havasu City.
The role of the WWII military in the settlement of the area was discussed at length. The large island on which we are staying was once used for bombing practice by the Army Air Force. A large boat launching site, named Site #6 for the bombing runs, retains that name to this day. The main part of the island (then a peninsula) was flattened to use as an military airfield and there were 2 or 3 military R &R centers around the lake for the recuperation of injured servicemen.
Robert McCollach, the founder of Lake Havasu City, landed his plane at the airfield in 1958 in search of a place to test his outboard marine engines. His business was based in Los Angeles at that time, but it was getting very expensive to run a business there. He immediately decided to buy most of the land he could see around him on the peninsula from the state of Arizona and to found a town there to house his employees. Fortunately, he had the money as well as the vision to carry out his plans; his purchase of the London Bridge in 1968 has already been discussed in previous blogs.
After spending a few hours at the museum, we decided to go back to the Rockabilly Reunion to see if any more restored cars had shown up since this morning. The weather had improved remarkably - we had another bright, sunny day - and there were many more oldies-but-goodies on display. Classic Thunderbirds, Mercurys, Cadillacs, Fords and Chevys filled the huge parking lot, their owners standing by their vehicles eager to talk to anyone interested.
We left the event around 4:00pm, stopped in at Safeway for supplies, and came back to the RV for dinner. We were treated to a beautiful sunset for our last full day in Lake Havasu City. Tomorrow we drive to Anza-Borrego State Park in southern California to spend our last few days of vacation before departing for snowy Nevada City.
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