Take the long way home....
So the last two days in particular of my Arizona vacation have been notable, one being rather infamous the other being successful but still tiring and painful at the same time.
Yesterday my Grandpa was taking my Aunt and I up to Montezuma's Castle and Sedona, AZ. We got 10 miles away from our first stop when the minivan started to blow out BLUE yes BLUE smoke. Luckily there was a driveway for a ranch off the side of the freeway we were able to pull into. There was puddles of transmission fluid on the ground under the car when we get it to a stop as well.
Out of 3 cell phones, AT&T a Tracphone and mine (Verizon) I was the only one who had a signal <3 Verizon's network. So we called AAA. It took them an hour to get a tow truck in from the outskirts of PHOENIX some 70 miles away. During that time I got a few photos, but the trip was otherwise scrubbed. I got to sit in the back of a cramped extended cab tow-truck-flatbed for an hour and 15 minutes as we drove it back to the closest Transmission shop in Northern Phoenix. It cost $360 for the tow alone, which Grandpa may or may not be able to get back from insurance. Ouch.
He blew a transmission seal. Not as bad as dropping the whole thing but its still going to run him $700-1000 to get it fixed. He's still waiting for them to get back to him on that.
Because of the catastrophe I decided to take matters into my own hands. Tuesday night I reserved a rental car from Budget for $86 after taxes. An OK price on such short notice. Broke the news to my grandparents and they took it pretty well actually; since they were down to one vehicle they didn't want to take it out so in order for me to do anything other then sitting around the house for the last two days this was my only option. I'm glad I did it, and all things considered it shouldn't be too hard to explain to my parents as long as I pay it off (Credit card of course).
My aunt took me to get the rental at 9:30 this morning. They were out of the compact car I requested so I got an upgrade to the economy midsize. And oh boy oh boy is it ever a nice car. I think I'll do a short post seperate about it :D.
So I redeemed myself and went to see the Montezuma's Castle national monument and Sedona today and got to take my wide angle out and play some more. Before leaving Phoenix I stopped at Best Buy and purchased a generic brand Neutral Density filter for my wideangle, with the theroy that it will cut down on the lens flare the lens can get in bright sunlight because of the wide apeture. It seemed to have made a difference, but I haven't been able to look at the photos yet and likely won't tonight because I am so dead tired.
Along with lunch and the Best Buy trip it delayed my arrival at my first stop at Montezuma's castle by an hour and 15 minutes. I got there at 1:15. Took me 15 minutes to get my gear in order and pay for admission to the monument; so I only got started at 1:30. Spent an hour there and headed off for Sedona at 2:30. Got to Sedona by 3.
Took photos in 4 locations in Sedona over the next hour and a half. 4:30 rolls around and I have to make a decision to go back; there's a SLIGHT problem with this however. As I have been taking pictures and reached the outer limits of the Sedona Area, traffic had been piling up and now was NOT MOVING AT ALL backed up for atleast 3 miles. The ONLY other way to get back home is to head north 30 miles on a windy mountain road and hit Flagstaff, then go back south again. That being said; I'm the type of person who HATES lines and waiting in traffic; especially when said backup is an hour OR MORE as it was in this case. So I did, take the long way home.
Because of this I didn't stop to take any more photos. I wanted to get out of the really windy mountain area and up to flagstaff and down the areas where the main freeway was potentially iced up around Flagstaff. I managed to do both feats, just barely. I would have loved to be able to have stopped so many places along the trip and took the camera out, the whole drive was just stunning; indescribable, I haven't seen anything like it- and it all blurred past.
This being said it was an adventure. The extra 60 miles and hour and a half on the road well worth it, and much better then spending the hour and a half stuck in traffic not doing anything. I would have pulled in at the same time either way; which ended up being a quarter to 9pm. Yeah... I drove half of the drive through the mountain interstate at dark. It wasn't too bad as there was still a fair amount of traffic on the road, so the road was well lit with headlights and I could watch what the cars in front of me were doing and anticipate the next move.
Tomorrow I'm going down to the Tuscon area and down to Tombstone to get ahead of the weather on my last day in Arizona. I fly out 10:30 am on Thursday right before they get a major cold front. Timing on this trip was absolutely perfect, weather wise atleast.
