JOURNEY - Day 6 - 27 Apr 2010

Yes, yes I know there's a whole bunch of days missing in between.....however, with the totally intermittent connections that seem to be the norm at most of the hotels, I've simply been unable to even access the blog for any length of time before getting bounced. So, while I'm able, I'll do yesterday's then work my way backwards to catch up.

Spent an additional night at my cousin Bob's in Lake Havasu AZ. As we'd been without internet the entire day before, we both were online early this morning. I also had a number of photos to download as Bob had kindly taken me to the London Bridge and around Lake Havasu so I of course was snapping madly. Bob & his Jewel of a wife along with the 4-legged members of the family, Freckles & Spike, were all extremely welcoming and I thoroughly enjoyed both the visit and the break.

By the time I left, it was close to 11 am. I headed up Hwy 95 and made a stop at a new mall outside of town to purchase a couple more light tee shirts as I had left one of mine at home & with the heat, definitely needed more. I was surprised at the relatively short distance to reach I-40 though the lack of traffic made it possible to travel quickly.

One thing that I wasn't prepared for and am still marvelling at is the mountainous topography around and in the various desert areas that I've traversed over the past several days. It was something that I'd never seen photos of that identified them as being in the desert so I had this picture in my mind of tabletop flat expanses of sand.......NOT EVEN CLOSE! I actually did see a couple of small areas like that but that was it. I was climbing into mountains that exceeded 5000 ft then you'd fly down the other side only to climb nearly the same amount at the next one. Fortunately, my car seems to thrive going uphill with enough torque to allow me to actually increase speed when needed (especially necessary when one of the idiot truck drivers pulls alongside another so that both lanes require one to slow enough to drop down at least 2 gears. When this has happened (and Murphy of course ensures that it's at the worst possible section of the climb), I still had lots of 'umph' to pass them both once the idiot pulled back into the slow lane.

Driving along I-40 from the junction of Hwy 95 to Williams (where I am at this moment - in a hotel right on ROUTE 66!), I was regularly amazed at the starkness of the land......fairly numerous pine trees but nothing else for miles......yet people lived out there with ranches. Every so often there would be a sign that the next exit was for 'X' Ranch Road and if you looked way out, you could usually spot a building or two.

My GPS adventures have been unbelievable!!! Sometimes I wonder exactly where the info is coming from. More often than not, the route chosen is the most convoluted you could imagine. Then it will tell you to turn in the wrong direction or onto the wrong road!!! As I approached Williams yesterday afternoon, I got off on the correct exit and the GPS wanted me to turn left at the T intersection. Fortunately, I had studied the map closely for the location of the hotel so I knew this was incorrect. Then of course we had to 'recalculate'. It finally caught up with where we were & then informed me that the address  was on the left when in fact I could see the sign clearly on the right!!!! Thank goodness I'm not often relying on it exclusively. Talking with fellow travellers, it seems this is normal and none of us are quite sure whether to laugh hysterically or be furious.......

I did indeed find the hotel and it is lovely. Too bad their wifi wasn't functional! When attempting to find the Phoenix/Detroit hockey game on tv, I was astonished to realize that it simply wasn't being broadcast! This was Game 7 of the Playoffs!!! No wonder the Phoenix team has been going broke! As I have a subscription to NHL Live which allows me  to watch most NHL games online, I figured I was ok & could watch it. Well, not exactly with the erratic wifi. Went out to the desk to see if there was anything to be done. The suggestion was to bring my computer to the lobby & see if it was better. Meanwhile, I'd checked in the lounge to see if they had a broadcast.......they'd had no luck finding a station carrying it either. So I asked if they wanted me to bring my computer in to watch it. This was greeted with jubilation so that's what I did. Bottom line? Completely unable to get the game due to the wifi vagaries however was able to get the radio broadcast so we were able to listen to the game at least. This led to a pretty inexpensive supper & evening's entertainment and company.

All the miles that I've travelled in the past week, I've been mostly careful to stick somewhat close to the posted speed limit or at least with the traffic flow. I've now traversed 4 states and have seen the grand sum of ONE cop car! That was a CHIPS car going the other way. Strange......

One thing that was very strange......yesterday morning in Lake Havasu it was warm (not unusual) and HUMID......this is desert country......there's not supposed to be any humidity!!! It wasn't till I got to I-40 that the temp dropped significantly to a comfortable 18C and once I got here, it was more like temps at home with some wind as well. This morning, it's windy however, contrary to the weather report, the sun is shining and it's beautiful. Hopefully, it will hold for the Canyon Tour.

It's time I took the rest of my stuff out to the car. I won't be back from the Tour till around 5:30/6:00pm so of course am checking out now & will be picked up at 10.

I definitely will be too tired to do any catchup or new posting tonight so it will be tomorrow at least before I post more.

8-)
Joan