Heading out of LA to the Arid Zone! That’s right, Arizona. (Though Wikipedia tells me that’s not really the etymology of the name.) The first place where I stretched my driving legs was Lake Havasu, which is probably most famous for being the home of London Bridge. Some rich fella shipped it stone-by-stone from London to Arizona. Really!
I did not know this, at least not with the smart part of brain. And I researched poorly. So I didn’t go see it. On my way out of Lake Havasu, something did tickle at my brain, somehow … a distant memory of having learned before where London Bridge went, exactly. But I was already 20 minutes back toward the interstate … ah, forget it. I didn’t even get to sit by the lake, as the MAN made it into a state park and wanted to charge me money. The MAN was actually a friendly lady and I sang “Signs” by the Five Man Electrical Band at her. As our old standby Wikipedia informs me, the song was conceived on Highway 66 in California, within a few hours of where I was.
I did stop at Copper Still Distillery, a rather mediocre distillery … their products are made for flavoring.
My trip continued on through Kingman, and I felt I had to stop there a while. I’m a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who is America?” (as well as SBC’s everything else). Those who have seen the show might recall SBC’s hippy old guy character coming to a town hall in Kingman to pitch putting the biggest mosque in North America in their town. This prompted racist outbursts, and I’m not applying too much of my own judgment when I call the outbursts racist, as one person actually said, “I am racist against Muslims.”
Well, it’s a pretty little town, with a nice view of some mountains. And, they have a decent distillery, Desert Diamond Distillery. The owner was extremely proud to tell me that they do their own fermentation (most distilleries don’t and purchase fermented product from a large manufacturer).
I didn’t have time to understand their hearts. Only their sky.
First up, the famous Town Hall where, I think, the episode of WIA? was filmed. 
A view of nearby mountains and a VERY sparkly red SUV. 
Their courthouse. I did start to worry I might get shot if I kept taking pictures of government buildings. 
Kingsman actually has MULTIPLE bookstores. This one had some good finds and a very unique smell! 
Desert Diamond Distillers, maker of Gold Miner Spirits. 
I even granted them the ultimate honor – a purchase. This is their rum, aged in whiskey barrels. It’s a good rum.
Continuing east, I thought I probably ought to go see the Grand Canyon. I got an Airbnb fairly closeby as the nights were getting a bit nippy for me to want to camp. My temporary home was in a fifth wheel, with a part-time rancher who lived off grid – no electric lines, municipal water, or mail – on some land he owned.
The place was surprisingly comfortable, with a generator for electricity, a propane heater for heat and a pump for water. It was exciting to have a couple days of clean air, quiet ground and relative isolation.
It was also fun getting to know my host, Nathan, who slept in the other half of the mobile home. Most of the people I’ve associated with in recent years were liberal. I don’t know how Nathan chooses to label himself, if he does, but he definitely falls on the conservative side of the spectrum. (I can truly say that I am neither and have views hateful to both camps.) One has to travel and know both people on both sides to understand America; most news really is fake news.
He certainly hated Obama. He owns a small business, and he described how hard it was for him under Obama’s presidency – there were many burdensome regulations that impacted him. He greatly credited Trump for making it easier to run his business and for keeping the economy strong. He also stated that Obama made it illegal for individuals to purchase solar panels, to discourage off-grid living like his. I wasn’t able to confirm this, but it seems there must at least be some truth to it. He recalls not being able to buy solar panels, and his neighbors having solar panels stolen at night because the market was so restricted. I don’t think he would have created these life experiences out of whole cloth.
He also had points of view with which I don’t agree. He blamed Obama for starting a trend of both police and school shootings by stirring up racial tensions. He did not see the need for or support Black Lives Matter, which he saw as an evil movement. He thought that Trump said the ridiculous things he said mostly to get a rise our of Democrats, and applauded him for that.
I enjoyed the time as a reminder that liberals and conservatives both have points based on real-world concerns, and both have their heads up their ass. IF I may speak bluntly. Which I think I may, it’s my own goddam website. You try coming up with a name as good as PewterPawn!
My off-grid home. 
Nathan playing kick vs. headbutt with one of his goats.
I spent a whole day at what is probably America’s most iconic natural feature, the Grand Canyon.
There are a lot of warnings like this, in the park and on the website. But surely that’s for regular people, right? I can make it down and back in one day, right? 
Here we begin, one of the trails down into the crevasse. 
And not the mules’? 
My kind of place. 
Dropping rocks would definitely be a dick move. 
See? 
How some of the walls look partway down the canyon. 
A neolithic glory hole. 
It’s just non-stop gorgeous views all the way down. 
Huh, there really are mules. 
And mules’ asses. 
They keep the trails up pretty well. 
This is as far down as I got. It’s about halfway down and if I had tried to make it all the way down and up in one day I would have had a pretty rough time of it. This is Skeleton Point, and that’s the Colorado River. 
Having completed my arduous climb back up, I found a very slow moving line for the bus back to my car. (The bus also went to other people’s cars.) Because of COVID, they were only allowing a handful of people on this bus at a time. I guess there’s no health risk to making little children stand for hours in the sun after having hiked up and down the Grand Canyon. 
After 40 minutes of waiting, fuck it, walking the two miles back to my car. At least the walk’s got views. 
Here’s another one. Man, those are some plucky trees. Boy, did my feet hurt by now. 
A forest that had recently suffered a controlled fire going out of control. 
Made it to my car! There’s about a 25-mile long road along the Grand Canyon with viewpoints all along it. This is the last one, with a cool lookout tower (closed for you-know-why). 
The view from beside that tower – to my mind, the best of the day. You can see the river from here, too.