Mesquite, NV - Farmington, NM
We woke up late, and had to rush around like fools to meet the checkout deadline, but we were soon on our way to the Zion Canyon National Park in Utah. It's spectacular: you start at the bottom of the canyon, and the road winds up the side until you're at the top.
We were taking advice from the Tom Snyder book, which told us to continue on US89 which would take us to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I think he meant US Alt 89, because 89 took us to the Glen Canyon -- very beautiful in itself, and we crossed the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam.
We were geting a little tired, so we headed to Kayenta, our planned motel stop. Look at this great rainbow we saw: travelling East does have its benefits...
This rainbow, by the way, was over the Black Mesa. We kept out eyes open, but we didn't see any hint of a research facility.
Kayenta is 25 miles from the nearest other dot on the map. Rand McNally give it the same font as Kingman and Holbrook. We weren't expecting any trouble finding a motel.
When we got there, it didn't take long to realise there were two hotels in the place, and the place was little more than a food and fuel stop for Monument Valley. We had a choice between Holiday Inn and Best Western. The Holiday Inn was $130, and we made a quick decision to drive on.
Two hours later, in the dark, having passed only one cluster of houses, we finally arrived in Shiprock, New Mexico. Shiprock's quite a big place, but a gas station attendant told us to press on another 30 miles to Farmington if we wanted a motel. We eventually flopped into a motel in Farmington at 10:30pm. Nowhere was open for food, so it's lucky the room had a microwave; we bought frozen ready meals and plastic forks at a 7-11. Meatballs and spaghetti - actually rather tasty.