Arizona!!

We got here last night. We celebrated Jose's birthday... (she won't let me put her age down...) Today we saw the Grand Canyon. It is late and we are tired. We will post tomorrow with the specifics of what has been the most incredible part of our trip. We were staying in Williams, the last town to be bypassed by I-40. When we got there, we decided to stay in a period hotel rather than a chain. What a great choice. We stayed at the Lodge, which has been restored to reflect the flavor of route 66. When we rode up, there were tons of older cars there including a Pontiac Bonneville station wag pulling an old airstream. The people were camping in it and there were many others around sitting in the patio area with fireplaces going and grilling food for the group. It was as if we had been transported back in time. It was incredible and very appropriate for Jose’s birthday. We celebrated her birthday by going to a few locations. We settled on a local restaurant where we had appetizers and I went down to the bar and pulled several biker back to sing happy birthday to Jose. I‘ve never seen her turn so red in my life. She could have lit up a room. It was great. Then, we came back to the room and collapsed from the ride. Then next day we woke early to catch the train to the Grand Canyon. This, in itself is an experience. We went ahead and took the first class section, because you could stand outside as well as go up into an observation deck. The trip lasted a couple of hours and we went through three types of tundra. Unfortunately, wildlife was shy, but it was amazing to be out at the end of the train and see the engine from the platform (at the rear of the train.) We had lots of entertainment, including a singer and very informative wait staff, they told where to eat and how to see the most of the canyon while we were there. We ate at a restaurant that overlooked the canyon. Bright Angel... something. We walked out of the restaurant and into the canyon area. There were several places to stop and look into the canyon. Jose, tended to hang back because she love heights so much. I was surprised that it did not bother me. While we were walking up, we saw a condor flying around. Jose said he was showing off. I took the camera and put it in sports mode and just held the shutter down. I managed to get some pretty decent shots. The only thing that was disappointing is that he flew over the same place I had been standing only 5 minutes ago! We also saw a big fat squirrel (much larger than the ones we have home) in a tree. It was nice to get him with the canyon in the background. We also saw another portion of the canyon and many different rock formations. It was as spectacular as both of had envisioned. Then we took the train back and got pictures of snow capped mountains and long dead volcanoes. We finally got back to the hotel room and went to the Cruisers 66 café., where they had a pretty decent live band, and as we were sitting outside listening to the music the mustang road tour came in. Jose got to see the newest 2010 mustang and had her picture taken with the car. It was all in all, a pretty cool stay. It was nice to be off the bikes for the day.