Road Trip: Day Twelve

Grand Canyon Village, AZ to Lake Havasu, AZ

12.32pm
My sleep was interrupted twice last night by the deranged “yip yip-yip waaoohh!” cries of coyotes. Courtney woke me this morning with the question “Do you think that family ever got out of the canyon?”
“Nah,” I reply, “the turkey vultures are picking their bones clean as we speak.”

We can fit in another quick hike before our check-out time this morning, so we take one of the rim trails. Walks along the rim are the easiest and most touristy thing to do. Shuttle buses deposit their human cargo at the most scenic points; people amble to the guard rails, snap a few snaps and amble back to the next bus fifteen minutes later. We get off at Hopi point, five stops out, and walk back. We see a monument to the first man to map the canyon, an abandoned uranium mine and lots of startling views, which aren’t as satisfying as yesterday’s because we haven’t earnt them.

We’re now back on I-40, heading for Lake Havasu City. Before we get there we’ll detour onto the old Route 66 to see Goldroad, our first ghost town of the trip – unless you count Malvern, AK. It’ll be a while before we get there.

14.53pm
We’re well into the Mojave desert now. We’ve just turned off I-40 to follow the old route 66 for a few miles. It really does look like ghost town territory: scrubby, dusty and the occasional mesa. We pass through a tiny village, we don’t spot its name. The mailboxes are clustered together at the side of the road. As we drive past a local, having collected his mail, turns his car off down a dirt road, heading home.

15.07pm
I look up from my typing to see Courtney bouncing up and down in her seat as we drive over humps in the road. “What are you doing?” I ask. “Trying to make my stomach float,” she replies, “it’s so tempting.” It’s making me feel sick.

15.20pm

We spot a tiny filling station that looks like something from an Edward Hopper painting, pull over, and start talking to the old guy out front. Dennis and his buddy, who doesn’t talk much, are living out here in their caravans restoring the station. First built in the late 1920’s, it was little more than some pillar foundations by 2002. The finale of Universal Soldier was shot here, using a replica that was blown up.

Dennis is more than willing to tell us about the place and the work he’s been doing. He and his buddy have been out here for two years, working for a man in Chicago who wants to restore as much of the old Route 66 as he can. We’re charmed by the place, the project, and Dennis. We sign the guest book — less than a week old and three pages filled already — and leave, promising to return in a couple of years to see how it all turns out.

15.54pm
Goldroad is a bust, little more than a few abandoned mine shaft openings, but further down Route 66 we stumble upon the ghost town of Oatman. An old gold mining town, it’s now deserted apart from maybe a hundred people and a handful of donkeys. On the donkey-shit paved main street Outlaw Willie’s sells bags of carrots for a buck, as well as a plethora of folk art, stupid t-shirts and sodas. It’s a silly, endearing place and we snap freely.

16.48pm
Courtney writes:
Liam drives five exits past the one for Lake Havasu because we’re both so immersed in editing the blog entries.

17.45pm
We arrive in Lake Havasu, a place which we’ll fully explore tomorrow. First impressions are… interesting. Thunderstorms are threatening, so tonight we’re ensconced in a chain hotel with internet access. Oh, the joy!