Hello from Williams, AZ

Saturday July 1, 2023 (Second post of this travelogue)

Editorial comment: as was noted in the previous post, this post is being uploaded very late and post date is adjusted to 7/1/2023

We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Williams, AZ. (Google Maps Link)

{google_map}35.2509, -112.1984{/google_map}

On Friday we drove from Monument Valley to Williams, AZ. I really do not have a bucket list, but if I did, riding the train from Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon would be towards the top. We have passed through Williams on I 40 many times but never had the time to stop.

Before I talk about the train trip, I should mention that Williams makes a big deal about being on the old Route 66 highway. The downtown area has all kinds of related stores.

I had made reservations for the train for 7/1. That is one of the days that the train is pulled by the Steam Engine. Unfortunately. they had to switch to a diesel engine because of extreme fire danger. This train used very historic cars. I arranged to ride the pullman car out and the parlor car back. The pullman car was a restored 100 year old car that would have been the basic form of transportation in that era. It did not have air conditioning, rather the windows could be raised for comfort. The parlor car was something else. It was very ornate with what I would call love seats facing the opposite windows. We were served champagne and great hors d’oeuvres.