Don’t Get Rammed Off a Cliff!

Warning signs like this are posted throughout the park
see all photos »

When we woke up this morning at Needles Inn, we opened our motel room door and made an exciting discovery. According to the sign hanging in the motel office window, last night in our sleep-deprived state, we had somehow managed to find ourselves on historic Route 66. This day should be pretty interesting!

We got a good start this morning, energized by the possibility of what we might find on the Mother Road. Having never really driven it much before, we weren’t sure what to expect, though we had heard stories of some pretty interesting people and places. So it wasn’t long before we came across our first unusual sighting -- the Yucca Golf Ball House, a proclaimed “house of the future” that never really went anywhere. (I wonder if their freezer is stocked with Dippin’ Dots?) We had first spotted it in one of our travel books, so it was pretty exciting to drive right up to it and take some pictures. It’s now a private residence, so we couldn’t get too close, but the building is just what it sounds like…a giant white golf ball-shaped structure with only a few windows, surrounded by a yard full of random alien-themed items. We probably would have stayed longer, but the owner of the property was giving us the stink eye, and who knows what an inhabitant of a golf ball house is capable of, so we decided to move on down the road.

Really?
see all photos »

We continued on to Seligman, which is a famous town on Route 66. Here, we passed by well-known places like the Roadkill Café and the Rusty Bolt, an eccentric souvenir shop full of Route 66 memorabilia. We had to stop here, as it too was in one of our books. The outside was decorated with all sorts of oddities, from posed mannequins on the roof to a classic pink Cadillac parked out front. The inside was packed with all kinds of collectibles, not to mention free coffee and clean restrooms. It was clearly a hot spot for travelers of the Mother Road, both American and foreign, and it was fun to see the variety of people who stopped in while we were there.

see all photos »

Moving along, as we headed out of Seligman, we drove through a big storm, but luckily it had dissipated by the time we reached today’s major destination…Grand Canyon National Park. The temperature here was 52 degrees, so we had to bundle up before we could get out of the car to fully enjoy our Grand Canyon experience. We found our way to Mather Point along the southern rim of the canyon, where we got our first look at the famous chasm. It was unbelievable…so large that it was almost impossible to understand. With no way to judge distance across the canyon, it was hard to comprehend just how near or far certain landmarks were from us. It didn’t even look real! It was like a backdrop for a movie, or a painting. We took as many pictures as we could, but even so we couldn’t quite wrap our brains around what we were seeing. We followed a precarious walkway down to a landing where we could get a good vantage point at the ground below (yikes!) and the Colorado River that ran through. There were warning signs posted throughout the park that really made us feel secure: “Please don’t stand too close to the edge. People die here.” But our favorite was the sign that read: “LET BIGHORN SHEEP FEED THEMSELVES. Enjoy bighorn sheep from a safe distance. Don’t get rammed off a cliff." Good advice in any situation, really. While the whole experience was truly amazing, the best part was when we turned to leave and saw a big rainbow arcing its way over the canyon. That was the perfect ending to what was really an awesome natural wonder.

see all photos »

From there, we drove through the Painted Desert, but it had grown too dark to see much of anything – between the lack of daylight savings and the encroaching storm, darkness came a little sooner than we had anticipated. But it actually worked out to our advantage, because we got to see a really impressive lightning show in the desert sky. We eventually rejoined Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona and continued along it until we reached Winslow, a town that was put on the map with the popularity of the Eagles song “Take It Easy”. Here, we were on a mission…to find the Standin’ On the Corner Park in downtown Winslow. Despite the rainstorm, we did manage to find it – a statue of a man standing on the corner, complete with a flatbed Ford truck parked just a few feet away and a mural of the same painted on the building behind the statue. It stopped raining long enough for us to jump out of the car and take some quick pictures, but the storm had brought the temperature down considerably, and it was too cold for us to stay outside for very long.

see all photos »

Growing tired, we drove on to Holbrook, where we decided to stay for the night. Tomorrow, it’s on to Albuquerque!

Takin’ it easy on the road,

Your Road Warriors