...... On our way out of Vegas, we couldn't help ourselves and stopped at the outlet store. $155 later we left, at which point I must add, most of my christmas shopping was done, only a few purchases for myself, diesel trainers, flip flops as I only have 3 pairs and a lovely top. We then drove to the Hoover Dam, I can tick the box to say I've seen it but can't really tell you much else about it. Not very appealing but it got us to Arizona, just as the radio was interupted to warn us of a storm we were heading right into, Gulp!! Our destination for the evening was Kingman, which isn't very far into Arizona, so instead of panicing we simply enjoyed the blanket and fork lightning that lit up the night sky. No more 4 star hotels from here on in, so we pulled up to Motel 6, dined in Dennys ( it was like going home to the usual routine after being on holiday) and had an early night.

The plan was to drive to Havasupai waterfall on the way to Flagataff, but you've probably guessed by me opening with 'the plan' we didn't quite reach our goal. The weather started of rainy then brightened up th efurther we drove. After about an hour and a half we reached the Havasupai turn off which announced it would be a further 60 miles there, meaning another 60 miles back to the point we were at, proceeded by a further 100miles to Flagstaff. Undettered we decided we had to see the waterfall ( and besides I wasn't driving, so I was quite happy sitting in the passenger seat, day dreaming about my American storm boys). We got to what we thought was the destination and infront of us was one giant car park packed with cars and mules situated at the edge of a giant canyon. At this point we consulted the 'Rough Guide' only to discover that the waterfall was an 8 mile hike away. Not fancying a 16 mile trek there and back, we hot footed it out of there rather sharply, passing a number of bemused looking hikers on our way and proceeded to Flagstaff. That evening we were back to reality with more of a bang and booked into the hostel, which only had a mixed dorm available, it seemed nice enough. Decided on going to the cinema for the evening to see 'The Departed' - good film. But we timed it all wrong, as show was at 10:30pm, dinner was around 7pm as we were starving, that took a whole 30mins, so we had 2 hours to kill. Hoping we could use the internet, to find that on returning to the hostel it was booked for the next couple of hours. Nothing to do but read our books and stop ourselves falling asleep as we had already bought the tickets. We got back to the dorm at about 1:30, everyone was asleep so we had to locate our pj's and toothbrushes in the dark. The bed felt like it had gravel in it, the room stank, there were men in and out of the bathroom all night making all sorts of undeirable bodily function noises and as soon as it became a decent hour in the morning I was up and out, refusing to go into the bathroom, so washed my face and brushed my teeth in the carpark with bottled water. We were planning to stay an extra night in Flagstaff but not in the Hostel. Knowing that there were a few Motel 6's in the area, which we couldn't check into until the afternoon we planted ourselves in an Internet Cafe for a couple of hours. Went shopping in Walmart, killing another hour than went to try for a room. Checked in and slept for 4 hours, had a long shower, did some laundry, watched Legally Blonde on the TV and went out to diner to the Olive Garden. Another Early night........