It’s a bit out of the way unless one is driving Route 66, but I felt compelled to visit Winslow, Arizona, the town name-checked in The Eagles’ “Take It Easy”. I hadn’t had lunch before leaving Flagstaff, but dialed in a list of recommendations on the GPS and found Darrell’s Root Beer Stand, a white-painted concrete-block structure on a corner in the middle of a residential neighborhood that didn’t actually have a good root beer, just Mug.
I drove around looking for the famous corner, which I finally found after winding my way through the streets that weren’t closed due to construction. I stopped in one of the souvenir shops across the street and picked up some postcards before standing on the corner myself, able to save myself the embarrassment of singing, since The Eagles are played on an outdoor P.A. I couldn’t see.
Winslow, Arizona
Having satisfied my curiosity, I drove back through Flagstaff to Williams, where I turned north to visit the Grand Canyon. I’d planned to visit the less-visited North Rim when I was heading west earlier on the trip, but my progress was slow. Instead, I settled for the South Rim, which receives 90% of all visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park. I imagine it would look much better during the morning hours, but I wanted to see it at sunset, my favorite time of day that isn’t total darkness. I took a few hours, marking an imaginary scorecard for all of the foreign languages I heard (nine) as I made my way to the various viewpoints along the 30-mile stretch of the park drive.
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
As the sun set, I sat near the edge and watched as the canyon turned dark and the sky went from blue to orange to purple, before making my way back to Flagstaff, where I (unintentionally) spent the night in the same Motel 6 and got about as much sleep as I had the night before.
