I know two things about Lake Havasu City: the London Bridge is there, and its namesake body of water (a reservoir that’s built up behind Parker Dam) is popular with spring-breakers. In my head it’s grouped with about a dozen other rest stop towns and cities sprinkled around Arizona – convenient places to stop for food or gas on a roadtrip, but offering no reason to venture off the main drag. It’s not that the traveler forgets that people live, work, go to school, and have families in places like this- do the usual things that everyone does- it’s that there’s no reason to think of it in the first place. You pick the cheapest gas station, find the least offensive fast food joint and continue on your way. It’s jarring when the routine is broken.
Route 95 was closed that night when I passed through. I suppose I could have tried to navigate through some side streets to find a way to bypass the car accident but it would have been complete guesswork, driving in the dark on unfamiliar roads. I took the lead of most of the other drivers in front of me and turned off into a park to wait while the road was cleared. In an instant the scene changed from one of chaos to one of unexpected sentimentality. In one moment I was caught up in sirens, flashing lights and pissed off drivers, in the next, a little league baseball game. Like I said, jarring. Lord knows what the players and spectators were thinking as a parade of headlights entered a parking lot just beyond the outfield fence. I do remember what I was thinking about: my Pap, and a little league game of my own.
