Day the First ; Route 66 Motel

Taking consideration of the very long Friday May 27th 2016, we'd all set our respective alarms for a very reasonable 9am start. Our body-clocks however, demonstrating their utter disdain for the very long Friday May 27th 2016, betrayed this intent and woke each of us far earlier than was necessary or indeed 'appropriate' for a Saturday morning on holiday...
Still, we had ambitious plans for the day so made an early start on them. We found a quaint little restaurant for breakfast; we didn't meet the owner but from the signage we presume they were immigrants of Scottish descent; the McGriddle with hash brown I ordered representative of the distinct culinary finesse of the nation that brought us the deep-fried Mars bar.
From there, it was off to Hoover Damn, which was conveniently just down the road. It's no Lymn Damn, but it seems to get the job done, albeit the job it is now doing is far less strenuous than it once was ; due to ongoing, long-term drought the Colorado river and Lake Mead have water levels far beneath what they used to be, as is visible from the markings on the rocks. Mark, in full-on geologist mode, told me something about the rock formations but I wasn't really listening.
Next up was the Grand Canyon. We stopped en route for lunch in someone's front-room, outside which they'd put a sign saying 'Hot Diggity Dog Hot Dogs'. Operated with the apparent expertise of a young enterprise project, the 'dogs' they churned out exceeded expectations and I'd definitely go again, though quite patently won't.
What to say about the canyon itself; it's very grand and exceedingly canyon-y. It's saying something that I came and saw it last year from precisely the same place but it can still instill utter awe. Mark told us how it was formed, but I suspect witchcraft. He furthermore showed us some fossils that indicated the top of the canyon used to be the seabed, but presume this ridiculous delusion to be an early sign of heatstroke.
From the Canyon we travelled to Kingsman, taking us onto the first stretch of Historic Route 66. From our perspective anyway; this is neither end of Route 66 so I guess isn't technically the 'first' stretch. Unless they started building it from somewhere in the middle...which this also isn't, but it is most definitely 'somewhere'. After a little difficulty we found a motel with two vacant rooms; the imaginatively named 'Route 66 Motel'.
We had dinner across the road at JB's Restaurant, an awesomely 'typical' American place with booths and massive portions. I had fries steaks with mash, veggies and 'country gravy', a weird but delicious creamy, white sauce with hints of pepper and sausage. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or of they ran out of Bisto and had to whip something together, but kudos to the chef.
Afterwards we tried to find a bar, but failed. I said I was surprised as with all the motels around here you'd think a bar would do gangbusters. Everyone said they'd never heard the term gangbusters before and questioned whether it was a 'thing', and since I couldn't strictly define the term myself I too am questioning it's validity. I'll Google it later and if I used it correctly will pretend I knew all along, but otherwise quietly pretend I never said it.Read more