We stayed in a state park campground just outside of the Grand Canyon last night. We didn't have electricity but it got down into the 50s so it was comfortable, except we realized that we needed new brakes on our car. They started making a grinding sound, but we thought it was the camper/trailer brakes. We tried to make an appointment yesterday for today, but with it being the 4th of July, nothing was open. We made the decision to wake up early and show up on their doorsteps at 7:30am when they opened today. This morning we drove to Flagstaff and tried one auto repair shop, that was horrible and rude. We then parked and I called another highly rated (on Yelp) local shop, Tag Auto. He told me they were really busy due to the holiday weekend, but, of course, I started crying and he couldn't stand it and told me to come in and they'd help us. We drove right over, he gave us a spot for the camper, took the car in and told us to go shop across the way and he'd check it out and call us within 30 minutes. As we were walking over, about 10 minutes later, he called and said our rear brakes were definitely gone and we should consider the front brakes too because we may only make it to New Mexico with those. This was 8:30am and he told us he could do it right then and there, if we wanted it done. We did! We pleaded for an oil change too and though he said he couldn't at first, due to being busy and squeezing us in as it was, he then said he'd do it because of how hard it'd be for us to do it elsewhere with the camper and he'd have the car up on the lift anyway. He said it'd be about two hours so we hung out in the shopping area. Ella's dream came true because they had a Crumbl Cookie store there so we got a few cookies to try. We hung out on the town benches in the common area and then when REI opened, we went in there. Evan was excited to get a new hydration backpack since his has been leaking. We walked back over and hung out in our camper for a few minutes and at almost 10:30am on the dot, they brought our car out! Jason hooked it up and I went in to pay. I thanked the owner repeatedly. He said, "I had to. You can't do that to an old guy on a Tuesday morning!" (cry) I was so happy, I wanted to hug him LOL but I told him I'd give him a good review on Yelp instead. He was happy and so were we. We feel so fortunate to have found such an honest, kind, quality local auto repair shop. We were on our way by 10:45am with new safe brakes and headed to Zion!
We drove a bit on Route 66 and then through some beautiful areas that the kids thought looked like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars. Then we drove through Zion. First we saw the Checkerboard Mesa and then we drove through the long Zion tunnel, which is all spectacular! After driving through the tunnel, we looped around and could see the tunnel windows from the other side. Our campground is beautiful with panoramic views of the mountains and a 10 minute walk to the park. The boys were excited to get cowboy hats and our camping neighbors let the kids play corn hole together and with them. It turned out to be a great day!
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