Grand Canyon: It really does exist!

After all the preparations, we finally were ready to leave on our trip by 7:00am on March 11^th, the Monday of Spring Break. Storm had come the day before to help load the camper and move it to the house. He stayed over so we could skip picking him up. I got up at 6:00 and hollered at the boys, but we still got off a few minutes later than planned. No big deal.

The plan was to drive straight to Las Cruces where our reservation was made at the Hacienda RV Resort. Driving time was estimated at about 9.5 hours. I planned on it taking about 12 hours with stops. I thought gas would be an issue, and had planned some stops based on 250 mile stretches. Unfortunately, with the camper, those numbers were not reliable. The first leg we barely got 9 miles to the gallon for reasons I can not explain. Every leg the mileage was different ranging from 9 to 12.5. The funny thing is that all of our Arizona mileage was in the higher part of the range, even though the mountains were brutal! I'll talk about the mountains later. The point I am making, is that I pulled over and got gas every time I was at about half a tank, if I saw a good place. You have to understand that, with the Colby T, I can't just go to any station. The entrance has to be fairly level, there has to be room to get in and out without making me back up, and the pumps have to be situated so that I don't block the drive when I am gassing up. I learned that I like Pilot, TA, Love's, and Stripes best of all. Some of the EXXONS are okay, but the name doesn't mean anything like it does at the others. A Loves, for example is always gonna have food, clean restrooms, and fairly decent pump setups. That's what a Love's is. EXXON just means the brand of gas any old station is selling. Some are really nice truck stops, others are tiny stations.

Gas will be the major expense for this trip. I knew to expect that. I stopped a total of eight times on the way. The entire drive was 1,209 miles, and should have only taken about 5 stops for gas. I needed the breaks anyway, so it is okay.

I am going to break away from my normal tell the story type of blog report, and just mention a list of things that I wanted to remember. I can't chronicle every detail of forty hours in a truck, nor do I care to. So, here are the highlights of the trip to the Grand Canyon:

