Route 66 - Day Nine - El Centro to Flagstaff (again)

Like Bob Seger, I too woke last night to the sound of thunder. A LOT of thunder! I've never heard that much thunder that close to me in my life. And it continued in the morning. The rain had briefly stopped in the morning, but came back with a vengeance when we were ready to leave. The town was flooded! Check out the vid of the road out of town:



Driving out of California, we stopped in Yuma, which, like Flagstaff, was more of a cool name than a place you'd actually want to stop in.

On to Fecility, California: the Centre of the World. At least, according to a guy who built a pyramid there and somehow got France and China to recognize it as such:



And a run-in with border patrol:



Exit 111: it was bound to happen - Ivan got pulled over by Arizona Highway Patrol. There were a few funny things about it:

Cop: How fast do you think you were going?
Ivan: I dunno, about 120?
Cop: ONE TWENTY?!
Jeff (to self): Convert to miles! Convert to miles!

What was funnier was the officer's last name:



The good news is that Ivan got off with a warning (I totally called it. The cop was ballbusting a bit, but was a young guy, and seemed nice). Once he issued the citation, I asked if I could take a picture of his nametag, since our boss has the same(ish) name.

He agreed, and then got a little chatty with us. His great-grandfather was from Maine, and moved down here.

Stopped at Carl, Jr's north of Tucson for lunch. Good burgers! I don't think this breaks the 'no fast food' rule, since it's a West Coast chain, and therefore exotic (I could be stretching it, but it makes sense to me).

We were about to head to Tombstone, when Nik texted, and said not to take the I-10 east of Tucson due to murders, carjackings, and general badassery. Apparently the Canadian government issued a travel advisory, and said avoid all non-essential travel from Tuscon to El Paso/Juarez.

I'm generally a risk-taker, and despite the warning, I was fine travelling that way. Ivan was not. I didn't blame him: after all, it's his car, and for me to talk him into going and something to happen to us or his car would not bode well.

So we headed north to Phoenix, and then to Flagstaff (note I wrote the earlier part of today's blog while on the road, unaware we'd end up in Flagstaff ever again. Ah, hubris!)

We're staying at the Arizonan Motel, which is run by a guy who used to live in Scarborough. Decent place, with renovations going on. And internet (whew). I believe with this post, I'm caught up to present! Hoorary!

Since we got in early, we ordered in from the New Jersey Pizza Company in Flagstaff. EXCELLENT pizza! So all was not lost by staying here. This 'za is comparable to a big city, professional pizza joint, and I'd honestly say one of the best pies I've ever had. We ordered mushroom, bacon, and pepperoni, and they threw on fresh herbs and very fresh tomato sauce. I just had a cold piece for breakfast, and it was still great!