The work of a feathered genius.....: What to do when stuck in the mud.....

So what is like to wake up at 5:20am in a freezing cold teepee? Well after this morning I can tell you! Bloody horrible but once you put the heater on it’s blooming marvelous.

An early start to say the least as we were up and out at 7:15am towards flagstaff for breakfast. We started to follow the signs for historic Route 66 which was a beautiful road leading through St Josephs City, the road then became The Jackrabbit Road. About 1 mile in it turned to a gravel track something that we are very used to when following the old alignment of Route 66, however little did we know what was to come. In a field in the middle of nowhere we began our journey across the mud, within about 12ft it became thick mud which we subsequently sank into….. Ben and dad were straight out of the car and ankle deep in the mud trying to push the car while I tried endlessly to reverse the car back out (so much for having a 4x4, note to anyone reading this don’t buy a Jeep!). As the minutes went by we were unsuccessful and mum became more and more concerned that one of us was going to have to walk back to the nearest settlement about 5 miles away, luckily after many attempts we managed to free the car. Dad at this point was bare feet in the mud and looked like he had been off on some posh spa day, the car however looked like I had been on a rally experience day. After a quick discussion as to what to do next we decided to head back to the wigwam motel and see if we could get back in our room luckily we could and we cleaned off all of the red Arizona mud.

So lets then start the day again this time sticking to the interstate. We quickly arrived in Winslsow and stood on the corner in Winslow Arzona (as the song goes). Next stop Flagstaff had a lovely breakfast in Subway and a nice coffee from Starbucks also taking the opportunity to use their free Wifi. Then it was onwards to the Grand Canyon. We stopped halfway at the airport museum and sat in a fighter jet. The couple that ran the museum were lovely and took us on a personal tour on board a plane they had outside. After a couple of hours in the car we arrived at the South Rim (leave the rim jokes we have had them all). Lots of pictures were taken and plenty of sights were seen. It is an amazing sight, then it was back in the car and off to Seligman.

Seligman is a beautiful town that thrives on the custom of tourists and has a number of small gift shops, were we bought ourselves some route 66 t shirts and other bits. We then headed for dinner at Lilo’s diner. Some of the best food I think I have ever had. Tuna melt, chips and coleslaw yum.

Next came the long slog to Laughlin which would be our stop for the night approximately 70 miles away. As we set off down Route 66, luckily a well paved version of it the sun set in amazing colours and the temperature rose to 80 degrees even at 8pm. We then realized that we needed fuel with the car saying we had about 50 miles left…. The sat nav then revealed that it was approximately 60 miles to the nearest fuel station. So everything consuming fuel went off and we cruised along at the most economical speed trying to conserve as much fuel as possible. I then revealed that having drunk two large refills of pepsi at dinner I was busting for a wee, the prospect of going at the side of the road in the dark with the risk of being bitten by scorpions didn’t excite me. So there I was holding it in with the prospect of a long journey and potential breakdown, luckily the sat nav was wrong and about 30 minutes we came across a small gas station. However there was no indoor restroom and I had to go in a plastic portaloo in the dark with Ben shining his iphone light through the vent in the roof so I could at least see what I was doing,

Anyway we are now in Laughlin a poor mans Las Vegas. It has really got me excited for Vegas but tonight we are just shattered from an Epic day.