Into the Southwest and One of the Seven Wonders of the World

October 10th – 15th

We picked Eddie up and headed for one of our very favorite places, Santa Fe, NM.

How very cavalier of you to say. It was a mad house there! A MAD house, I say!

When arriving, we experienced one of the challenges of traveling and using Airbnb, which is you’re never exactly sure what you are getting yourself into until you get there. In this case, the Airbnb itself was fine, but the parking was a bit weird as you parked outside the unit on an oddly shaped ‘driveway’ that put you right up against a very busy road. But we decided we could live with that. We unpacked and went looking for some authentic New Mexican food. We found it at Café Castro on Cerrillos.

They were really, really nice! They let me sit inside with Moms. I bet they don’t board their dog.

The food was great and covered with delicious green chile (of course). We were in the mood for a margarita and Castro’s only had a beer and wine license, so we drove to the old Santa Fe Plaza and found a great margarita at Joe’s Tequila Bar located at the Inn at Alameda. With a name like that, it better have a great margarita! And it did, Michelle had a Cadillac with a reposado tequila and Sandy had a jalapeno infused margarita that had a very nice kick to it. Eddie, of course, went with us and enjoyed watching all the people as it was a perfect night to be sitting out on a beautiful patio drinking Margaritas.

I had a martini on ice. It was very good.

Eddie, sweetie, that was iced water. Don’t give people the wrong impression.

You say potato…..

The bar is at the Inn at Alameda and is as beautiful and as refined as the Inn. We arrived back at the Airbnb and expected to have a good night’s sleep. Our plan was to explore Santa Fe the next day and then take off for AZ the day after that. As they say, the best laid plans…the bed was a memory foam mattress that had seen better days and was terrible for Sandy’s back. She tried to sleep on the ‘couch’, which was more of a love seat, to no avail. So, in the morning, we scratched our plan to stay in Santa Fe another night and booked a room in Holbrook instead. We did have a wonderful breakfast in Santa Fe at the ‘Tune Up’ restaurant just down the street from our Airbnb. The food was great, the service was interesting (the people taking our order were surly, but the person delivering our food was delightful) and the outdoor patio serene and relaxing. Sandy got her diet coke, Michelle had English Breakfast tea, and all was once again good in the world. We high tailed it for Holbrook and stayed at an Econo Lodge we usually stop at when traveling though AZ. It is a little long in the tooth, but nostalgic for us. We also ate at ‘Mesa Italian’ the only restaurant we’ve found in that part of Holbrook that is dog friendly and has really good food. Even though the patio wasn’t technically open, they opened it for us, so we were able to eat with Ms. Eddie in tow. Eddie was happy to no longer be incarcerated, we were happy to have a decent mattress, so off to sleep we went in preparation for our Grand Canyon Railway Adventure.

We go to that Mesa place every time we are there. They also bring me martini’s and they let me roam around. It’s fun.

We arrived in Williams, AZ in the early afternoon and after a bit of a struggle, found the kennel where Eddie was to be boarded. You can imagine how horrified she was to be boarded just two days after we picked her up in Boulder. Adding to her horror, was the fact that this boarding facility was a series of 4×4 indoor cages and a 6×4 outdoor dog run for each boarder and to get her into it and we had to run a gauntlet of very loud barking dogs to get to her cage. The look on her face was of abject disbelief that we were leaving her there. However, if we kept her while in Williams, she would be trapped in a crate for hours while we took the train to the Grand Canyon, so we knew it was best for her in the long run. We’re quite certain she did not agree.

You are right! I do not agree. It was BEDLAM! The inmates screamed and cried and dragged their bowls across the cage bars all day and night. It was full of DOGS! I really hope you slept well.

We then checked into the ‘Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel’ – the lobby is beautiful with original oil paintings of the surrounding area and the Grand Canyon and a large fireplace with inviting couches in front of it. On either side of the fireplace were original Remington bronzes of the west. That evening, we ate in the ‘Fred Harvey’ historic restaurant and then went to Spenser’s, the pub in the lodge house. At the pub, we started taking to the two women sitting next to us. They were both originally from England, but Heather currently lives outside of Las Vegas NV and has for quite a while. Heather is Irene’s sister-in-law, lives in Bristol and is spending 3 weeks in the US with Heather. We so enjoyed our conversation with them! One of the true joys of traveling is meeting interesting people who share a love of traveling. Thank you Irene and Heather for a great conversation. A few words on the restaurant and the pub. For those of you who don’t know, the Fred Harvey Company was founded by Fred Harvey in 1876 in an effort to improve the hospitality offerings alongside the railroads in the western part of the United States. Until then, the food was truly horrible and no ‘nice’ hotels existed for the growing number of railway passengers. He is credited with creating the first restaurant chain in the United States and promoting tourism in the American Southwest. He hired educated, single young women who wanted a more adventurous life than what was typically on offer for refined young women in the late 19th century. If the Harvey House or the story of the Harvey girls interests you, there is a great book called “The Harvey Girls” by Lesley Poling-Kempes. We both highly recommend it.

