Holiday to the Pacific West Coast in Aug 2006: Day 15 – Palm Springs to Kingman

We woke to blistering heat in Rancho Mirage.  Breakfast was good and hot!  Nice hotel.

Hit the road at just before 10am and headed down the I10 for 100 miles or so before turning onto Highway 95.

We grabbed a coffee at a Starbucks in Blythe, and decided to have a fruit lunch which we picked up in Starbucks as well.

As soon as we turned onto Highway 95 which we expected to follow for almost 100 miles, we hit a sign (well not literally) indicating the road was closed 24 miles ahead.  Out here in the wilderness to get one road going directly to the place you are headed is lucky, to find two you are talking divine intervention!

Anyway, after quickly studying our map, there was one alternative.  To head on down the I10 to pick up the yellow road (don’t know what they call these, but we guessed it was small!) – this was also called the 95 and ran sort of parallel.

Anyway the road turned out to be not too bad after all and we ended up following the Colorado River and came across our first dam – Parker Dam. 

We called this the piddly dam since in comparison to the Hoover Dam it is, and we will be visiting the Hoover Dam in a few days time.

We reached Kingman by about 3:30pm and managed to get an upgrade into a suite. 

Another nice hotel.  Tried the pool and did a massive 20 lengths (which equates to about 40 metres based on the length of the pool)! 

Vick did a session in the gym and after showering headed out to a restaurant called Chili’s, which had similar food to the Cheesecake Factory, but was half the price. 

Anyway this was an excellent meal and once we got back we watched Mrs Henderson Presents (a treat for Vick) (yes thanks Nige, this is in return for having to watch some awful gruesome rubbish last night where a child and his parents were murdered in the first 5 minutes, really generous of you)

Anyway we are starting to get excited about the Grand Canyon! This time tomorrow we’ll have eaten our dinner in the restaurant of our hotel, with a view of the sunset over the canyon.  Can’t wait….

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