11/11/99

There's a lot to like about sleeping in a concrete teepee, but our teepee
was not without its little quirks.  The train, which seemed to run
frequently behind the Village, created mini-earthquakes.  The heater
clunked and hissed.  But it was an adventure.  Remember yesterday when I
mentioned that the proprietor told us to pay the following morning?  Nobody
was home, so we tucked $35 and a thank you note in the door.

After photographing some especially nice fiberglass dinosaurs, we were on
our way to the Grand Canyon.  There was a requested donation of 25 cents
for taking pictures, but nobody was there, either, and we didn't
necessarily feel that we needed to leave any money for the privilege.

En route to the Grand Canyon, we drove along some of Route 66, including
Jackrabbit, where we stopped for cold cherry cider.  Somewhere in there, I
decided to look into extending my trip by a day.   It was a lovely day to
be at the canyon - sunny, clear, not crowded.  We had lunch there,
backtracked (now affectionately referred to as "going to Mexico") a few
times in an attempt to exit the park, then drove to Flagstaff to change the
ticket.  (We realized we could've just gone to the Las Vegas airport to
change it.  Oh well.)

We needed gas, so we stopped in Kingman, AZ.  We also ate at Sonic.  I had
a double jalapeno cheeseburger with a peanut butter shake.  I noticed they
refer to themselves as a "drive-thru," rather than a "drive-in," which is
what they really are.

Vegas, yes Vegas.  We pulled in around 9:00 PST and went straight to the
Stratosphere, where we rode the roller coaster that spirals around the top
of the building.  Not too scary a ride, except when you look over the ledge
and see all of the teeny-tiny buildings on the ground.

We drove down the strip and decided to spend the evening at the Luxor.  Our
room has a temple-shaped wardrobe with cartouches on the doors, a fragment
of an Egyptian ruin, palmette and lotus wallpaper borders, and shampoo in
an obelisk-shaped bottle.  We took a long walk and stopped into many of the
different casinos, finally winding back to the Luxor, where we had dinner
at 3:00 am. 

That's that.  We start working our way back to Phoenix tomorrow.
 

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