But we have places to go and people to meet, so off we went! We made the obligatory stop at McDonalds along the way, where I got a Reese’s McFlurry! Searched Flagstaff for a Walmart. Our SatNav took us to Sam’s, which was no good. As we were leaving Flagstaff, there it was!! But we had to go on and wait another day for Walmart.
The remaining bit of our journey is really retracing our footsteps from our trip 2 years ago. But doing things bigger and better. In fact, this started with Monument Valley. In 2008, we essentially just drove through it, taking pictures and moving on. We never got the Valley in our soul, literally, since by the end of this visit, we must have ingested at least a pound of red dirt. (It felt that way anyway!) We ate Navajo food and toured Monument Valley – seeing views that can never be seen if you do not go deep into it. So, with any luck, although we are not doing anything much new, we hope to continue having new experiences based on what we know we missed last time.
Our ultimate destination today was Grand Canyon, but we wanted to go back to Williams, AZ. We all had fallen in love with the iconic Route 66 town, but we had gotten there too late last time to enjoy it. So we factored in lunch at the same diner we went to last time. We did not factor in that this is Memorial Day weekend and the town was absolutely booming! How lucky were we? As we walked toward our diner, I was stopped by a cowboy and kissed! Not a bad start to a visit!
We sat at the same table as last time at the diner and then each of us went on our merry way to see what we wanted. The shops are darling here and everyone bought something, which was great. I found a craft show and finally spent my budget on jewelry!
We drove on to Grand Canyon and checked into Yavapai Lodge. Once again, repeating a pattern. But we were put into a nicer bit of the lodge, so we do have air conditioning, a fridge, coffee maker and no ceiling fan. This was a nice surprise, especially the coffee maker!
A highlight of being at the Grand Canyon was knowing that my little sister from my sorority days (Delta Delta Delta) was meeting us there, with her husband. The plan was to meet at the El Tovar Hotel bar at around 5:30. And the plan worked!! It was amazing to see someone I have not seen in at least 30 years! And I am very grateful that she and her husband, Bill, drove 6 hours to come meet us. We had a very relaxed evening, first a drink at the bar, then sunset over the Grand Canyon, then dinner in the cafeteria. We were all so tired that this was enough.
Nancy brought two batches of Oatmeal cookies for us! I don’t think she realizes how perfect that gift was: to me – a road trip requires home baked cookies and this would have been impossible for us to have. And now we do! Thanks Nancy!
“Fill your life with simple joys”
No comments:
Post a Comment