Grand Canyon Day 2

Dear Blog

 

Day Two Grand Canyon Trip

 

In the morning, we head out to Williams — about 35 miles on I‑40. It’s an easy, scenic drive with ponderosa pines and big open skies. I-40  skips the real Route 66 and Bellemont, where Easy Rider fans stop for a photo op of the Pine Breeze Inn — the spot where Wyatt and Billy get hit with the “NO VACANCY” sign.

Jay and I aren’t huge Easy Rider movie buffs so, like the movie, we just keep rolling on our own terms.

 

Williams, Arizona may be best known as the gateway to the Grand Canyon, but it also boasts a wonderfully preserved stretch of Route 66 — six blocks lined with diners, saloons, motor lodges, quirky shops, small museums with pure 1950s charm. After checking into the Grand Canyon Hotel for our two‑night stay, we headed out for a relaxed stroll. No ghost hunts this time; just soaking in the Americana and the shops that give this town its own unmistakable character. And yes, they’re stocked with all the classics: kitschy Route 66 souvenirs, southwest crafts, western gear, and vintage odds and ends people tossed decades ago but now absolutely need for their collections.

 

We’re not big souvenir people, maybe we’ll grab a T‑shirt now and then. One, it proves to our friends we actually went somewhere and two, sometimes we just need something clean to wear before laundry day becomes real. Still, wandering through the shops is fun. Call it browsing, but really, it’s a mini sensory adventure: textures, colors, and all the novelty goods that proudly show off a town’s personality.

 

Some of these little shops are packed full of oddball, quirky stuff that make Williams… well, Williams. You’ll even find bison jerky proudly bragging that it’s “sweeter and a bit firmer” than Link’s beef jerky, as if that difference is about to convince you to buy a whole bag. Then you drift into the gem shops, where “special” stones—fluorite, calcite, —light up under a black light if you happen to own a black light.. And of course, there are the plaster mountain‑lion, elk, and black‑bear footprints—perfect for giving your porch a reminder that we’re not the only ones using the porch. And if you have a sweet tooth, Williams sweets are their own adventure: jalapeño or sassafras taffy and prickly‑pear everything jelly, syrup, candy, lemonade and truffles. Prickly pear comes from a cactus fruit and is said to taste like watermelon.

 

And tucked among all that, you’ll find the railroad memorabilia—spikes, replica tickets, bits of metal art. This makes me think of my older brother, who used to pay me and my brother Mike a nickel for every stray piece of metal we found while walking the train tracks in south Sacramento. We’d come back with pockets full of random treasures that had rattled loose from passing trains. He was both a railroad engineer and an artist, so those scraps didn’t stay scraps for long, they became metal wall art. I still remember one piece making its way into an art gallery in Oak Park, in Sacramento glowing under the lights like it had always been meant for a wall instead of a rail yard.

 

Jay loved Pete’s Gas Station Museum. The place began as an old Texaco station, and stepping inside sent him straight back to the days when he always had grease on his hands and an old Ford sitting in the driveway. He and his buddies spent whole afternoons swapping engines, wrestling with transmissions, and learning everything by trial and error — because that’s just what kids did then. Cars meant freedom, pride, and growing up. Walking into Pete’s, surrounded by classic mid‑century cars, vintage pumps, old oil cans, and the same tools he once used, stirred up some of his favorite memories.

 

That evening we had several recommended restaurants, but we ended up choosing Rod’s Steak House, the one I’d read about in the AAA magazine. They’ve been serving since 1946, which felt like a reasonable enough credential to go on. Their motto, “pull up a chair and dig in,” matched the place: straightforward, no frills. A solid spot for a Rib Eye, and their specialty cocktail, the Cactus Fires—a jalapeño‑infused pineapple margarita— The sweet–heat contrast makes it a star.

 

After dark, Williams takes on its neon look. Red, blue, and green signs switch on along Route 66, casting steady light across the street. There’s a faint buzzing from the old tubes, not loud, just constant. It gives the town a kind of low-level background hum that fits the place.

 

Tomorrow is the big event: the train ride from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Yippee‑I‑A indeed.