(Before anyone panics that we're using the Harley like a rocket, the headline is referring to the weather).
Well, for the first time in a few days we were able to have a lie in, well we should have been except for the American family next door. Last night they were talking so loud they obviously wanted people to know of their lacking domestic bliss, and we could all hear the episode of South Park their children watched til nearly midnight. And the loud talking (otherwise known as shouting) began again at 7 this morning.
Rant over...
This morning, we were blessed to be able to Skype family in Swinton, including our newest niece in her first Skype call!
...this was as far as we got before falling asleep! We will try to complete yesterday's blog including pics later today :-) x
Cont... today's journey was due to take us from Arizona into California, but en route would have some good stretches of the old road. First stop was Seligman, AZ, the place name wasn't immediately familiar but there were coaches full of tourists and more arriving every few minutes. Within a moment the crowds were drawn to a new arrival, not a coach but a replica of the De Lorean from Back to The Future. This allowed us to get into the previously crowded shop and Craig saw the main man was 'Angel' the guy who featured in Billy Connolly's route 66 programme, so photo time before a quick escape from tourist coach city.
Next came the Grand Canyon caverns, a privately owned cavern system which is not part of the Grand Canyon but takes its name as its internal air supply comes underground from the distant landmark. We took a guided tour and found that this was also featured on TV and is the caverns where you can book an overnight stay in a room built in the caves, it was also chosen to be a nuclear bunker with supplies of water and military/sanitation rations (which were never taken back out due to the cost and effort!).
We then pushed onto Kingman, AZ where we chose to have lunch at Dennys (home of the PB and Nana milk shake, it is V nice) but were caught up by a major electrical storm. We were warned that if we planned to wait it out we could be there several hours, so got our water proofs out and set off to brave the weather. Fortunately we were soon out in front of the storm, and then up through a twisty road network into the mountains where we found Oatman, a rt66 ghost town brought back to life for tourism purposes (and home to such places as Outlaw Willies, Fast Fannies and Jackass Junction). These twisty mountain roads then lead into the Arizona gold mine territory in which we didn't find our riches but continued on.
That was it for Arizona, it was now Mojave desert time, to take us into California, across the Colorado river and into Needles. As we travelled through the desert we saw a few of the long freight trains we've come to be familiar seeing in this part of the world, we also saw quite regularly wash channels through tunnels below their tracks. These channels apparently became fast flowing washes of flood water from the hills which went through the desert and across dips in the road and could take cars away and send rocks and gravel across the road (not to be messed with).
That pretty much took us to Needles then, but late enough that after a quick dip in the pool then tea it was a bit late and we were a little too tired to blog :-( hope you enjoy the pics and this late update.
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