Day 382 – Swimming in Lake Mead

It was 115 degrees at 11am and with all 3 of our AC units running we couldn’t get the RV below 74 degrees.  

At that temperature you can’t really go outside for more than 15-20 minutes without winding up in a hospital.  So, we hung out inside and played board games, setup forts and did everything we could to have fun.

I left a plastic cup up against the window while driving yesterday and, while cleaning up today, I found the cup had melted.  The sun here is so hot that can’t leave anything in the sun or it will melt. So, I pulled down the GPS and the Jeep braking monitor from the windows to avoid losing any of my tech.

At about 2pm we decided to take the kids swimming in Lake Mead.  The beach was a 5 minute drive from our campsite and it was brutal in the heat, which had actually increased to 119 degrees.  Remember that our AC in the Jeep went out 2 days ago near the Grand Canyon. 

It’s Murphy’s law that your AC unit fails 2 days before you visit the hottest place on your year long adventure.  Sometimes life works that way.

So, we got into our very hot Jeep and drove the 5 minutes to the lake for a dip.  When I say that it was hot…that is an understatement.  It was like a furnace outside. 

Jenn and Luke said that having the windows down in the Jeep felt like a blowdryer blasting on their faces. We actually realized that having the windows rolled up about 80% was the best experience.

Jenn and I laughed with the kids while telling stories of the trips we took growing up before we had air conditioning in cars.  Sitting in our family cars baking hot and usually in traffic.  For me it was a Buick station wagon with all of my siblings moaning about how hot it was and who just farted. Lol

We arrived at the lake and jumped into 85 degree water.  We were looking for 70 degree water for some refreshment but, that just wasn’t the case.  All things considered, it felt great to jump in that lake and swim with my kids. 

When you step out of the water you dry off in about 3 1/2 minutes.  It is so dry here that you don’t even sweat.

We drove our “hot box” (the Jeep) back to our campsite and that was our adventure for the day.

I don’t think we are going to last long in this place if it doesn’t cool down.