We woke up late in the Budget Host Hotel--the king bed was
wonderful. We were getting better at packing the car and it
only took 20 minutes. We were glad that we had gone
on to Williams, because it was then only an hour's drive to
the Grand Canyon. Road signs had been threatening
us with crossing elk for 500 miles, and we finally got a glimpse at
a few
deer. A passing car threw up a rock that chipped our
windshield, and the growing crack will surely be documented
in the pictures to come. We paid for a National Parks Pass because
we figured that, for $30 more than the regular Grand Canyon
entry fee, we'd make use of it elsewhere on our trip.
We'd been told that you can't really appreciate the size of
the Canyon from the rim, and that's true, but it's still
a spectacular
view and well worth the trip. We walked
to a few places and it was
quickly 2 o'clock, so we left and headed for some Indian
ruins. We'd like to come back some day and spend a week
at the Canyon, maybe hiking down to the valley and camping.
We got to the
Wupatki
Pueblo just before sunset (already
using our National Parks Pass!). The cold
wind cut short our tour of the three-story 800-year-old
Sinagua Indian house. It's amazing to thing that so much work went into the
construction of a place that was only occupied for 30 years.
We unfortunately skipped Meteor Crater, between Flagstaff
and Holbrook, because it was dark when we got there. Plus
we'd seen enough very large holes in the ground for one
day.
We had pulled off in Holbrook, Arizona, eager to spend another
$20 for a king bed at their Budget Host Inn, when Jennifer
swirved through two lanes of traffic at the sight of the
Wigwam
Motel. The owner's father built the place in the
1940's, and everything, including the
bed,
bathroom, and
cars in the parking lot,
is the original stuff. It was hilarious.
The Budget Host Inn didn't stand a chance. We had dinner at the
Butterfield
Stagecoach Company Steakhouse, where they play nothing but Texas love
songs and everything on the menu comes with a baked potato.
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