Camp Verde to Williams, AZ

We were up and out early this morning.  There is about a 3,000 foot climb to Flagstaff and we wanted to get it done before it got too hot.  The RV park where we were going will not allow you to check in before noon, so we parked outside of a closed rest stop to make phone calls.  There were trees there, it smells like Bend, OR.

We don't know if this was a controlled burn or a forest fire.  It was an impressive plume of smoke.  I took this from the RV park.  It cleared out a few hours later, so that was good.

We're in Williams.  It was the last city to be by-passed by I40.  They're staked their fortunes on exploiting their position on Route 66.  It has to be a tough place to live.  It's full of tourists, there's a lot of traffic.  There is a grocery store, but the rest of the town caters to out of towners.  Lots of bars and restaurants and tee shirt shops.

We saw this couple walking between stores.  They would go in the door a little and then come back out.  They're French.  I always wonder what Europeans think about our tourist towns.  Of course, entire towns in France have been vacated for tourists so it's not really so different.

The other economic driver for Williams is the Grand Canyon Railway.  It went in to service in 1901 and helped popularize the South Rim.  It went under in 1974 and service was discontinued.  In 1988 it was bought by Max and Thelma Biegert.  They were a wealthy couple from Phoenix.  They sold out to Xanterra in 2006.  This is the part that just tickles me.

Steam locomotive operations on the Grand Canyon Railway were suspended in September 2008. Xanterra cited environmental concerns as the reason for the decision, pointing out that each roundtrip of a steam locomotive consumed 1,450 gallons of diesel fuel (compared to the 550 gallons used by a diesel-electric locomotive) and 1,200 gallons of water. Industry experts said that ridership losses due to the late 2000s recession and rising fuel prices due to the 2000s energy crisis likely contributed to the decision.

Steam locomotives would return to the Grand Canyon Railway on September 19, 2009. Xanterra converted the steam locomotives to operate using waste vegetable oil collected from restaurants across Northern Arizona and installed a rainwater collection system on the maintenance building to fill boilers when available. Since 2011, special occasion trips, and at least one roundtrip per month during the summer is operated using a steam locomotive.

I love that, they're running a steam engine on used french fry oil.  You can read the full wiki here.

The downtown "zipline."  Basically they strap you into a chair, drag you up to the top of the pole, and then let you come back down.  No trees, no canyons, just wires over a parking lot.

It's warm here, but nothing like yesterday in Camp Verde.  Tomorrow Jim still needs to hook up the ice maker on the refrigerator.  We also need to do laundry.  There's always the life "stuff" to be done.