Friday, September 24, 2010

Still on the Road

It's Been over 5 days now

Since we left London Ontario, a long, long time ago, last Monday morning, we have seen parts of the US that have been new and exciting to us.  Monday night we stayed in Bloomington Illinois, and found a nice pub for dinner there.

We met up with My Dear Wife's son Cameron in Topeka Kansas as plannedon Tuesday evening, and had a wonderful dinner together.  Who knew that the best Thai food in North America was in Topeka KS?  It was pretty good.

We spent Wednesday night in Colorado Springs, heading towards Page AZ to see the Antelope Canyon, but ran out of steam Thursday, in Durango CO, where we had another excellent dinner, and spent some time in a town that we did not know existed prior to arriving there.  We also saw a beautiful waterfall and overlook east of Pagosa Springs that we have many pictures of.

What was most memorable was that MDW and I hiked up (successfully) to the falls itself, which was no mean feat for us, and a victory, emotionally and physically.

Today, we intended to drive to Page AZ from Durango CO, and after a brief stop in a quilt shop in Durango, were on our way.  We were to pass through the only place in America where 4 states meet, CO, NM, AZ, UT.  However, I had forgotten to turn Garmin on, and so we ended up missing the special point, and headed down into New Mexico instead. Garmin got us back on track, and we ended up in AZ as planned, and heading west on Hwy 160 again. 

However, we came across an accident that covered the road with tractor trailer bits, and made it impassable until a tow truck could be dispatched to clean things up.  The man in front of us was from Flagstaff, and he received directions from a native woman, that we followed with him, with a couple of very minor hiccups, such that we drove up into Utah, and then back into Arizona, several miles past the accident.  This is not like London to Toronto, where you can take any number of nearby alternative routes.  This took about 80 miles of driving to circumnavigate.  But, in so doing we entered all 4 states that met at that one point, and saw some beautiful countryside that we would have missed otherwise.

So, we arrived in Page, AZ at about 6 pm, instead of 4, to find that we had gained an hour, so it was only 5 PM.  As we drove into Page, we noticed that it was very busy, and that there was a major music festival going on.  MDW suggested that we check for rooms at the local Holiday Inn Express, and so we did.  Fortunately, MDW is not pregnant, because there was no room in the inn.  We checked another and also tried a neighbouring city by phone, to no avail.  We returned to the Holiday Inn, and the young man working the desk, a handsome young Navajo man named Nick, attempted to find us a room at the Holiday Inn in Flagstaff (Flag for locals).  Again, Casey had struck out.    Seeing how fatigued we were, Nick was able to pull a rabbit out a hat for us, or at least a room.  He had one room available for emergencies, and we emerged as tonight's emergency.  He also booked us onto the tour of the Antelope Canyon in the morning, and then to add to his aura, he booked us a room for tomorrow night at a Holiday Inn near the Grand Canyon.

We figured that we would end up missing both of these natural wonders, and so were disappointed, until we trusted God, and let Him work it out for us.

God Bless You Nick.

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