Wednesday
Breakfast at Hi Sahara Oasis, Goff's Road. (US 66) where we had stopped for the night before. Petrol was $2.79 / gallon. Didn't actually need to fill up, don't really know why I did. it was only $1.69 in needles, 36 miles east, and I still had half a tank. It was all we bought from them though, and we used their toilets the night before, and toilets and tables and chairs for breakfast the next morning. Drove east to lunch in Williams, with numerous stops en route to look at the flora. A lot more greenery in the arizona part than any of us had expected. Lots of cacti and stuff though. Quite interesting. Got to the grandcanyon and got ourselves a site, quite pleasant and spacious, $15/night. We'll stay here two nights, and head out of here after a full day tomorrow. Drove back down to the rim and hopped on a shuttle bus out to hermit's rest. This is a shuttle that drops people off and picks them up at various spots on the 8 miles out to Hermit's Rest, which is an old resort type thing, and is now a gift shop and snack bar. There's also a trail head for some of the western end tracks.
Caught the bus back in again, then I left mum and marg, and headed back out again, walking out to the early spots, which we'd simply stayed on the bus for earlier. Got some sunset pics, and ended up filling up my CF card! Should have dumped it to the laptop when we pulled into the grand canyon. Only missed out on a couple more of the final sunset pics, which would only have let me have an even harder time picking the best ones. Not getting the sharpest focus with the new lens, can't say I'm really happy with it. It is light though :)
Dinner was a bit of an adventure. We only had some stew meat, potatoes, onions, carrots. We had salt. It was ok. I wish there'd been more though. Not enough salt yet, sort of feeling a bit incomplete. Biggest adventure of dinner was getting my new stove working. I'd gotten a dual fuel coleman two burner at REi on the way out, to live in a bit more luxury, and because I'd been thinking of one for a while. We'd cooked breakfast on it, and I'd sort of wondered why it wasn't working so well, but had paid it no mind. Tonight however it was going like a pig. sputtering along, ridiculous, not something you'd actually be prepared to pay for. I kept trying to pump it, and it was hard, so I thought it must be ok. Finally got dinner cooked, and I had a look at it, and unscrewed the cap, and it barely hissed. Turns out the pump has to be unscrewed a little, otherwise it is just pumping into it's screw head, so it always feels hard. Pumped it up properly, and cooked the washing up water in seconds compared to dinner :) Guess I know how to drive it now.
My shoes are sucking. I had been getting sore feet walking the last few months, and had sort of been wondering why. I now suspect that I have just packed out the cushioning in the soles, which sucks. Guess it goes with the nearly non-existent tread too. And I have nearly 2 weeks of this left. I guess I will just have sore feet when I get back.
10:14pm, and time for bed. The laptop running and charging, when the car's not running seems to slightly overload the car, as the inverters beeps every now and again from low voltage. Time to turn it off I feel.
 Breakfast at Goffs Rd servo |  mum has to explore the other side of the fence. always |  Strange plant by the roadside near Needles, AZ |  Grand Canyon, GCNP, AZ |
 Grand Canyon in the afternoon, from the Hermit's Rest Road |  Grand Canyon in the afternoon, from the Hermit's Rest Road |  Photographing the late afternoon light, near Maricopa Point? |  A gaggle of tourists doing the same as me, only from a different lookout |