Grand Canyon, Day Two, and Return to Williams

Monday, May 3 for Saturday, May 1, 2021

I tried not to end the last entry with a rant/complaint, but I must, as a cautionary tale, do that to start the new day. We were in Yavapai Lodge, part of the National Park system, except it is operated by Xanterra, a contractor that manages most, if not all, of the lodges in the National Parks system. They are understaffed and do a terrible job of managing. Our room was substandard and about three times the cost it should have been. Most of the services that are normally provided within the park were missing, including normal dining facilities and so on. We ate out of our snack bag for breakfast, and Randy had to make due with second-rate coffee in the room! I mention this in case any reader might go to a National Park in the near future. To balance that, Xanterra also operated the Grand Canyon Railroad lodge we stayed in the previous night, and that was very well done. We got out of Yavapai as fast as we could, and went on to the more central part of the South Rim trail. When we first started, we had much of it to ourselves.

May I interrupt here? Randy and I had a problem in this part of the Park. I wandered out towards the edge of the cliff in order to get better pictures. For some reason, Randy got anxious any time I went within about five feet of the edge. They were level, I was wearing sensible hiking boots, but for some reason, she was not confident in me going out beyond the border line. Many people did as I did, and many went a good bit further out that I did. We both had to compromise a bit, because we were getting on each others' nerves!

The idea on the area we were walking was that we were on a "walk through time," going back hundreds of millions of years. (Sigh) One of the things that caught Randy's attention was the examples of different kinds of rock found, supposedly representing different ages. As you can see, there wasn't explanation, just a name, and sometimes an age.

I purposely took the picture below at an angle -- as we walked east along the rim trail, I was fascinated with this particular cut in the rock, and this was the best shot I could get of it near the end of that trail. It was more dramtic-looking to me if it was the center of the picture.

See, we made up, and Randy even came a LITTLE closer to the edge with me.

Because of where we were "on the top" and the Colorado River was at the bottom, in some places 7,000+ feet below, it was hard to get good pictures of it. This one is zoomed in pretty far.

We walked about 3 1/2 miles back and forth on the trail, and as we finished that portion, decided we were done, and headed out of the park. A couple miles down the road, going back towards Williams, was the small town of Tusayan. One of its features is an IMAX Theatre, which was showing "The Hidden Secrets of the Grand Canyon." We paid the price, with a discount, and went in. Both Randy and I like IMAX shows, and this one was pretty good. You can buy the DVD, but where are you going to get a six-story screen on which to watch it?

Telling a tale on myself, we went to a pizza place and I must have left my credit card there. Not discovered until the next morning. Happy ending, it was not used again and we cancelled it. A new one will be waiting for me when we return to NC. We have others ...

By the time we returned to Williams, we were able to check into our smallish typical Route 66 motel, the Celilo. While it was not plush, by any stretch, it was remarkably pleasant.

After we got settled in, we went back out into town. We found a statue of Bill Williams, for whom the town is named. Bill was a mountain man, and there is still a tradition of re-enacting and carrying on his mountain man traditions. (BTW, Bill Williams was born in North Carolina.) There was a pleasant little monument park where he was displayed.

Just off the monument park was the Route 66 Museum and Gift Store. We had taken pictures of their neon in the evening two nights previously, and wanted to go back. Stephanie Cohen, who co-owns the store with her husband, and Xena (really!), who works for her, were delightful to talk to, and we shared some laughs and stories, and we made some suggestions to them based on other similar trading posts and gift shops we had visited. We also told them about Jerry McClanahan's EZ Guide to Route 66 which we have referred to before.

I mentioned in a previous post that Randy really wanted to see a mountain lion. This statue is as close as we've been so far!

Below are Stephanie and Xena with Randy.

We drove a little further back into town and parked to visit other shops. We had a good discussion with the owner of the outdoors shop below.

As we left that store, we looked across the street and saw this place, which seemed to be under construction. Randy saw that the sign said "Land Office" and called to the young lady in the lot to ask what it is. She invited us over and began telling us a little about it, and then introduced us to the new owner, Marshall, pictured below.

We must have talked to them for close to an hour. Marshall, who is from California, had recently relocated to Williams. He has a landscaping business, but also a ministry to international students in the area. He was remodeling this building in order to set up a "Ride a Vintage Car" type of business, using older vintage cars from is own collection. Think Ford Model A's, cars from the 1930's. In our discussion, he mentioned that even though he was from California, he went to college in Warsaw, IN. I asked if he attended Grace College, and his jaw dropped. How did we know about Grace College? We explained 35+ years at Grace Brethren Church in Central OH and discovered knowing of many common people. Even though he is at least ten years younger than we are, we shared a number of similar experiences.

What was even funnier was we made some suggestions about his building and his potential business. Randy gave him what he called "the million dollar idea." She suggested he tie in the picture behind him on the building (which was from the buildings previous owner) and associate it with his name, Marshall. They talked back and forth for a few minutes and ideas flew. He was tickled that we had that much interest in his idea. He was very passionate about this business, which he hopes will help support his ministry to internationals students.

We left him to go find dinner. We ended up at Twister's Diner, right next door to the Route 66 Diner we were in, and enjoyed, two nights before. The place doesn't look that much different from the original, pictured below. The 1950 Ford Victoria is the same as the one in the picture.

We split a very nice catfish dinner, so we could split the banana split below! It was as good as it looks.

When we entered the place, we were the only patrons. By the time we finished the meal and dessert, it was full. It was very fun, good food, and good service. Our server even took our picture to end our evening.