This morning we are headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We finished listening to the Audio Book version of Inkheart, read by Lynn Redgrave, and now we are starting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series. We hope to catch the movie version of book 6 (which just opened) sometime along our eastward trek.
The Best Western is hosting us tonight in Gallup, New Mexico. We stopped at our customary Comfort Inn, but were thwarted by the out of commission pool.
The drive out here today from Flagstaff was an interesting one. It started with our attempt to visit Slide Rock, then continued up I-17 to I-40. We took a bit of a detour to visit Petrified Forest National Park,
but as we drove down the road we were heading straight for a thunder storm. Our entire visit to this park was peppered with episodes of rain, heavy rain, and thunder and lightning. Very exciting, but also limiting for getting out of the car. We did manage to get out a couple of times, and did I mention the wind? The wind was very strong throughout our driving day today.
At the end of the park, we hit the Visitor’s Center
where the kids were able to do another workbook and earn another badge.
I’ve been going back occasionally and filling in with posts from previous days. It’s hard to keep up in real time, and even though it feels wrong to pre-date blog postings, it feels like the right solution to make this a record of the trip. Be sure to look back a bit; there might be something you missed!
Today we begin the journey home! We headed out of Flagstaff today, driving along a short section of Route 66.
We attempted to go to Slide Rock State Park in Oak Creek Canyon, which Susan remembered from a trip out here in 1975. True to its name, it’s a place where you can slide down rocks in the creek. But unfortunately, when we got there, there were signs saying the bacteria levels were too high and nobody was allowed in the water, so we simply turned around and headed back to the highway. We are now headed east on I-40, with Albuquerque as the next milestone.
Yesterday, after a short morning at the Grand Canyon, we visited with Susan’s cousin Edith and her family in Flagstaff. They fed us a lovely lunch, and for dinner, Don barbecued up a feast for us, and for aunt Judith, cousin Walter, and his family as well. Wow! It was great catching up with them all, and very relaxing to have an inviting place to stay, and not have to worry about a hotel. Edith and family took in the children, and Susan and I stayed with Judith across town.
Tonight, Emma noticed a car parked in our lodge parking lot with a Hawaii license plate, finally concluding our search for 50 state plates. Yay Emma!
Here we are at last! The south rim is what most people apparently consider the Grand Canyon proper. Oh well, the North Rim was very nice, too. And our campsite was great, except for the part about Tyler getting lost, and the rowdy group that was being loud until past midnight. I’m not sure which happened first — them stopping or me falling asleep.
Back to the South Rim, though. We drove about 240 miles and ended up about 10 miles away from where we started. Talk about inefficient! But, we didn’t bring Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with us, so we had little choice. The drive was through some pretty desolate country, with very few towns between. We kept looking for a place to stop for a picnic lunch, but came up empty (it was 99 degrees and we wanted some shade). We ended up making it all the way to the Grand Canyon before we stopped for lunch. And ironically, after desperately trying to avoid the scorching heat, we had to find a picnic table under a tree to shield us from the brief afternoon shower.
After our lunch, we stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks on the way to the Visitor Center. The kids had been to a ranger program the previous night, and finished up some workbooks along the way, so they could be sworn in as Junior Rangers today, and receive their third badges each. Fun stuff.
From there, we drove to our lodging, which is in a “lodge.” But not what I was thinking of — the place we’re in is closer to a motel room than anything else. I was picturing a single building with lots of rooms. Anyway, not to complain, the room is plenty nice. After dinner in the cafe there, we went to another Campfire Ranger talk, which tonight was about bats. There are really a ton of activities in the national parks — it would be easy to spend a week here and fill up your days, and still not see much of the park. But that’s not our vacation. Tomorrow morning, we will try to fit in one more activity before heading off to Flagstaff and Susan’s cousins.
This morning, we drove from the Duck Creek campground to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was very exciting to just get to the park entrance, as this is in a way the culmination of our trip. We stopped at the Visitor Center, then took in a couple of quick views, before heading to our campsite which is right in the park. After setting up camp, and cooking a quick dinner over the campfire (something like hobo stew), the kids and Susan went off to a campfire ranger program, while I cleaned up and got things ready for bed. We had a bit of a scare after they got back, as Tyler was allowed to go off to the bathroom on his own, but it’s not so close to our site, and it got dark, and he got lost. We went searching for him, but fortunately we had made sure that he knew our site number, and someone helped him find his way back. Whew!
Right now, I am sitting outsite the general store at the camp site. They have free wifi, and while the store is closed, the wifi is still on. I just had to find a spot with an outlet, so I can recharge the laptop at the same time.
Tomorrow, we will drive to the South Rim, where we have a room or cabin (not sure exactly) at the Lodge there. It will feel good to sleep on a bed again, this being our fourth night camping in a row. There were showers at the first site, which I took advantage of, and there are in fact showers here, but I may wait to get to the lodge.
On our way to the North Rim, we stopped and had lunch at a little restaurant/gift store in the last “town” before you get to there, Jacob Lake.
The waiter/photographer told us that the LA Times rated one of their sandwiches (a house special hamburger) the “best sandwich west of the Mississippi” and while I can’t claim the breadth of knowledge the LA Times has, it was pretty tasty.
After lunch, we stopped just outside of Jacob Lake as we saw a place that offered trail rides (on horses, in case that’s not obvious), which made Emma’s day
