Cats, Caverns and Cars

So, what do you do on a cold, rainy Sunday in Arizona?

Well, if you're us, you head out on old Route 66 and see what turns up!

Our first stop was Keepers of the Wild in Valentine. A "rescue" wild animal park.

Keepers got it's start by rescuing large cats that had been in Las Vegas shows, but their owners no longer had any use for them.

Despite the look of the fences, these animals actually have very large enclosures of natural landscape to roam in.

Summer loved these big cats.

This big cat did NOT love Summer!

I'm a sucker for the wolves.

There were many other types of animals, but we didn't get to see them all...

Because of the snow! Yes, we got snowed on...in Arizona!

So, we headed back out on ol' Route 66 and ended up in Peach Springs.

Home of the Grand Canyon Caverns.

Fun Fact: Peach Springs was the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the Disney/Pixar movie Cars.

So, we jumped on the elevator and descended 220 feet below the surface for a 3/4 mile tour of the worlds largest "dry cavern".

Fun Fact: These caverns were a planned fall out shelter for the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are still supplies down there from that time.

Gotta come here in the Summer when it's 115 degrees at home.

This, of course, was the highlight of the tour for Summer. Ewwww!

Once we had enough subterranean fun, back on the highway we headed.

We ended up in Seligman, another quaint Route 66 town.

Did you know this is an Edsel? Me neither. But the hubby did.

This one too. I guess that's cool if you're a car guy.

I really wanted to eat here, but there were closed. Ran out of roadkill apparently.

This made me very thirsty!

Yes, that says 1,280,000 shots of Moonshine

Well, that was enough tourist fun for us. Only took us 5 years here to get out and explore our own backyard. Maybe next time, we'll head for the Grand Canyon. I've heard there is some cool stuff there too!

Christine