Grand Canyon

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

We had breakfast at the camper this morning. We did not walk into town. We did go to the office and extended our stay for another night. The people in the office were great. They were actually “Full-timers” (the term for those who just travel from place to place in their campers!) They work for a few days a week at a campground, and either get reduced rates, or free stays at campgrounds. What a life! Well, anyway, we had a rather long conversation with them. They told us all about their life and we told them all about New Hampshire. It was great, guess that is what camping is all about.

We thought that we would go downtown and walk around before it monsoon-ed again today. We took the truck (we could have walked, but we knew better…) We stopped at an old garage, (a Route 66 garage) Brad’s friend Phill would have loved it. We did take some great pictures that we will share with him, but it was all 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s stuff. Lots of Coke things, old number plates, oil cans, things that I didn’t know that they were, etc.

We saw some old saloons, old cafes, old motels. All rather well kept, and historic. One section of town had a replica of a jail, tavern, post office, etc. Right in the middle of the area was a little restaurant. Brad was getting hungry, so we popped in for lunch. I looked at the menu and a pulled pork sandwich jumped out and grabbed me. I had it served with sweet potato fries, and a lemonade. Brad saw the pulled pork and wanted it also. He had the beer batter fries and the pink lemonade. (Two minds think kind of alike…) It was terrific.

As we finished our meal, the sky was dark. We paid the tab, and headed out. Sprinkles, oh, no! We knew what that meant. (Now, I don’t like walking in the rain, as my walking buddy will tell you, right Elaine?) So, just as fast as my little legs would carry me, I high tailed it back to the truck. I even beat Brad and he always walks much faster than I. Just as we got to the truck, the heavens opened up and dumped. Another monsoon!

We headed back to the camper, watched some TV, played some cribbage (and I won at least one game this time). Then it was over, just as quickly as it had started. We needed some groceries for the next leg of our trip, so we decided to go to the store. Back into the truck we went. Of course, the grocery store was right beside the Dairy Queen, and we just had to stop after we got groceries.

After we had our ice cream, the weather was perfect (about 83 degrees) we thought that we would take the “kids” and get some pictures around town before it got dark. Murtle and Taco sat and had a chat with the “old timer” on the bench. Oh, the stories he told. Had Taco in stitches the whole time. We headed for the Western Ware Shop. (Brad wanted to check out the western clothing some more. Lynn, I think he might be thinking about boots!) As we were coming out of the store, a Cowboy and his lady told us that there was going to be a shootout two streets down.

We looked down the street, and there was quite a commotion going on. People milling all around, a band was playing, there was a horse and carriage on the street. We just had to go find out what was going on. Murtle and Taco were eager to see. Taco just loved the excitement, especially in a “cowboy” town.

The whole town seemed to be involved with the activities. There were people in “costume” all over the place. The band was in Confederate uniform. (Most of the band members were young. It wasn’t the greatest band, but pretty good.) They played for a while then a “cowboy” came out and started telling a story. We were all engrossed in the story. There was singing and dancing, then all of a sudden, bang pow, a full fledged shootout! Taco got all excited, he hadn’t seen a good shootout for quite some time. I thought that he was going to jump out there and join in. Murtle was not impressed, she wanted to hide in her shell.

Well, the story thickens! Wouldn’t you know, the Cowboy grabbed Murtle and held her at gun point! He was out to get some money and held her for ransom! (Christi, does this sound familiar?) Taco, Mr. Attitude, was egging him on! He loved it. He laughed so hard I thought he was going to bust a gut. We had to rescue Murtle before she ended up belly up on the pavement. You should have seen her after we got her save and sound. She wouldn’t leave my side for the rest of the night. She doesn’t like “Bad Cowboys” at all. Since they all look the same to her, she wants to leave this part of the country for good. Taco, on the other hand loves it and wants us to stay here for a while longer. Poor Murtle.



Monday, July 30, 2007

Today we went to the Grand Canyon. Oh, my goodness! That is the first response that I had when I saw the vastness of the canyon. What beauty, what splendor, what an awesome experience! The pictures that I took just do not do it justice. It is wonderful. We were there for about seven hours and we could have been there for three weeks and still not have investigated enough.

