The Painted Desert & The Grand Canyon | Fizgiggery

Suddenly, it’s the penultimate day of our trans-continental journey!  In just 30 hours, we will be arriving at a family home near San Diego.  But today is a very busy day, almost visually overwhelming… We’re planning on visiting the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, just across the Arizona border, followed by a trip to the Grand Canyon – and with a dog!

After we checked out of the Hollywood Cowgirl Glamour of El Rancho , it was time to load the car.  The downside to staying in a hotel was that our room didn’t open up on the parking lot, which meant that Banjo and I lurked outside with the car as Wonderman made a dozen trips to the room to bring all of our stuff down.

Meanwhile, I got chatting to a toothless woman who was sweeping leaves and emptying ashtrays.  She said Banjo reminded her of a little horse, and I shrieked because our dog has many nicknames and that is one of them.  She proceeded to tell me about how tourists wreck the town by getting drunk and disorderly, but that the town relies on tourism.  She said that she had been a tourist a few times in Europe, and how different she thought it there.

Another woman, who looked like Large Marge from Pee-Wee Herman’s Big Adventure , stopped to say hello to us.  She was an interstate trucker, who regularly drove between Gallup and San Antonio.  She was interested to hear about our journey but slapped her thigh when we said we hadn’t seen San Antonio.  Apparently the promenade is very pretty.