Day 18

Day 15 through 18

It's been over two weeks already?  Man it's going fast. Ok so where was I last? New Mexico I think. Nothing's well marked in New Mexico so I spent far too much time on the modern interstate. Crossed into Arizona. They mark the Route decently but so much of it isn't drivable. Saw a ton more Indian trading posts. I'm not so sure about these places anymore. They price gouge like crazy. They all claim to be Indian owned and run. Ok I'll buy that but they also claim that their products are authentically Indian made. I turn over their wares and find made in Peru or china or wherever.

 I intended to eat at a little Route 66 Diner mentioned in a guide book but when I got there it was really just someone's mobile home converted into a "diner".  I decided that the only thing on the menu there was hepatitis so I bailed.  I got to pass through a small portion of the Petrified Forest.  Interesting sight.  If I had more time I would liked to have explored the park.  After here there's a ton of stores that just say "ROCKS!!!"  I'm not too interested in buying rocks so I never stopped at these places.  Into Holbrook crazy dinosaur statues line the road all over the place and in the town they are literally everywhere.  Some of these places charge you to take a picture so here's a link to people who paid to take pics. http://tinyurl.com/mnjg39k
From here a little side trip.  My grandma lives in Tucson Arizona so I decided to go down to see her.  Straight down from Holbrook to Tucson is about the most dangerous driving I've ever done.  The narrowest two lane road weaves along the cliff sides in the Arizona mountains at 65 mph.  Plus it was raining.  So I was pretty much terrified driving but after I stopped being a puss it actually really fun in the oh my god we're gonna die way I imagine skydiving is fun.  And the mountains are incredibly beautiful too.

So I got to see my grandma for a day which was great.  On my way out of Tucson I swung through Tombstone which was always a place I wanted to visit.  Kinda sad really.  In my head it's the coolest badass Western town but now it's really just a bunch of shops.  I did see a reenactment of the OK Corral shoot out.  It wasn't exactly Broadway but still pretty enjoyable to watch.

So that was pretty cool.  Tombstone is close-ish to the border so I was stopped by Border Patrol on my way out of town.

Back north it took most of the day so I stayed in Winslow made famous by that one song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzC7_im4_ac  yea that one.  And here's the monument to being mentioned in a song.

Which brings us to today.  Only a few stops today.  I scheduled a short day so I would have time to see the Grand Canyon in the evening.  There's a good long stretch of 66 to drive today.  I found a couple of iconic spots but they're unfortunately no longer in operation.

You can't even get out of your car at the Twin Arrows anymore.  It's all blocked off and the road is linked up to the Interstate off ramp so you really don't want to park on it.
So I'm staying at the Stagecoach 66 Motel.  Pretty cool little joint. Wanted to see the Grand Canyon but as soon as I hit the highway a full blown monsoon hits Arizona and I was forced to turn around.  Going to try again in the morning.