Devall Travels

OMG! 😒 Day 6 already!!! Today was the day we had agreed to go to the SPG presentation. As usual we told them that we wouldn't be buying anything as we are a few years off retirement and as they know, we have a timeshare. In the end the 90 minutes became three hours but we did get the $100 pre-paid Visa card in advance. That will pay for gas for the Charger.  I guess $33 an hour or $16.50 each an hour is more than we'd earn at a burger joint locally. More than I get paid for my real work!!!! Once that was over, a great idea but simply not in the range of my bank account or future earnings, we went for lunch. Claire chose Denny's. I tried to avoid the inevitable 101 but failed. I have begun to dislike the Pima Freeway. Lunch was excellent. This Denny's has booths and is comfortable. The service is always good, something we still don't get used to in England! Another quick visit to a Walmart got us a backpack (they don't know what a rucksack is!...

Day 2 started off in the wee small hours when we finally arrived at the Papago Inn. For that reason we both had our eight hours and were up without the larks at 9am. The room was pretty good and there were people around the pool. From the outside it was very unspecial. But inside it was four sides of the square around the pool. Claire took a photo. It looked good. The room also featured a fridge and coffee maker. We made use of the latter and the coffee bags before leaving. With six hours before we could check-in at the Timeshare, we needed something to do. By 11am we were checking into the Desert Botanical Garden. And what a find. A reduced entry fee as we are old and we were in. With no breakfast we went into Gertrude's and ended up with brunch. Then it was a walk around the large and varied gardens. If you like the desert and don't want to travel, this is perfect. We were lucky as some of the cactii were flowering and many are only in flower one o...

Finally here. Landed about 2229 MST and after a walk around the shopping centre that seems to form most of the airport we found a security guard who told us where the shuttle bus to car rentals was... Four floors below us and another long walk. The National office was easy to find and we were there only customers. I prefer National as all taxes and insurances are included in the quote. The guy pointed to a row of cars. "Take any one of those". My eyes flicked to the three Challengers... In the end we put our cases in an Impala then Claire saw the Charger SXT. We changed. The Papago Inn was easy to find (crossed fingers TomTom worked) and we checked in about 1230... Day 2 started with us going to bed shattered after 24 hours awake. 

The three days to departure and although we have everything in hand and I have pulled the cases and the computer bag from the loft, not much packing or sorting too place yesterday.   After the experience of having a bag go missing two years ago, last year I wrote our surname on the bottom of the cases in indelible pen, and this year we are going to half and half pack them.   After years of taking stuff for a 10000 mile round trip and never using it, this year I plan to be minimalist.  It's not as though there won't be a Walmart about for those Fruit of the Loom underpants we can't get in UK that fit my physique really well......  Plus I need space in one bag should I invest in a sissy-bar bag for the bike.  In the US the one I have been looking at is the same in dollars as it is in pounds in the UK.   Those suppliers that do have them on eBay want almost as much again to post to the UK. I actually have a bag but it is very cheap and I got i...

Once we hit the apartment in Scottsdale for some R&R,  I have been looking at a few excursions or trips. I thought Tucson and Tombstone seemed like a good idea but the Rough Guide has put me off from bothering. Neither place gets a glowing write-up. I have booked a hotel on the "pay later free cancellation" idea from booking.com. So at least I have until June 3rd to scrub it. One day trip, that depending on the above we well do is to the Red Rock State Park near Sedona. It's about 100 miles from Scottsdale, and  easily do-able in a day. I expect the "day" is quite long at that time of the year. It could morph into an overnight stop to gives us time to do the "vortexes". Another trip I mapped for the TomTom is the Apache Trail to the east of Phoenix. The RG makes it sound an adventure of unpaved but graded roads. We'll see.  And then once the week in Scottsdale is over we head north east to check out the P...

Things are coming together for the anti clockwise loop from Phoenix and back again. The Wigwam Motel at Holbrook is not available online and with the 7 hour time difference it is hard to call to make a reservation. I'll leave it a while and see if they come online soon.   I have emailed to see if they have started taking bookings. My brother is there in a week or so on his and Cath's Route 66 trip , so I dropped him an email to see how he managed to book. If he can book me whilst he is there it will make things a bit more certain. The next overnight will be Williams and the Grand Canyon Railway and then we get onto the section of R66 ourselves and a stop in Kingman, currently the hotel of choice is a traditional old fashioned one El Trovotore. That might change yet. Then Claire wanted a few days R&R and somewhere to swim so we'll head down to Lake Havasu and stay there the last two nights before heading to Phoenix and fly home. Arizona Loop T...