Our first stop was the Hoover Dam. We stopped for some pictures but decided to opt out of the $20/per person tour. Leaving the dam we passed into Arizona.
Next we had lunch in Kingman, Arizona at D'z Diner. It was your typical 50's diner with pink and turquoise booths, an Elvis cutout, and hamburgers and fries. Yummy!
[John: It was interesting to see a Hotshot truck after the recent tragedy in Arizona.]
About a half an hour later we stopped in Siegelman, Arizona known for its Route 66 attractions. We had a delicious chocolate malt at The Snow Cap Drive-In. The outside of the building is covered in funny signs and the teeny-tiny inside has thousands of business cards hanging from its walls. I didn't know it at the time, but the roadside drive-in is known for its silly pranks. When we ordered the malt, the guy asked me if I wanted any mustard on it an then pretended to shoot me with a mustard bottle (luckily only yellow string came out!) Quite the experience. Siegelman also had a few gift shops. We decided to stop by the one with mannequins all over the roof[, the Rusty Bolt]. John even got his picture taken with a few.
[Slightly used napkins and straws]
After a few more stops for gas we made it to the Grand Canyon. I guess it was pretty much what I imagined - a big hole in the ground! I was surprised at the amount of peaks and valleys inside of the canyon. It's almost like its own mountain range in there.
[John: As soon as we got out of the car at the Grand Canyon we were fast walking because the sky looked like it might start raining at any moment. I was thinking to myself that it would be cool if the canyon just swallowed the approaching rainclouds like a monster. And that was sort of what happened.]
As we were looking down towards the canyon, John spotted one of those collectible pennies on the other side of the fence. Of course we had to have it. Unfortunately, Johns's arm was just a little to big, so that left the job to me. As I was crawling on the ground like a crazy person, John overheard one of the Japanese people ask, "Is she okay?" They meant mentally, not physically. The good news is I got the penny!
[John: Little did Lydia know that she was saving the local bird population from zinc poisoning.]
["Stay away from the squirrels, they have plague! I've got to say I believe this is my very first plague warning sign.]
It was pretty late in the day by this point, and the visitor's center was closed, so we strolled a few more minutes and then got back in the car. We decided to drive about an hour further east to have dinner in Flagstaff.
[John: We saw a Flintstones branded campsite along the way which I thought was super cool. Lydia said that there used to be one in St. Louis near Six Flags, and a little googling shows that it does seem
to be a small chain. It looked really awesome and I would like to stay there!]
Flagstaff was a cute little city tucked between the mountains. There were lots of coniferous trees and the whole place smelled piney. It reminded John of Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. They were having a Celtic festival, so we stopped and listened to some bagpipers before waking through the downtown area. We popped into a candy store for some delicious truffles and then went to Corollo Latin Kitchen for dinner. I had a really good relleno pepper and John had some sort of chicken dish. We also sampled the house-made tequila aged in a Jack Daniels barrel. All very good!
We spent the rest of the evening driving back to Vegas.
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