Arizona - Hoover Dam & Kingman

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hoover Dam - A tourist must !

You kill it, we grill it !

We crossed the border here (from Nevada to Arizona)

Hoover Dam is all man made and the security was intense - no doubt because it supplies the power and water to CA and Vegas !

I watched a documentary once about what would happen if humans ceased to exist - how quickly it would take for plantation to become overgrown and in the doco it said that Hoover Dam would be the last power supply to cut off as it has been designed to operate without human intervention for several years !  Don't say I'm not providing an educational blog here folks !

Decided to do the Grand Canyon in the Winnebago so after the dam, we headed for Kingman which is on the way to the Grand Canyon Caverns (the caverns are not at the Grand Canyon.. just to confuse matters)

Kingman is the heart of the historical route 66.  (Sing with me now.. get your kicks.. on Route 66)

What a cute country town.  Checked out the historical museum and then checked into yet another dodgy motel.  Went to Dennys for dinner and checked the emails etc...

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Woke up and did breakfast and then on the road again to the Caverns.  Awesome place, located at Peach Springs between Kingman and Seligman in Arizona.

http://www.grandcanyoncaverns.com/

Greg did the caverns when he was 21 about 30 odd years ago and wanted the kids to see them..

I wasn't going to go - I was going to stay in the car and be a nerd and do my blog because I was spooked by the fact that we were going into a lift down 91feet, but the kids threatened to boycott so.. one in, all in !  The blog will have to wait for another day !

The lift scared the bejeeeezus out of me but into the pit I went.  It was great.  Have a look at the web if you're interested in the caverns.. I took a lot of pics too.  Very educational !

After the caverns it was off to lunch on Route 66 in Seligman.  Roadkill and SteakHouse - aka the OK Saloon.  What a cack.

Kids menu items include:-

Poached Bambi Burger (burger and fries)

Rocky the Low Flying Squirrel (steak and potato)

Adults menu items:-

Hard luck Duck (Fish Fillets)

Long Gone Fawn (6 oz steak)

Highway Hash (Surf and Turf)

Rigor Mortis Tortoise (Fried Shrimp)

We settled on the Varmint Vittles (a chicken wrap) and the Treads N' Bread (a BLT)

How do I remember all of this?  I grabbed a menu of course !  :)

Drinks were served in humungous oversized pickles jars and it was a real treat.

After lunch.. another drive.. We've done 1000 kilometres as I'm typing this.. That's Perth to Coolgardie and back and then back to Southern Cross.. so.. a bit of road !

The hills and valleys from Vegas to Phoenix are just awesome. It's truly like the movies !  I'm click click clicking away making Greg stop and slow down for the perfect shot.. all falling on deaf ears.. If he's not hungry we don't stop, if he doesn't need to use the loo, we don't stop...  After 20 requests of a toilet stop he finally stopped.. Harsh words were in order.. As I explained... we do not share the same bladder.. he needed to get a grip .. We're not in the bloody bus yet I say !

We entered Phoenix and I was gobsmacked.  All the oversized cactus and mexican feel .. beautiful.

We arrived into Phoenix and then on to Tempe (a suburb of) around 630pm tonight and checked into the Econo Lodge.  Whilst the name sounds dodgy, it's the best smelling place we've stayed in for the past 3 nights.  It's right next door to the RV Place too.  We've sighted our van in the yard.  She's a little (big) beauty. We'll collect her in the morning.

Greggy will do the 3 hour run through with them and then we'll drop the hire car off and head straight for Wal-mart (I'll make sure I take pics for you Mel)

We'll have to buy all the foof and cack to deck her out.  Linen, towels, crockery, cutlery, food etc and we'll need to get a GPS. Our very own Gabby.. god she's been good to us.. it will be a teary farewell :(     :)

I can hardly wait to unpack and dump the suitcases underneath.  The car is chockers as we've got all of our winter woolies, 2 suitcases, the lap top, 2 pieces of hand luggage and just one boot so it's been a jigsaw puzzle every time we have to check into a new motel.. especially when we're not on the ground floor !!!! Oh the joys of travelling !

From the little I've seen of Phoenix so far, it looks really big !  I'm looking forward to exploring !

I think that's us up to date.  Writing this while I'm at the coin laundry at Circle K.  (I feel like I'm in Bali.. the Circle K part, not the domestic part of course...)

Off to Slingshot in town tomorrow too to get our wireless sorted.  That AT&T were useless.  I've been using wireless at the motels so I need to get internet sorted else I'll fall apart !

Stay tuned folks.. the real adventure in the bus starts tomorrow... EEEEEEKKKKK

Oh yeah.. forgot to tell you.. When we were on the Caverns tour, we were chatting (unlike me to talk to strangers.. being so shy and all) to a couple that come from Tempe (between Seligman and Phoenix).  They flew to the Caverns with a few other couples.  They all had these cute little light aircrafts.  Awesome.  We watched them take off and we were invited to call in if we were passing through.. How friendly is that.. it's clearly my magnetic personality.. or maybe it was likeable Greggy.. nah... lets not kid ourselves now..

Catch up again soon.

x