Travel report : Part two
Another picture heavy saga of our travels in America!
Our flight to Phoenix was uneventful and we went straight to the car rental place to pick up our car.
I let the guy talk me into a larger car (he said we needed something bigger to drive in the mountains) and stumbled onto our first adventure. The car was a Nissan Altima and it doesn't need a key to start it. Apparently the key just needs to be in car and you press a button and voila! the car starts. I didn't know this (I didn't read the key ring where it told me that) and the little guy and I spent ages looking for the ignition! LOL
Finally I caved in and went and asked the attendants, who rolled their eyes and supplied the answer. Then we were off! Driving on the wrong opposite side of the road caused me to creep along at a about 20 miles an hour at first. But despite a couple of initial wrong turns we were still on the road to Williams.
Our calamities started the next day when I underestimated the time it would take to get to our rafting trip starting point. We ran into road works and some of the slowest drivers on record and missed the bus to the rafting by 15 minutes. We were also delayed by the fact that I couldn't work out how to work the gas pump! It was very confusing with all the choices and buttons to push! Even on our last day driving, I was still having difficulties *sigh*.
Anyway rescheduled our trip, we went off to explore the top of the Grand Canyon.
The drive from Page to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon
The watchtower at the beginning of the drive along the Rim
What can I say? It is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Every turn on the drive and walk there's so much to look at. I'd love to go back and hike right to the bottom, or maybe do the mule ride. I'll have to save up and come back. I took so many photos and the little guy loved it too.
A scenery shot for Petr :)
My artistic shot from the rim
At the end of the day we headed to Tusayan and watched the film about the Canyon at the Imax theatre.
The little guy was thrilled to see wild mule deer by the side of the road. We stopped with everyone else and he took lots of photos :D
Next day we got up extra early, packed the car, and headed off to our rafting trip. We got there in plenty of time only to find out that the trip was cancelled! The wind was up to 50 miles an hour and to raft would be too dangerous. Then we were faced with deciding whether to wait for the next day or go on. Since we couldn't be sure that the weather would be any better the next day - we decided to head toward Durango, stopping at Monument Valley on the way.
This is where our next disaster occurred. I tell the little guy we'll look back at this more easily later, but at the time it was very worrying.
I missed the turn I should have taken and ended up on a gravel road. At first I thought nothing of this, gravel roads are still common in many places at home. But after we'd travelled the amount of miles I had listed to our next stop and hadn't reached it, I began to get a bit concerned. Since there was no where to turn round, we keep driving till we saw an intersection with a sign.
After we stopped to look at the sign, we turned around and promptly got bogged in the sand!!! Did I mention we'd seen precisely 1 car on this road????? I tried to drive out, but only succeeded in spinning the tyres *sigh*. So out we got and started to dig ourselves out. This wasn't so easy, since we didn't have a shovel and then I was worried because there wasn't much to put under the wheels for purchase. Fortunately after about 10 minutes of this, a guy driving by in the opposite direction stopped to help. He had a shovel and some plywood and soon had us out of our predicament. Another had stopped as well, and he gave us better directions to get back on track.
Needless to say we were pretty upset by this time and what should happen next? We ran into a dust storm! It was pretty big - we couldn't even see the Monuments at Monument Valley the dust was so thick.
Monument Valley?
The cars in front of us
By this time we were wondering about our next stop at Four Corners, but the dust had settled somewhat so we turned in to have a look. The wind was screaming through, but it was well worth the stop to have our feet in four different states of America!
The little guy in a typical pose :0
I thought I might fly the rest of the way
Finally we reached Durango and collapsed into our hotel room....
TBC
Our flight to Phoenix was uneventful and we went straight to the car rental place to pick up our car.
I let the guy talk me into a larger car (he said we needed something bigger to drive in the mountains) and stumbled onto our first adventure. The car was a Nissan Altima and it doesn't need a key to start it. Apparently the key just needs to be in car and you press a button and voila! the car starts. I didn't know this (I didn't read the key ring where it told me that) and the little guy and I spent ages looking for the ignition! LOL
Finally I caved in and went and asked the attendants, who rolled their eyes and supplied the answer. Then we were off! Driving on the wrong opposite side of the road caused me to creep along at a about 20 miles an hour at first. But despite a couple of initial wrong turns we were still on the road to Williams.
Our calamities started the next day when I underestimated the time it would take to get to our rafting trip starting point. We ran into road works and some of the slowest drivers on record and missed the bus to the rafting by 15 minutes. We were also delayed by the fact that I couldn't work out how to work the gas pump! It was very confusing with all the choices and buttons to push! Even on our last day driving, I was still having difficulties *sigh*.
Anyway rescheduled our trip, we went off to explore the top of the Grand Canyon.
The drive from Page to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon
The watchtower at the beginning of the drive along the Rim
What can I say? It is beautiful and awe-inspiring. Every turn on the drive and walk there's so much to look at. I'd love to go back and hike right to the bottom, or maybe do the mule ride. I'll have to save up and come back. I took so many photos and the little guy loved it too.
A scenery shot for Petr :)
My artistic shot from the rim
At the end of the day we headed to Tusayan and watched the film about the Canyon at the Imax theatre.
The little guy was thrilled to see wild mule deer by the side of the road. We stopped with everyone else and he took lots of photos :D
Next day we got up extra early, packed the car, and headed off to our rafting trip. We got there in plenty of time only to find out that the trip was cancelled! The wind was up to 50 miles an hour and to raft would be too dangerous. Then we were faced with deciding whether to wait for the next day or go on. Since we couldn't be sure that the weather would be any better the next day - we decided to head toward Durango, stopping at Monument Valley on the way.
This is where our next disaster occurred. I tell the little guy we'll look back at this more easily later, but at the time it was very worrying.
I missed the turn I should have taken and ended up on a gravel road. At first I thought nothing of this, gravel roads are still common in many places at home. But after we'd travelled the amount of miles I had listed to our next stop and hadn't reached it, I began to get a bit concerned. Since there was no where to turn round, we keep driving till we saw an intersection with a sign.
After we stopped to look at the sign, we turned around and promptly got bogged in the sand!!! Did I mention we'd seen precisely 1 car on this road????? I tried to drive out, but only succeeded in spinning the tyres *sigh*. So out we got and started to dig ourselves out. This wasn't so easy, since we didn't have a shovel and then I was worried because there wasn't much to put under the wheels for purchase. Fortunately after about 10 minutes of this, a guy driving by in the opposite direction stopped to help. He had a shovel and some plywood and soon had us out of our predicament. Another had stopped as well, and he gave us better directions to get back on track.
Needless to say we were pretty upset by this time and what should happen next? We ran into a dust storm! It was pretty big - we couldn't even see the Monuments at Monument Valley the dust was so thick.
Monument Valley?
The cars in front of us
By this time we were wondering about our next stop at Four Corners, but the dust had settled somewhat so we turned in to have a look. The wind was screaming through, but it was well worth the stop to have our feet in four different states of America!
The little guy in a typical pose :0
I thought I might fly the rest of the way
Finally we reached Durango and collapsed into our hotel room....
TBC