1. The guys and I each had a turn with the music. N2S put his iPhone on and played a mix of Van Halen, Styx, Santana, Led Zeplin, Al Hirt, Buddy Holly, Nat King Cole, and Caravan Palace among others. Storm put his on, and we listened to Jack Johnson, K'naan, Lincoln Park, Bob Marley, Limp Biskit, I Fight Dragons and some heavy metal screaming crap that nearly drove me nutz! When it was finally my turn, we listened to a Janice Joplin cd. The next time it was my turn, my stupid iPhone wouldn't work with the truck for some reason, so we listened to a Jane Olivor cd and The Tams. As the driver, I had to listen to all of it. When my music came on, Storm put his headphones on. Not fair. I didn't let him have a turn after that. Whenever he asked, I told him, “You've been listening to your music the during everyone else's turn. You don't need it now. Sorry, dude.”
2. I had a similar problem with the kindle app on my phone. It would not download the book I was hoping to read over Spring Break. I forgot to download it at home, and the WiFi has been too bad to download it on my Kindle Fire HD! I have a book I haven't finished reading, but it just isn't what I wanted for nights in the camper.
3. When we where just out of Texas, we drove through something called a “safety corridor” that lasted almost all the way to Las Cruces. We thought it had something to do with the border patrol. The next day there was an even longer one that puzzled us enough to see what the heck it was. N2S went online with his phone and looked it up. Evidently, it is an area with a higher concentration of fatal traffic accidents than usual. They reduce the speed limit and double fines for speeders in an effort to bring down the death numbers. Of course, I NEVER drove more than 65 while pulling the Colby T, so speed limits didn't matter to us much. I will say it made me more nervous, because nobody seemed to pay much attention to the speed limits anyway.
4. Shortly after Deming, New Mexico, on our second day, we saw a blimp in the sky. We kept seeing it for about twenty miles, and finally got curious about it. N2S went on the Internet again and discovered that it was rumored to be used by the border patrol for surveillance. Pretty cool. That reminds me that we went through the border patrol checkpoint the same morning. The guy just asked if we all were American citizens and waved us on through. We found that humorous. We could have had fifty aliens in the trailer for all they knew. Of course, N2S and I discussed that for about twenty miles. We decided that maybe they scanned us somehow or weighed us to see if we were “unusual”. I don't know. (On the way home, they didn't even stop us. We got waved through just like the AFB gate guys do.)
5. Later that second morning, all three of us experienced a strange phenomenon that we were not able to research yet, due to the really bad phone service that we started getting in the more mountainous portions of New Mexico. We would be looking off in the distance at the mountains. Then all of a sudden, the base would disappear behind what looked like fog. The peaks would be floating by themselves until they gradually vanished. It had to be something similar to the mirages you see ahead on the highway. I don't know. I am going to ask my friend Dorothy Ann. She is from New Mexico. I told the boys that was probably why they call it the land of enchantment! We had lots of experiences with our eyes playing tricks on us and seeing things on the horizon that simply didn't exist. It was as if our brains were interpreting things wrong. Once we saw what looked like a huge wall. We thought it was a dam. When we got closer, there was nothing that could remotely have been it. Same thing happened with what we all agree was an apartment complex in the middle of nowhere. We thought that was odd. When it up and disappeared, we really were amazed. We even had a discussion about the possibility that we had died in a car crash and didn't know it, yet. I would have been totally freaked out, had I been the only one seeing things. People standing by the roadside turned out to be cacti. Big rectangular warehouse buildings turned out to be mesas.
6. We all saw something we had never seen before on the second day. In fact we saw it about four times. We saw the highway stretched out before us for about thirty or so miles. Each time there was a big mountain sitting there at the end of it. We just kept going and going towards the mountain. Then when we got to it, we sort of slid behind it and moved on. It was really cool! (We never noticed it on the way home.)
7. I have to talk about the scenery. West Texas is beautiful in my eyes all the way from San Antonio to El Paso. I love the changes along the way. One minute you're in the hill country. Then it is flat plains. Then you are in desert. Then suddenly you are surrounded by mountains with windmills all over them. But, New Mexico? It is absolutely beautiful. I thought it was about the prettiest place I had driven through. But then, we hit Arizona! Wow! There were so many interesting things going on during that drive that I can't even think of how to explain them. The mountains along I10 were very pretty. Those big saguaro cacti were amazing. I loved it all. But the mountains on I17 headed north to Flagstaff were incredible.
8. Let's talk about the mountains. I mentioned them in the last post. I was nervous about one section that was bad enough to get that mention in the mountain advisory or whatever it was. I had studied how to drive in the mountains on the Internet. However, it wasn't until we got on I 17 that I remembered I never had figured out how to go into a lower gear. I even took a picture of my gear shift to put on Facebook and ask. Then I was going to ask Jack Funkhouser, who knows everything. I totally forgot about it until we were on the dreaded stretch of highway. I knew it had something to do with shifting to M. Then I knew it had something to do with the + and – buttons on the gear shift handle. What I did not know was how I was supposed to know what gear I was in- numberwise! N2S got the owner's manual out of the glove box and tried his best to find it. But, alas, before he could, we were there. I went ahead and put the transmission in M and instantly, the numbers of the gears showed up. It said “M5” when I first shifted and a push of the minus button changed it to M4. It was a very simple thing to deal with. The mountains were not that “intense” anyway. The speed limit going down them was 65. If I took my foot off the gas, it dropped below that without downshifting. Needless to say, the trip home caused no anxiety at all!
9. We saw lots of signs that said, “Move over AZ. Every vehicle. Every time.” We tried our best to honor it, just like at home, but Arizona people wouldn't let us. Every time we saw someone stopped on the side of the road, we moved over into the left lane, only to have the guys behind us pass us on the right and zoom right by the disabled vehicles. In fact, I'll say it. Many of the Arizona drivers were more cutthroat than ours in San Antonio. I especially hated driving through Phoenix. We got cut off several times by people who just didn't seem to have a clue that people pulling trailers can't stop on a dime. It was scary at times.
   
