While it had been my plan to drive today from Rio Verde to the Grand Canyon, the winter weather has forced me to defer that for now. The U.S. Weather department is predicting up to a foot of snow for the Flagstaff/Grand Canyon area. The road from Rio Verde to Flagstaff/Grand Canyon is a very steep climb as it goes from 2,000 to 8,000 feet in altitude. Bruce convinced me that there was sufficient cause for concern about my heading up there in this weather, and driving a minivan rather than a four wheel drive, and so I opted to head northwest to Kingman, where the precipitation I would encounter would be rain, rather than ice or snow.

Kingman, Arizona is the birthplace of character actor Andy Devine, and a street has been named for him. I had read that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had been married in Kingman.

--Larry Spears [Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010]