Look no further than Ribbon of Highway. Currently posting from Holbrook, AZ home of America's Best Value Inn (where we're staying, the Wigwam motel, where I stayed last year, and a Dinosaur Museum).
Since we last posted in Los Angeles (where, by the way we saw the movie Fair Game - which you should see) we have been in Joshua Tree National Park, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon.
Joshua Tree was very cool. It is a national park that hosts two different ecosystems - the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert. The Mojave is home to the Joshua Tree which is actually a kind of Yuca plant and the most ginormous rocks you have every seen. The Colorado Desert is home to small rocks and bushes. So we had a preference. We went for a really nice, short hike by Cottonwood oasis under the bluest sky you've could ever see and Matt practiced some freestyle rock climbing. It was very dry all around.
After Joshua Tree we were headed to Lake Mead National Recreation center to camp before the Hoover Dam. En Route I texted my aunt who had recently been to Las Vegas and asked if there was a not-to-miss restaurant. She pointed us, very enthusiastically, to a place called Locust of Siam. I wish I took a picture. It was in a pretty dark strip mall a few blocks off the main strip where most restaurants looked closed or at the very least were in need of new neon bulbs. As soon as we walked in though, the entrance walls were covered with rave restaurant reviews, and for good reason. It was the best Thai food we've had for sure.
We left the restaurant with the intention of throwing a few pennies in a slot machine and would like to tell you about it but we heard that What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas so ... sometime the following afternoon we drove to the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam is an "engineering wonder." It was completed in three years, two years ahead of schedule! It is almost as wide on the bottom as it is tall (roughly 700 ft). And my favorite fact, throughout the concrete blocks that make up the dam are pipes that pumped cold water around to cool the blocks in place to speed up construction. Also, they just finished building a bridge over the Colorado River above the Dam.
From the Hoover Dam we drove to the Grand Canyon. When we were about 30 minutes away from the campsite I checked the weather for fun and saw that the low was 22 degrees. That was unfortunate, but we survived. Were pretty sluggish the following morning sat in the cold sun, had some hot chocolate and yogurt and granola and stretched a lot.
Also noteworthy - in the half marathon my pinky toe nail which was apparently pretty sharp dug a hole into the side of the toe next to it. I neglected that for the first few days until Vegas when it seemed to get a little infected. We had to stop to get some supplies and so the last few days have been sprinkled with cleaning and wrapping my toe.
What else? The Grand Canyon is very big - walked along the south rim for a while then watched the sunset while making some pasta at a view point and then drove to Holbrook.
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