July 30 – Canyons and Flagstaff

Wednesday morning we got up, packed the car again, and went to the lodge to stare at the canyon some more. Dad and I rode the bikes (thus making them meaningful and useful and worth bringing!) to the lodge, and the road we’d traveled in the dark two nights earlier turned out to be RIGHT on the edge of the canyon, shielded by some trees (people aren’t in danger of driving off a cliff). It was quite something. We got hot chocolate and shopped in the gift store. I got me a gigantic poster for my dorm room. Then we went and sat on the “sun porch” and looked at the canyon.

(I won’t trouble you with more pictures)

(okay, maybe one more)

Then we left, to drive back to Flagstaff to spend the night. We stopped for a brief frolic in a meadow, created by an ice age glacier.

I took pictures of flowers while Sarah chased a deer.

Maybe 50 or 60 miles back towards the main route 89 south to Flagstaff, we stopped, dad and I got the bikes out again, and rode them six or seven miles downhill. It was astounding. Just picture whizzing downhill on a bike, yellow reflective vest flapping, sun shining, rounding a corner, and seeing something like this…

It was worth the sun and wind burn.

Also we stopped at a scenic overlook and bought some pretty Navajo jewelry.

We stopped once to stare at the desert and wonder at the sky and considered the sheer enormity of the country. You don’t get this kind of sky back East.

We stopped again for lunch at Lee’s Ferry on Glen Canyon. The Colorado River flowed beneath us, and we didn’t really have perspective on the size until these boats passed. Man is the measure of all things.

We got to Flagstaff in the afternoon, found a KOA Kampground (sic) and set up for the night. Dad and I went grocery shopping, and then we tried to make turkey burgers and baked potatoes. The burgers were great, but the fire wasn’t hot enough for the potatoes, so we ate salad and were content.

July 28/29/30 – The Grand Canyon

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Grand Canyon that really does it justice. Nor will the pictures really suffice. Every time we looked at it, it was different (probably why there are so many pictures). It became understandable why people would just show up and stare at it. We stared. We camped in a sweet, quite, well-forested little camp ground on the North Rim. A short walk down the road and bam, big hole in the ground. So we’ll take a little turn from our regularly scheduled blog post (which isn’t so regular, and hardly ever scheduled, shut up) for a gigantic slideshow.

Heading North

Thursday 7/31, Sedona Arizona.

It was hard to say goodbye. We have all grown quite fond of the Cacafuego and the whole RV experience, at least in it’s simplified, quirky variation we lived for ten days or so. There are a lot of different types of people out there living the RV life: Gypsies, migrant workers, vacationers, retirees, redneck bow hunters, and you are as likely to meet up with one kind as another. I suspect we will try again sometime, but with a modified strategy, An RV is too complex a machine, both a motor vehicle and a tiny house – sort of a “Motor-Home” as it were, and I think it is treacherous to put all your eggs in one basket. Better to split the tasks a little more sensibly and tow a trailer, even though that means you can’t ride in your living room. It’s more flexible, as you can mix and match components, and you can disconnect the trailer and drive around downtown without backing into things quite so much.

We are now on vehicle #4. First the late lamented Cacafuego, then sporty red rental in Austin, two days back in the Cacafuego, another mini SUV rental for the Grand Canyon leg of our trip, and now, purchased outside Flagstaff, a hearty Ford Econoline van suitable for both carrying and/or towing our gear for the rest of this trip, and heading into service for Rising Tide Inc. once it gets back to Baltimore. I think I shall call her Sophie.

Ann and the girls have headed back to Gallup to clear out the rest of our stuff from the Cacafuego, leaving me to finish the sales contract on Sophie, and I am having lunch in Sedona at three in the afternoon on a beautiful, hot 102 degree end of July day, looking ou the window at spires and mesas and savoring the tingle of habanero on my lips. I will rejoin them in Gallup this evening, and we will decide a route from there. I hope to persuade them to go north into Colorado, either to Mesa Verde and beyond, either east to Boulder, or North to Yellowstone. I think we need to regain some vehicular confidence before we commit.

Friday August 1, Cortez Colorado

We picked North. 

We spent the night in a buggy RV park in Gallup, then unloaded the rental car and loaded our Canyon gear into the Sophie, then drove over to the auto mechanic’s who was babysitting the Cacafuego and made our final unload and farewell. I think we had all done with our emotional reactions, so it was not too hard to unload., and by noon we were on our way, with $300 cash in my pocket for the scrap. I tried to siphon the +/- $80 in gas from her tank, but the hose I had was too stiff to coil up in the bottom of the tank. We also left behind a couple of nice pans we had stowed in the oven and forgot to retrieve, but other than that, it’s just a burden off our shoulders now.

We drove North and visited the monument at Four Corners wher you stand in line to have your picture taken in four states at once, then on up to Cortez for an early stop and reorganization, so that tomorrow we can tour Mesa Verde, then on another hundred miles to Arches National Park. After that, we will decide if we still have the verve to go on up to Yellowstone.