We are now in Las Vegas enjoying some well earned R and R. It's tough being on the road each day. We now have some good weather with 82 Deg. F yesterday. Meanwhile Chicago and the states up to Boston are about to cop Winter Storm Vulcan with up to 8 inches of snow,

Flagstaff was a great town. we wandered around the old part of town for a few hours. Nestled at the base of the San Francisco Peaks we could see the snow capped mountains from the streets Flagstaff has a variety of old buildings housing interesting shops and cafes. The visitor centre is in the train station which sees two passenger trains on the LA to Chicago route each day, one going east in the AM and one west in the PM. Additionally between 70 and 100 VERY large freight trains rumble through each day..

Flagstaff houses the Lowell Observatory which discovered Pluto in 1930. I wonder whether they said "Hello Pluto" as Mickey Mouse does.

We then took a drive to Sedona which took us through some absolutely spectacular Canyon scenes and the town of Sedona is surrounded by jagged cliiffs in rock of pinl, red and brown. The town is totally geared to tourists with every shop in the main street selling souveniers.

Then to Walnut Canyon. This is one of the real highlights of the trip. The canyon is rugged with sheer cliffs over 600 feet high. There is a steep walking trail down (and up again) 300 or so steps. The small Singua community of native indians lived in houses carved out of this cliff face or under natural overhangs from AD 1125 to 1250 when they moved on.

Water would have to be collected in large pottery urns and carried up the cliffs on very narrow trails constructed by them. It is incredible how they lived their.

We are glad we decided to stay in Flagstaff for two nights as we would not have seen this otherwise.

After Flagstaff we moved on to Williams which was the last city to be bypassed by the Interstate 40 on Oct. 13 1984. It is really pretty and they have made an effort to preserve the history of Route 66 with many of the original buildings still in excellent condition Of course there are the many souvenier shops.

Williams houses THE WORld'S LARGEST Steel route 66 sign. Obviously the previous one we saw was not steel.

Williams is the starting point for the Grand Canyon Railway, but as Peter and I had seen the Grand Canyon before we moved on.

Ash Fork was next which is pretty derelict but houses the DeSoto Beauty and Barber shop with a De Soto mounted on the roof. It is closed and has been so for many years.

We next came to Seligman where the most famous building is Angel and Vilka Delgadillo's gift and barber shop. Angel is 87 years old and still cuts hair in his shop. He is one of the road's real characters but was taking a nap when we were there. Really I think he was avoiding the two bus loads of Japanese tourists which arrives at his tiny shop at the same time as us.

Hackerberry was an interesting stop with only one shop to be seen but it was where Bob Waldermire lived for 5 years. We first saw evidence of Bob in Pontiac Illinois, as he travelled the road in his bus and Combi van for years.

Kingman we stopped at overnight but will revisit on oue way out of Las Vegas on Thursday.

It is the home of THE WORLD'S LONGEST (and Largest) Map of Route 66 which stretches all along the side wall of the motel.

On the road to Las Vegas saw the world's most classic sign advertising petrol. It's called Uranus Gas. Wonder which marketing genius dreamed this one up!

We stopped at Hoover Dam on the way to Las Vegas and it was totally overun by tourists so had to abort the tour into the dam wall. They have done much work here since our last visit (When Emma was 5). There is now a high bridge which avoids the need for the highwayto pass over the dam wall.

We are now at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas, a 4000 room hotel and casino where our rooms are costing $61 per day. Yes its still loud, tacky, disgusting etc. On our way in the longest queue we saw was at a pawn brokers shop at the northern end of Las Vegas avenue and must have stretched 100 yard of people waiting to get in.

Thursday back to Kingman and the last stretches f Route 66.