Our drive to Williams was not without incident, firstly we had to take a rather long detour due to a landslide on 89 South which added a further 90 mins to our trip. Then a single vehicle accident on the detour delayed us for another 45 minutes. The advantage of towing your house however is that you have all the conveniences right there with you. We grabbed a coke out of the 'man cave' fridge, and watched with great amusement at some poor woman, needing to attend to a call of nature, high tail it into the non existent bush. She was obviously pretty desperate because she did her business with little regard to the 100s of eyes watching her! To make the situation even more amusing, before she had completed her task the traffic had started to move and she had to run like crazy to catch up with her vehicle.
On the move again we headed towards Flagstaff. Clouds were in the distance and before long the rain came pelting down and the temperature dropped from a pleasant 75-80 (26c) to a cool 38 (3c). What started out as rain very quickly turned into ice rain - as always the weather here in the USA never ceases to surprise us.
We finally arrived at our destination ready to crack the lid off the first beer of the day!
Anything to do with RV ing is done well in the USA - the company that runs the train tours also owns an RV park within walking distance of the railway station and the main street of Williams. As pets are not allowed in the Grand Canyon National Park they also run a kennel service where owners can leave their pets for a minimal charge. A lot of people we have met leave their pets in their RV's with the air conditioning running but this is certainly another option.
Before boarding the train we watched the "gunfight" show which they perform every day - pretty corny but a bit of fun. We had paid extra to ride in the dome car and probably based on the fact that we had booked so long ago, we were given the front row seats in the first dome carriage. We certainly had the best seats in the house (or rather train) - we looked over the carriages in front to the locomotive pulling us. The trip was about 60 miles in distance and at a leisurely 30 mph took about two hours - plenty of time to have a few cocktails served by our coach stewardess. It was a nice change to let someone else do the driving!
Our view to the front of the train
As expected we were first to order a cocktail, yes plastic cup
The journey up was fantastic the country changed constantly
We arrived at the South Rim and were met by our tour bus. As expected it was beautiful but is more "commercial" and busier than the North Rim which we visited during our last trip in 2010. 80% of people who go to the Grand Canyon visit the South Rim as it is far easier to access. So we sat back and played tourist, had lunch, wandered around the village for a bit before boarding the train back to Williams.
The South Rim train station
Overlooking the South Rim
We settled back into our leather seats, ordered a couple of afternoon cocktails and were entertained by a couple of singing minstrels who wandered up and down the train. Roughly about half way into our journey our cabin stewardess announced that we could be coming into some trouble and were told to look out the window. Riding along beside the train were a couple of 'train robbers' masks on, guns drawn. The train came to a halt, the robbers boarded and proceeded to go through the carriages robbing all the passengers. Obviously it was all part of the railroad experience so we gave them a tip for their efforts. With a train full of people they would have scored quite a 'booty'!
"This is a hold up!"
We surrendered our "tips"
The town of Williams is famous for being the last town on route 66 by passed by the new interstate so as you can imagine there is plenty of Route 66 memorabilia to purchase. We stopped at an old service station that had been converted into a 'diner' for lunch - smoked bbq ribs, pulled pork and a couple of beers to wash it down. A great spot to sit and watch the world go by.
Live music and all
I just love the small town murals
Prior to starting this trip we purchased an iPad with 64 gig of space which the sales person assured us would have plenty of space for all our holiday photos. Well 6 months into the journey and we have proved him wrong! We spent a bit of time considering what options we had, ie, transfer all the first 6 months worth of photos onto our laptop or buy a second ipad or laptop. So we ventured the 30 miles into Flagstaff the next day, to fill the truck up with gas as it was 50 cents a gallon cheaper there than in Williams, and to visit the Best Buys store which is similar to JBs Hi Fi in Australia. I have always been a Windows person and have not been too supportive of the Apple product in the past, however the simplicity of the iPad has changed my view point. So after much deliberation and advice from the sales person, ( and from my big brother) we walked out of Best Buys with a 21 1/2 inch IMac computer. The 27 inch was very tempting but would have been much more difficult to carry home. We now have more storage space than we will ever need.
One happy camper!
The purpose of our Williams visit is complete so we prepare to head back to Vegas again. We are determined to visit the "strip" this time!
- Posted by RnR on their IPad
Location:Williams Arizona
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