Entering Williams

28 August 2018

Cornelia yelled out for a cuddle at 03:30, so I clambered into bed with her and stayed there for the rest of the night, as she could sense every time I was about to leave, and climbed on top of me to stop me. Eventually, it was more sensible to stay in with her and after an hour or so she fell asleep again, and I wafted in and out consciousness until Ian rose at 07:30. He was off to collect our hire car from the airport, and left an hour or so later, with Cornelia still sound asleep and me snuggled in with her.

Once he’d left, I had a shower and started sorting all our stuff out for packing. It never seems like much until we are cramming it into suitcases! I discovered a load of laundry that I’d put in last night was still in the washer, and hung them in the sun to dry as much as possible. When Ian returned, Cornelia was still asleep and I was still packing! It took some colossal banging around for her to wake up eventually at 09:45, fifteen minutes before checkout. Ian called down to arrange an extra half hour, as we scrambled to get everything done. Thankfully, Cornelia was in a helpful mood and so we made it down to the lobby to check out shortly after 10:30.

Our final stop in Vegas was the famous Las Vegas sign. There is now a car park next to the sign, which meant we didn’t have to walk a long way in the 100 degree heat, and we were lucky enough to find a space immediately. We joined the long queue waiting for photos, but when I walked to the front of the queue, discovered that it was for a man who was taking photos for you (and asking for donations in return). I decided to bypass that, and we found our own spot in front of the sign (without photo bombing anyone else!) and just asked someone standing nearby to take a photo for us, and we then returned the favour. Much quicker – and free!! I’m really piling up my wife points…!

The new hire car is a smart Nissan Sentra and feels very small by comparison to the RV! I’m not insured to drive it, so Ian is tasked with all of that again. The drive south and then east is quite scenic but nothing spectacular, with the sharp features of the mountains and rocks cut out against the blue skies above them and vast areas of gritty, sandy flats in between.

We took the 93 South past the funnily-named Chloride and Santa Claus, joining the 40 East, watching the numerous dust devils whirling around in the distance, stopping for lunch at a service station (another Subway in the car park job!) finally arriving at our hotel in Williams on Route 66 (to Ian’s delight!) three and a half hours later. Amusingly (to Ian anyway) was a sign saying “Entering Williams” which is definitely his boyish smutty side shining on through… I meant to take a photo, but the chance didn’t arise, unfortunately!

Cornelia was desperate to get straight in the hotel pool, so I took her in for half an hour, but it was surprisingly chilly, so we spent another fifteen minutes in the hot tub, before drying off, showering, drying off again, and heading all the way across the car park to a conveniently placed diner “Kicks”.

It was a really lovely meal. Our server was young and friendly, I had a Cosmopolitan and a glass of wine, Ian had a couple of beers, and we all ate really well. My green chilli chicken pot pie was delicious – creamy, slightly spicy, and covered with perfect pastry. Just yummy. Ian had my other choice: lobster mac and cheese, and it was equally delicious. Cornelia amused herself by drawing on the paper tablecloth (she was allowed to!) and whilst she told me and Ian that it was “fire”, we think there may be some underlying anger issues…! 😂

Bugsy’s American accent is getting more noticeable every day. It’s very cute and very funny! She is also using American words more, like “restroom”, “elevator” and “movie”. It’s all very endearing and sweet, watching her grow and change. 😍

After dinner, we walked all the way back across the car park under the light of the bright moon and the additional light of my little torch that Cornelia had asked to use.

She went straight to bed and asked for cuddles from me again, which I love, so we snuggled up together and she fell asleep quite quickly – something I could tell, as her little arm dropped off from around my shoulder.