We probably drove only 30 miles, if that, on interstates today. We were on state highways all day and it was beautiful, peaceful and quite interesting! This is the way to see America in its truest fashion! We drove along Route 66 into a town that celebrates Route 66 every day in every way, with the restaurants, old cars, trinket and souvenir stores and their own Route 66 Loop, Williams, AZ. We pumped more gas and stopped at Dairy Queen for a shake for our continuing drive.
It was my true pleasure to experience another "first" for dad...to experience the Grand Canyon! We made several stops at overlooks where we got out to view the absolute, magnificent beauty. For those who have been to the Grand Canyon, you know that pictures don't do it justice, but I took quite a few. Unfortunately, this blog application only allows a minimum number of photos per post. We saw elk and deer along the road and even after leaving the National Forest, the scenery remained gorgeous for 100 miles!
We were going to try to find a place to stay around the area befor the Page, AZ turnoff to Lake Havasu, but every hotel/motel was booked for the night. We didn't want to take too many chances and go into Page (60-65) miles so we turned east on highway 160 to look for a place to lay our heads for the night. It still took us about 75-80 miles to find where we're at for the night, in Kayenta, AZ, at the Kayenta Monument Valley Inn. We are in Navajo country on the largest Indian reservation in the country (maybe the world). I've learned a couple of things in the few short hours I've been here: 1) I don't have a Navajo card (likely because I'm not a Navajo Indian), so this room was $200 instead of $160 per night. 2) Dinner at the restaurant here, an maybe other restaurants, would have been cheaper if I did have the Navajo card. 3) They don't sell or serve alcoholic beverages on the reservation, but will be happy to sell you a non-alcoholic beer or glass of wine. 4) Although Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time, the Navajo's do. So it's an hour later where we're at now than it is in Phoenix, Prescott, Scottsdale and down the 160 highway a bit for as long as we're on this reservation. When I asked the Navajo Indian front desk lady about the time while staring at the clock with, I'm sure, a very dumb, confused look on my face, she told me that I should know that when on the reservation, daylight savings time is observed. Silly me...
It was a long day in the car even though the mileage doesn't reflect it. About halfway through dinner, dad was done...he was completely spent. So I got him to the room and he was fast asleep within 20 minutes. It would have been sooner if he could have changed his clothes faster! He's been such a great traveling buddy! Today is really the only day we pushed the envelope a bit too far and that's only because there were no rooms at the many Inns we tried to stay. I'm so happy we didn't have to drive into Cortez or Durango tonight!
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