Day Eight, Friday, August 26
The day started more casual than most, with me stopping down at the lobby to grab some breakfast and no real urgency with when we were leaving. Well, until eleven rolled around and checkout was fast approaching, that is, at which point we got everything packed out and headed out, leaving Flagstaff in the rear view.
Our first stop of the day was the Road Kill Cafe on Route 66. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of places with this moniker and the jokes that my father would make when I was a kid about "you kill it, we grill it" were aimed at a more generic concept, but it was cool to stop in and grab some lunch.
The food was okay (as the sign said, "lousy food, hot beer") but acceptable. Dana's sandwich, however, was amazing, so maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. It was pretty cheap, too, since it was obviously just a themed diner like any other. Our next stop was a ways down the Mother Road - a zoo, actually, in the middle of the desert.
Llama that loved following us around
Anthony the baby lion
It was reasonably cheap to get in for a zoo ($18 apiece) and the animals were beautiful. They had at least a dozen tigers alone - I would assume they're all rescues from the nearby Las Vegas area. Keepers of the Wild is a non-profit habitation shelter for animals that are unable to be released back into the wild. They don't believe in breeding them, and for all intents and purposes are more of an animal sanctuary than a zoo. They have the simple goal of taking in abused and neglected animals and allowing them to live out a peaceful and reasonably happy life. A lovely and admirable stop on the adventure!
After the habitat, we headed further down Route 66 and stopped to take a picture of a giant thing (yes!) on the side of the road. Dana was a little worn out from the heat and sun, so she took a picture from the car.
A big tiki! Pulling up to it, it reminded me of a great big green moai statue, like the ones on Easter Island. Route 66 was peppered with nostalgia, not the least of which were a few sets of the old Burma Shave signs, warning variously about speeding and starting forest fires with their trademark clever rhymes. We exited the historic road and merged back onto the interstate briefly before taking a US highway north toward the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam was absolutely spectacular. The scale of the entire thing and the fact that it was built eighty years ago is still daunted, as is the new bypass bridge right next to it. If you're ever in the area, go see it, and take the tour, too - it's $11 a person and you get to go down to the bowels of the dam and see the actual generators operating.
After the Dam, we decided to head the hotel and relax for a bit. Dana got in touch with her friends and family to work out times to go visit, and that evening we headed over to her step-grandmother's apartment. Donna Mae was an excellent conversationalist and a lot of fun to be around, and Dana appreciated another point of view on familial events of the past few months. It was great to meet her and we're heading to dinner tonight with her and her sister. It will be lovely!
Anyway, today is set to be a relaxed day in the hotel, and tonight we're going to the strip to hang out with Dana's friends Meaghan and Katrina. Hopefully afterward we'll have some opportunity to drive an hour out of the city for some primo stargazing, as well. Until then!
States: Arizona, Nevada
Cities: Flagstaff, Boulder City, Henderson
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