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June 18, 2011

Williams

Williams is the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, so we were expecting it to be busy, but we had no idea there was a major rodeo for real, working cowboys in town that weekend and the place was packed. Our motel search was not as easy as we had hoped. Franz wanted to try and find something in the main part of the town, so we could actually walk around and see the local spots, instead of being up by the freeway and reliant on Denny's for our meals. The last motel in town, the Travelodge, actually was our last hope and they came up with 6 rooms, one of which was a 2 bedroom family suite, so we started the registration and Franz went to get the others. The motel had most of what we needed, but was a little higher priced. The Mayers (parents and son+girlfriend) shared the family suite. Everyone settled in and then crowded into the small pool for a cool-down. Then we headed out in search of local color and dinner. The local color appeared in the guise of a cowboy shoot-out in the middle of Main Street, about 100 yards from our motel. It was an amateur production, but the crowd laughed and applauded where appropriate. Then we strolled Main Street from one end to the other, ending almost across the street at Rod's Steaks. This was recommended by the motel owners, but since they were Indian, they might not actually have ever eaten there. The restaurant had been around quite a while and had a long list of different steaks, some we had never heard of before. We shared the upstairs level with cowboy families in town for the rodeo.