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Published: September 22nd 2008
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On my last day in Playa I had one last trip to the beach (just in case there'd be no sunshine in Arizona...) and then caught a bus to the airport in Cancun. The flight left on time and I had a great view of the Cancun hotel zone from the window. I was sitting next to an English couple so I think they must have sat us all together so they could keep an eye on us.
It was good to get back to Phoenix and see Luba, Terry and Sean but at the same time I miss my adventuring in Latin America. Perhaps I ought to go and hang out with the Mexicans at the car wash down the road.
I spent my first few days in Phoenix relaxing and enjoying the feeling of having guaranteed air-conditioning, hot water and nice weather! Obviously not having learnt from the first time, I decided to have a walk to the mall again and by the time I got there I couldn't be bothered to do any shopping anyway! I also had a great time alphabetising Sean's DVDs. I'm not joking by the way, I really did enjoy it...
On the 12th I set off on my next adventure with Luba. We had a five day road trip around northern Arizona and southern Utah and ended up seeing loads. Some of the scenery was stunning and I even got to drive Luba's Z! On the first day we headed north from Phoenix, stopped for lunch in Flagstaff and continued on to a place called Lees Ferry where we spent the night. There was nothing else around where our hotel was so it was really quiet and peaceful and we had a great view of the Vermillion Cliffs right in front of us. Our room was really nice and there was a sitting area outside where we had a few drinks and had a chat with a couple staying in the room next door, Janice and Bob. We had dinner in the restaurant and then we played pool against Janice and Bob and lost miserably (though I'm sure we were letting them win so as not to hurt their feelings...!).
The next day we set off for the north rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping at Jacob Lake on the way. It was wonderful seeing the Grand Canyon again
The Zs
Luba's is in the foreground - I got to drive that thing! and there were some amazing views from the north rim. We walked part of the way down towards Bright Angel Point and then went for lunch in the restaurant with panoramic views of the canyon! That evening we had a(nother) bottle of wine and a game of pool which took ages because we're both so rubbish we couldn't get any of the balls in.
From Lees Ferry we headed towards Monument Valley in Utah. We stopped for lunch near the border at a place called Gouldings where there was an interesting museum about all the filming that's done in the Monument Valley area. We also got to see John Wayne's cabin! From there we went to the Monument Valley viewpoint where we saw some amazing rock formations. Our hotel at Mexican Hat was about an hours drive north from there. The only restaurant in the vicinity was the "Swinging Steak" where we had a choice of steak or chicken so it's a good job we're not vegetarian! Me and Luba shared a huge steak which was really nice but Luba kept having to send hers back because it was too pink!
The next day we went to see
the Goosenecks monument which was a really strange shaped canyon carved by the river running through it. We then went to the Four Corners National Monument where you can be in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico at the same time. From there we drove back into Arizona to Canyon de Chelly where our next hotel was. The canyon was beautiful and Spider Rock was especially impressive. I'm not too happy about the rain though - I expect better than that from Arizona!
After Canyon de Chelly we headed West into the Hopi Mesas area where there are ruins of old Hopi villages which you can take a tour around. We visited a museum in the Second Mesa and then went to have a look around a village called Walpi in the First Mesa but the tour guide wanted us to wait over an hour for the tour so we decided to move on! We headed south to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest park. Apparently a lot of people going to the Petrified Forest don't find what they expect when they arrive. I think this has something to do with the fact that the "forest" consists of some
old solidified logs lying on the ground! We had a nice drive through the park though and the logs/rocks were pretty interesting.
On our last night on the road we stayed in "La Posada" in Winslow which was a really interesting hotel with loads of history. It was designed by a famous architect called Mary Coulter who made up a history to go with the building. It was then bought by the Santa Fe Railway Company to be used as their offices and since then it's been turned into a hotel and they're trying to restore it to how it was originally. My favourite part of the hotel was the ballroom because it had a piano in it! That evening we had cocktails in the martini lounge and then a really posh meal in the restaurant - I had elk! After dinner we sat outside with a group of people staying in the hotel and were entertained by some guitar music.
On the way back to Phoenix we stopped off at Meteor Crater which is, as the name suggests, a meteor crater! That was impressive and there was a good museum where we played an impact simulation game
and destroyed the earth and moon. Sorry about that by the way.
I'm back at Luba's house in Phoenix now having a relaxing end to my trip. I still can't get used to this weather and I have a feeling that I ought to soak up as much sunshine as I can because I won't be seeing much more of that once I get home. Luba's been off work for the past few days (and the weekend obviously) so we've been keeping each other company and I also managed to catch up with Jacob, an old friend from Cactus High School, on Saturday.
I may be going home soon so make sure that central heating's turned on nice and high for me!
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Martha Williams
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Bring me next time!
You trip sounds amazing. I was at Vermillion Cliffs years and years ago and it's nice to see how some things never change. Thanks for your beautiful pictures and for refreshing my memory about how beautiful this part of our country is! Martha P.s. I've done some traveling myself in the region -- you can read about my adventures here: http://goingontheroad.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/solo-roadtrip-so-far-so-good/