This morning we had a relaxed start we woke up a bit later again and only needed to shower, get dressed and get some breakfast. The breakfast was a short stop at the Starbucks across the street from our hotel.

And than it was time for the long drive through the desert to end up in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. After 4,5 hours we should arrive at the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Villas hotel where we stay tonight. After about an hour driving we saw a sign of Dunkin’ Donuts along the road so we exited to get the first Dunkin’ Donuts of this vacation.

A bit later we saw a sign that we were not allowed to stop for the next couple miles because inmates where at work and that could cause a dangerous situation for us if one or more of the inmates would try to escape. The inmates were cleaning the road which I think is a good idea to make sure there is no dirt along those nice interstates through the desert.

The road was really boring so it was not easy staying alert with the low speeds on the interstates compared to the German Autobahn. But then something happened… I broke a front tooth. That is already scary if you are at home but if you’re in another country in the middle of the desert this is really scary. If the country is not even in Europe this makes it even scarier. So that was our relaxing ride it for today.

We still needed to drive about 150 Miles towards the hotel. Danielle took over the steering wheel as soon as there was a safe place to stop.  So sitting on the passenger seat I was able to check our insurance policies. After making phone calls to all 4 travel insurances we have (3 included with our credit cards and the 4th with our health insurance) the best thing to do is find a dentist and get the tooth an emergency fix and go back to my own dentist in Germany as soon as we are back in Germany. We should pay the dentist bill in advance and reimburse the cost when we are back in Germany.

After we had figure out what we needed to do we still had about 1,5 hours off driving to do. Since I’m a bit afraid off dentists I was not enjoying the ride at all. And on top of that we were told by the insurance people that the costs of a dental-treatment in the USA could end up having a bill with a 4-digit number in USD which made us even more afraid.

As soon as we were in the hotel we checked in the hotel we went to the concierge to ask were a good general dentist was located. They came up with the same as the one Siri (iPhone assistant) had suggested as being the best and not far from our location. So the decision was made we went to the Rancho Mirage Dental Group.

At the reception I showed them the problem and explained that I wanted a basic treatment. The best way to start was with a basic consult to check-out what was wrong, I think it was obvious the tooth was broken but they only wanted to repair if they did the exam. But we were lucky because they had an offer for new patient with a Patient Exam and single X-Ray for only $59 if you checked in with Yelp. Which is really cheap since according to the offer the normal price would be $290.

Before the exam was started I needed to fill out a couple forms to give them the allowance to touch me, to work on my teeth, to make an x-ray, to give me anesthesia, etc. After filling out the forms setting about 7 signatures we were finally waiting for the doctor.

During the wait Danielle found out that if we would check-in on FourSquare we would get a special at this dentist with an additional reduction on the final treatment. So I showed it to the front desk and we got this additional reduction on the treatment. Nut we still didn’t knew what it would cost and we were still nervous.

The doctor came to bring us for a health test and the x-ray. And there was the bis surprise the x-ray showed that the tooth was broken. So now they could start calculating the total cost. The bill would end up at $379. And yes that is a lot of money but not as much as the estimates from the insurance company. So one of the stress-factors was gone.

Then there was a local anesthesia, I hate needles in my mouth but they did it without giving me the choice and after waiting about 15 minutes the dentist started repairing my teeth and in about 10 minutes I looked as handsome as before.

All stress was gone all I needed to do was pay the bill and thank the staff and the doctor to take me as a patient at the end of the day. It might look like it took for ever at the dentist but all of the above happened in less than two hours.

So after having my tooth repaired we went back to the hotel and check-out the room. The room is really nice, it’s called a villa and has multiple rooms. After bringing a part of our luggage to the room we went out for dinner.

We checked TomTom and found a Kobe Japanese Steakhouse near the hotel. We bought thought it was part of the same group of the Kobe chain in Florida were we went a couple of times for sushi so we decided to go there. But we were wrong it was a Japanese show-cooking restaurant. It ended up being not expensive at all and we ate both a 4-course menu for $35 and it was delicious.

After finishing the dessert we went back to the hotel to check-out the swimming pools because it still 32°C outside, in the afternoon it was 45°C which was way to hot for to be outside. That was a bit disappointing, all the hot-tubs were closed, the slides were closed and the closest pool to our room is being refurbished. So after swimming a short while we went back for our room.

Today we had the first of two days without any real activities planned, the only thing we needed to do was driving towards Scottsdale which would take us about 3,5 hours from Williams. But at the end we did a lot more than expected today.

We started with breakfast at the Grand Canyon Coffee & Café along Route 66 which was delicious. Afterwards we made some pictures from Williams. Williams is a typical Route 66 village which lives on tourism and that means there is still a lot off Route 66 visible of available. And as on every day this trip we needed to search for a couple geocaches.

And than it was time to leave for Scottsdale, we drove via a town called Sedona. Sedona is often called Red Rock County because of the beautiful red sandstone formations around the town. The pictures below look nice but in real it was stunning. We found it more impressive as the Grand Canyon, maybe because we didn’t see the Grand Canyon from below inside the canyon.

After the short visit we drove further to Scottsdale and about an hour before we should arrive at our destination the landscape was taken over by Cactuses. That meant we need to find a spot to stop since we had never seen so big Cactuses out in the wild.

After the short stop the road changed from 2 lanes to 7 lanes on each side that was a bit of a change after driving the last couple hours on low crowed single lane roads. But we were there just before the rush-hour started so no delays and at 16:30 we arrived at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. As we stepped out of the car the temperature was 41°C which was 20°C warmer as the in-car temperature.

The lobby looked very luxurious and when we got our key we got a bell boy assigned to escort us to our room. The resort is gigantic so this was necessary. As soon as we arrived in our room we left again to get to the nearest Starbucks to look for the Phoenix and Arizona mugs. The Starbucks was on the opposite of the street so that was easy. After buying the mugs we went to Nimbus Bistro & Brewery for dinner and a beer.

At about 18:30 we were back at our resort and decided to check-out the swimming pool. there was a gigantic hot-tub which we enjoyed for over an hour before we left for our room. It probably sounds strange to get into the hot-tub with such temperature but it cools down fast in the evening, the lowest temperature tonight is expected to be about 25°C.

Tomorrow we hope to leave the hotel by 10 o’clock and drive to Palm Springs where our next hotel is located.