to New Orleans
Update of some stuff I’d typed but didn’t have the connection to post.
Flagstaff: Arrived in Flagstaff on Sunday, not many auto-shops open. We looked up the Lincoln-Mercury dealership, I figure they can hook the sucker up and know exactly what’s wrong with it, and they happen to be located within about 5 blocks of anything else we could need: Bank of America to deposit Courtney’s severance check, Flagstaff Brewing Company (their 4 brews currently on tap were all at least B), Beaver St. Brewing Company, and what apparently used to be Mogollon Brewing, but is now “just” a bar/venue with a great beer selection including 3 Mogollon brews. I should probably just post any reviews I’m going to do of these places at BeerAdvocate.com (some time when I have the time to).
Both Courtney and I felt really comfortable in Flagstaff. Something about the part of the town we were in seemed big enough without being too big, something like Ames/Iowa City abouut the place: lots of bikes, adequate number of neo-hippies; you can go to a beer bar and it’s not just a bunch of old white men.
Grand Canyon: Spent the night at a campground there. Ate grilled cheese and soup out of the back of the trailer. Took off east along the GC, stopping at several of the sites, expecting to go up and do the North Rim bit with far fewer tourists. But as we approached Cameron, there was a LOT of wind and the Painted Desert was one huge dust storm. Luckily we were just upwind of the dust. So we headed south, got on 40, and went an hour to sit in line for 1.5 hours–40 was closed in both directions due to some dust storm. The whole north-eastern part of the state was shut down.
Then made our way to Abuquerque, NM. Barely spent any time there, just long enough to sleep and hit a Waffle House in the morning.
Drove through Amarillo, TX, down to Denton, TX, around Dallas, camped at a rest stop and then on to New Orleans.
Car’s definitely doing something, still. I find the radiator fluid reservoir is empty, but the car’s not overheating.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/travel/escapes/27beer.html?scp=1&sq=new%20orleans&st=cse
“New Orleans Gets Its Brews Back”