Route 66 to the Grand Canyon
Unplanned but oh so much fun! This January my best friend and I jumped in the car and drove Route 66 to Laughlin. We made many stops to capture on film the crazy things you find along the road. One amazing picture was of a tree completely covered in shoes. I wish I had an old pair I could have thrown up there myself. One tree - one hundred pairs of shoes. Where did they come from? Who started it? How long have they been up there? How many times did it take them to toss those shoes onto the highest branches?
After 11 hours in the car we finally made it to our hotel, River Palms. We settled into our room, ate dinner and went to sleep only to wake up and hop back in the car. It was a race to the Grand Canyon. Could we beat the weather? A slight rain pelted the windshield as we sailed across the dessert plain. Higher and higher, farther and farther we drove until we could see snow right outside the truck’s window.
As the snow began to fall and the sky grew black, my friend wanted to turn around. We were only 70 miles from the Grand Canyon. We couldn’t turn around yet, we just couldn’t, so I kept driving. The farther we got the worse the storm. I continued to sail down the 40 (we left Route 66 behind), until we arrived at the 64 (Or was that the 68?) Anyway, I trudged on trying to reasure my best friend that the road itself was still clear.
Sure enough 10 miles from the Grand Canyon the snow stopped, the sky cleared and we had a marvelous time. Despite slip sliding down one street the rest was smooth sailing. We were able to see three views of the Canyon and bonus, watch the sunset. BEAUTIFUL! An answer to prayer!
The drive home scared my friend who being a native California girl was not use to seeing SO MUCH SNOW. I on the other hand, being from Kentucky, enjoyed every minute of it. (Even when it was to dark to see the road in front of me). I loved turning on my brights and seeing the snow pelt the window - I felt like I was in the Star Trek episode “warp drive”. When I was close enough to the other vehicles I just followed their tale lights.
Another 12 hours in the truck, but I got us back to the hotel in one piece - or should I say 3 pieces: the truck, my friend and me!
Our last day we headed out to Oatman. NOW that is a cool little town off of Route 66. They have burros walking all over the town even sticking their heads in your car. (Keep your windows rolled up)! Cute little gift shops and restaurants where we ate a steaming hot lunch and refueled for the last leg of the trip. All site seeing overwith we hit the road home. It was well after 8pm when we pulled into the driveway.
What fun! LET”S DO THAT AGAIN!!!