Are they still around? Do they take well educated doggies who love to travel?

The next morning, we were up early to have breakfast at the Harvey House and be ready for our departure on the train to the Grand Canyon. A word about the food at the Harvey House. Full disclosure, neither of us really enjoy buffets, so our opinion may be tainted, but we found the food just OK. Typical buffet food for both dinner and breakfast that was not quite the right temperature and somewhat mushy in consistency. Regardless, it was filling and prepared us for our train trip. The first part of the trip is an endearingly hokey gun fight with the requisite bad jokes and puns and, of course, a shootout where the sheriff wins. Then we all boarded the train for the 2+ hour ride to the canyon. We splurged and bought the ‘bubble seats’ so we were at the top of the train and had clear 360-degree views all around. We were on the “Mary Colter’ car. Mary Colter was an architect and designer (one of the very few in her day) and designed many landmark buildings for Paul Harvey and in the Grand Canyon National Park so we were in good company. Nancy, our tour guide and host, was amazingly knowledgeable about the surrounding landscapes, the area and the Grand Canyon and regaled us with stories about the people and places in Williams and the National Park. We also had music from a ‘traveling’ singer/guitar player who was very talented and did songs from Johnny Cash to Lynyrd Skynyrd. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon, we opted not to take the bus tour and (buffet) lunch that came with our package and went our own way. We had been told that the ‘El Tovar’ had the best food in Grand Canyon Village, so we ate there and loved it. Great food, super service.

I’m very happy for you. I, on the other hand, happen to love bread and water. No expectations.

Afterwards we visited some of the buildings and exhibits in the village and happened upon a Native American artist who was demonstrating his jewelry making techniques. Well, those of you who know us well can guess what happened next. Sandy fell in love with one of his bracelets and so we are now the proud owners of a new silver and turquoise bracelet complete with a picture with the artist, Al Joe. The Joe family has been making jewelry for generations and the craftmanship, attention to detail and quality materials shows in every piece they produce.

I have a very lovely collar.

Also, it was colder than we anticipated so Michelle now owns another sweatshirt. It’s just not a road trip if at least one piece of clothing isn’t purchased because Michelle got cold. We caught the train back to the hotel mid-afternoon and once again, Nancy provided entertaining stories, another musician (who yodeled!) provided great music, and the all-important train robbery took place right before we got back to the depot. Nancy let us know the best way to avoid the robbers was to roll up a dollar bill and inset it into the air vents above us because that will distract them from looking for better loot. So, we were only “robbed” of a couple of dollars. We talked to several of our fellow travels and enjoyed those conversations immensely. Since our lunch was so good and very filling, we skipped dinner and just had bar food at Spenser’s instead of dinner at the Harvey House. The next morning, we had a fabulous breakfast at a local diner, Anna’s Cafe, and just wandered around Williams for the day. We think we will come back to Williams at some point and maybe even take the train trip again – we really enjoyed the entire experience!

The morning found us rescuing Eddie from prison (her definition, not ours) and taking off for Lake Havasu City for lunch with sister Laura.

I bet prisons are nicer. This was a MAD HOUSE! Hey, did you say we’re on the way to see Auntie Laura? I like her and she likes me!

In Lake Havasu City we went to a restaurant called ‘The Red Onion’ that we’ve been to before. The food was good but getting to see Laura after more than a year was the highlight. Eddie approves of the restaurant because it has lots of people to watch and fawn over her and grackles to think about chasing. We said goodbye to Laura and set out on the last leg of our journey. The traffic was good until we hit some traffic because of asphalt road work just before we got home. However, as we said to each other, it was still faster than following the bison in Yellowstone. Not nearly as entertaining, but still faster. We arrived home in the late afternoon, a bit exhausted, but so jazzed by our experiences on our trip that we are already planning the next one. We will post one more blog with a summary in a couple of days. Until then, we hope you enjoyed journeying along with us in the remarkable and beautiful country we all call home.

Ok, I did have a good time. It’s true I don’t like prisons, but I really LOVE hotels. Zoomies and rollies always make me happy. I like seeing those giant dogs in those parks (Bison) and lots of restaurants were fun. I also enjoy sharing burgers and fries with the Moms in the car. All in all, I had fun. Where to next?