While the pit-stops added to the adventure we had to be back in Vegas to drop the car off the next day. Apparently, there is a direct link to the Grand Canyon via the station but nothing was running. On one side were old buildings (many turned into Route 66 shops) on the other side a deserved railway station. It had the appearance at first look of a town which hadn’t changed in many years, partly a consequence of it being the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed. However, the town – Williams, where the ‘museum’ was situated turned out to be an excellent road trip stop. The museum turned out to be a gift shop with some old memorabilia – not so exciting. We’d spotted it on a map before the trip and it was close to our route. Plugging the next stop of our road trip into the GPS we headed to a Route 66 museum. The water level in the Hoover Dam was at its lowest ever level, only 35% of capacity, somewhat diminishing the visual impact of the dam. The sight of the Hoover Dam further illustrated the effect of Climate Change. While the heat may be common in Vegas, it’s been a summer of extreme weather in the US. Stepping out at the Hoover Dam it was uncomfortable even in the shade. The heat in and around Vegas was extraordinary, pushing past 100F/38C commonly. “Only” four hours from there, is the Grand Canyon, with the old Route 66 part of the route. Forty-five minutes drive from Vegas is the Hoover Dam (something on my bucket list).

Somewhere I had always wanted to visit was the Grand Canyon, so became the formulation of our Vegas road trip plan. I’ve never had much interest in visiting Vegas, nowhere close to the top of the list of places to visit, but when opportunity strikes… Her team were representing a new hotel/casino, Resorts World, which was opening on the strip. I had flown into Las Vegas to join Danielle who had already been there for a few days with work.

So we hired a car and took a mini road trip from Vegas, west to the Grand Canyon. Back in June, we found ourselves somewhere neither of us really wanted to be.

Casinos along route 66