Day 12: Grand Canyon to Route 66 Hotel/Casino, New mexico (Adventure of Donkey-s*** mountain)

There is a certain amount of specialness of waking up and looking outside of the window and realizing there is a giant amazing chasm less than 1000 ft away, some would say it is even Grand.

After a quick breakfast and a stop at the Yavapai observation point , we decide to go into the Canyon via the South Kaibab trail. The views were beautiful, but the smells were a little less so. Mule feces littered the trail, further littering the canyon air. I know that the quite large quantity came from several, several mules walking up and down the trail, but it was fun to imagine that it was only one animal who ate some bad Mexican food the night before.

The walk down the canyon face was easy enough, a little steep and loose with light dirt, but nothing we couldn’t handle. No sooner than we got started we ran across our first obstacle.

This adorable little sheep was cute and had a littler even more adorable sneeze. We eventually found out that the sneeze was actually an animal flu, which immediately made it 100 times less cute. The rest of the hike down was uneventful (minus my free climb up a tiny rock face and a moment with a squirrel), but it was pretty beautiful (as most things have been in different ways for the past couple days). The way up was difficult, especially for me (I have more to carry up), but the feeling of accomplishment was well worth it (minus the feeling of a 200 pulse).

Leaving the Grand Canyon, we realize that for the first time we are no longer traveling West and now heading back East. Now we are no longer recreating the steps of the pioneers, but rather those who were too weak and had to go back to Yankee Territory (West Coast for life!).

We drive into New Mexico and we stop in Grants and almost (under Alex’s insistence) stop at a Taco Bell. Luckily, I asked the gas station clerk and we ended up at El Cafecito. The food was well priced and pretty delicious. New Mexico’s Mexican food is marked by stacked enchiladas and heavy use of a greed or red chile sauce to smother dishes. Unfortunately, I have to admit that it is a better, cleaner style than Tex-Mex, but I have still had better authentic Mexican food in Texas and better tacos in North Carolina.

The local movie theater didn’t have the movies that we wanted to see so we ended up hitting the road again, feeling defeated. This all immediately changed when we came across the Route 66 Hotel/Casino. We were told that the hotel was fully booked, but our luck of the day before prevailed and we were flagged down by a valet on our way out and given the last room.

A pretty fancy get up for the price, the hotel part was great, but the casino part was a little cheesy and dominated by slots (which I have no understanding why people use). An initial Blackjack run led to lost money and drinks at the bar and we went to the room to retire. Alex’s itchy finger got the best of him and he and I went back downstairs. The nightclub was okay, but the lack of single women and with the average age about 6 to 8 years higher than our own, made it a little futile. However, a second Blackjack session was a little more fun. Although, I had to through in an extra twenty to bail Alex and myself out of near death, we ended up gaining 5 dollars on the session (which in gambling is considered a big win). I think this photo speaks for our turn around victory.