Road Trip!

Like I said before, not everything is ugly in Arizona.  I took a little trip into Williams and the Grand Canyon this weekend, the kind of trip that everybody should make once in their lifetime.  The weather was wonderful - not too cold, not hot at all, just perfect!  The wildflowers were in bloom, adorning the landscape as I drove - I wanted to stop and play but that would have been downright suicidal, especially here in AZ.

These are the San Francisco Peaks, looking all majestic in the background.  For a second there I felt the urge to start singing.........The hills are alive with the Sound of Music.....

I started my trip by driving into Williams, which is a small town along the legendary route 66 where the train station happens to be located at.  Williams is quite small, but charming - the whole town is about 10 blocks scattered with a few shops and restaurants.  It took me about an hour to do some shopping, taste some delicious Prickly Pear ice cream at Twisters

 and explore the town.  I left with the suspicion that the Coca Cola company owns most of Williams because their signs are everywhere, even on the train - but that's fine with me since it's my drink of choice - that and Starbucks.

If you ever visit Williams you must definitely stop at this place - the staff is friendly, the food is good and they have a store adjacent to the cafe that sells the coolest stuff!

This is Burt, looking very tired and fed up with life.  I felt really bad for him and hope his owner comes back as a horse in the next life!

Before boarding the train to the Grand Canyon you get to see a short "Wild West" show - a shootout at the corral, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.  They should make it into a sitcom.

Throughout the train ride we had entertainment - I wonder if this is how these guys make a living........kind of like those singers that roam the NYC Subway and earn quite a lot of money entertaining the masses.  Somehow I don't think these guys make the same amount of money, but the singing was good.

The scenery changes as you pass through - from barren, dried out landscapes to not so lush "forests".  I loved seeing the cows (no more than four) running away trying to escape from the train, even though they were about a mile or two away - really cute.  We saw some deer......well, maybe one, and even saw a dead cow!  I thought it was a prop, but later at lunch I was quite sure that was the cow they used for the burger meat - it tasted quite old.

And finally!!  This is what I came here to see - nature's wonder.  The pictures don't do it justice - look across, I can't even imagine how far these must be.  It takes your breath away.

And look at these fools......no amount of money would make me get atop a mule and ride that close to the rim without a fence in between.  Did you know that the mules don't really want to go down, but they come back up because there's the promise of a treat waiting for them?

What is there to say that one of these mules will not get itchy and try to get you off their back so they can scratch themselves?  It just a matter of time before they revolt and start throwing people off the cliff.

And then it was time to get back to the train and on our way home - perfect ending for my weekend getting to know Arizona.