Day 5 - route 66, flagstaff, hollister

Today was a more leisurely day. We woke up at 8ish and slobbed until around 10, eating pop-tarts in bed. Opened the curtains to see a hummingbird inches from my face, Sarah was jealous. We packed up and checked out around 11 to hit the road. Not as long a drive as yesterday, approx 240miles. We crossed the Colorado river and entered our 3rd state – Arizona. Sarah was map reading so missed the welcome to Arizona sign lol.

We took the wrong exit off the interstate and it just so happened to be a truck inspection lane, where they weigh and inspect the goods. We queued with the trucks until we got to the weighing scales and luckily there was a woman in the window. We played the touristy card and said ‘uhh we took the wrong exit.. how do we get to route 66?? Sorry!’. No doubt a funny sight for all the truck drivers that day.

We stopped off at Walmart in Kingman. It was a huge super-center – bigger than anything in the UK. Wandered round for like 45mins, picking up yet more American junk food (so cheap! 1ltr powerade was 80cents) and filled up the cooler. Then we got on to Route 66 and began the famous drive, wow fantastic views pretty much the whole way.

Road As Far As The Eye Can See

Awkwardly stuck behind a Volkswagen for a while, dithering whether to overtake (we did). Saw loads of tumbleweed but was all too quick to take a photo of. Stopped at a gimmicky shop but didn’t buy anything. It’s a shame route 66 is looking quite run down, but it looks like it’s supposed to be that way.

Route 66

We hopped back on the freeway at Seligman heading deeper into Arizona. When all of a sudden the landscape changed into forest country. There were warnings for elk and deer. We saw a deer woohoo… shame it was dead on the side of the road. We reached a max altitude of 7500ft and the temps started dropping to a lovely 85.

On to Flagstaff, where we hadn’t pre-booked a motel so pulled into the ‘budget host inn’ on route 66. The Asian guy hardly spoke English and was like ‘you eat? eat?’ whilst taking a bite out of an imaginary sandwich. He was recommending a place for us to go for dinner. After checking in we went for a drive. We ended up at the Flagstaff Mall and Marketplace – where dreams come true. We made a B-line for the Hollister store, and spent the next hour inside splurging $200 on 15 items of clothing. Everything was on sale, with a sale on the sale stuff of 50% (if that makes sense). Sarah bought a t-shirt for just $4.50!

Hollister Tags

After returning to the checkout 3 times we thought we better leave before we started to look weird. We headed to Del Taco, and yes you guessed it – we got a taco. It was good, filling food.

Back to the motel now, with a chair propped up against the door. A nervous nights sleep ahead, not helped by CBS warning of monsoons coming this weekend…Grand Canyon tomorrow so may not be on till 1st July when we’ll probably be in Page, AZ.