GRAND CANYON & ROUTE 66

GRAND CANYON & ROUTE 66

The last week before spring training starts and Hiromi (he-rome-me) and I took our last day trip of the winter. We left at 4:30am and arrived at the Grand Canyon around 9:00am. She thought we were only going to drive along Route 66, so when I turned off and headed towards the Grand Canyon she was excited. It's hard to surprise her, she knows I can't keep a secret from her. The weather was cold, but unfortunately, there was no snow covering the tips of the canyon picks. We watched the parks video and checked out the views around the visitors center. With us arriving early in the day we felt tired and had bags under our eyes (just look at me in the first picture below), so we exited the park with time to get a hotel room to take a nap. We stopped at McDonald to use the wifi and call the hotel. The room was $149, I looked the hotel up on expedia.com and got the same room under $100.  After our nap and making reservations for dinner in the hotel, we headed back into the park to see the other half. We drove around looking at the canyon from it's different view points. As the sun started to set we found the spot where almost everyone else in the park wanted to stop and see too.  

We got back to the hotel with about 30 minutes to spare before our dinner reservations. Hiromi had salmon and I tried the wild swordfish. It was the first time I have ever had swordfish and like I always say, "I have to try everything at least once". The swordfish was tough like a steak, but tasted like fish. Without saying, I was impressed and if I see it on a menu again I'll order it.

I could not believe how big the hotel room looked. After 3 years in a 31' RV I guess everything looks larger. The tub was big enough to get a full body soak, just like our home in Japan had. The beds where roomy, we had the chance to stretch out and hog the bed all to ourselves. We even had our own patio. Oh, how fancy is it to have a phone in the bathroom?

The next morning we got up and it was cold. We were use to the 80's in Buckeye, but in the Grand Canyon it was a cold 27. We packed the car, turned the heater on to high and made our way West to The Rusty Bolt on route 66.

Our trusty navigator was not so trusty today as our final destination was a large open field. We knew we were close, so we just kept driving the country side road for a few more miles before we arrive at the enter section of Route 66 and we could see The Rusty Bolt just down the road. It is only a souvenir store, but it was decked out in the Route 66 theme of roadside attractions with manikins on the roof and Cadillac's out front along the street. Unfortunately, last year a tourist was driving while looking and sideswiped the Cadillac's. They are currently off site and getting fixed. 

We then, stopped to eat at Roadkill Cafe. Our drinks came in canning jars Hiromi had the clubs and I had roadkill. As our road trip came to an end, we heading back to Buckeye, AZ and the 6 hour drive.

Look at her tail