On the road...

On Friday, we got up really early to fly to Las Vegas. We arrived in the desert city at around 8.30am and went to collect our hire car. Luckily they didn't have any 'economy' cars available when we got there, so we were upgraded to a Chrysler PT Cruiser! I was very pleased to be driving such an iconic American car on our road trip to the Grand Canyon! So after driving around for a while due to lack of road signs, we eventually made it onto the highway heading east.

Our first pit stop was in Kingman on the famous Route 66, where we discovered Tim's grandpa had been stationed towards the end of the war. We discovered this by accident. Having spent the previous 30 mins trying to list all 50 US states as a way to amuse ourselves, we'd only managed to get 49. So, we phoned Tim's parents to discover we'd forgotten all about New Jersey! And as a bonus, discovered the link between Kingman and Tim's Grandpa. So we took a photo by a Kingman sign! (pictured)

After various other pit stops along the way (its a 5 hour drive) we arrived at the Grand Canyon, just in time to pick up some hiking leaflets from the info centre, and put our names down on the waiting list for accommodation at the bottom of the Canyon. People sign up for 'The Phantom Ranch' at the bottom of the Canyon, over 12 months in advance of their visit. So hoping for cancellations was the only Tim and I had of getting a space down there. We then headed for the canyon rim to catch a glimpse of the amazing spectacle in the early evening sunlight. It was a fantastic sight.

We then headed back to our hotel room just outside of the Canyon National Park for an early night as we were both exhausted.