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We headed for breakfast where we soon forced the hotel to a grinding stop by daring to put on two toasters at the same time. A furious Korean chap ran in to determine what had happened and Mr. brick and I both pointed at Mr. Carrie. It turned out that this Korean fella was indeed the owner and we soon established that he was responsible for bringing the Bus loads of Korean tourists into Williams everyday and that no dogs had been reported missing in over two weeks.
This was to be Martines last day with us as his wife had only paid us to look after him for the three days and so we were on a tight schedule to meet with her in a Dennys of a still secret location later that afternoon. Martinez had the privilege of being VDJ and got us of to a flying start with 'Welcome Home' by Peters and Lee.
We were soon in Flagstaff where we stopped for a coffee and a general look around. Back on the road to the sounds of 'Oops upside yer head' by the Gap Band we were heading for the Barringer Crater, the best preserved crater in the world, and it would appear the only one with its very own radio station.
Pausing our road soundtrack we tuned in to 116 am, Crater Radio, we soon learned some important facts about this historic site including most importantly that this crater had full access for Strollers and Wheelchairs, something that had been a clincher in our decision to visit.
On arrival we quickly joined a guided tour which took us twenty yards along the edge of the crater and twenty yards back again. However there wasn't a stroller or wheel chair to be seen. A magnificent view of a vast area that was now reaching 114 degrees was complemented by an entertaining story to how the crater had appeared, what it had done to the surrounding area and what had been learnt from its landing.
This was the second rim in two days and for this writer this was a new record something that I wished to share with mer colleeges. At this juncture an elderly gentlemen cryptically said to me 'do you know what you're doing by wearing those sandals' to which I responded 'possibly'. He then went on to say that I was likely to get seriously sunburnt by not wearing white socks with my sandals. I thanked him for his concern but responded by stating that redness of the skin was a badge of honour in the mother country and that white socks were very gay.
Suitably chastened the three amigos headed to different parts of the crater rim for more photos where we literally bumped into Joey Tempest, lead singer with the eighties rock band Europe, who had a mega hit with 'The Final Countdown'. Joey was taking time out from a career re-launch tour with his wheel chair riding mother and had heard about the amazing facilities that the crater offered for wheeled chairs. We chatted with him for a while identifying the irony of his hit being about a mass wanting to leave earths orbit and yet here he was at a major site where a mass had entered earths orbit and left a bit of a mark. With permission obtained from his mother he went ahead and took a picture of the three of us at the bottom of the crater (see supporting image) and wished us well with our onward journey. Thanks Joey!
We had used up all of our time and eventually headed back to the car with our limbs suitably sunburnt.
It was time to return the Carrie to his rightful owner and the Brickster received a coded message that we were to meet Mrs Carey, code named Susan at a Denny's that she regularly used just outside of Flagstaff. On arriving we took the opportunity of having some lunch before unloading Carrie with his luggage, wet wipes etc and signing the respective forms giving 'Susan' back full loco parentis for him.
It was back to the Route 66 for me and the Ade (ret) and we opened up the throttle to the sounds of 'Don't fear the reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult. Nice!
We had an overnight stop planned at Winslow AZ where we made use of the motel pool and facilities. We supped our own Wal Mart purchased beers and tucked into a can of Pringles. I estimated that I had so far lost 6lbs. Tomorrow we were heading for Indian territory.
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