Thursday 16 April, Friday 17 April
DAY 9 & DAY 10
THE GRAND CANYON –WHAT MIGHT OSCAR HAVE SAID?
A round-trip from Carefree to the Grand Canyon is about
500 kilometers, so the only way to manage without rendering these travellers
incapable of crawling to the rim for a brief peak before starting for home was
to spread it over two days. We decided to book rooms in Williams which was
about an hour directly south of the Canyon, although there are a number of lodges in
Grand Canyon Village right next to the Visitor Center and the most proximate
parking lots. Signs outside those lots promised more parking about two miles
further along. I felt we needed to reconnoitre the rim
On the way up we made a couple of random stops, first at the
Verde River Starbucks where the busiest barista took a moment to field our
questions about the Saturday Evening Post covers on the walls...Norman Rockwell
re-imagined. She identified the older gent in some of the pictures as 'our high
school teacher' who was collaborating with his students.
Restores VWBugs, itremizes levels of local law enforcement, plays Casino?
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| Gotta admire this hostel-based group-site mail delivery |
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| Once again Sciuridae gets bad-rapped |
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| and Mountain Goats are on probation |
Quickly! to the rim...
...and now the drive south to Williams Arizona to reconnect
with Route 66, find dinner and the Comfort Inn...
The Pine Country restaurant...
Attempting to check in at the Comfort Inn we were advised
that we were no-shows from the night before and if we wished to stay that night
the rate would be $119. Adrian expressed his displeasure and insisted we were
due the online rate of $94, explaining that he had been present the evening
before about 9pm when the reservations were made online, he was confident in my
date selection, and remarked on how unlikely it seemed that anyone would be
booking rooms online that late the same evening. At first she didn't agree,
although after it was pointed out that the third party room retailer whose rate
was $25 cheaper than she was willing to offer was at fault and if anyone should
make up the difference it was them. As a crowd was beginning to gather she
conceded the ground. Not entirely enjoyable and the wireless was lousy too.
Surprise...
...take a wide shot, Billy...
We cleaned off the car, had an
excellent breakfast at The Country Pine—noting the Route 66 quotes just across the Williams main drag—and headed for the Grand Canyon, arriving early enough to watch
the Pink Jeep Tours bonus IMAX before our tour rather than after.
The theatre was almost
as big as most IMAX screens in Toronto, and we were able to sit in the sweet spot
and had a while to wait until Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets (The Most
Watched IMAX Film of All Time) began. As we waited people began to file in
holding audio commentary-looking devices with red LEDs blinking. Of course we
wondered if we'd forgotten to pick up our deserved enhancement. I went down the
row to ask two women who had just arrived with their blinkies. They were
Japanese and could not understand me and it suddenly dawned that the devices
everyone was bringing in were for translation. So I settled back down in the
sweet spot.
For about three minutes until the Disney-fied racism of this
30-year old rip(I looked it up) drove me out. Ridiculous, I harrumphed,
gripping my umbrage and fleeing for a coffee.
Our tour guide, Keith was a considerable upgrade on that
somewhat geology-free forshpeis, and had a good deal to say about the local
plants and animals as we drove through the snowy Ponderosa pine woods to Grandview
Point, the first of three splendid overlooks. I asked if there were local
wolverines—every Canadian's favorite nasty critter I imagine, and he quickly
fingered the local badgers. Wolves? Cougars! A draw.
Oh, and we were able to take a few pictures:
The only unsatisfactory move we made all day was stopping at
a diner in Flagstaff which featured brown-edge lettuce and a 100-flavour
milkshake menu. That'll do for your first day in hell.
A Carefree downhill drive....
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