Day 3 - Grand Canyon to Los Angeles

The drive to Los Angeles/Cypress was a pretty lazy one. We left the Grand Canyon around 3PM mentally exhausted and physically sunburnt, scheduled to arrive around midnight. Jodie took over driving for a few cities, then Gavin, then I.

We began to see signs for a place called Roadkill Cafe on Route 66. It was somewhere in western Arizona, and to Gavin's delight, had a penny press machine.

Motel in front of cafe.

"You kill it, we grill it."

An ongoing theme.

The menu was pretty snarky but the waitress was more like buzzkill. Everyone waited for their food while I took some pictures outside.

Stretch of Route 66 in front of Road Kill Cafe.

We left in time to see the sun set over Kingman, Arizona - right near the border of California.

Day drawing to a close.

Sunset near Kingman, Arizona.

California was too dark and sleepy to photograph. BUT, we did get in around midnight and were able to enjoy some olympics and conversation. We all passed out on the couches immediately afterwards. Part 1 of the trip had come to a close.

-Marie

Day 3 - Grand Canyon (GC National Park, AZ)

How can I describe the Grand Canyon...

Shit was bananas.

It never lets me down. You sit in a hot car and pay another 25 dollars for parking at a national park. You know you've seen rock formations on the drive there, you've just driven through terrain with mountains in every direction. But it will never fail to blow your mind, every time you visit.

Can you find the Colorado River?

It's as if you were looking at a desert landscape, but someone scooped out massive chunks of ground and sculpted it. A drained ocean trench. And every now and then you can get a small peak of the Colorado river at the bottom from different angles, and you just want to applaud it.

Pretty dangerous viewpoint.

At times we felt like the only tourists that weren't international. Everywhere there were families shouting in foreign language. It was as if we were in the perfect advertisement for America - walking through the melting pot in the most gorgeous scene America has to offer.

Asian kid shouting "hello!" into the canyon.

Tourist sitting.

We picked a comfortable spot and stayed for nearly an hour, just soaking it all in.

18 pictures sewn together in Photoshop, feat. Jodie and the Grand Canyon.

Jodie and the scene.

Lewis ponders.

Layers and layers and layers and

Pictures could never do it justice.

yes.

Just a small part of it.

We walked maybe a mile(?) away from the car, simultaneously canyon- and people-watching. Sometimes air tours would interrupt the view and a helicopter would crawl across the landscape like a bug.

Jodie and Gavin.

Enjoying sun.

Southern darlin'.

Even the trees were nothing like what we have in NC.

Pretty uninviting.

We stopped inside a viewing area positioned over the canyon. It was wedge-shaped with one long window facing the canyon. Walking through the room was surreal - the scene in the window looked as if it were just a lit picture but moved as you did. It was enough to make you dizzy.

Viewing area.

Tourist at the window.

There was a gift shop inside and a few museum-like diagrams.

Gurando Kyanion

Gavin decided to buy one of these in German. The pictures inside go beyond anything posted here - they honestly make you want to spend a week scavenging the area. I mean sandy caves on the shore of the Colorado, alien-like birds that hang out below and every color of rock imaginable.

Rock layers.

SURPRISE CANYON.

We saw a few little guys like these on the way back to the car -

hello welcome to my canyon~

I even took home some organic souvenirs.

Colors of the Grand Canyon.

Diem Carpe'd.

-Marie

Day 3 - Wigwams, Jackrabbit (Holbrook, AZ)

Yep, we stayed in a Wigwam.

Our cozy hotel room of Wigwam 16.

Like so many other things on our trip, you may have seen this referenced in Cars. When researching what stops to make, this was a major landmark that had gotten almost all positive reviews. The rooms were cozy and retro, the woman running the place was more than helpful and the atmosphere summed up Arizona pretty well. It's historic, nostalgic and quirky.

180 degree view. Our Wigwam is the furthest to the right.

They even parked vintage cars outside of each of the wigwams to keep the feel!

Oh yes please.

Apparently two women had overheard us talking at the Mexican restaurant the night before about our hotel arrangements and got a bit curious. We saw them checking the place out from the parking lot and let them see how the room looked from the inside.

