Where I've Been: Rt 66, the rest of it

I'm not sure now what day I left off of.  I know I was in our hotel in Flagstaff when I made the last post.  After that we were at a friends house, then a Wigwam, then back into a Marriot in Amarillo, but I didn't feel like blogging that night.

The morning we left Flagstaff, we headed straight toward the Grand Canyon not too far away.  It was an amazing sight to see, as you may have suspected or already know.  The vastness was mind blowing and breath taking.  And to think years ago, when people were just beginning to explore the western expanse of this nation, the poor guys who met the rim of this canyon on horse back!  What could they have thought?  A slew of swear words, I'm sure.

We didn't stay there long.  There is only so much peering over the edge you can do.  Now, if I could go down in that canyon I could stay there roaming around for a year.

We ate some left over pizza in the car and then we were off to our friend's house in Vegas.  We didn't get there until dark so the first thing we did was make a quick drive up of the strip so the kids could see the lights.  They're favorite things were the Circus Circus clown, the Excalibur castle, and the pirate ships at the... whatever hotel has the pirate ships.  Alaurie also thought it was cool when she saw a girl "dressed as a bird" (show girls).

We stayed two nights with our friends, an old coworker of my husband's, her husband and their teenage daughter.  We spent one whole day in Vegas seeing the botanical gardens at The Belagio, showing the kids where grown ups lose all their money, and then walking around Freemont St.

Poppys

Butterfly sanctuary

Linda and Brad

Freemont St

I love the old part of Vegas

We wore ourselves out pretty good in Vegas but it was a great time.  Thursday morning was a jam packed day of travel.  We left Linda's house late in the morning after a good long sleep and headed back toward New Mexico.  Our first stop on the way out of Nevada was the Hoover Dam.

The Dam

The dam bridge

My dam sign

I'm not sure what my daughter's dam sign is.

Brad and Braden have the same dam sign.

Maybe this is my daughter's dam sign?

Still on Thursday, I'm not even going to say the name of the next town where we stopped.  It was awesome though.  Take a look at these pictures and find the ways that this town has set an entire scene.

Notice the truck?

All painted on the side of this wall.

My new favorite picture of my little Oli.

Our stop was an overnight in Holbrook AZ.  Staying in this Wigwam Motel was the absolute highlight of my trip.  It's old, and albeit kind of ugly, but it's clean, warm, and welcoming.  This place transports you to another time.  Old cars line the parking lot as if they're staying at motel as well, and as you walk the parking lot you can smell the wood burning stove in the front office.  I wonder what it might have been like in the 50's to be cruising down the mother road, looking for a place to rest, when this cluster of tee pees pops up to greet you.  This place, even with it's age and limited amenities, was so much cooler than the chain hotels we had already been staying in.

So I say to myself, "This looks like a prime location for a facebook profile pic photo shoot."  And then I say to Brad, "Brad! Take my picture on this car!".

 And that's how I became America's Next Top Model.

check in

Next stop, back to Amarillo!  We had some great steaks Friday night at a place called The Stockyard cafe.  We met some friends there that we hadn't seen in a while and ended our vacation with good food and conversation.

We had great time on our retro, low budget vacation.  If we do it again (I want to) I want to stay at all of the little historic motels instead of the chains we used (we had points) this time.

-Hugh Jass