We travelled for 2 more days and arrived in Williams, Arizona in the evening of the 2nd day.
This is what we going to see
Yes it was to take another 2 days from Kearney to reach Williams, the town nearest to the Grand Canyon, but because of the beautiful scenery it was so much more interesting than the states we had recently traversed. We travelled through beautiful mountains and saw stone formations.
The Archway we visited near Kearney
After visiting The Archway we continued West on the I-80 to Colorado where we turned on to the I-70 going South towards New Mexico. Just before the border we stopped near the small town of Pueblo, Colorado to spend our 2nd night on the road. We made no stops on this day except for lunch. The next morning we travelled South and crossed the border from Colorado into New Mexico which, along with Arizona, is very dry but definitely not boring. There was no reading or doing puzzles with all this beauty to enjoy.
Mountains of Colorado
Dry mountains of New Mexico
We stopped at a Rest Stop which had information on Fort Union and which fortunately also had nice and clean ablution facilities. There were 2 signs describing the fort and the Santa Fe Trail which was protected by the Fort.
About the Santa Fe Trail
About the Monument. The missing words are ‘abandonment to the Government”
On the way across New Mexico we stopped at an enormous roadside shop and service station selling gorgeous Mexican pottery as well as masses of other things. I just wish that I had written down its name. Besides the pottery 2 items in particular caught my attention. One was a rug with a wolf as its pattern and the other a bench on which customers sat when trying on shoes. Its seat was beautifully decorated with a frontiersman kneeling before the Cross of Christ and on the back was sculpted another frontiersman in the same position. Each of their horses is standing behind them.
Mexican Pottery
The beautiful bench
Rug with Wolfhound as pattern
Further along in New Mexico we passed through Navajo community land. It was interesting to see how they lived and their serious poverty which reminded me of home where so many live in communities with little hope of improvement. Also similar in character is the fact that alcohol and drugs are serious problems. So very sad for all of them.
After we had crossed over into Arizona we passed a sign to the Meteor Crater, a phenomenon about which Trevor and I have watched a number of documentaries. I was sorry that I had not researched this but until we arrived in Greenville I was unaware of what had been planned for us to get to the Grand Canyon. It was 70 miles from the highway and we just did not have time to drive there and back and spend some time seeing the crater but we know that it would have been amazing.
We arrived in Williams and had a bit of difficulty finding our accommodation, the Ramada Inn. The GPS kept saying that we had arrived at our destination and there was nothing which even vaguely resembled an hotel, let alone the Ramada Inn. Once we found it and checked in we went for a short walk around the area and found a lovely restaurant for dinner.
Tomorrow was to be a big day. We would drive the 60 miles to the Grand Canyon.
