It all started on the afternoon of October 30, when I met my brother at the Las Vegas airport. There we picked up our rental car – a Ford Mustang Convertible – and cruised The Strip.

Caesars

We spent what must have been a few hours at the Bellagio Foutains.

Why so long? Well, we had a flask of fine Scotch and cigars… the flask is intended specifically for Scotch, and comes with two convenient little shot glasses in the lid. It seemed as though it was a long wait between the fountain shows, but as we got deeper into the Scotch they seemed to go off with much more frequency.

I was surprised to hear Sergio Leone’s “Ecstacy of Gold” – from one of the greatest cinema scenes of all time.

inside the Paris Paris

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October 31. Halloween.

We cruised out of Vegas the next day. The Ipod was up and running and the bros were on the road.

Hoover Dam is of course an obligatory stop on the way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon.

There’s a major construction project underway, building this bridge so automobiles will no longer drive directly over the dam. It looks like it will be awesome.

This statue is a monument to those who lost their lives during the construction of the dam.

That afternoon, we drove perhaps the longest remaining stretch of old Route 66, from Kingman, Arizona to Seligman. In the evening we had dinner at Williams, where Halloween celebrations were in full swing. The best costume I remember seeing was this guy dressed up as Santa Claus. We observed this little kid staring at him, so confused! That night we went on to Sedona, and had a great time at hip bar with plenty of local ladies in costume.

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Noverber 1

We spent nearly this entire day relaxing in Sedona, proper vacation-style. Steve’s friend from Phoenix drove up to meet us and it was a nice afternoon.

That night we headed up to the Grand Canyon, where I had finished off 5 months of employment for the season.

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November 2

We went to Shoshone Point for my brother’s first sight of the Grand Canyon. Rather than the typically crowded overlooks like Mather Point, here you have to walk a mile through the woods to get to Shoshone. We had the viewpoint all to ourselves for quite some time.

Next we walked the Rim Trail from Yavapai Point to the village. We were lucky to see this bighorn sheep, strolling along the rim with us!

It was a cold, windy, blustery day, so…