Lake Havasu is a Beautiful Lake in the Middle of an Oven

Holy crap is it hot here.

This came out of the refrigerator and has been sitting on the counter for about fifteen minutes.

Before we get to the heat and the sordid details thereof, first, let’s take a second to talk about the journey from what we thought was hot (Palm Springs / Joshua Tree) to where it is actually capital H Hot, Lake Havasu.

First up, the hot dates…

There are a bunch of date palm groves throughout the area, and while dates are not in season right now, it was cool to see how they planned their orchards.

Next up…the fuel…

At only $7.15 for diesel, we decided to test the limits of our 60 gallon tank and wait to fill up until we got to Arizona. The highest we saw diesel was just under $8 per gallon at a little gas station with no competition. We did not stop there either.

And lastly, the roads… again lol

It got pretty remote and pretty lumpy fast. At least we were a little more prepared this time around. We had our inflated Whoopee cushions, from the dollar store, strapped to our bottoms and to the top of our heads. We figure if the roads are going to be lumpy, we might as well make a few sounds that make us laugh.

GPS says we have about 180 miles to go and the fuel range shows 350 miles of diesel left, so we should be fine.

We motored on, through the sparse and remote desert until out of nowhere, BAM! Lake Havasu!

And not a moment too soon, as the temps were starting to get pretty toasty outside.

Thankfully, we made it to the campsite at Lake Havasu State Park without issue.

There was not much shade to be had here, so we immediately started cooking in the Arizona sun!

We missed the super hot, high heat point of the day, so it wasn’t too long before the sun started descending and the air got to the point where you could breath outside without choking on the intensely hot air.

At that point, we were able to cautiously venture outside of our little hot aluminum tube to see what there was to see!

It ended up being quite a pretty evening, and the cool, 90 degree evening temperatures were offset by brutally low humidity and a nice breeze, so we were able to sit out and look at the stars and listen to the powerful motors on the boats screaming by on the lake, as they were heading back to the marina for the night.

What we didn’t have was a campfire. There are so many occasions when we love a campfire, even when it’s hot in Florida, but not necessary nor desirable when the oven dial in Lake Havasu is set to broil.

The next morning, we decided to get a jump start on the day to try to beat the heat.

But we were blissfully ignorant as to what was in store for us for the day. It was going to be a real scorcher, it turns out.

We did the tourist stuff, stopping by to see the London Bridge and the Lake Havasu visitor center.

Honestly, it was a pretty neat history on the how the London Bridge came to be installed in the middle of Arizona. Really quite an engineering and logistics feat to get over 10,000 granite blocks individually numbered, disassembled, transported a pretty fair distance, reassembled over a new frame, and operating.

Even the lampposts on top of the bridge were a part of the deal. They are made from the melted down bronze cannons of Napoleon’s army after the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. They were installed on the original bridge in 1831 and survived The Blitz during WWII.

Now, they silently watch over the bridge and the channel as tourists wander around looking for a place to escape the heat, like we were doing.

Havasu city explored, we headed to the local grocery store and then back to the camper.

There is really no pretty way to paint the picture of how the rest of the day went, but we will try.

Imagine a long metal tube made of aluminum. Like, an airstream for example.

Now, take all of the clouds out of the sky, take the breeze down to zero, and bring the sun just a little bit closer to that little tube, to say, 3 feet above the roofline.

Imagine that you are an occupant of that little tube. The shades are closed and the awnings are out, casting a thin thin thin line of shade down one side of the aluminum tube. The thin line of shade looks like a delicious break from the intensity of the direct sun.

The thin shadow is a lie.

It is just as hot in the shadow as it is outside of the shadow’s protection.

Both air conditioners are running wide open. No breaks.

Yet, the temperature inside the tube continues to climb.

The toothpaste turns to liquid in the bathroom. Yes, we realize that toothpaste is already kind of a liquid. But, there is a big difference, we found out, between room temperature liquid toothpaste, and heat soaked toothpaste liquid, which dribbles and squirts involuntarily out of the pressurized tubes.

The various creams and semi-sold elixirs housed in the bathroom vanity are all caldrons of liquid goo. Have you tried liquid deodorant yet? We think it’s about to be the next big craze.

We hit 98 degrees inside the airstream at one point.

Having nowhere else to go, we decided to continue our refuge inside, where it was at least shaded.

Occasionally, we popped outside to see how things looked and felt on the surface of the sun.

Ben’s bubble water had exploded in the back of the truck.

The ice in the cooler had converted to cool water, which was refreshing, but it mostly evaporated before hitting the boiling hot black asphalt below.

We were more than mildly concerned about the state of our propane tanks, which despite having been used frequently for cooking, since we left Florida nearly a month prior, were now showing much higher full levels than before we left. How much heat can those propane tanks handle before, you know, giving up?

Let’s not find out.

Finally, after a long day of being stripped down to the barest of essential clothing and trying not to move too much, the heat started to break around 7 pm.

We boiled eggs on the pavement for dinner, and then we migrated outside to enjoy the quickly cooling desert evening.

We told our friends in Florida that if they ever get tired of freezing their butts off in July in Florida, they could make the move to Lake Havasu and finally warm up their bones.

Holy balls, we don’t recall ever being this hot before. And it is only the first couple days of June for goodness’ sake!

Yes, it is a dry heat. The fact that it is dry is of little recourse when your shoes are melting to the pavement, your carbonated beverages are exploding in your truck, your windshield wipers are melting to your windshield, and your propane tanks are starting to hiss a little.

Sure, living in very high humidity like we do in Florida means you sweat through your clothes almost as soon as you step outside, and your glasses are opaque for a few moments when you get out there as well. But, I have never spontaneously burst into flames in Florida. I think we will take the humidity, and the hurricanes, and Florida man.

Once the heat broke again, this time around 8 pm, we got redressed and headed back outside to enjoy the best part of the desert day, the evening after the sun starts to drop below the horizon.