DESTINATION: Kingman, AZ

My favorite stop of today was the city of Williams, Arizona.  Why?  Because it has been a place I have thought about for at least 60 years.  Not that I knew anything about it, but for many years as a child, I thought I would live there as an adult.  Why?  Because my last name was Williams. My parents framed a huge map of the USA on one side and a world map of equal size on the flip side that took up one whole wall of my bedroom.  My childhood friend, Cheryl Claypool, and I would study the map as we talked and we were enthralled with the idea of living somewhere more exotic than Newark, Ohio.  We found Arizona had two towns waiting for us…Claypool, AZ for her and Williams, AZ for me.

Williams, AZ is a town that embraces its own little history on Route 66 and celebrates it to the hilt.  This is what we found, along with music from the 50s piped throughout the town.

We ate our lunch at Goldies Diner, at the lunch counter.  

Williams AZ is a train town.   It has the only train that takes passengers to the Grand Canyon.  It has done that for many years.  In fact, the Fred Harvey Company had a hotel here and took passengers to the canyon in the 1930s.  There is still much of the same happening today.  Here is the current train station.

As quaint as Williams, AZ is, I am glad I stayed in Newark, Ohio, lived the life I had, met the people I was to love and created a wonderful family to complete my life without the move to Williams.