We aimed for waking around 6AM, but with all the exhaustion of driving we stayed another two hours. We took turns showering in the comically small showers before we headed out to the Grand Canyon. One stop was planned on the way - The Jackrabbit Trading Post about 11 miles west of Holbrook, AZ. My research told me of an iconic sign -

Found it.

Unfortunately (and predictably) it was closed at the time. That didn't stop us from taking a few pictures outside.

I may have photoshopped this a bit.

All of our poses on the Jackrabbit jackrabbit.

Me outside of the main door.

It was about 1 1/2 hours to the Grand Canyon from there, considering traffic.

Me driving in Flagstaff, AZ. Love this town.

TO BE CONTINUED.

-Marie

Day 2 - The Drive (Amarillo, TX to Holbrook, AZ)

The drive from Amarillo, TX to Holbrook, AZ was by far the most interesting stretch. It started out like this:

How inviting.

And slowly turned to this:

Entering New Mexico

Finally something to look at.

Sage.

Perfect skies.

Roadside rock formations.

We visited a western-themed roadside emporium and bought a few trinkets.

We definitely did not purchase this.

The song Albuquerque by Weird Al lasted the duration of us driving through the city.

Anyone on the street would gladly shave our back for a nickel.

Wakka wakka doo doo yeah (Leaving Albuquerque)

Things began to get more interesting in Arizona. Rocks got larger, people got stranger. Stops became more scarce. We agreed that the welcome sign should have read, "Welcome to Arizona! Hope you got gas in New Mexico!"

Cliffside in AZ.

Interesting rock.

Everything sort of looks like the surface of Jupiter.

It's when we started running out of gas that things took a left turn. We stopped by a petrified forest national park and hung out in the gift shop. Some lady handed us some anti-atheist literature. We thought about grabbing gas but we knew that it was way too expensive at that one shop, so we held off. Nobody told us that there wouldn't be gas for miles. That's when we pulled off into Stewart's.

Seems legit.

We didn't have to stick around too long to know that there wasn't any gas there. We continued to drive down 40 for about 15 more miles below empty, but I insisted that we go back and explore.

Gas station near Holbrook, AZ. Dinosaurs are the theme of Route 66 in Arizona.

Abandoned building.

We turned around and saw the faint outline of a rainbow, positioned directly right above Stewart's. It was the only place in the whole area where it was raining. We had to go back.

By far the most interesting stop along Route 66 this trip.

Stewart's: EXIT NOW

The entire place was positioned on a cliff overlooking 40. There was nobody working there, but several signs begging us to "feed the ostriches" and grab some "free petrified wood". There was one other car of tourists but they understandably did not leave their car for any photo opportunities. Whoops.

Mannequins (eeuughh) littered the yard surrounded by barbed wire fence.

No hands.

Raining = bad, blurry pictures.

In a field of junk.

So inviting.

There were several homemade statues that resembled papier mache.

Take Pictures Now/Exit Now/Free Polished Petrified Wood/Trucks "OK"

We don't know, either.

Mannequin riding the fossil dinosaur.

Dinosaur munchin' on a lady.

What you see from the road.

Fossils.

A log with the word "logs" on it.

hello welcome to stewart~

there is nothing to fear~

I took as many pictures as I could before Gavin, Jodie and Lewis voted that we move on and decrease our risk of being part of a murder. We headed across the street to another western themed store. Again, dinosaurs.

Across the street from Stewart's, East of Holbrook.

Outdoor decoration.

The two women running the store were closing in 15 but didn't mind having conversation and letting us shop around. They admitted that neither of them had been across the street to Stewart's, but you know that looming cliffside dinosaur must have sparked their interest at least once. Then again, they had a few quirks of their own...

We seriously just aren't in NC anymore.

They're not real but you still can't touch them.

It stormed the rest of the way to Holbrook, but we finally made it an hour before we had to check into our hotel.

Sign near a Mexican restaurant in Holbrook, AZ.

And trust me, it wasn't some ordinary hotel...

TO BE CONTINUED.

-Marie