Aussie's Travelling the USA in a Fifth Wheeler: Crazy Horse RV Park

After a week at Yuma and a few dollars spent on 'improvements and must haves' for the 5th wheeler discussions were had over the dinner table on where to next. Andy and Jackie had heard a bit about Lake Havasu and as it was heading back north to Canada for them and it was also heading towards Las Vegas we decided to join them. By this time we are working well together as a team and really enjoying this companion camping gig. We shared every evening meal together, taking it in turns to cook - small correction there - Jackie cooks and Andy makes sure there is enough beer!

Prior to leaving Yuma Rose did her usual and found a park right on the shores of Lake Havasu which seemed to have pretty good reviews. Crazy Horse RV Park here we come! We arrived, booked in and headed for our site. The closer we got to our site the less impressed we were becoming. The park was littered with rubbish and the gardens overgrown with weeds. Our site had a concrete pad with a picnic table which no one would be game to sit on - the timber seats were bowed and someone had lit a fire on the table top. There was also a fire pit dug into the sand in the middle of our site still with half burnt timber pieces in it. And then to top it all off was the amount of rubbish and rotting dirty carpet -yes carpet. We found out later on that a local carpet layer drops carpet off cuts and carpet he has removed from his jobs at the park as it appears that people staying there don't like the sand! That would be ok except the carpet is just left when people move on. Rose called the office straight away to complain and was told that they would send someone from maintenance down to clean it up. We waited for a while but soon came to the realisation that we were on our own so we cleaned it up ourselves. Seven days later maintenance still hadn't shown up!

Andy and Jackie arrived, the look on their faces said it all - they were not impressed! To add to their displeasure they were charged $42 extra for their two small dogs for the week.

There were even bits of carpet down to the water edge, but the view was great

All parks have a list of rules that make living in such close proximity with other campers an enjoyable experience. The rules for this park seemed to be just words on paper - no one seemed to abide by them. We watched people park on the picnic slabs (they are not weight rated), we had mini bikes riding around at night with no lights - the list just goes on. Being close to the waters edge at any park in the USA means that you don't have sewerage hook up at your site. Instead they offer a 'honey wagon' service where a truck comes and pumps out your grey and black tanks for a $5 fee. Reasonable enough however not so good for Andy and Jackie - the contractor didn't hook them up properly which resulted in the contents of their tanks being sprayed all over the operator and the side of their motor home! A not so happy call to the office resulted in the elusive maintenance man appearing to clean up the mess!

We did consider moving on but unfortunately we had paid for a week's accommodation with a no refund policy so we decided to just make the best of a bad situation.

Another happy hour or was that a champagne breakfast!

Lake Havasu is famous for the London bridge - a stone bridge which was brought from England stone by stone and re erected in Havasu. The Lake itself was created with the damming of the Colorado river by the Parker dam and has become a water playground for boaties.

Hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes

Plenty of powerboats too

We were there for the Easter long weekend and it was also "spring break" so the number of high powered boats on the lake was amazing - there was a constant parade of power boats idling out of the river channel. Once they got past the "no wake" area the testosterone kicked in and all you could here was the roar of 400 hp as they took off. The economy is obviously not so bad at Lake Havasu.

Spring break brought the added bonus of young tanned men and bikini clad young girls walking around the streets. Just like schoolies in Australia however the majority of the Spring Breakers are 21 years of age - the legal drinking age in the USA. Celebrate their break they did, with the doof doof music from the night clubs floating across the lake until the wee hours of the morning.

One thing that the Crazy Horse RV park did have was its position - right on the lake and walking distance to London Bridge, the local shops and water craft hire places. One of the cheapest ways to see the lake however is to catch a ferry across the lake to the casino - a mere $2 return. So we boarded the boat along with a long line of casino patrons. Arrived, had a quick beer and caught the next ferry back.

London Bridge