The Big Road Trip – Day 17

I woke up in Kingman, Arizona, right on the original Rt 66. Yep, I was getting my kicks.

I got prepared, fueled and ready to drive the old Rt 66. I took off and saw mostly NOTHING! Seriously, Rt 66 was a desolate route to drive through this part of Arizona. Sure, I went through some little towns, many of them just ruins at this time. Basically, I saw some beautiful country, went through at least one Indian Reservation and the rest was pretty much old gas stations, diners, an occasional motel and such, but mostly boarded up and overgrown. The I reached a little town of Seligman and it was hopping. Like Kingman, though Kingman looked larger, they had fixed the town up to cater to the Rt 66 tourist trade. It may have been more depressed outside the main drive through town, but in town – it was all about the Rt 66 curiosity tourists with the required cafes, puts, souvenir shops, little museums and such. After passing through, Fiona, my handy GPS navigator took me over I-40 on Rt 66 to a point where I took one look at the road and decided I wouldn’t go over that road in a HumVee. So, it was back on I-40.

Now, I was on my way to Williams, Arizona. Williams was another old Rt 66 town, but it is also where I would get on Rt 89 to the Grand Canyon, a place I’d never been. I’ve flown over it at 35,000 feet an untold number of times – and I have the photos to prove it. But, I’d never been to the site itself. I was barreling along at about 83 miles per hour and going up some very steep inclines as we headed for the sky again, when scanned my dashboard and – WOW, my temperature gauge was at HOT – I mean shut the engine down fast – HOT! So, I pulled over on the shoulder very quickly, shut it down and sat back and waited for it to cool down over about a 25 or 30 minute period.

Finally, I decided to check the pressure cap to see if I could get it off without scalding myself – and it was safe. So, I had plenty of water in the car and poured in six bottles of water. I put the cap back on, closed the hood and – viola. I was back on the road. I had no problems with overheating after that. I made it into Williams, Arizona which was, like Seligman, Arizona, a Rt 66 tourist town and also, the gateway to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, about 60 miles north. It was very nicely done up for the tourist trade and apparently there was a biker event going on this weekend because there were thousands of Harleys (mainly) with a lot of “OLD” bikers and their biker Babes all over town. They even had all the street parking blocked off for the bikers to park their “hogs” and a couple of the side streets were blocked for events. I looked for the nearest Walmart to buy some 50/50 coolant for the car – but, believe it or not, Walmart hadn’t found Williams, yet. I did find a convenience store/gas station that had exactly one gallon of coolant left on the shelf. I bought it.

I then took the drive to the Grand Canyon and got there about 5 PM – well, I, of course, only saw one tiny fraction of this Wonder of the World – but it was every bit as awesome as everyone says it is. I spent about an hour there. I took a little video, shot some of my own photos, even got my own ugly mug in a shot or two and took pictures for other people, including a delightful young Japanese couple and one of their mothers. They were so polite and thankful. It was very sweet and I felt very good since I seemed to make their experience a little richer. I, of course, was by myself and would have really loved sharing that experience with someone else, but, alas, that was not in the cards this time. But, I’ll be going back there – living and working free allows me to do that on my schedule – and with someone to enjoy the experience with.

The car was running fine, I still hadn’t put the gallon of coolant in, but it never heated up again. So, I decided I’d do it when I got to my next overnight stop. The AC has kept the car cool, so far, also. So, off I went, heading back to I-40 and my stopover for the night of Day 17, Winslow, Arizona. It wasn’t too long a ride, but I’d lost a bit of time with the overheating and then looking for coolant, so I arrived in Winslow, just about dusk. I found a Best Value America motel at the first exit and decided that’s where I’d be for the night. I checked in and schlepped my stuff into the room and then, I ran out to search for something to eat. I finally found a Denny’s, grabbed some soup and a grilled cheese sandwich and went back to the motel. I took care of some e-mails, wanted to get this posting done and some other work, but – my eyelids were pretty heavy, so I called it a day, turned out the light and sawed some logs. Day 17, another awesome day with a few little challenges to deal with.

Enthusiastically,
Ed