One thing I’m learning about campground review sites is that if they try to entice you with a swimming pool or fast wi-fi, that probably indicates that have neither. We are tucked in the pines at Canyon RV park in Williams, Arizona and the pool is closed, somehow connected to a flash flood that passed through last week and their wi-fi refuses to connect. My phone’s wireless hot spot hasn’t been much help lately either. Tonight we’re going to download like it’s 1999. Anyway, I’ll see if I can exercise some patience and watch the little circle spin away as my hair turns grey waiting for the picture to load up.

Needles is the last stop on the road down to Dante’s Inferno. The furnace blast that knocks you back when you open the RV door could bake a pizza . We were up and out of there shortly after sun up. Made a quick stop for some $1.95 a gallon gas at the Pilot truck stop just over the Arizona line. The temperature was already rising into the 90s as we pointed Lexi east on I-40, the highway that follows the old Route 66. No problems with overheating. Just slow and steady plodding along as we slowly gained 5000 feet in elevation.

As we reached the higher altitude, the dead landscape turned verdant green with pines and grasslands emerging from the hillsides. A herd of elk leisurely passed by in a meadow as the endless stream of speeding semi trucks continue to blow by us weaving dangerously across all lanes in the heavy side winds. Today we really felt the adventure was beginning.

 

We stopped in Seligman, a relic of the days when Route 66 was the only strip of highway connecting east to west. Most of the small towns that once thrived on Route 66 dried up and withered when I-40 bypassed them and the railroads no longer stopped nearby. But Seligman has hung on and become kind of a Disneyland for all things nostalgic for the old Route 66. Tons of tourists, mostly Euros, were wandering around relentlessly snapping photo after photo of old cars and curio shops. There are a couple of famous old diners from the old days that were packed with customers.

We parked Lexi in a shady spot on a side street, leashed up the hounds and had a walk around. Apparently the shutterbug thing is contagious because soon PJ was clicking off frame after frame of photos of every tourist trap doo-dad tossed out there to draw in the unsuspecting. We sat for a brief moment in the shade outside a souvenir shop and had coffees. Walked down the street checking things out and people watching. There is an old greenish VW van on the corner at the old Copper Cart restaurant that people write on with markers graffiti style. We got our little sharpie and added our mark to the collection. And no, ours isn’t the Mojito addition on the left.

Left Seligman in the rear view mirror around mid day and headed back to the I-40 stopping at a Subway along the way for a quick sandwich. We continued on to Williams and got a little camp spot among the pines. Weather in the high 70s, feels so fine after baking for our first days on the road. Took the dogs for a hike among the trees and checked out the bright patches of wild flowers brought out by last week’s monsoonal rains. Returned to camp for showers.

Thunder storms started rolling through and large rain drops drummed steadily on the RV roof. Awesome change for us, but not so much for Koda who quivers and quakes at the sound of thunder. Had to give her a dose of her doggie Xanax to keep her calm. PJ continually organizes and reorganizes while I lounge here and write about our day’s adventure. Showered, fed and enjoying a cool breeze blowing through the pines. Does it get ant better? It might, if I can get the Internet to work and get this posted🤔