   
   
   
10. The boys were thrilled that we actually saw snow. There was a lot of it along the highway as we approached Flagstaff. There were also several waterfalls on the rock cliffs from melting snow. When we stopped for gas in Bellemonte before heading north on 64, the boys jumped out of the truck and found some mushy snow to play in. There was even more of it at the Grand Canyon. They had just had a winter storm a few days earlier.
11. While driving we got hit in the windshield about 4 times. One of the rocks actually caused a star shaped crack in the glass. A few minutes later, a huge bug hit the same spot and N2S flinched. He thought the whole windshield was gonna shatter. Funny thing is the bug hitting was louder than the rock!
    
    
    
12. I carried a “Good Sam” doll around with me so that I could take his picture for the Good Sam photo contest. It is sort of a “Flat Stanley” kind of thing. Anyway, people kept asking me which gift shop sold them. They must not have recognized him. People who know about Good Sam would realize it isn't affiliated with the National Park System.
13. There are several huge cattle yards on the southern side of I10 in New Mexico between Las Cruces and El Paso. You can smell them from a few miles away. The smell would get really strong as you finally saw them. With N2S in the car with us, we were never sure if we were coming up on one or not! That boy was gassy the hole trip. Thank God for electric windows.

Well, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon at the end of our second full day of driving. The Trailer Village was packed when we got there. I only saw about two other empty slots. We set everything up and I started to cook dinner for the boys just as it was getting dark. They were supposed to have chili rice. I had it all ready to cook in the microwave, when I discovered that the new casserole dish I had bought for the trip got wedged when the carousel turned because it was too big. That meant figuring out how to divide all the rice and water into two portions in my smaller dish. It took some messy doing, but I got it set up. Unfortunately, the microwave overheated and just gave up the ghost. I checked everything and verified that it was not the fuse or the outlet. The microwave was dead. Fortunately, everything was cooked enough for the boys to eat it. I tried plugging it back in the next morning, and it was working fine. Lesson Learned- do not try to cook major meals in a dinky microwave.

The next morning, which would be our only full day at the canyon, we decided to get up at 5:30 so we could go watch the sunrise. I was sure that would be early enough. The boys didn't mind getting up since we were going to bed at about 8:30 Grand Canyon time. Unfortunately, when I got up and walked to the bathroom, it was obvious that the sun was rising already. By the time the boys were up, dressed, and “pottied”, there was no way we would get to the rim in time. We went ahead and ate breakfast instead, then drove over to the Visitor's Center and got our first peak at the Canyon.

I have to admit that I was not expecting the physical reaction I had to seeing the canyon. I walked away from the boys (while they chased a little squirrel, or some other little creature, like a pack of dogs) and leaned on the rail for a few minutes. I was just plain overwhelmed. I had this euphoric rush of emotion, complete with tears, which I could not stop. If it were a movie moment, there would have been an amazing piece of symphony music playing. If you have never been to the Grand Canyon, I don't think you can understand what I am so inept at describing. It is more than beautiful. It does something to your brain that makes your very being vibrate, as if you are plugged into some heavenly power source. It is mesmerizing.

N2S agrees that it was beautiful, but he also had major issues with his fear of heights. Even with twenty feet of concrete walkway in every direction around him, he walked like someone who was afraid they would break through the ice. I was about to throw him over the edge until I noticed that same slow “balancing with my arms out “walk being performed by several other people. I don't care for heights myself. But I felt completely safe standing by the railing. Not N2S. In fact, he wouldn't go to the top floor of the watchtower and skipped all of the balconies in the buildings along the rim.

Anyway, we took some photos, and, after about an hour, we went back to the coffee shop and got some coffee. It was cold, but since there was no wind, I didn't feel cold. Storm and I had shorts on. I didn't even zip my Spurs jacket. Just the same, the coffee was nice and warm. There was snow all over the place that had not melted from the winter storm. People kept pointing at Storm and me and whispering to each other. I could tell they thought we were just plain crazy to wear shorts. Then I heard a man say, “Damn it Judy, other guys are wearing shorts!” Coffee hurts when it comes out your nose!

We went into the Visitors Center. It was nice, but didn't really have a lot in it. We spent more time across the way at the gift shop, before getting in the truck and heading back to Trailer Village. We had to register by 10:00am, since we got in after hours the night before. That took longer than expected because the lady who ran it was on a break or something. The note on the door said “back in ten minutes”, but we waited much longer than that. From there, we headed out to a section of the canyon about 25 miles away called Desert View. It was a beautiful drive with several different scenic views of the canyon on the left and snow-capped mountains on the right. Our favorite thing there was the Watchtower. It is a huge round tower with windows all around that let you look at the canyon. It is situated right on the rim.

