7/11/09

I can’t even tell you how many trains I have seen and/or heard since we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ. They are constant and loud. Sleeping last night was stupid. Every two minutes another train would go by and Kat and I would groan as the whistle blew…all night long.
We got up this morning and closed up camp and headed into downtown Flagstaff. When we found a suitable parking lot I saw a sign that said “parking ok for Vietnam Memorial Wall”. No way, the miniature version of the memorial is here right now. I have seen this a few times in my life when it toured through Santa Cruz thanks in part to my dad’s VFW post. We walked over to see it and I found my dad’s good buddy’s name and took a photo for him. It was touching to see as it is every time.
Downtown Flagstaff is not safe from the trains either. The tracks are maybe 50 yards away and just as it was all night, every couple of minutes a loud train went by. We asked our waiter at a bar if he gets used to it. He made it very clear that you never get used to it.
The town ended up being pretty great. Kat found a really nice sweatshirt and I found a necklace to buy. It is some sort of art week in Flagstaff right now so there were many art shows and musicians out on the streets. It was great.
After a few hours of walking around we went back to the Winnie to relax for a bit…right on the train tracks…ugh. We plugged the tv into the cigarette lighter outlet we had and watched a movie, made some mac n’ cheese and just hung out in a random parking lot; you gotta love life on the road.
We had decided that since it was our last night in both Flagstaff and the Winnie we would hit up the town and see what the nightlife had to offer around here. We got a bit more dressed up than we have in a while, actually brushed our hair and even put on some make up too. We walked back down to were someone that we had met earlier told us was a good spot to hang out.
It was a pretty cool bar with a good crowd and a random band playing. We met a lot of people and we were even told “thanks for keeping Flagstaff beautiful” which, after two weeks in an RV is quite nice to hear.
We ended up meeting a couple of locals that we hung out with at that bar and then followed over to another bar called The Green Room. Right when we walked in I knew the night was going to be fantastic. There was a live band playing some sort of salsa/African music and people were dancing. We love to dance so we were excited.
We spent the evening dancing our booties off and laughing just as much. Our new friends were great and kept the energy going.
The night came to an end, as they all do and we made the walk back to our home away from home, found the nearest Walmart and set up camp in the parking lot as we have done many times this trip. We are winding down and getting ready for bed. It will be nice to sleep in a real bed IN VEGAS tomorrow night but I think we will end up missing our nights in the Winnie.
We are having a bit of trouble adding our video and pics so they will be added soon...