Campbell Road Trips

Four Corners is in which state?

Went to Four Corners today, only place in the United States where you can stand in one spot and be in four different states. When we arrived we entered New Mexico:

A bit of a scare here at the sign as we were leaving, we couldn't find the trip mascot Quasimodo, turns out i was sitting on him. He appeared no worse for wear, or he was just being polite, not sure as he doesn't say much. But he was a trooper and posed for pics with the New Mexico and Colorado signs.

As soon as we left we went down the road a few hundred feet and crossed over into Colorado:

And shortly down the road we made it back into New Mexico as we continued on to Sante Fe.

Started to run into the same problem we did in Page, however were able to get couple rooms at a Best Western. Once checked in we went to a local brew pub called "The Blue Corn Cafe and Brew Pub".

The food was a bit spicy, but overall pretty good. However service was not very good, almost as if we were putting her out ordering from her.

Topped it off with dessert at Baskin Robbins and then back to the hotel for the night. We had to hurry so that the women wouldn't miss "So you think you can dance".

Kayenta, AZ

After leaving Page AZ pretty early, we decided to drive for awhile before stopping for breakfast. Finally made it to Kayenta, NM and amidst the McDonalds and other fast food restaurants, we found a jewell in the Blue Coffee Pot Restaurant.

Food was very reasonable and plentiful and the place very clean.

Oh Page, why you do us this way?

Pulled into Page Arizona about 5pm after going through the worst managed construction zone (Thanks Arizona DOT!). We tried on the way in to get room at several places via phone. How did we do? Not very well, it turns out this place is a hot spot because of Lake Powell, lot of water related activity and for some reason this week everyone wanted to go there. Anyway, we decided to go into page and have someone (Jennifer was the winner) go into each place and ask if they had vacancy, going old school in Page! We struck out all the way into downtown, and finally found a single room with 3 beds (I think they were full size or double at best and we are not a small family) at the Ramada Inn.

It can best be described as "acceptable".

Here is the first impression as you park and go to your room door:

And here is the front view of the entry into the room, almost looks like the entrance into the building at the Oregon State Pen where they keep the hardened criminals (I was on a tour and saw it, no I wasn't a resident).

The room was clean (I think), however toilet didn't flush, curtains didn't close all the way, the door didn't shut right, the tv didn't work right away (was unplugged for some reason), telephone had no dialtone and it had that weird cheap hotel smell to it. But, we needed a place and this was the best we could do at the last minute so we unpacked and went to dinner.

Dinner was at a local steak place, "Ken's Old West Restaurant & Lounge, food was also "acceptable" but I'm more convinced that it was clean than I am about the hotel room. Besides, after couple cold beers it didn't really matter!

When we got back, it just got better as our door keys had been de-magnetized somehow. And we have to keep a plunger next to the toilet otherwise it runs over onto the floor...Go figure. We'll see how the night goes, I only pray there are no bugs that end up in our luggage or crawl out from under the sheets!

To end the evening I had to endure a whistling contest, Mom, Jennifer, LJ and Olivia tried to imitate two of the contestants on "America's Got Talent"....they didn't make the cut and I threatened to fly home tomorrow if it started up in the car.....they mocked me as they should have so I'm sure tomorrow the whistling will be in full force!

Thanks ADOT!

We left Jacob Lake ( gateway to the North Rim) on Highway 89 enroute to Page AZ and encountered the worst managed road construction ever. It was on a winding uphill road along the Vermilion Cliffs. At one point Mom got out to interrogate the flagged in the 105 degree heat. The only high point of this part of the trip was seeing a kid (we called him "Pisser") peeing on the side of the road for all to see, too bad for him that one of "us" was a State Trooper. "Pisser" wasn't hauled away, we saw him later using the port-a-potty the road crews had set up (not sure why he wasn't using it earlier, guess the Trooper talked him into it). It was during this wait we realized after a few phone calls that we might not be staying in Page afterall...none of the places had vacancies. Turns out Page was right on Lake Powell, a very popular destination for touristas apparently. More on that in the next post.

Page AZ gas update

North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Made it to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, here are some various photos. Follow the finger for the Buffalo. We also saw fox, antelope and deer.

Entering Arizona

Entering Arizona after having dinner last night with our cousin Gordy Herman, took us to a local spot called "Wingers". Was cheap and delicious. Was good to see Gordy again, haven't seem him in years.

So today the plan is to hit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

After that we are going to try to make it to Page, Arizona to spend the night, will be some gorgeous country to drive through.