We stopped and took pictures at several of the scenic overlooks as we made our way back to the Market Plaza. We decided to eat lunch at the Canyon Cafe. It turned out to be a pleasant meal. For one thing, the prices were completely reasonable. We all enjoyed our meals. I had half a rotisserie chicken with two sides and a roll for $8.99. N2S had a double burger. Storm had Salisbury steak. Altogether, the meal was just under $25.00 for the three of us. I had expected to pay a lot more. Nothing in the park seemed to be overpriced. Even my beer was only $1.25 at the store.

After lunch, we made a quick trip to the Colby T to get Storm's medicine, camera, and wallet. He had forgotten all three when we left in the morning. When he got his camera, he asked me to take him back to the things we had already seen so he could take pictures. I told him he was out of luck since we did not have the time. We were on our way to the other part of the “Village” to see other things. I think N2S called it “East Village”.

When we got to that area, it was hard to find a parking spot. We ended up pretty far away, and had to hike back towards the stuff we wanted to see. A park ranger in a truck pulled up to where we were standing looking at the map and asked if he could help us. I pointed to the big lodge up on the hill at the rim and told him we couldn't figure out how to get there. There was a train track with a train parked in the middle of our path. We couldn't see any way to get past it. He told us where to cross the track and walk up a large set of black stairs that led us straight to the lodge.

Most of the historic buildings along the rim have been converted to gift shops, hotel rooms, or museums. We walked through all of them. I kept eying a really nice cap with a beautiful embroidered cougar on it. When you buy it, you are adopting a mountain lion to help fund their preservation causes. It was $30, but the only thing I saw that I wanted for a souvenir, so I got it. Later, I discovered that it doesn't fit my abnormally big head. Most “one size fits all” hats do not. I should have tried it on, but N2S likes his new hat! I had already bought him the poster he wanted and a book that chronicles the fatal accidents that have happened in the canyon. I bought Storm the replica of a waypoint that he was fond of. N2S and I also got Junior Ranger badges with our names on them and wore them all day. People kept looking at me like they weren't sure why I had a badge on. Give me a break.

My favorite view of the canyon was from that area. I really loved looking down at the trail way down there. You could see people walking on it, but they were tiny specs. They looked smaller than a flake of pepper would look on your mashed potatoes! Even that was not the bottom of the canyon. It was just a big round shelf that jutted about halfway out. The pictures I took just can't convey what you actually see when you are there.

That reminds me. We went out to see the “Grand View” on the way back from the Desert View area. Just as we walked toward the edge, a lady screamed “Woo Hoo” at the top of her lungs. She looked about 75 years old. She had just completed her three-hour hike up from the canyon floor. She and her husband had been camping down there for three days. Her husband hadn't made it up yet. I hope he and their friends were carrying more gear. She had one little backpack on her. The thought of sleeping out in the open down there without a tent makes me cringe. But then, I couldn’t hike up the canyon in three hours, either.

We left the East Village and stopped in at the Shrine of Ages. We weren't sure what it was. It turned out to be a church. There was a cemetery next to it, so we explored the graves for awhile. They were interesting. There was one there that I wanted to research, but I can't figure out where I put the notes. It was a foreigner who passed in the thirties. People had put paintbrushes in the ground around it. I was curious to see if he was a painter I should learn about. [Just found that photo while adding pictures to the blog! He was a famous Swedish American painter!Read about him.

After that, we went to the Market Plaza to get me a Grand Canyon beer. The market turned out to be a huge modern grocery store. I was blown away by what they had. You could get almost anything there, including ethnic foods. The prices were even more surprising. I expected it to be outrageous, but found it to be right in line with the HEB in San Antonio. We bought a few things and then sat in front of it while I drank my beer. It was very good beer.

We had some time to kill before going to see the sunset, so I suggested we go back to the Colby T and get dinner over with. That way, we wouldn't have to cook and clean up later. The boys agreed to it, so we went on back and did just that. They ate mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. I also quickly got all the photos off of my Bloggie camera. I wasn't sure how many more it would hold since I was using a very high resolution to take them.

