Today we’re going to drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. It’s roughly a 300 mile five hour drive through featureless desert to get there, maybe a couple of hours looking at it and then off to find somewhere to stay tonight.
We headed out on Highway 46 before then turning east on to Highway 93 which would take us past Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is a really vast reservoir created by the construction of the dam and its bright blue water seems suddenly strange surrounded by all this desert. About eight miles on past the Black Mountains, Highway 93 reaches the Hoover Dam itself. According to my tourist book it’s among the tallest dams ever built and used enough concrete to build a two lane highway from the west coast to New York. The road around and across the dam is very steep and winds a lot so I had to drive quite slowly and consequently was able to see the dam in all its glory. Once past this landmark it was 75 miles south straight down Highway 93 to Kingman. We were now well and truly in Arizona and this made it the third state of our holiday, California, Nevada and now this one.
We stopped and had some lunch at Kingman and then it was off again 125 miles along Highway 40 to Williams. The road from Williams would take us straight to the Grand Canyon and we knew that on our return from the Canyon we would once again be passing through Williams on the rest of our tour so we’d decided to book a motel in Williams for the night. We drove straight through Williams and then turned north on Highway 64 for the last leg of the journey to the Canyon, only another 175 miles or so to go.
We finally reached the south rim of the Grand Canyon about 3 pm and drove to a central area called Grand Canyon Village. This was where you could find the tourist shops, hotels, restaurants and information about the various bus tours available. I wasn’t sure what to expect really but when you saw this massive chasm it was almost beyond the grasp of your imagination. At more than a mile deep and from four to eighteen miles wide it was an endless expanse of shapes and colours, brightness and shadow. With all this magnificent splendour in front of our eyes Sophia summed up the grandeur of the situation by coming out with one of her profound and moving statements. She suddenly said, “Ooh look, there’s a bird.” All along its rim there were overlook points that all offered different views and we drove along stopping where we felt like. Guard rails were not always present and you could if you were brave enough, quite easily stand on the very edge of this vast abyss looking straight down 7,000 feet…..but not us.
It was time to start heading back to Williams for the night. We left the canyon about 6 pm and got to Williams at 8.30 pm. Everyone was feeling tired again so while the two girls stayed in the motel room Pauline and I went out and drove a couple of blocks into downtown Williams for something to eat.
We wanted a takeaway of some sort but every café, restaurant and diner we came across either seemed to be closing up for the night or was already shut. This, as I soon realised, was what it was like in Williams at 9 pm on a Saturday night. The place closed down, there was nothing open. We did however find a place that was in the process of shutting up but the staff were prepared to cook us a hot chicken sandwich with fries and salad while the place closed down. We sat at the counter and had a bucket of coffee while we were waiting when I noticed on the counter they had these ‘Route 66’ fridge magnets for sale. I knew we’d been travelling fairly close to it because I’d seen road signs for Route 66 every now and then on our drive to and from the Grand Canyon but our map didn’t show it at all. As far as the map was concerned, Route 66 didn’t exist.
I asked the waitress if Route 66 was far away. She just pointed to the road running outside the diner and said, “That’s it.” And there it was. The road I’d just driven down was the historic Route 66. A road I’d read and heard so much about, a legend in its own lifetime and there it was. I was stunned and just had this great feeling knowing that I had actually driven down this famous American highway. I casually said to the waitress, “I don’t suppose there are any places that might sell Route 66 T-shirts are there?” She said, “Sure, the Route 66 store sells ‘em. It’s seven blocks down from here opposite a bank. You cain’t miss it.” I couldn’t believe it. Not only had I just driven on Route 66 but this dead and alive town that shut at 9.30 pm on a Saturday night actually had a Route 66 shop. I couldn’t believe my luck. “Right,” I said to Pauline, “tomorrow morning before we leave I’m going to spend all my money in the Route 66 shop.”
We asked the waitress why Williams was such a quiet place and she said, “Well not so long ago we were the sixth biggest town in Arizona. Then Route 66 stopped getting used as they built more and more faster roads around it and then the railroad went. It now only feeds the Grand Canyon and the town is just a backwater.”
Never mind I thought, at least you’ve got a Route 66 shop, that’s something.
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