Again my TomTom GPS is being pessimistic with me. When I left my hotel in Cedar City and programmed it to take me back to Flagstaff, Arizona it told me it would take 7h45m, which shocked me because Google Maps had told me it was more like five hours, and I'd been counting on that. Since my GPS had been generous with its estimates before I decided to believe Google and set out to prove it worthy of my faith.

It left my hotel at 10:05am and had been expecting my route to lead me down the interstate to start with before cutting east but right out of the parking lot it led me a very strange way. I believed my GPS's route even if I didn't trust the duration so I followed it. It correctly led me through town and out the other side and onto what could be called a mountain road, complete with signs saying "highway may be impassable during snow. Chains or snow tires required". Being July that wasn't a problem for me. The only issue I had was persuading my little compact car to get up the hills and it did well.

As we climbed the temperature kept getting lower. It had started at a fairly low 77 degrees at the hotel but at the top of the hill it hit 62 and I even turned the a/c off and opened the windows for a change. The views were great, as I always say on my Utah blogs, but they really were. My route took me on a right turn and the highway started descending.

I crossed the state line into Arizona and once I was through the border town of Fredonia the world immediately opened up and I had a dead straight road ahead of me with huge plains either side to distant hills. It was an opportunity to make good time and, although it was only a two-lane highway, overtaking slower cars was a breeze when there was a good long view, meaning I was never held up for long. But eventually my luck ended and the road started 'doing a Utah' and wound up and over a few hills.

Once I was over them it was plainer sailing. I sailed straight past the crashed car on the way down the hills. Don't worry, other people were tending to it. I sailed past a sign tempting me to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I sailed over Marble Canyon, which is like the small crack in the east that develops westward into the Grand Canyon. Around this area the temperature hit 99 degrees. I sailed past the San Francisco mountains at the north of Flagstaff. I also sailed past a parked Highway Patrol car at 60mph in a 45mph zone but he didn't budge, presumably because everyone else was doing the same speed. I sailed up to my hotel at exactly 3:05pm, meaning the drive had taken five hours. Google had beaten TomTom and vindicated my trust. I had also gained an hour in time zone changes so it was really 2:05pm.

After lunch and a good rest after the non-stop five hour drive I returned the car and informed them about the chip in the windshield. The guy filled out the paperwork and said I'd be hearing from them. I'm not looking forward to all the paperwork between me, Alamo and my CDW insurance company back in the UK. Also by the time I got there I was five minutes too late for a free lift back. So I set off on the 2.5 mile walk and, of course, it started raining again but this time around I was prepared because I'd packed my coat in my bag. I had wanted to find a souvenir but it was Sunday afternoon so most shops had already shut. I managed to get one later that evening in a gas station. Sometimes it's the weirdest places that help me out.

I had a nice rest in the evening watching movies on TV. It had been a great week in Utah - the best seven day period on the trip so far - and I had driven over 1600 miles and walked probably 30 miles.

I didn't really have to write a blog entry for Flagstaff, but I wanted my blog map to show that I went through Arizona. I didn't get a single photo there so the photo I've put up is a photo of a postcard I bought as my first attempt at a souvenir until I found a better one in the gas station. The one cool thing I have to say is that the hotel I stayed in after Utah (and, technically, the one I was in for two hours before I left a week previously) was on Route 66. And I would have driven part of it on my way out of and back into Flagstaff.