Huge lizard at the campsite got my attention!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing! A large reptile, some sort of lizard I thought, was basking in the morning sun at the campsite next to me at Lake Havasu State Park in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

But there it was! And it was really big, much bigger than the lizards you see all over the place in the desert! I stared at it, but it didn't move. Maybe it wasn't quite warm enough yet to be active. I approached slowly. Still, it did not move. Did it not see me? I stepped steadily closer.


Then I realized: it was fake.

A man stepped out of the motorhome. It was Art Becker of Jackson, Wyoming, here with his wife Lynn, camped in space 28. "Oh, it's made of cast iron," he said of the creature. He was very happy I had noticed it.

He bought it at a street fair in Lake Havasu City a few years ago. "They were selling fast," he said. "You just had to get in line if you wanted one."

Sometimes Art paints the lizard, which is supposed to resemble a horned toad. He's even tossed it into a fire. "It gets red hot," he said.

I thought the lizard was a pretty neat idea, a real attention-getter for sure. I wouldn't mind having one for my own.