Day 14: Arizonia

We drive to the forested North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That haze isn't humidity--it's smoke.

Evidence of previous forest fires. These pictures foreshadow nothing.

We head for Flagstaff, taking roads so high in altitude I almost didn't notice that town down there.

Day 15: July 12, 2005

We stayed the night in Flagstaff, which sucked--the mall sucked, they didn't have enough movie show times for Batman, Sedona was more crowded than Zion, and not a Best Buy in sight. Disgusted, we abandoned our plans to take a two-day rest and went to Phoenix instead. (Here's a picture of some Saguaro cacti!)

Day 16: July 13, 2005

We got this awesome hotel room in Pheonix for two nights, complete with fridge, for an awesomely low price. Apparently the middle of July is not peak season in central Arizona. Pheonix was awesome--good mall (with theaters enough to see Fantastic 4), a Best Buy, AND a LONE STAR! Wingies were had, and e crunched grasshoppers like Indiana Jones to walk to the Fridays next door to the hotel, where alcohol was had and T-neck got sloppy off martinis.

Day 17: July 14, 2005

Outside our hotel. We even got some laundry done.

We head back on the road, past some Joshua trees.

So, at a Barns and Noble in Flagstaff, Nops had gotten this cup of green tea and not quite finished it. We left it in the car as a science experiment. Here it is after three days inside a 100 degree plus car.

Oh snap, they did NOT get back on Route 66!

Well, we had to--because not only were there more murals, but Old 66 in Arizona goes through...

Oatman! Technically a ghost town, it's been taken over by shops that capitalize on all the wild donkeys that roam the streets looking for handouts from tourists. Oatman's main street looked like a generic town in Mexico.

A burro shows up for the T-shirt sale.

But they didn't have XXXL, so he's sad now.

T-neck consoles the poor donkey.

The donkeys just walk around like they own the place, but it was like 110 degrees so most were chilling in the shade.

Heh heh heh heh...

And with that, we leave Route 66 forever. I promise. Until we go from Chi Town to LA some year...

Just in case you thought traveling Route 66 in the summer of 2005 would be cheap.

Next: Nevada