Tony and Julie and route 66

Saturday morning-We drove via Winslow (‘standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, it’s such a fine place to be’ taken from the Eagles – ‘Take it easy’) . A lovely friendly little town, with very big dogs, Texas should look out. In a coffee house we discovered the Route 66 newspaper….try http://www.route66pulse.com/ and .. and the coffee was delicious.

We also stopped at a Cherokee trading post called - Geronimo’s, we hope some of you will be pleased with the results of our shopping spree.

And we didn't forget Winona

Then we rolled into Flagstaff, and secured the last room in the Travelodge motel, opposite the railway… Poor Tony, really suffered at night from the eerie train horn calls, I slept through that!!

We went into the town for lunch and a bit of gee-gore shopping. Whilst in town we went to the local rail Depot, on the Santa Fe line. The trains we have seen have been at least a hundred cars long carrying double decker loads of containers with between 3 and 6 engines hauling the load. The longest we saw had over 180 cars!

Then calculated we had enough time to drive up to the ‘canyon’ for the sunset. (South Rim).

This experience is one that words cannot describe especially as we made it in time to see the canyon as the sun set and the variety of colours as the sun got lower. It is difficult to comprehend that the place is 1 mile deep where we were and 15 miles wide!

The drive back in the dark was fun. There were no lights at all and even when we neared Flagstaff there was not the glow in the night you get with UK towns. As the Lovell observatory is close by the city it makes a real effort to reduce light pollution. We were exhausted when we got back to our room ordered Domino Pizza and collapsed.

Sunday- We ate a very hearty breakfast in Flagstaff in this hotel, the same one Zane Grey wrote many of his western adventures. Then hit the interstate to Kingman and then to Las Vegas (baby).

Our guide suggested that a stop at Seligan was essential, and we couldn’t disagree. There were a lot of derelict businesses in the town but those left seemed to be thriving with the Route 66 passing trade. One in particular was the Rusty Bolt store, which was almost as interesting outside than in. We drove with the top down via the Hoover Dam. (The water level is down about 100 foot because of the drought that this area has been suffering for the last 5 years).

At the Nevada Visitors Centre, at Boulder City, just as we crossed the border, we booked a room at the Luxor http://www.luxor.com/

Las Vegas is hard to describe, some pictures may help. Our advise it to suspend all personal dignity and jump in with both feet. Of course you know our plan is to renew our vows on Tuesday. This first evening we strolled as far as the water fountains show at Bellagios’s http://www.bellagio.com/ then returned overawed and plain tuckered out. Our room is in the pyramid, 11th floor out of 30, room 11143!! It looks out from behind the famous Sphinx out to the desert and mountains.

One thing we saw was Kid Rock, a pop singer trying out a Lamborghini, from our hotel. He had never driven a stick shift car as he kangarooed around the block. You can have money but skill is something you can't buy!