Our drive today was quite eventful. We decided to take the shorter route I had plotted (by 40 miles) that meant we would double back down the I40 East then West between Flagstaff and Winslow. I don't usually like using the same road twice, but so glad I did today as I will explain. First, we took the 89A North from Sedona towards Flagstaff - a wonderful twisty forested region that climbed up 6000 feet with spectacular views from Slide Rock. Unfortunately though it wasn't all good - not longer after leaving Sedona the Tyre pressure sensor started flashing so we pulled over to take a look at the tyres where at first we couldn't see any problem so decided to carry on a bit and check the tyres at the next petrol station. At our viewpoint stop while walking back to the car I noticed screws embedded in one rear tyre. I pulled out the emergency sealant and inflated the tyre with it. Our next hope was to find a tyre place in Flagstaff. We tried two different garages, one closed on Sunday, the other didn't have our tyre size, so we decided to throw caution to the wind and drive on to visit our intended stop at the Crater, then on to Winslow to see the standin' on corner park, thankfully in Winslow and thanks to the young guy in the souvenir shop he looked up a tyre place not far around the corner that was open on Sunday, we drove around and sure enough they had the right size tyre and for 130 bucks I had a new tyre - the best option we thought than ruining the day waiting for road side assistance to come. In the end there were six screws in the tyre.
After the tyre incident we popped into WalMart for a snack and made our way the remaining 180 miles to the Grand Canyon and our two night stop at Grand Canyon village. Our chosen route in took us North up the 89 then West along the 64 to bring us in via the Indian reservation first at Gray Mountain then to the first official view point - Desert View, and then we stopped at Grand View in time to watch the sunset. As we entered the park kiosk we were told we didn't have to pay the 35 dollar fee since it was exactly 100 years today since the park was opened. I have to say though I would have happily paid it, we were left literally speechless in awe of the sights we were seeing, no photograph can quite capture this. Helen said it's up there with the Whale watch in Monterey, and I have to agree. 😳😀😀
At the Meteor crater at last, always wanted to come here since I was a kid seeing pictures in books and listening to Gordon Gores tales too. Gordon - I think they must have rebuilt the ' Jeff Bridges' Cafe since you last came - Helen has got your T-Shirt though 👍.
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Train in the distance.
Jackson Browne statue I wanted to see, one of our favourite songs 'Take it Easy'. As a Jackson Browne fan I prefer his version than the Eagles version, and Jackson wrote it. 'such a fine sight to see, it's a girl my lord in a flat bed Ford slowing down to take a look at me'.
This Tyre centre in Winslow saved the day, didn't fancy driving on to the Canyon then having to faff with getting it fixed from there.
Back on the road in no time 👍.
In the distance we could see the Grand Canyon ahead on the horizon. We started to realise the size of it considering my GPS said we were still over 60 miles away from South rim!
