Day 9 ~ Grand Canyon Railway and THE GRAND CANYON

Sunday ~ June 26, 2011

We are excited to be here in Williams, Arizona! We wake early and have a nice breakfast at the Grand Canyon Depot restaurant! Then its off to the station!

Howdy partner, before we board the train, we get to see REAL, GENUINE cowboys with REAL guns. They put on a little show for us folks, before we board the train!

ALL ABOARD!!

We're pulling out of the station....and look at the wavers. Actually, they are PROFESSIONAL wavers...sending us off to the Grand Canyon. Isn't that so sweet? There were about 15 people from the depot out waving and smiling!

Dave and Jim saddle right up to the bar!

Here we are in the luxury bar car the Sante Fe with our "bar-pretender" Mimi. She took good care of us. Mimi called herself a "bar-pretender" because she only knew how to make 4 drinks but would be happy to "mix-em like we call-em!" We loved her outgoing personality~

Diana is making friends with Ed the Conductor. She is having her ticket punched! Ed went to school in Steubenville, Ohio and ended up teaching in Colorado. He has since moved to Arizona and has been with the Grand Canyon Railway for 6 years.

Dave is pretty friendly with Ed the Conductor too.

But our favorite, if we had to have one is: U. S. Marshall, Will B. Justice. He was quite a character. Real name Dennis! He sat with us for quite some time. We found out he was a retired professional rock photographer from Los Angeles. He and his lovely wife moved here to fulfill his childhood dream of being a COWBOY (a US Marshal, what could be sweeter).

Sharing rock trivia and stories.

Some architecture from the Grand Canyon.

Dave reads up on some facts about this adobe shop~
Both men had to duck their heads to fit into this gift shop!

View finder for the highest points in the Grand Canyon~ pretty cool!

AMAZING~

Diana, sitting on the edge... Freaking out just a bit!

We choose to follow the Rim Trail. Nice and Safe. Dave is the only one really disappointed not be trekking down lower into the canyon!

The rest of us are happy to walk along the rim. It is a beautiful, sunny and breezy day!

Pictures just don't do it justice~ You must see this for yourself!

Kathy and Jim, on the edge of the Canyon!

Look.... Diana get close to the edge for this photo! This is BIG for her~ but the picture doesn't really show the terror in her heart!

Dave and the vast Canyon behind him!

Jim waits patiently for the....
"ALL ABOARD" call and the ride home!

Entertainment on the train... Buck, the violinist! He asked for someone who wanted to learn to play the violin to stand up and join him! Diana jumped right up! Dave took a video but sadly, no one got a picture~ Buck held her hand as she held the violin and bow and they played a song together!!

Ed, the conductor, told Dave and Diana that the "hold-up" would happen around five pm, and that the cowboys would come from the back of the train. See, it's good to befriend the conductor! They went thru one car to get to the back of the train and then shot some pictures before the action started!

Diana~ ever on the lookout for the bad guys!

They saw some cows... innocent enough!

They watched along side of the train too!

Then sure-enough Diana spotted the bandit just sitting and waiting for his target... the TRAIN!

He kicked his horse into high gear and made chase!

They stopped the train and boarded~
Scary, masked men AND guns~

They took money... one dollar bills, from those who felt their earlier cowboy show was worth a tip! Many of us did, so they were "tipped" accordingly. One guy on the train said to the robber, "Do you have change for a 10, it's all I have?" The bandit answered "Sure, I do!" So the man gives him a 10 and the bandit gives the man back two pennies. The man says " HEY, I meant like 9 dollars back in change, I got a raw deal here." Bandit says " what do ya mean, you got a bad deal, you gave me one piece of paper and I gave you two pieces of metal!" Then he took off out of our railcar. Really, true story! The sheriff comes in then and we all report the facts but he says we should have used a little common sense!

We believe he has a good point there! Ah, live and learn!

We make it back without further ado and rode our bikes to the hotel bar to discuss the next days travel plans. Once done, we rode down Route 66 in Williams to a nice little BBQ restaurant with an outdoor patio, a place called CRUISERS. A guitarist, named Steve Reynolds, kept us entertained!

Pictures? None. Why? Someone forgot the camera! So sorry~ because the street was like a flash into the past. We are set to wake and travel to Santa Fe in the morning!