Trip of Giants - GC to Pheonix

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A little juggling of schedules today: we need to get our laundry done, could look around Williams, could do a wildlife park drive, and could return the Grand canyon so Joseph can get his badge. After a nice complimentary breakfast complete with waffle makers (Donkey's voice from 'Shrek' pops in "I'm makin' waffles!"), Ky goes to the laundromat while I post postcards in town with the boys. We have a look in a souvenir shop where Joseph and I find more geodes $6 each, and a small piece of petrified wood for $3 (Ky later says that's enough rocks!). Williams looks pretty awesome with all the murals and arty-crafty places so Ky stays back to look around town while I take the boys back to the Grand Canyon.

We are aiming for an 11am Ranger talk at the Tusayan Museum which I presume is in Tusayan but seems its not: it is in fact 22 miles east along the Desert View road from the Grand Canyon Visitors Centre, so we can't make it in time. We drive instead to the Visitors Centre where the very nice Ranger gives Joseph a search-and-find sheet to fill in. After an hour all is done and he collects his Junior Ranger badge for the Grand Canyon national park. I conceive of another travel idea: to trip across America visiting all the national parks and becoming Junior Rangers in all of them.

Running late, we drive the one hour back to get Ky (not happy as she felt wrong standing on the street corner), pickup some lunch snacks at the Safeways and hit the road.

Then road construction. We join a miles long queue of traffic patiently and courteously forming one lane past the road works. Fifty minutes. In Australia, the merge point is usually a centimeter in front of the cones. Here, the traffic merges to one lane way back, leaving the other lane open, but inexplicably very few people zip up the empty lane. I did notice that every now and then when a car did try to take the empty lane a truck would pull across and block its path.

So now running an hour late, we hot foot it at 75mph speed limit south of Flagstaff through scenery that is the more typical Arizona. Canyons and hills with the giant Sauaro cactus standing 2 to 4 meters high. Must get some seeds!

The original plan was to drop everyone at the hotel while I return the hire car, but already close to 5pm by the time we enter the Phoenix outskirts so we go straight to the rental car drop off by following the clearly marked signs. Only problem: no fuel station to refuel at so we get charged an extra $72. Bugger.

Then shuttle to airport, call the hotel at the convenient hotel phone counter, and the cheerful Doubletree shuttle driver picks us up and loads our luggage for us.

Doubletree at Gateway Phoenix is fantastic. The room is big, two double beds with TV, then a fold-out sofa bed in the other room with TV, mini-kitchen and dining table. I take notes of Doubletree locations in China for our 2012 trip 😊. Counter staff are cheerful and very helpful. We're not impressed by the Bar and Grill restaurant, so the concierge recommends a place "that will be perfect for you guys" called the Bill Johnson. He arranges the free shuttle for us, and the driver leaves a card so he can collect us. Amazing service!

The restaurant is a cowboy theme steak and grill with sawdust on the floor and gun-toting waitresses. I didn't think to ask if they ever had a hold up!. We stuff ourselves again. This time I am the lucky one with the glass of beer being twice the size of the kids' soft drinks. I reckon it was close to 900ml in the glass. Meals and desserts are big! I get halfway through my Molten Lava Chocolate cake with Icecream and decide I'd better stop before I throw up. Then I look across to see Joseph struggling with his: he had that weary, flushed and bulgy-eyed look that suggests he also may have reached his limit. He agrees with my suggestion to stop eating.

After the shuttle ride back and requisite half hour rest, we hop in the warm pool to escape the heat. I figure it was around 35 degrees C at 9pm. Finally to bed.

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