Tuesday 14th February – Getting our Valentine’s kicks on Route 66

We paid our $15 for our dry campsite and then tore ourselves away from the friendly elderly gentleman who was trying to tell us his entire family history and all about Vikings?! As we hadn’t travelled that far yesterday, we wanted to make ground today whilst still taking time to drive along a section of Route 66 which happened, coincidentally, to go through the tiny hamlet of Valentine:

This was entirely fluke, trust me.  I would never be corny enough to have worked this in to our travels.  However, seeing as we were passing, it had to be done, right?!  Simon had offered to take me for lunch in Valentine but as there wasn’t even a gas station or store, let alone a restaurant we had to forget that idea!

Onwards, we made ground on Interstate 40 before turning North onto the 64 towards the Grand Canyon South Rim.  Having done our research on the available RV Parks, Simon had found one in Tusayan, which is only 1 mile from the entrance to the National Park and is also conveniently close to the airport.  Before we left the UK, we agreed that our Christmas presents to ourselves this year (not including the mini-treats on the day) would be splashing out on a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.  We have that booked for tomorrow.  We made it to Grand Canyon Camper Village for 330pm and checked in for two nights, at $34 a night (ouch!  However, this is $10 per night cheaper than the trailer village in the national park itself so it’s a win really!).

Right across the road from us was a Visitors’ Centre containing an Imax Cinema. Not wanting to ruin our first impression of the Canyon from the helicopter tomorrow we chose to watch a short film on the history of the canyon instead of going for a peek first-hand.  We also obtained a map showing all of the different walking and cycling trails for the south rim.  Tomorrow we will be mostly seeing the Grand Canyon from a variety of different angles!

It is somewhat fresher again up here near the canyon and we find ourselves without any phone signal or TV channels.  But we have Wi-Fi!  I am storming on, trying to catch up with the blog before my friend joins us on 3^rd March as I don’t want to have to commit so much time every evening to it.  I’m lucky that Simon is still speaking to me….. most of the time.