Do you remember those scenes in the epic 1992 film, My Cousin Vinnie, written/produced by my friend Dale Launer, when freight trains rumble past his hotel night after night making him sit bolt upright? Well, I’ve found a spot where they could’ve filmed those scenes.
There are three coast-to-coast Interstate highways in the United States:
I-10: Running from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida (the southernmost transcontinental route)
I-80: Running from San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey (near New York City)
I-90: Running from Seattle, Washington to Boston, Massachusetts (the northernmost transcontinental route)
And, there are other major east-west Interstate highways like I-20, I-40, and I-70, that go most of the way in between. In the case of Interstate 40, it runs from Barstow, California to Wilmington, North Carolina. While it spans most of the country’s width, it doesn’t quite reach the Pacific coast – its western terminus is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, about 150 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. From there, it travels east through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where it ends in Wilmington at US Route 117.
Before I-40 was built, much of its route followed the historic U.S. Route 66, particularly in the western states. In fact, I-40 replaced large sections of Route 66, which led to the decline of many small towns that had previously thrived along the famous highway. One of those small towns along the way is a place called Topock, AZ, which sits at the vortex of California, Nevada and Arizona. It’s near Needles and Bullhead City and since it’s right on the Colorado River after the Colorado River runs through the Grand Canyon and empties itself in Lake Mead near Las Vegas, it heads south towards the Gulf of California (also called the Sea of Cortez). That north/south run from Henderson, Nevada down to Yuma, Arizona is a very dry and desolate stretch of the United States. The best evidence of how remote this area is can be found in the gas prices that gas stations can charge. Where the national average is three dollars a gallon, here in the town of Topock, gasoline commands a price of seven dollars per gallon. I suppose you can argue that it cost more to haul gasoline to this remote location, but I suspect it’s more a case of the captive audience that must pay the price or have their vehicle sit and rust in the noon day sun here.
All along this stretch of the Colorado River people still try and re-create themselves at every opportunity. And what is more popular in the midst of desert heat, then aquatic sports. Everywhere along this stretch people have damned up a section of the Colorado river and found ways to use those small gatherings of water for their boating pleasure. This is one of those spots. And because. Highways like I 40 and transcontinental railroads need ways to get across the water, there are always trestles and bridges. This is also one of those spots.. So this vortex is created by a gathering of three states as a result of our transcontinental transportation network and the desire to use the Colorado river for recreational purposes. It seems like the sole raison d’et of Topock is to allow all those things to happen in one place. Consequently, I am currently trying to sleep in a nice little resort hotel complex that attracts a serious partying crowd in the summer on the shores of the Colorado at Topock Bay, and just next to what must be the busiest train trestle in America. In the last hour, I’ve heard at least 10 trains rattle across the train trestle that sits adjacent to this little resort. It is that feature that causes me to name this place Vinny‘s Vortex.
I really don’t know what draws people to a place like Topock, but apparently it’s quite a popular spot. We’re here at Topock66 as a jumping off spot to go 25 miles north tomorrow to see the little ghost town of Oatman Arizona and to ride what is called Bloody 66, the treacherous stretch of Route 66 that goes through the Black Mountains between Oatman and Kingman. Oatman at its outskirts looks like any trashy rural town in America. But then you get to Main Street where the acquaintance of the old west takes over as due the various trinket and souvenir shops.. Heading north we just stayed on 66 through Oakland and went for about another 15 to 20 miles winding our way up through the mountains where old derelict junkers have been left to rust in the ravines either because that’s where they crashed or because the chamber of commerce decided that that would add to the ambience of their little ghost town. In any case once we came through the mountains and over the top most pass we came to a small rock store, which had a diverse and quite interesting array of local rocks and crystals for sale. After picking up a few reminders of this trip, we headed back south towards open and arrive just in time for lunch. While there are several places to dine in open, the only worthwhile place is the hotel dining establishment, which is literally covered from top to bottom in one dollar bills that have been stapled stuck or someway applied to the walls and ceiling. We tried to estimate how much money was stapled to the walls and the best we could do was to say it was many thousands of dollars. Several of us noted that on prior visits we had added to the collection.
Today was a nice day, weatherwise it was sunny but cool with a fairly mild wind. We all know that the wind is supposed to kick up again tomorrow and actually be quite strong both back towards Phoenix for those two of our members who live there and back towards San Diego for Chris and me. There appears to be no way to avoid it so we will just muscle through as best we can taking it slow and easy and trying not to get blown over in the middle of the Mojave desert. tonight we are in Lake Havasu City which my comparison to Topock and Oatman is a thriving metropolis. In a little bit, we will go ride around and presumably cross over the London Bridge. The London Bridge, I purchased by Lake Havasu City, was the 1831 bridge designed by John Rennie that previously spanned the River Thames in London. In 1967, Robert McCulloch bought the bridge for $2.46 million when the City of London was selling it due to its inability to handle modern traffic loads and the fact that it was slowly sinking into the Thames. The bridge was meticulously dismantled, with each stone numbered and cataloged. It was then shipped through the Panama Canal to California and transported by truck to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Reconstruction was completed in 1971, and the bridge now spans a man-made channel that connects Lake Havasu to Thompson Bay. The bridge serves as a major tourist attraction in Lake Havasu City and helped transform what was once a relatively remote area into a popular tourist destination. It’s worth noting that some people mistakenly believed McCulloch had purchased Tower Bridge, London’s more famous and ornate bridge, but it was indeed the more classical-looking London Bridge that made the journey to Arizona.
After that, we are scheduled to take a one hour sunset cruise on a paddlewheeler called the Dixie Belle. We will meet some friends of Steve’s who live here in Lake Havasu City for a nearby dinner and then call it a night. Tomorrow morning, the four of us will head off in our respective directions doing our best to keep the rubber side down and keep the wind at bay. It’s been a quick fun trip to the Vinny Vortex and I reckon we’re going to have to find some other short two and three day rides that we can all do.