There was certainly no case of lying around in bed because the bed feels so comfortable, because we had essentially slept the previous night on a bed of gravel. We thought our blankets would provide enough padding for us, but real sleeping pads were what would have done the trick. In any event, it was just another part of the adventure and we quickly packed up our tent and belongings and got back on the road eager to make it to the Grand Canyon, or at least get as close to it as possible that day.
On our path across New Mexico we encountered our first real issue thus far that cost us travel time (besides the speeding ticket, but that cost us money, not time). About 20 miles before Albuquerque, the Volvo’s front right tire blew out totally unexpectedly. It was a random thing that we could not prevent.
Eager to get back out onto the road and unable to find the spare tire in this car that we were not very familiar with, we called triple A assuming we were going to need a tow to the nearest tire place (which happened to be Walmart). About 10 minutes after the tow truck left to come get us, of course we found the spare that was stashed underneath the back trunk. We felt kind of stupid when the tow truck guy showed up and we had a spare tire there, but it turned out to be good, though, because our car jack was pretty soft and the guy had a much better one. So we changed the tire (or I should say the guy changed it while we watched…this was a very emasculating experience), and made our way to Walmart to get a tire put on. Of course we just had to blew out our tire on a Saturday when the Walmart mechanics were most backed up, so we had to wait well over an hour to be seen. The one positive was that Sam put our pictures from the camera onto a disc so we could free up space on his memory card and take more pictures going forward.
We got back onto the road and powered our way through New Mexico into Arizona. We were warned once we got into Arizona to be careful, or basically to leave as soon as possible, because of the new Immigration related laws recently enacted that basically allows police to search brown people at any time without having to provide any sort of reason (I don’t totally understand it, but that’s how it was explained). As a side note I’d like to say that from what I understand, this law sounds like total bullshit. But anyway let’s move forward. So we made it through Flagstaff and into Williams, Arizona where we decided to bite the bullet and split a hotel room (our camping experience the night before had left some of our backs extra sore). Williams is about an hour from the Grand Canyon, so we figured we could stay there, get up early, and head out to the Grand Canyon before we made our way to Vegas.
We got into the hotel, and not long after we headed out to the town of Williams to grab some dinner. Williams is situated right along the historic Route 66, so the whole town and half the restaurants is centered completely around Route 66 and selling memorabilia related to it and the Grand Canyon. We settled on a pizza place, and after a nice meal we headed back to the car, anxious to sleep. As we were about to open the doors to the car, Danny unexpectedly puked all over the street (which was Route 66!). I couldn’t help but laugh because Danny had given no indication whatsoever that he was feeling sick or nauseous up until that point. I knew he had some sinus issues and was blowing his nose a lot, but this episode of throwing up took us all by surprise. We made sure he was ok, but in the end had to laugh about it not long after because it was really funny.
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