Arizona

Destination: The Grand Canyon and Prescott, Arizona

Rolling into the Grand Canyon after another long 7 hour drive left us both exhausted. Like mini-mental-break-down-I-can't-do-this-anymore exhausted. Frankie even walked out of the RV to sit in the grass with his back to us just before we left Colorado, as if to say "nooo, not again".

This was a great time for a much needed 'vacation' and my first week off in a longer than I can remember. Thank you to Bob, Edit, and Gabe for meeting us in Prescott and showing us a great time! Now refreshed, we are ready to hit the road again for Vegas.

-Hana

Picturesque scenery along our drive from Durango to the Grand Canyon

At this point in the trip I can say I am less afraid of death than I was before. I have come across snakes and mountain lions. I have been on a helicopter ride over Sedona, and rode passenger in Bob's Corvette as he ripped through the winding roads of the Prescott National Forest. I have overcome motion sickness sickness twice this week. All joking set aside, it has been an action packed week for us thanks to Uncle Bob who was generous enough to send us on a helicopter ride that we would have not otherwise gone on, as well as take us to several restuarants in town.  

  While we were in Durango The cowboy story I was reading, Shalako, coincidentally happened to mention Animas Valley, which was exactly where we were. While we have been in Prescott a section of the story I am reading now, Tucker, mentions the town, along with Gurley St. Going through these now modernized towns where the cowboys and wranglers have been replaced with a different kind of folks, I like to strip away all of the cars and concrete and imagine dusty roads, horses, and spurs while trying to draw a historical picture in my mind of what these places were like in those times. 

  We didn't have much to report for our week in Durango since we had a bit of a lazy week. We took a scenic drive down the million dollar highway to Silverton, and old mining town that has been the set for a few Western movies, but when we got there everything was closed until later in the month. It looked like a charming town, and I regretted that we weren't able to see it when it was the season since they have daily gunfights in the street. The mountains surrounding were beautiful, but the snow was still a bit too deep on the trails for a good hike. We decided that later in the trip we will return to the northern part of Colorado. Durango is still a nice little town full of good restaurants where you can get grass fed beef hamburgers without all of the added hormones and other chemicals which are still at this point illegal in other countries.

 After Durango we had a long hike to the Grand Canyon National Park. I found myself getting hypnotized by the desert, and had to drink a lot of coffee to keep me awake. While we have all seen a million postcard-like photos of the Grand Canyon, it is still one of those things that is still breathtaking to see. I had not seen it since a family trip when I was twelve years old, and tried to see what I could remember of it from that time. A beautiful day of walking along the rim was sufficient. 

"King of the World!"

From that point we headed down to Prescott, AZ to visit Hana's Uncle Bob and Aunt Edit. Bob did his best to plan out as many activities as he could for us so we could get the most out of our visit. They were also hospitable enough to let us stay with them, and it was a hard to refuse offer since we were in one of our least favorite RV parks that we had thus far rolled the coach into. The speed bumps were large enough to slow down a pack of wild horses, and the 5mph speed limit signs were laughable since the roads were narrow, winding, and full of pot holes.

What made it unpleasant for us wasn't that it is mostly filled with permanent residents, but that we were packed pretty tight, with our neighbor's door directly adjacent to and facing ours. We felt weird about it, our neighbors felt weird about it, and probably everyone else that parks their rv in those spots feels weird about it. You would not think this makes much of a difference until you get in the situation. When they all face the same way, people don't notice each other as much, even if they are packed closer. As for this one, we were packed tight and a little too close for comfort. The people that were next to us for the first couple of nights were friendly, and they longed for their own space just as much as we did. 

   Our campground was next to Willow Lake, which looked very small to us at first when we went to hike around it. Half of the lake was dried up, and we thought it would be a short hike. I was thinking it was too short of a walk for me to even burn off some of the fried catfish and french fries from the southeast that I still seem to be carrying around. At first the lake looked so small that we thought we would hear a pair of ladies who were having on of those walks where they like to "vent" loudly the entire time. After we completeted the first couple of miles and saw our location on a map, we realized we still had miles to go which would not have been a problem if it wasn't going to get dark soon. Once we got into the rocky area we had to follow a line of white dots that were painted on the sandy colored rocks, a line that was easily getting obscured as it got dark. We pressed forward as the air got thicker with bugs until we came upon a trail that led right to the back of our rv park, which ended up being much bigger than we thought. As we found our way back to our rv a drunk man had slurred a pot of words together that we didn't understand, followed by a strange laugh to a joke that only he was able to understand.

  Being one that is not a fan of hot weather, Arizona was never really on my bucket list, although I have heard about Sedona and was always curious to see what the hype was about. With it being less than two hours away, Uncle Bob had treated us to a helicopter ride where we could get a good glimpse of the part of Sedona we would not have seen on foot. While I thought I didn't care much for hieghts, especially in a tiny helicopter, I decided I could easily work my way past all of that and keep calm while enjoying the view.

  We ate at a variety of restaurants including western, japanese, and indian. Bob had mentioned an excellent guitar player who played at the indian restaurant. When we got there the guitar player was packing it up early since it was a slow evening. We were able to convince him to play a few more songs. He was able to execute a variety of styles with ease, including ragtime and country. I never thought I would hear an old indian gentleman play and sing the highwaymen or Johnny Cash so well. As he saw our appreciation he continued to play longer than planned and took requests. I was also able to have some guitar talk with him, as I have taken up the guitar again the past few months after setting it down for twenty something years. After giving me a few tips  he handed me his guitar, along with the custom pick he made and urged me to play it, which is something professional guitar players never do. 

    It was an action packed week, but we also had time to relax. Aunt Edit and cousin Gabe arrived on Friday, and I was happy to get to know the both of them better as I have not seen a whole lot of them since Hana and I have been married, and when I did it was always at family events where there were a lot of people. It was good to be able to spend time with them on a smaller scale. On Saturday we went to a Scottish festival at Watson Lake park where men an women heaved and hoed heavy objects and several bagpipe players marched around playing Amazing Grace, along with other traditional tunes. At night we grilled some chicken and fish and had a wonderful meal. After dinner, since the evening wasn't as windy as expected we were able to have a bon voyage bonfire and tell some stories, which was an excellent way to say goodbye.

Bagpipe parade, and massages at the Highland Games

 Now we are off to Vegas for possibly a week, but since it will be hot and we will be camped in a place that does not offer a single tree for shade, we may be heading to Utah in the middle of the week.

-James

Weird RV of the Week:

"RVs of Walmart". Spotted in a Walmart parking lot, this Trans Van from the 1970s appears to still be running! James said his grandparents had the same model back in the day. We found ourselves wondering how you would survive the Arizona heat in parking lot with no electricity!