Friday 14th April PM
The Amtrak train depot was a short walk from our hostel but by the time we'd arrived we'd worked up a bit of a sweat. We were over an hour early for our train to Fullerton, a suburb of LA, but the man behind the counter told us to go ahead and jump on the one that was just about to depart. Either way, we'd have a wait, so we thought we might as well do it at the changeover stage than from the beginning. We found a couple of seats together and settled in for the 2 and a half hour journey north to the outskirts of Los Angeles. The ride was pretty scenic, as we spent most of it skirting along California’s Pacific coast. When we arrived, we checked our bags for our next train and then wandered around the near by shops before settling in on a bench to pass the 3 hours before our next train finally arrived. In the end it was a bit of a drag and by the time we were boarding there was a throng of activity on the station platform. We just about managed to get 2 seats together when we boarded, which was a relief, considering the train ride to Flagstaff was due to last for almost 11 hours. Despite being in coach, we weren't exactly disappointed with the seats we had. They had acres of leg room, to the point where we could flick up a leg rest, stick the back down and pretty much have a full bed. We weren't confident that we would arrive on time when we departed from Fullerton at gone 6pm, almost half an hour late. After the first stop, we tucked into our dinner, which was more of a lunch really and after that, we settled down in order to get as much sleep as we could. We drifted in and out of consciousness until around quarter past 4 in the morning.
Saturday 15th April
We were alarmed to hear about 4:20, that we were just approaching Flagstaff station. This came as a surprise as we were convinced that we were due in to Flagstaff at half 5. We quickly grabbed out items and disembarked the train into the freezing nighttime temperatures of high altitude Flagstaff. With it being 7000 feet above sea level, the nighttime temperatures regularly drop below freezing and we were greeted by that when we got off. With out hostel not opening until 6, we were saved by being able to hide in the station lobby and keep ourselves warm. The hostel was only 3 minutes walk away, so when the sun came up and we knew the hostel was open, we transferred to the just as warm reception area of the hostel. Reception opened at 7 and we knew we wouldn't be able to get in our room yet, so we stowed our bags in the storage area, changed into some warmer weather gear, seeing as the day was warming up a bit and headed out. We passed by the train station and turned on to historic Route 66 and walked for about 10 minutes before we reached the Avis car rental building. The process of picking it up was relatively straight forward and we were shown to our car for the day. It was a ford, although we didn't catch a model and it had Idaho plates on it, that claimed the state had “lovely potatoes”. We climbed in and Charlotte braced herself. It was going to be her first time driving on the right and she was understandably nervous. Fortunately, we'd picked a relatively small town, which meant that the road on a Saturday morning of a holiday weekend were pretty quiet. We drove 1 minute up the road before pulling in to a supermarket and buying some lunch for ourselves and then set off for good. We made a bit of a meal of getting out of Flagstaff but eventually found the I-40, which was in desperate need of repair, before turning on to the I-64. From there it was due north on the same road, until we reached the limits of Grand Canyon National Park. We were appalled to see on our way in that the entry fee for a car was $30. We were reluctant but figured we'd have to pay it, as we can't miss out on something like the Grand Canyon, on top of that, we'd rented the car just for that reason. So we drove up and prepared ourselves for the daylight robbery. We were taken aback though when the ranger on the gate handed us our maps and told us that there was no entry fee for that day. Brucey Bonus! That had cheered us up no end, so we drove in and didn't really complain when the car parks were chockablock and we had to park miles away from the visitor centre. Considering we had limited time in the park, the car had to be returned by 4pm and it was 10.30 when we arrived with a 2 hour drive back, we decided to just walk the Canyon Rim trail directly to the visitors centre before turning around and leisurely walking back to the car. We couldn't help but stop and admire the canyon along the way but refrained from taking pictures for the way back. The visitors was further than we realised but we picked up a pin badge, used the facilities and found a bench with a canyon view where we could eat our lunch in relative peace. Or so we though. As I was mid banana, a family came up to me and asked if I would mind taking a picture of them. We were annoyed and pretty sure it is an unwritten rule that you don't ask people who are eating and I made sure I came across that I was annoyed but I relented and took a couple of snaps of them. What saved the day was their lovely child who said as they were leaving, “sorry if we disturbed you”, which was really nice and made us smile. Once we'd eaten, we could start being tourists ourselves and got all the snaps we needed on the way back. Charlotte tends to be the brave one who asks for a photo. We got loads, so apologies if the photos for this blog are a bit repetative. Having been before, I was still amazed by the Grand Canyon on my second visit and Charlotte admitted to think “WOW!”, when she first saw it, so it went down well with her too. The only problem was that we were in a bit of a rush, so we couldn't spend as much time as we would have wanted there but, on the bright side, we still made it. We returned to the stifling car and started the drive back to Flagstaff. On the way out, we stopped by the entrance sign to get a mandatory photo, which was probably a mistake as I managed to lose my hat in the process. We took the I-180 home for a change of scenery and in the process pass some of the snow capped San Francisco mountains. It was a surprise to see them with snow on considering how warm it gets during the day but the frigid nights must make them stick around well through spring. We navigated back in to Flagstaff and returned the car with no problems, even receiving a $1.25 refund for some unknown reason. Unfortunately, considering we were knackered, our day didn't end there. We had to swing by the shops for dinner and then check into our room at the hostel. We didn't want to crash out, so headed out to have a look around the small downtown area of Flagstaff. We'd heard good thing about the town, but we actually thought it was a bit dreary and run down. Maybe it was because it was late in the day and the sun was quickly setting behind some mountains but it could definitely do with a bit of revitalisation. We took some snaps, returned our things to the hotel and decided, after a long day, that we'd earned a beer at the nearby Lumberyard brewing company. It went down well but we refrained from having a second, as we had an early start the following day. Finally, we were nearly ready to crash out. We just needed a shower and to eat our pizza before we could finally turn in for the night…..at 20:20
“Jojo left his home….”
James and Charlotte
Jo Jo left his home in Tuscon Arizona for some california grass. Get Back, The Beatles.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the rooftop concert 1969. Mum