We got back in the truck and drove over to the rim for the sunset. We got there just in time to visit the coffee shop and have a nice warm beverage with us. We didn't need jackets at all during the day, but once that sun started thinking about setting, the temperature took a free fall. The canyon was really beautiful during the sunset. That is, the part you could see. As the sun went down, parts of it gradually disappeared before your eyes. At one point, the shadows on the other side looked like a herd of buffalo running up the wall of the canyon. Storm and I both mentioned it at the same time. I took a photo, but it doesn't look like buffalo. It looks like big blobby shadows.

On the way back to the truck, we saw two interesting things. First, we actually saw a man and wife sitting with their two children, who were about 4 and 5, legs hanging off the canyon wall, eating dinner on paper plates, and watching the sun go down. I was flabbergasted. It is one thing to be that stupid as an adult. But, to put those little children at risk like that? N2S had read to us from his book a few hours earlier about how many people died just from losing their equilibrium while standing up after sitting near the edge. The second thing was an elk cow. She was HUGE! She was walking right towards us in a roped off area by the concrete path. She looked at me, snorted, and turned to the right. I got a photo of her butt, just as she went behind a tree. The poor thing was spooked, because another idiotic family was off the path following her through the brush even though signs all over the place said to stay away from them!

We decided to go from the sunset to the Canyon Cafe to use their WiFi and have dessert. I wanted to try another Grand Canyon beer. I ended up having some frozen yogurt, also, because N2S got the wrong flavor. We spent some time there catching up a bit with the world outside. I was interested in something involving the Carnival Dream and the election of a new pope. It still wouldn't let me see some of the stuff on Facebook I wanted to see. I also checked my email and saw a reminder from the florist to send Rachel flowers. I had set the reminder the year before for our anniversary. I ordered flowers for her that night with a note that said “I miss you.” Every where you looked at the Grand Canyon you saw couples of all ages. I missed my parents while there, too. Something about the place just kept me thinking of them. There was one woman sitting on a bench that was a dead ringer for my mom. That is a really weird feeling when it happens.

We got back to the camper at about 8:00. N2S and I went to the restroom. Only one toilet was working. For some inexplicable reason, people were still using the other one that wouldn't flush! When we got back to the Colby T, I told Storm to try the other one a few streets away. He said it was working and clean. I had planned to have a shower that night, but when we checked in in the morning and asked where the showers were, the lady told us Trailer Village didn't have any. You had to drive to another area and use the pay showers there. They were closing at 6:00, so I told the guys we were gonna have to skip it. Showering was not nearly as important as seeing everything there is to see when you only have one day.

We saw some people with their TV antennas up, so we decided to try ours, even though I was pretty sure we weren't going to get any reception. Storm kept telling me that he saw people watching TV in their big rigs when he walked around, but I knew they were using satellite receivers. Sure enough, it turned out to be a waste of our time, so we put the antenna back down and stowed the TV. It wouldn't have mattered. Both boys were asleep by 8:45 while I was sitting and writing some of this. I had to wake them up to get the bed set up. Then we were all in bed with lights out by 9:00 Grand Canyon time.

We got up at 5:30. I fixed breakfast for the boys. Then we packed everything up and got on our way back home by 7:00. We stopped to buy some gas just outside of the park gates. They were charging $4.99 a gallon, so I only bought four gallons, just to make sure I had a bit of a bumper. I wanted to make it all the way to Camp Verde before filling up. That plan worked out for us. From then on, I only got gas when we needed it. On the entire trip home, we only stopped for gas six times, including the overpriced 4 gallons. I knew how far I could go and where the gas stations were on the return trip, so gas wasn't something that made me nervous. For those who like to know these things, I spent $709.85 on gas for this trip. It took us 206 gallons. We averaged 11 miles to the gallon. That's only 2 miles less than I get without the trailer in San Antonio. Not bad.

