| Miles | MPG | Avg. Speed | |
| Today | 407 | 45.8 | 50 |
| Trip | 2697 | 45.8 | 54 |
|
Food |
Hotel |
Trip Savings |
| $70 / $146 | $80 / $75 | AAA – $16 PriceLine – $242 Real $$ – $43 |
| Painted Desert | $0 ($10 but free with National Parks Pass) |
| Meteor Crater | $24 |
Using Priceline for the Grand Canyon is difficult. There are only two zones, one of which is Williams, AZ, an hour away. There are a small number of hotels at the Canyon itself and even the Holiday Inn Express is $200 a night.
After bidding up to $120 a night for something at the Canyon and not getting it, I switched to Williams and bid $50 for a 1-star, which was also rejected. Since the lowest published rate for a 1-star in Williams was $70, I gave up on bidding in favor of picking the hotel and room. One of the downsides of bidding is that the hotel picks the room, so with some of the 1-stars having rooms with single queen beds, it wasn’t worth the chance. I opted for the Econolodge for $80 a night and two doubles ($70 for a single queen).
At the request of the Queen of Stats Geeks, I’ve added the cumulative delta for real hotel dollars spent versus budgeted. With tonight’s stay, the trip is $43 under budget for hotels, having mostly gone for nicer, rather than cheaper – and starting with that 2x-budget stay on the first night in Louisiana.
I’m beginning to have doubts about Courtyards, though. Between the ants in Austin and the dripping shower faucet here (and the air conditioner that has to be set at 65 to be comfortable), I’m underwhelmed.
The stop in Austin, then Albuquerque for two nights, and two nights at Grand Canyon, instead of one each and driving straight to Carlsbad, has put us behind schedule a bit, but gets us to Vegas on Saturday instead of Thursday. And started the trip easier – we still have the San Francisco to Seattle run and Seattle to Yellowstone, but I think we can make up a day between Vegas and San Francisco.
The Vegas Thursday/Friday rates for this weekend were outrageous, with Bellagio hitting $399 for Friday before selling out. A Saturday arrival is harder to get, because the hotels want to sell the whole weekend, but if they have rooms close to the weekend, they get desperate.
Ideally, we’d arrive Sunday, as that’s the best rate-time, with Bellagio offering $149 for Sunday through Wednesday next week, but that would play havoc with the schedule. Bellagio isn’t in the cards, but it’s a good bellwether for the rates.
I was going to sleep in this morning and let Aryn sleep in more, but last night was so nice out that we had the balcony door (screened) open all night for the breeze. Up at 6:00 or so with the sun and the birds singing. Aryn slept until 7:00, even though I tried to keep the noise down to keystrokes and mouse-clicks.
We were in the car before 8:00 and had breakfast at IHOP before getting on the Interstate – I40 all the way from Albuquerque to Williams, AZ.
We passed some lava fields after about an hour on the road and pulled over to look at them and for Aryn to pick up some rocks.
Then we got into some really pretty country.
I took a lot of pictures out the window trying to capture it as we drove.
Since today was just about getting to Williams, we had the time and opportunity to stop along the way. The first side-trip was through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Aryn kept asking what a Petrified Forest was and I told her: “Scared trees. No, really. And we’ll get to hide behind rocks, then jump out and scare the trees even more. It’s interactive.”
On entering, they asked us if we had any rocks in the car and had to bag Aryn’s lava rocks so we wouldn’t be fined if they decided to search us on leaving.
The Painted Desert was beautiful, but I think we’re both suffering from Scenery-Overload. At times the drive has been like having your head on a swivel muttering “… pretty … pretty … pretty … pretty … pretty …” as we drive along.
But the drive through the Painted Desert was enough to get Aryn out of the car in her pajamas to look at it, and eventually enough to get her to change into real clothes for the stops.
Later we arrived at some pueblo ruins from around 1100-1300.
It’s a beautiful area to visit, but I think if I was a member of the tribe that lived here …
… first I’d become Chief, then I’d call the tribe together and say: “Look, that Flint-Axe development project is now our top priority, because the guys 50-miles east of here have a lot better shit than we do and we’re going to go there and get out of this freakin’ desert.”
Here are some of the petroglyphs they left behind on the rocks, the one above clearly being their prayer that the Great Crane God come and eat the people fifty-miles east of here so they could take their shit and get out of the freakin’ desert.
And this one where they’re asking the gods to send a herd of antelope to be driven in front of their warriors against the people fifty-miles east of here. A violent people, the dwellers in these pueblos.
From there we moved into the Petrified Forest area. It’s hard to wrap my head around the time involved for a forest with massive trees to be covered by rising land, have enough time pass for the wood to absorb enough minerals to turn to stone, and then for the land to erode back down to expose the trees. They stick out of the hills everywhere and break off when too much is exposed.
You’re not allowed to take any of the rocks or petrified wood out of the park, so we got Aryn a piece at the gift-shop. Then on the way back to the Interstate, we passed multiple shops selling it – including one that must have had an acre of land covered in petrified logs. There were even a couple places where big, two and three foot, sections of it were just sitting next to the road.
The next stop was at Meteor Crater – something I’ve always wanted to see. It wasn’t a long stop, but it was fun to look at for a bit.
Back on the road and maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t seen a full-size tree since Sunday, but the area around Flagstaff was beautiful. Nothing but mountains and conifers. I could easily spend a week or two in this area just hiking and enjoying the outdoors.
And then … there’s the hotel … holy … crap …
This is an $80 / night Econolodge. If it was, like, Joe’s Grand Canyon Motel, I’d feel differently, but Econolodge is a Choice Hotels brand and they’re supposed to have some standards.
Small, a little dirty, with a noticeable odor to the room. If the reservation could be canceled, I’d go somewhere else – whether to a local, small motel where I wouldn’t mind these conditions, or to pay twice as much for the Holiday Inn Express closer to the Canyon. If Choice is going to buy what I’m sure was an independent motel and stick their brand on it, then they should spring for enough upgrades and maintenance to maintain their standards.
There are exactly two electrical outlets in the room. One behind the nightstand and one behind the dresser.
Oh … and the room clock is stuck in some bizarre, Groundhog Day-like loop:
The town of Williams is nice, though. The street our hotel is on has dozens of little shops and restaurants – touristy, but with character. We went for a short walk and had dinner at Pine Country Restaurant because Aryn saw pie through the window. Aryn had a vegetarian shepherd’s pie (made with a garden burger instead of meat) and I had a pork chop and baked potato.
My pork chop was thin, dry, and crunchy … which most people won’t find attractive, but is exactly how I like my pork chops. The Dutch cherry pie was pretty good, and no end of main course sins can be set right by a good slice of pie.
