After a solid breakfast one is ready to experience the sight of all sights: the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is a 45 minute drive due north of flagstaff. Upon reaching the entrance, you pay your fee (that is good for the entire week, not that it would help us) and drive toward some of the most awe-inspiring scenery known to man.
I want to make it clear I am not a nature nut. When I see a scenic view I say "wow that's nice", but I do not become melodramatic. I say without regret that your first views of the Grand Canyon will be memorable. You read about it. You even see pictures of it. But until you walk up to the edge, you will never truly know it. Even more majestic that the Niagara Falls (sorry Canada), the Grand Canyon is beyond description. We've posted a few pictures. They do not do it justice, but they are the best we got.
After nature's wonder, we set off towards a man-made wonder, the Hoover dam. On route one has the opportunity to take a rte66 sidetrack into Seligman. Seligman is like Holbrook, a final bastion of rte6 Americana. It seems to be fighting against time and it has the support of the American biker community. I recommend stopping at the Snow-Cap Drive-In. It looks bizarre. The employees/owners are bizarre. It is worth every penney getting a bite to ear or a delicious shake. Just make sure you get a real straw. After Seligman, rte66 makes a large l
oop throught peach springs. In our opinion there wasn't much on the rest of the journey, so you may prefer to head back onto the 40.We headed up hwy 93 at Kingman towards Vegas. How does one describe old 93? If one wanted to ensure that he would die and no one would find him, he would do it on the 93. The 93 is the most desolate, abandoned road I have ever encountered. It is about one hour from Kingman to the Hoover dam and the whole way I prayed to any god that our car would make the journey. I am pretty sure that if we stopped, our bodies would never be found again; likely being so delicious supper for some crazy hermit who patrolled the road for naive tourists.
The hoover dam has a police inspection point. Well, the inspection point is mainly a tent consisting of two retired officers of some sort who ask if you have any explosives. Essentially, if you do not look arabic you can proceed. As we are whiter that white we had no problem circumventing the security. We were unable to stop and really experienc the Hoover dam because they are busy constructing a new road throught the site. Ths road will not travel over the dam (I expect to keep the landmark safe). To make a long story short: we drove over the dam; it looked pretty big.
From Hoover Dam, we headed into Vega. Yeah, Vegas baby!! First, I want to say that Vegans (or whatever they are called) are crazy drivers. They wiz by us tourists in the left and right lanes like they are chasing the NEXTEL Cup. We found our hotel that was a mere quarer mile from the strip, on the other side of the 15. I admit it was cheap, but I figured if it was only a quarer mile from the strip we could easily walk there. Lindsey and I napped for a few hours and prepared to tour the stip around 8pm. You can see the strip. You can walk towards the strip. Unfortunately some retarded tourists like us can't reach the strip. It seemed every turn we made was the wrong one and we ended up wanderning areas of Vegas on foot where it was a miracle that we weren't mugged. In hindsight, we discovered our wrong turns, but we really did not have the energy to move forward on foot. We decided to drive around. Lindsey say the neon of the Vegas strip in its full glory. She wasn't very impress (she may have been tired) and we returned for a good night sleep. A good night sleep in Vegas; we are embarassments to all Canadians.
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