Holbrook - Williams
Resolution passed, we continued on the old pre-Las-Vegas routine of following old Route 66 from the books.
We intended to eat brunch in Winslow, but the town was strangely dead - so we quickly got some photographs of each other "standing on the corner" on the off chance that we might one day hear the Eagles song in question, then carried on our way.
Much of Route 66 along this way is underneath Interstate 40. The Illustrated Guide recommended the Twin Arrows truck stop for food, so we stopped there, only to find that the business had closed down since the book was published in 1999. The 20ft twin arrows themselves were starting to disintegrate.
By now, our stomachs let down by both Winslow and Twin Arrows, we were really hungry, so as soon as we hit Flagstaff (after an appealing drive off the Interstate) we dove into Pizza Hut. Just like the last Pizza Hut, our meagre British appetites weren't up to the job and we took a doggie bag out with us.
Flagstaff seemed like a nice place -- no Santa Fe, to be sure, but the bits we saw were pretty. As soon as you hit the outskirts you're in evergreen forest, like something from Twin Peaks. Before long the route took us back onto the Interstate towards Williams.
We stopped in Williams because it's the base for trips to the Grand
Canyon. Why deviate from accepted wisdom?
We pondered for a while about how to do our Grand Canyon visit: would
we drive, or would we take the $50 (each) steam train from Williams? In
the end we plumped for the train: after all, even if we drove we'd pay
$10 each in park entrance fees -- so we bought tickets for tomorrow, only
to find that we had to pay park entrance fees on top of the $50 train fare.
Bah.
The rest of the day was spent doing laundry - dull but necessary - and getting to bed early since we need to be at the train station for 9 AM tomorrow.