Arizona

We left Las Vegas for Holbrook, AZ. Thank goodness. Instead of making it a straight shot, we took a 160 mile detour to see the Grand Canyon. I knew that the northern Arizona had cold winters, but it was a beautiful, sunny day and the snow was retreating into the shadows as we arrived at the Canyon. I grabbed my jacket and hat and ran out to the rim. Big. Cold. Oh, so cold.

After standing on the rim with the Arctic wind whipping by, we ran back to the truck to warm up. We drove east along the south rim, stopping regularly to take in the views. If the wind was up, taking more than two pictures meant risking the loss of my hands to frostbite. Lingering at the vistas while noting the shifting light and endless detail of each intricate escarpment and canyon, something I imagine is essential in a Grand Canyon visit, wasn’t a reality for us. We took in the canyon one bite at a time.

As we headed east, the sun dipped closer toward the horizon and soon we turned south away from the great chasm. I’ll return when it’s a bit warmer to take in the full effect. A Cracker Barrel dinner in Flagstaff, several clicks on the odometer, and we arrived in Holbrook, population 5,000. Much to my delight we were staying right next to the Wigwam Motel, a historic Route 66 landmark that was the inspiration for the Cozy Cone in Pixar’s Cars. Much of Radiator Springs in Cars was based on Holbrook and surrounding towns.

Holbrook is also the gateway city to Petrified Forest National Park, an expanse of desert filled with the remnants of a Triassic wonderland. Painted desert of hummocks and buttes filled with prismatic rounds of prehistoric logs and petroglyphs makes for a worthwhile visit, but driving through the park I realized just how over-saturated I am as a tourist. I’ve been so fortunate to see many wonderful places, but the desire to see is fading while the desire to “be” is stronger than ever.

Luckily, with the job of vagabond becoming less and less appealing, the kids in Holbrook were amazing. If we performed Thursday, it would have been a better production than many of our residencies. Fabulous kids. Sadly, we left them behind for southern Arizona stopping in Phoenix for a brief lunch with some former Tour Actors and a Mariners game. Praise the good Lord for baseball!

We arrived in Wellton, AZ joining the migrating snowbirds in their pursuit of warmth and sunshine. With plenty of both for all (it reached 90 midweek), we’re just trying to get through to next week, a week-off for us.