Day 23. San Diego to Kingman, Arizona. Saturday 11th January

Chelsea and Andrew went for a run and then after a cheap breakfast (our own milk and cereal as the last 2 days cost $100 for continental breakfasts for us all at the hotel) we checked out and went to the shops to look for a new watch for Andrew, with no luck. We also visited a Target store that sold clothes, food and alcohol and even had a Pizza Hut inside the shop! We left San Diego about midday and drove towards Arizona and our eventual destination, tomorrow, the Grand Canyon National Park.  It's an 8 hour drive in total so we planned to stop after a few hours in Kingman, Arizona.
The scenery changed from very urban to rocky desert. Two things were interesting along the way. For about 20 miles north of San Diego on Highway 15 in California there is a 4 lane tollway in the middle of the 8 lane freeway. Obviously, if there is heavy, slow, traffic on the highway and you want to drive faster you pay for the privilege and use the toll road. The other surprise that shouldn't be surprising when you think of USA being a country of 317 million people, is the number of trucks on the road. There were hundreds and hundreds. We arrived in Kingman around 7pm.  We went to a place called JB's for dinner and Andrew ordered a hamburger with swiss cheese. The waitress came and informed us a short time later that they had run out of swiss cheese and would he like something else. He asked what was available and she listed off American Cheddar, Cracker Jack, Andrew interrupted her and said he would have American Cheddar. Slight pause from the waitress and she looked at him and said you want American and Cheddar. Slight pause from Andrew 'uh....what?'. Waitress replies 'I have American and Cheddar do you want both?' While she is really thinking 'ignorant Australian tourist'. The rest of us thought it was hugely funny. He settled for American in the end. Cameron and Andrew spent some time in the hotel pool after dinner, Christine did more washing and Chelsea and Jacob relaxed in the room.

Outback California