The rest of the trip to Las Cruces was uneventful. The mountains were pretty, but did not cause any anxiety for me this time. I knew how to use the gears, and to be honest, that wasn't necessary on those 6% grades. We made really good time, and managed to miss rush hour in both Phoenix and Tuscon. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. I was surprised by their section of low carb choices. Nice! The only other stop that day was to see... THE THING! There were billboards advertising along to highway, so I figured it would make a nice break, and I needed gas anyway. They charged me a dollar and the boys .75 to walk through their little collection of oddities. It didn't take us very long. After a few minutes, we were back on the road.

We got to Las Cruces just after dark. We had planned on unhitching the Colby T and going to a Mexican restaurant, but I just wasn't feeling it. Instead, we stopped for gas and the boys got Taco Bell to take to the RV resort with them. I was kind of angry because they bought 21 tacos between them while I was still getting gas.When we got to Hacienda, the office was closed (as expected), and they had left our stuff outside for us. I was shocked to see that there were no keys for the bathhouse! I looked for a number to call, but there was none. I asked another couple who had just driven up to their RV if they would lend us their extra. They were unregistered late arrivals, so they didn't have any. Those people just choose an empty site and register in the morning. Most people use their on board restrooms, but we were not doing that. Anyway, the boys disappeared while I was on the phone with Rachel. Storm had seen a key laying in the bathroom on Monday and thought that it might still be there. They knocked on the laundry room window, and someone let them in so they both went ahead and used the restroom. I wasn't so lucky. I ended up using my old pee bottle, and gave up hope of a shower until we got home.

We set the TV up and connected the cable, but both boys were falling asleep again by 9:30. We went ahead and got ready for bed. I set the alarm for 6:30, because I wanted to pack up and be ready to go as soon as the office opened. That way we could get a key and use the rest room before we left. While getting ready for bed, N2S's sleeping bag zipper broke. (WARNING: Do not buy the $12.00 sleeping bag at WalMart expecting quality!!!!!!!!) In the morning, I sent Storm to the dumpster to throw it and some other trash away. He saw the office was opened and stopped in to get us some keys. They had left them for us, but someone else stole them. The lady at the desk told me that some unregistered late arrivals had taken them. They were using the laundry room when she came on duty. The husband came to her a few minutes later and told her they had come in late and needed to register. When asked how they had gotten into the laundry, the man told her that they had taken my keys since it looked like I wasn't coming in anyway. (Evidently old people don't drive their RVs in the dark.) The desk lady told me they had been dealt with and were being asked to leave the resort.

When we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that we had lost a plug from the bumper where the sewer pipe is stowed. I was happy to see that we hadn't lost the pipe. I put some duct tape on to hold it in there, and already ordered a replacement from Amazon. That is the only bad thing that happened to the Colby T. It towed like a champion. I did notice that the emergency brake chord was severed between Las Cruces and San Antonio. I will replace that fairly easily. I would say that was too harsh, but they didn't need to take both of my keys!

The trip from Las Cruces to San Antonio was uneventful, also. We stopped for gas a few times and lunch once. The only excitement was near Kerrville. I REALLY had to use the restroom. We pulled into a rest stop, but I missed the Truck/RV area and couldn't get back to it. We had to go ahead and come on home. I had made a decision already to bring Colby T to the house. I ran in the house to use the restroom while Storm got his suitcases that were left in the garage and put his stuff back in them. Then N2S drove him home in his truck. The only odd thing- a branch of the oak tree in front of the house must have grown since Monday, as it was scraping the roof when I backed in.

We got settled in and spent time telling Rachel about our trip. Then I headed for a much needed shower. Before long it was already after 11:00  pm, so I headed to bed. I was up by 8:30 this morning. I had some coffee then spent the next three hours emptying and cleaning the Colby T. It is all spic and span inside and out. The bed is made up for my next trip. Not sure when that will be, but it won't be long before I head off for a quick weekend somewhere nearby.

I know this was not the best of my trip reports. You just have to understand that even though this was a trip to the Grand Canyon, it was only 108 hours long. 42 hours of that were spent driving a truck. 31 hours of that were spent sleeping. 9 hours were spent getting gas, stopping to pee, or eating lunch. About another 14 hours was spent inside the Colby T. That only leaves about 12 hours of “adventure” to talk about.

See all of my Grand Canyon trip photos by clicking HERE!