Day 17, Williams: Rodeo and Grand Canyon

Yesterday we were a little drunk and quite late, so we slept out and had a very late breakfast at the local greasy spoon; a 1960’s route 66 diner. Two 45 year old cars in perfect shape, were standing outside. Inside was a heaven of red vinyl and chrome. After a nice burger and some fries, our gang of two headed to the local rodeo. The place was stuffed full of trailers and pickup trucks. I have never seen so many 4x4 american cars in my life. The Rodeo was great fun to watch. It started off with a thanks giving, prayers and the national anthem. First event was wild horse racing, were three teams had to capture a horse, saddle it, and drive it around the track. It was followed by cow lassoing, wild horse riding for 8 seconds, wild cow milking and bull riding for kids. Where the people in Lone Pine worship their imaginary movie cowboys, the people here in Williams live the live, keeping an American part of history alive. It all takes an amazing degree of skill and guts to perform, and is great fun to watch.







Since the Grand Canyon is only about an hour away, we decided to take the car and drive there. Halfway we encountered a huge storm with rain and lightning. As quickly as it came, it disappeared, but the whole day has been cloudy. It is a nice change from the dry desert to the green lowlands. Temperature was a nice 23 degrees, The grand canyon national park was filled with people. We got off the road at the first parking lot, waited for several minutes for people to leave, and then our space was stolen twice. It makes me want to throw these stupid people in the canyon. The view was nice but not breathtaking. Maybe we have seen too much mountains and nature already.



The way back is again a straight road, the car’s 0-100 time is no less than 14 seconds, that is slow for a 2.7 liter v6. Back in the motel, we prepared a luxurious can dinner in the microwave.