Day 23 (7May 2025): Phoenix, AZ to Williams, AZ

After a delightful visit with our Arizona friends, we bid adieu and continued on our adventure. At times, the roads which we traveled on today seemed to stretch endlessly. This southwest scenery has its own stark beauty. At one point it was like we were traveling through a pocket in the middle of the mountains; we could see mountains in the distance on 3 sides. Further down the road it looked like we were driving through a forest of cacti.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, as I always said the first step in any plan is to change the plan. I found out this morning that I was not needed for a Zoom meeting this afternoon, which meant we had more time for travel today. Then, it came to me that we also had an extra day as our friends in Henderson, NV wouldn’t be available until Friday. So, we changed our itinerary and headed towards the Grand Canyon instead of the Hoover Dam. We’ve been to the north rim before so tomorrow we will tour the south rim. Since we had the extra time today, we got off I 40 and drove about 74 miles on Historic Route 66. It was fun to read the series of the distinct orange and white Burma Shave signs. They are always in groups of five spaced about 100 yards apart and the fifth sign always says, Burma Shave. Examples are: “If you don’t know whose signs these are, then you haven’t driven very far.” “Don’t lose your head, to save a minute. You need your head. Your brains are in it.”  “Remember kiddo they don’t pay you, they pay your widow.”

We stopped for the night in Williams, AZ,  “the Gateway to the Grand Canyon”. It is an interesting town with restaurants and shops from the early 1900s, an Historic Route 66 loop, and a Route 66 museum. With so many places to choose from, we selected the Historic Brewing Barrel House for dinner and a home brew.  The food was excellent, and the beer that I chose, Nightrider IPA, was an interesting blend of stout and IPA. After dinner we drove around the town and headed back to our “home away from home” to catch up on the blog before tucking in for the night.