Williams Arizona - WWR XII - Bearizona

I was up at 5:00 AM. I must still be working on Eastern Time to some degree, but it gave me a chance to finish yesterday's blog post. So much to do and so little time to report on it.

The word last night was that some of us were going across the street to Goldie's Route 66 Diner for breakfast. The diner opened at 7:00 AM sharp and a group of us was there when it did. I had a half order of biscuits and gravy (something we can't get at home), a side of bacon and some marble rye toast. Sandy had bacon and rye toast.

Heading for breakfast

Cranky doorman

Breakfast is about finished

Malachi and some unidentified Bucky person

Jim, Sandy and me in 2005 Kanab Red Rock Rally shirts

Butch and Moser discussing plans for the day

El Nomad and Bucky

One group on motorcycles decided that they were going to ride to the Meteor Crater today. Sandy and I visited there a few years ago and were suitably impressed. Just before they headed out, I spotted a small puddle of coolant under Cranky's Voyager XII. Unable to determine the severity, he opted not to ride to the crater. It was later determined that the leak appeared to be a one-time thing.

Some of the Meteor Crater crew

Jim and Cranky checking the leak

Wolf's flat white Indian looks very nice

And they're off

Mongrel, his wife Donna and son Michael stopped by to visit. Mongrel's Vulcan had eaten a bevel gear bearing a day ago and was in Flagstaff waiting to be shipped back to Seattle. The damage was severe enough that they were going to look for another engine. In the meantime, he would be riding on the back of Donna's touring Spyder.

Mongrel and Cranky

Donna and Michael

Sandy and I decided we would take the car to Bearizona wildlife park, just up the road. Bucky went with us. First, we went through the drive-through part where we saw the large animals. Then we walked through Fort Bearizona where they had smaller animals. We took in the raptor free flight demonstration and checked out the brand new otter and jaguar enclosures.

Rocky Mountain goat

Reindeer

Well camouflaged mule deer

Burro

Young bear

The park bus meets the white bison

Young white bison

This was an interesting machine

Brown bison

They were looking like they were shedding

Bighorn sheep

More bighorn sheep

Adult black bear

Can you see the two bears pushing each other?

Why did the bear cross the road?

Bearizona

Smelling a ponderosa pine to see if it smells like vanilla and butterscotch

(It does)

Some touristy grandpa type

Our presenter sounded a bit like Emo Phillips

Malachi - a Eurasian eagle owl

Malachi in flight

Olivia the owl

Olivia in fllight

Brook the peregrine falcon

Brook in flight

Brook flying back (she grazed my knuckles on one flight)

Olivia

Peacock

Peacock showing off

All these rules

Domestic turkey

VROC ladies

Javelinas

Bear surveying his domain

Black bear enclosure

There were some nocturnal creatures in there

The otter habitat was just opened yesterday. There was one pair who were not very sociable with the other four.

They had some funny shirts

The new jaguar enclosure featured a single black cat. Wikipedia tells me that about 6% of the jaguar population is black.

Jaguar

Black jaguar having lunch

Jim and Laurie at Bearizona

Laurie and the Beariff

There was an N gauge model railway display in the gift shop. It covered Williams to the Grand Canyon.

Williams

Williams Station

Train ready to leave

Grand Canyon Depot

South Rim

El Tovar Hotel

Hopi House

Saying goodbye to Bearizona

We got back to the hotel at 3:30 PM. Jim had made a decision that the group supper would be at Cruisers Cafe 66 downtown at 6:00 PM. I spent part of the intervening time visiting and the rest trying to sort through 300 Bearizona photos. We started walking to the restaurant about 5:45.

Gone Mad Mike, Lisa and Sandy walking to supper

We were seated right away

Our server was a young man named Paulino. He was good at his job and seemed to really enjoy interacting with people. Sandy and I split a BBQ Sampler, which consisted of pulled pork, brisket, a sausage, pork ribs, one beef rib, coleslaw, potato salad, beans and a cornbread muffin. The menu said they had a $2.00 charge for splitting plates but Paulino said not to worry about it. And they lied on the menu because they brought TWO beef ribs. I did not complain. Sandy took all the pork, the muffin and some slaw. I had to eat all the rest. The food was very good but they added an automatic 18% gratuity to the bill. I don't like this practice and would normally have let that be it, but Paulino was good enough that I gave him an additional amount.

Donna, Mongrel, Jim, Laurie, Gone Mad Mike and Ray

Gone Mad Mike, Lisa, Sandy, El Nomad and Solo

Butch, Teresa, Wolf and Bucky

Yvette, Mal, Mad Kaw and Pecos

After supper, we walked back avoiding the gunfight, looking in a few stores and admiring some hot rods.

Back at the hotel, we borrowed some chairs from the pool area and a few of us sat around mostly talking old TV and movie trivia. Sandy and I shared a dozen Vachon Granny's butter tarts we had brought down with the assembled multitude. We brought them because these treats were unknown in this part of the country.

Sandy and I were among the last to leave and got back to our room just before 11:00 PM.