London Bridge, 46 degrees Celsius, 7pm

So imagine looking out over London Bridge when it’s too hot to go outside because you would burn to a crisp, and it is 7pm. Scary, huh? Maybe it’s a reminder of how we need to take care of our planet. I love the heat, but this is really too hot.

Today was another driving day but we got up super early (although not as early as our neighbours as the car park outside our cabin was empty by the time we emerged) to do a small hike round the Grand Canyon rim trail. There were people jogging. It was already hot. But it was a great walk and we saw a Condor, a hummingbird, a squirrelly thing and maybe another kangaroo mouse. We stopped off in the geology museum and both got more confused with the geology of the Grand Canyon. It seems the Colorado river made it. And the rocks were formed when the earth was formed – with loads of things in between that and the dinosaurs.

After a coffee at the cycle hire shop – overheard the guide saying it was a 20-mile ride – four miles in the forest and 6 miles on the rim, then back – which I thought I would do next time, we checked out and headed south to Williams to pick up the old Route 66 west. We had trouble finding Route 66 – had to come off the I-40 a couple of times and at one point ended up at a dead end. Travelling with someone other than your husbant is much easier when you end up on the wrong road, or going the wrong way. It seems less blameless. Given we had all day, a few wrong turns meant we got to see things we would have missed so it was a win-win for me. We had a cracking playlist to guide us along our route, and played Chuck Berry’s Route 66 (my favourite and thought of Nick) and the Rolling Stones version.

We stopped briefly in Williams for a coffee at our first Route 66 diner and sat at the bar. The coffee is disgusting everywhere. Bert had a malted strawberry milkshake. Was a good choice.

Next stop was the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman. I think I scared Bert by explaining that their slogan was “You kill it, We grill it”. So literary roadkill. Turns out they just call their regular food things like ‘Swirl of Squirrel’, ‘Bad-brake steak’, ‘Fender Tenders or ‘Splatter Platter’. So he opted for a fried chicken steak which was actually beef (think chicken schnitzel but beef) and I had a kid’s burger. I also saw my first Trump flag.

We drove along Route 66 and passed through a few little towns and each time we missed the opportunity to take a photo by the iconic Route 66 sign. The road was fab to drive – long straight roads with no traffic for miles. Finally we got to Kingman and our last opportunity to get the photo. Sadly, it was a very busy town with many cars and lorries thundering past. But we did it anyway.

We turned off Route 66 back onto the I-40 and hit the worst section of our trip so far. The road was terrible and for about 20 miles I felt like I was in ‘Duel’, Stephen Spielberg’s 1971 movie. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it. My version was an enormous white truck that decided to take me on at 75mph on the 65mph speed limit road that was worse than Quartermile Road in Busbridge. I felt very uncomfortable for a good 15 minutes. Luckily, the road surface improved and I was able to get away.

The temperature started rising almost by the minute until the car registered 125 degrees Farenheit (almost 52 degrees Centigrade). But the roads weren’t melting and the aircon was keeping us very cool. We arrived at Lake Havasu and made a slow dash to the hotel. Bought beers and sat in the cool of our room playing Texas Hold ‘Em until we got hungry again and found a place a minute’s walk away. I had the tempura prawns and Bert went for a French Dip!

So it’s still 47 degrees and we are tucked up in our cool room.

Couple of observations! Showers have varied enormously in all the places we have stayed. Tonight’s hotel is aptly named The Heat hotel and I voted this one the best shower yet. The Grand Canyon cabin had a terrible shower which nearly took my eye out with the force of the water. Other showers have been awkwardly angled with complicated pull/push buttons. So maybe the showers are on an upward trajectory.

Second observation. When you spend four nights in four different hotels, it is a real test of your memory to remember where the toilet is. I never like putting the light on in the middle of the night in order note to wake anyone up. But remembering where the bathroom is relative to where I am sleeping, and then which side of the room the loo is, is challenging. I can safely say I have scored 100% every time. I have probably just jinxed that. My early worries about early onset Alzheimer’s were knocked out of the park when I got turned down for a drug trial. This confirms that I can make new pathways in my brain, even if it is just remembering where the toilet is each night in a different bathroom!