Day 2 - Barstow, CA to Grand Canyon Village, AZ

Today was not as productive a day towards the actual road journey as we'd intended; as you can see by the accompanying map, we only made it from Barstow, CA to the Grand Canyon (416 miles plus detour), but the latter not until after dark (so this'll be a shorter blog as the alarm goes off at 5:30am for a sunrise tour!). But we did pass the first landmark - welcoming us to Arizona. We were very disappointed that there was no corresponding sign kicking us out of California.


We did get to see some wonderful things along the way anyway, including:


- We saw Mater! We passed Newbury Springs, CA, driving through the Mojave region, and we could swear it was Radiator Springs. Kudos to Pixar for the realism. The last little fillip to the realism was the rusty tow truck sitting on the outskirts of town. I think he winked at us as we went by. :)
- The Hand of G/d. A rather eerie rock formation along the 95 down to Lake Havasu, which is where we visited the next item:

- The London Bridge. We couldn't resist, just inside the Arizona state line, a sign that said "London Bridge, 20 miles." It was a much-enjoyed hour+ detour from the chosen road. We'd both forgotten that the 1860 bridge had been purchased by a U.S. town and moved over, brick by brick. We had to go visit, take pictures, and revel in small-town American interpretation of old-towne London. 
- Beth's first In and Out Burger. The musical kitchen staff added just the right edge to the secret sauce.
- Spectacular scenery. There was just enough fog near the mountains in the Mojave area for the mountains themselves to appear every shade of greyish-blue imaginable. Beautiful. I know some people like their mountains large and vivid, but that shading on the horizon is what always stirs my imagination.
- The tumbleweeds and rolling scrub-covered desert. We were imagining scenes from Blazing Saddles and other Westerns (I could swear I saw the dust trails of the marauding cowboys, honest!), and feeling much, much pity for the poor shlubs who walked across on their way out West.
- We had to visit Snoopy's brother, Spike. Did you know he lives in Needles, CA? We stopped there briefly to check out the tourist information center in the Department of the Interior; we had to appreciate their bathroom decor while we were at it. I'm sure you can see why.
- Watching my hybrid struggle up to 6,000 feet of elevation. I've never seen the hybrid battery go that low (when the engine is being used to struggle uphill, the battery supports it. Pressing on the brake charges the battery. It went nearly flat 2x on the way up to the Grand Canyon!).
- We may never get the tune out of our heads, but Kicks have been got on Route 66. We've been on and off of it for the last 300 miles, at least.
- And most amusing - to me at least - is trying to figure out how, when I managed to put MORE in the trunk today with the new space bags, the backseat looks even more full! I don't get it!


Post-script: I forgot one of the nicest surprises of the day. We'd asked at a tourist center down the road about staying near the Grand Canyon and were resoundingly advised to stay in Williams (55 miles away) because there was no way we were going to find anything affordable closer.  We decided we'd splurge just once along the way and made tracks to stay in the area anyway. Long story short, we came across the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, five minutes away from the park. With AAA discount, $70.34. And quite conceivably the cleanest, best-maintained, nicest hotel below the executive level that I've stayed at in years. Highly recommended!


OK. Six hours to o-g/d-hundred and the tour. More tomorrow! 


Note: I'm going to start including additional photos at the bottom. That way I am only one of those annoying people who bore you with trip photos if you choose to look at them. And since Beth took more than 200 photos on Day 2 alone, there will be many, many to choose from. :)

We're making note of the named cities from the tune as we
approach or pass through them.

Look! Kilometers!