And now I need to crash, big day tommorow!
Yesterday my Grandpa was taking my Aunt and I up to Montezuma's Castle and Sedona, AZ. We got 10 miles away from our first stop when the minivan started to blow out BLUE yes BLUE smoke. Luckily there was a driveway for a ranch off the side of the freeway we were able to pull into. There was puddles of transmission fluid on the ground under the car when we get it to a stop as well.
Out of 3 cell phones, AT&T a Tracphone and mine (Verizon) I was the only one who had a signal <3 Verizon's network. So we called AAA. It took them an hour to get a tow truck in from the outskirts of PHOENIX some 70 miles away. During that time I got a few photos, but the trip was otherwise scrubbed. I got to sit in the back of a cramped extended cab tow-truck-flatbed for an hour and 15 minutes as we drove it back to the closest Transmission shop in Northern Phoenix. It cost $360 for the tow alone, which Grandpa may or may not be able to get back from insurance. Ouch.
He blew a transmission seal. Not as bad as dropping the whole thing but its still going to run him $700-1000 to get it fixed. He's still waiting for them to get back to him on that.
Because of the catastrophe I decided to take matters into my own hands. Tuesday night I reserved a rental car from Budget for $86 after taxes. An OK price on such short notice. Broke the news to my grandparents and they took it pretty well actually; since they were down to one vehicle they didn't want to take it out so in order for me to do anything other then sitting around the house for the last two days this was my only option. I'm glad I did it, and all things considered it shouldn't be too hard to explain to my parents as long as I pay it off (Credit card of course).
My aunt took me to get the rental at 9:30 this morning. They were out of the compact car I requested so I got an upgrade to the economy midsize. And oh boy oh boy is it ever a nice car. I think I'll do a short post seperate about it :D.
So I redeemed myself and went to see the Montezuma's Castle national monument and Sedona today and got to take my wide angle out and play some more. Before leaving Phoenix I stopped at Best Buy and purchased a generic brand Neutral Density filter for my wideangle, with the theroy that it will cut down on the lens flare the lens can get in bright sunlight because of the wide apeture. It seemed to have made a difference, but I haven't been able to look at the photos yet and likely won't tonight because I am so dead tired.
Along with lunch and the Best Buy trip it delayed my arrival at my first stop at Montezuma's castle by an hour and 15 minutes. I got there at 1:15. Took me 15 minutes to get my gear in order and pay for admission to the monument; so I only got started at 1:30. Spent an hour there and headed off for Sedona at 2:30. Got to Sedona by 3.
Took photos in 4 locations in Sedona over the next hour and a half. 4:30 rolls around and I have to make a decision to go back; there's a SLIGHT problem with this however. As I have been taking pictures and reached the outer limits of the Sedona Area, traffic had been piling up and now was NOT MOVING AT ALL backed up for atleast 3 miles. The ONLY other way to get back home is to head north 30 miles on a windy mountain road and hit Flagstaff, then go back south again. That being said; I'm the type of person who HATES lines and waiting in traffic; especially when said backup is an hour OR MORE as it was in this case. So I did, take the long way home.
Because of this I didn't stop to take any more photos. I wanted to get out of the really windy mountain area and up to flagstaff and down the areas where the main freeway was potentially iced up around Flagstaff. I managed to do both feats, just barely. I would have loved to be able to have stopped so many places along the trip and took the camera out, the whole drive was just stunning; indescribable, I haven't seen anything like it- and it all blurred past.
This being said it was an adventure. The extra 60 miles and hour and a half on the road well worth it, and much better then spending the hour and a half stuck in traffic not doing anything. I would have pulled in at the same time either way; which ended up being a quarter to 9pm. Yeah... I drove half of the drive through the mountain interstate at dark. It wasn't too bad as there was still a fair amount of traffic on the road, so the road was well lit with headlights and I could watch what the cars in front of me were doing and anticipate the next move.
Tomorrow I'm going down to the Tuscon area and down to Tombstone to get ahead of the weather on my last day in Arizona. I fly out 10:30 am on Thursday right before they get a major cold front. Timing on this trip was absolutely perfect, weather wise atleast.
And now I need to crash, big day tommorow!