I Have Returned!
First: PICTURES
So. Last Saturday I left home about 530 & drove up to Kerrville for the night. Stayed at a Super 8 with hot breakfast (yum, waffles! SHAPED LIKE TEXAS WAFFLES!), which was a big huge plus. Up & out by 6:15 Sunday morning for the Longest Drive in the World: West Texas & Southern New Mexico. You know it's boring when you get excited to see a) a windfarm and b) any tiny ghost town whatsoever. South-East New Mexico? FULL of tiny little ghost towns full of collapsing buildings. Rather creepy, honestly.
Fell in love a bit with Albuquerque, which I don't THINK was just because it was an actual city after hours of driving through ButtFuck, New Mexico. Arrived in Gallup between 6pm & 7pm (far earlier than I'd expected, though still after a loooooong 12+ hour drive). My hotel was off Route 66, which was kinda fun and a little sad...you could definitely see what Route 66 USED to be, compared to the mostly-empty wannabe it is now. Grabbed dinner at Cracker Barrel, stopped next door for some Tylenol PM, and drugged myself asleep by 9. Up again at 6 on Monday (it helped that I gained an hour driving in to New Mexico from Texas) for a toasted bagel w/cream cheese & a coke, then on the road again!
Gallup's very close to the Arizona border, and I gained another hour crossing in to Arizona, so when I drove in at 6:30 it became 5:30--and then I hit the Pothole from Hell. Speedlimit is 75 in Arizona & New Mexico, and I was probably doing 78-ish when I hit it. It knocked the GPS down off the suction-cup-holder, bounced my phone out of the cup holder, and made me briefly fear that my car was going to explode or something. Happily it did NOT.
Pulled in to Winslow, Arizona for a Burger King breakfast (that bagel didn't last too long) and to stand on a corner (like the song says) before continuing on to Flagstaff. Arrived at the grocery in Flagstaff between 830 & 900 am, bought supplies, and checked out the tire that had impacted so spectacularly with the pothole: it was bulging & starting to come apart at the seam. Yikes. SO, since I still had to drive ~75 miles to the Grand Canyon, I stopped at the Discount Tire next door. They said it would definitely have to be replaced, but they DIDN'T ACTUALLY CARRY THAT SIZE. Finally the guy decided we could just use a slightly wider tire--they start to change it & realize that the REAR tire is bulging as well. $400 & an hour and a half later, I have 2 new tires and am on the road again!
Arrived at the park around 1130am, checked in & got to the campsite just in time for it to start sprinkling (interesting note: July, besides being the busiest month at the Grand Canyon, is also rainy season). I hurriedly put my tent up (one of the poles had broken in transit-yay-so it was a little lopsided, but held. Hastily threw the fly over the top & climbed in to the car to wait out the rain (made a huge mistake here in not SECURING the rain fly, thus allowing it to blow off and get the interior of my tent nice and wet). Once it stopped raining I finished setting up, tried to mop up the water inside as best I could, and then headed out to see the canyon (FYI: if you go, come in the East Entrance rather than the South Entrance; they're both about the same distance from Flagstaff, but via the East Entrance you immediately see the Canyon rather than the Village).
Took about a million pictures, stopped by the market for more towels & some wood, then back to camp to start my fire & cook dinner. I'd bought a steak & campfire potatoes, but it started to sprinkle again so I just made a quick pot of chili before crawling in to the tent for the night. Met my neighbors, two girls from France who'd made the mistake of leaving their tent's rear window unzipped for the day while they went out hiking--the storm had soaked absolutely everything :( And it started to rain again shortly thereafter, so they went for dinner at one of the restaurants. I slept like a baby.
Tuesday morning I got up about 415am (sunrise is about 530 in Arizona), packed up my stuff & trucked it to the bus stop. My original plan of hiking Hermits' Rest out to Dripping Springs was killed by the fact that there was some sort of VIP event being held out there, so I did Bright Angel instead. It was still cool as I headed down, and I know that I hiked it a little too quickly, but I had plenty of water & took lots of snacks. Got down to the 3 Mile Resthouse before turning back--it was after daybreak & already heating up--and it took me another couple hours to ascend (though I was amused to be told by another hiker that I was the only person he'd seen smiling as I climbed back up). Caught the bus back to my campsite for a quick nap, had lunch at the Market since it was too hot for a fire just then. Headed to Camper Services for a quick load of laundry (though at 2 dollars I decided the showers were too expensive--I scrubbed down quickly for free at the ladies' room near the campsite. Take that! Started up the fire again for my steak & potatoes, invited the OTHER neighbors (from Belgium, I believe) over for S'mores. A motorcycle group drove in with license plates from the Netherlands just before it started to rain again, so I was in bed by 7pm.
It rained all night (every now and then some would, unfortunately, come inside the tent since it was a bit lopsided without all 4 poles, but I slept pretty well. Was up again at 6-ish, and it drizzled all morning. I walked down to the market for a quick breakfast, gave up on waiting out the rain & packed my wet tent in to a couple garbage bags for the drive back. Then took the leisurely scenic Desert View Drive towards the East Entrance--stopping at all the overlooks it took me about an hour to actually get out of the park. And then I had to stop at the Navajo reservation for presents! Came through Albuquerque at 5pm Rush Hour (not a good plan, d'oh!) and the had the boring southerly drive to Roswell. Pulled in between 9-10pm to a Motel 6 because it was there and had the worst night EVER, in which I got maybe 6 hours of sleep. I did, at least, get a hot shower, though. Breakfast at IHOP, quick visit to the UFO Museum (which: LOL), some more present buying & then I was on the road to Dallas. Poorly planned AGAIN, so I hit it around 5pm as well, and finally got to my friends' house in Grand Prairie around 630. Was so happy they had food for me that I could've cried.
Stayed up late visiting, getting to bed around 1130pm or so, and the baby woke us all up a couple times, but it was all good :) Friday morning had breakfast & dropped my friend off at work before doing the necessaries: got my remaining 2 old tires checked out just in case, then had to go get the 3 new dings I'd accumulated repaired, and by then it was time to meet another friend at Chipotle for lunch (it occurred to me much later on the drive home that I didn't get pictures of either of them, because apparently I suck), and then hit the road for home.
Stupidly took I-35, which meant stupid delays & random stoppages; got in to Austin about 4pm and ended up cutting through the sketchy side of town to get to 183 South & the back road home. Arrived home about 8pm and DIED; didn't wake up until 9am the next morning, at which point I went to lunch with friends & washed all the accumulated dead bug guts off my car. And now I actually get to sit & rest before I go back to work tomorrow. I sometimes feel like I need vacations from my vacations, LOL