Cats in the Canyon - Sept 2011.
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Cats in the Canyon
We met Sunday morning, Carol & Andy Anderson, Lois Bloom, Kelly & Dave Christensen, who drove out from the San Diego area because they love our drives and that’s why they joined our club. Also there was Tom Durham (Daria developed a sinus infection and couldn’t make the trip,) Jake & Colleen Jacob, Chuck & Dolores Zimmerman, & Claire and myself. I gave out our trip packages with maps and directions and a couple of goodies and we went over the planned route. And so six cars started off on our grand adventure, four Cats, one rented brand X (Tom discovered, after prepping is XKE for the trip that the registration had lapsed,) and one Lotus (my XK140 is still waiting for water temp gauge.) The drive up to and through Phoenix proved uneventful and thanks to light Sunday morning traffic; we were all able to stay together. We made a couple of rest stops on the way, so that the freeway driving wouldn’t be too boring, and then we took the Hwy. 179 turn off to Sedona and the interesting part of the drive.
At Sedona we stopped for lunch at the Golden Goose Café where we met John Diamanti, (a great Jag mechanic, in my opinion, and a constant advertiser in our newsletter,) and his lovely wife, Judy. Also meeting us at the restaurant was Vickie and Larry Currie, long time club members even though they live in Sedona. There, Larry regaled us with the tale of why they were late to the Café. He left his cat unused for too long a period and the battery had discharged. It was Vickie and Larry that suggested the Golden Goose Café for our lunch stop. After lunch, we added two more Jags to our Pride of Cats on the prowl to the Grand Canyon. After a beautiful drive up Oak Creek Canyon and a short run on I-40 to Williams, we arrived at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel, where we met the last couple that took the trip with us, Linda Bales-Dean and Al Turek.
After settling in our hotel rooms, we all met at the bar for a couple of cocktails before dinner. Then it was on to our buffet dinner, that like all buffets was o.k., but they did have one really great feature, a make your own pasta dish. Many kinds fresh pasta and several different sauces to put on the pasta and lots of goodies to add to the dish, like sausage, bell peppers onions and the like. I am passing this on second hand from the others that partook of that specialty, as I am a Mac & Cheese freak and was hung up on that dish.
The next morning we all met for a buffet breakfast, with a cook on duty to fix whatever kind of omelet you would like to order. Then it was on to a western show put on by the railroad, before boarding the train to the canyon. This show wasn’t like the usual western gunfight shows you see around Arizona, it was a comedy skit, and was pretty funny. And now we come to the meat of the sandwich, the Grand Canyon Railroad Train!!!
For all of you that thought that this trip was too expensive, and have never ridden the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon, I hope you will reconsider and give it a try, it was fantastic. And I recommend that you pay the extra expense of booking the Parlor Car, which is their top class of travel. As a Parlor Car passenger, you can go to every other car on the train, including the Observation Cars, but the Parlor Cars are exclusively for those booked on them. As you can see from the pictures, they are really spacious and you can move around in them as much as you like. On the trip up they have breakfast snacks like sweet rolls, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit, juices, soft drinks and coffee and on the return in the afternoon a good selection of cheeses and crackers, once again fresh fruit, juices soda water and coffee, all included in the price of the trip. There is also a bar in the car where you can purchase beer, wine or a mixed drink or two. Our Parlor Car Hostess, Shirley, was fantastic, serving our wants and needs and telling us about interesting facts and side notes about the train and the Grand Canyon. At the Grand Canyon we stepped off our train and directly onto a bus that first took us to a buffet lunch and then on a short tour of the canyon, of about two hours in duration. According to Claire, our lady bus driver/tour ) guide, if she could have stopped talking could have passed for Harpo Marx. But she couldn’t stop talking and so that is how we knew she wasn’t Harpo.
Returning to Grand Canyon Village, we had about an hour before our train left for the trip back to Williams, so we had time to go up to the El Tovar Hotel, which Tom Durham was really interested in looking at the architecture, which was purportedly to be done by Mary Coulter, a famous designer and architect, who worked with and for Fred Harvey, whom many consider, the man that brought civility and fine dining to the west, with his restaurants and the Harvey Girls. They were women that were educated (at least to the eighth grade) and of impeccable moral repute. He is also credited with starting the first chain of restaurants in America, building many hotels, eateries and gift shops. It turns out that Mary Coulter did not do the El Tovar, but she did many other notable buildings at the Grand Canyon including the Bright Angel Hotel, the Hopi House and the Watch Tower. But not all of us were interested in the architecture of the buildings, just ask Claire to show you her birthday present. We won’t mention which birthday number it was for, besides her birthday isn’t really until December. But most of us just wandered around the gift shop ooing and aahing at all the beautiful American Indian Art, jewelry and pottery and other items.
On the train ride back to Williams our free champagne was interrupted by a train robbery. Three men assaulted us from horseback, boarded the train and tried to collect our valuables. I have a picture of Claire trying to pacify one of the train robbers. Actually, it was a lot of fun, playing along with the whole gambit.
After another round of cocktails at the vintage bar in the hotel and buffet dinner we retired for the night. In the morning another breakfast (all the meals from the time we arrived at the hotel, until we left for home, were included). Then we checked out and headed for home. Tom left early in the morning to get home to Daria. John and Judy took the fast route, I-17, because he had to get back to his shop to work on some of Dolores’ company’s fleet of trucks. Jake & Colleen, plus Linda & Al, had planned some other stops on the way home. The rest of us took a scenic route down Hwy. 89/89A and Hwy 69, back to I-17, and through Phoenix, where Kelly and Dave turned off to head back to Southern California. Where I-17 joins I-10 near Sky Harbor Airport, I took the wrong turn off and got separated from the rest. Before we turned around and got caught up with them, we were warned via those large signs across the highway that I-10 was closed ahead due to an accident. We later learned the incident involved 3 semi’s and 8 cars. We never did catch back up with our fellow club members, so we decided when we got back to Tucson (about 3 PM) we would stop at Giuseppe’s for a late lunch. And thereby came the only bummer of the trip! After a delicious lunch (I highly recommend that restaurant to anyone that likes Italian food and reasonable prices,) the Lotus wouldn’t start. So I called Chuck and Dolores, who were just heading home from their own late lunch at Bubbs’ Grubb and asked them to come to our aid. They brought jumper cables, but that didn’t get the car started so we call AAA (thank god for AAA,) and they sent out their special truck that deals with battery problems. After he checked out the electrical system and determined that the starter was at fault, Chuck, Dolores and the AAA guy pushed me across the parking lot to a steep slope where I was able to roll start the Esprit. So we didn’t actually get home until after 6 PM. I have to say this is getting to be a real bummer. We’ve taken the last four overnight JCSA trips and broke down on three of them, each time with a different car. Other than that it was a fabulous trip and all the participants thought it was one of the best trips ever.
Herbie Hampton.