The day was cooler than normal. There was a threat of a thunderstorm for the day and a chance of rain, but remember, “It doesn’t rain on a Presby parade!” (Or at least it really hasn’t since we started this trip.) When we started out, it was overcast and in the 70’s, not too hard to take. I have to admit, we were very comfortable in shorts and tee shirts.

From Williams to the Grand Canyon entrance was about 63 miles. Straight, flat roads with speed limits up to 75 miles an hour, make for a pretty quick trip. Of course, we had to watch out for elk, rabbits, and critters in the road.

When we first got to the Canyon, we parked the truck and headed for the rim trail. Little did we know that the rim trail goes all the way from one side of the Canyon to the other. There must have been about 120 miles of trail. Well, we walked for about 1 ½ miles, then thought we might take one of the shuttle buses that take you to the parts that you can’t drive to on your own. (Too many cars, not enough parking along the way to make it safe to allow cars to drive haphazardly around.)
The shuttles were great. (The first one that we got on, we didn’t understand how they worked, so we missed some photo opportunities, but then we figured it out.) We wanted to make sure that we got to the side that NO ONE can drive on, so we scooted over there quickly. The bus made a trip for about 20 miles with approximately 15 stops. You could get off the bus, take pictures, then get on the next bus that came about 8 - 12 minutes later. That way you would have the opportunity to view all the spots, and the whole tour took about 90 minutes. We did just that. We got on the bus, got off the bus, took plenty of pictures, hopped back on another bus, then went to the next spot.

At times, because the weather was so nice, we walked from one viewing spot to the next. Some of the spots were .4 miles, or .7 miles apart. (Some were more, and by the time we got toward the end of the trip, we needed water, which we forgot to bring with us, and we could have used sun screen, which we didn’t think of because it was overcast when we left.) So, the bus was very welcome.

I just can’t describe the views that we saw. The canyon was so massive, so deep, so vast, that it is hard to get into words. I have to admit that when I first saw the canyon, I had this calm feeling come over me. I don’t think that I can explain it any better than that. Every time I looked over the vast area of the Canyon, I got the same feeling. A peaceful feeling, a calming feeling, tranquility. Maybe it was all the Indian spirits around, I don’t know, but definitely a place that I would love to spend a lot more time near.

It is hard to imagine the depth of the Canyon. Just looking down into it, knowing that the paths that we saw and the Colorado River that we saw, were actually huge. We were told that the river was one mile down. That is a long way down. We were looking at specks, and those were people walking on the trails. We saw a black dot in the Colorado River (which is not a beautiful blue, but it is a reddish brown color) and that was a rubber raft. (Someone had binoculars and he let us look through them and we could see that there were two rafts tied together.)

The only way into the Canyon was to either walk down, ride a mule down, or take a raft through on the Colorado River. Someone said that it would be fun to walk down, then take the mules back up. I think I like that idea best. It takes something like seven days of paddling just to go from one end of the river to the other. That is a long time to be in a rubber raft. There is one place to stay (some sort of hostel like place). It appears to be very dry, dusty, and not much vegetation. The soils are sandy, gravely type.

Beautiful reds, browns, some greens, but mostly reds.
Murtle (remember, is afraid of heights) did not want to go near the rim trail. She and Taco stayed in the truck. They did get out to have their picture taken at the entrance of the Canyon. (I actually think Taco is afraid of heights, but he won’t admit it! He thought he had better stay with Murtle. We went back to the truck to have our lunch, and tried to convince them to see the Canyon, but they couldn’t be persuaded.

Note to self: The Grand Canyon is a place to revisit on another trip. Make reservations and stay at one of the campgrounds in the park.
It was a dark drive back to the campground, but we were very fortunate that it did not rain (or monsoon) where we were. It did, however, rain at the campground before we came back. Everything was dripping.

We decided to try to extend our stay for another day. We wanted to get into Historic Williams and walk the street of Route 66. The town had some interesting things happening that we wanted to check out.