Total Miles: 442
States: 2
Marital Spats: 3ish
Disappointing Meals: 2
Caravan Companions Since Oklahoma: At least eight...
We got a jump on the day and we were on the road by 6:30. We had places to be and canyons to see!
The day started out like the last 2 days. More driving and more wind. Our radio options remained limited to country music and Christian radio. The landscape was relatively unchanged.
At one point we passed a dude riding his Tri-bike on the shoulder of I-40. The winds are brutal, the speed limit is 75, and every other vehicle is a semi truck. No thank you!!
As we crossed over the NM-AZ boarder we made a quick pit stop at the largest teepee in the Southwest.
We perused the gift shop inside and escaped only $2.13 poorer.
Soon we were back on I-40 and focused on our mission to get to the Grand Canyon. I have never been before and I have been looking forward to this part of the trip for weeks.
We arrived in the little town/tourist rip-off of Tusaya, AZ around noon. It was too early to check into the hotel so we had lunch at a local Mexican joint first. The food was ok but nothing to blog about.
After lunch we checked into the hotel. After days of moving our bikes in and out of the truck We were finally going to have the chance to ride!
We biked the 7 miles from town into the GC and we were rewarded with amazing views. There really are no words to describe it.
We biked along one of the shuttle only roads for awhile and we were rewarded with more amazing views!
The winds were really picking up so we headed back to town. It was a short ride, only about 20 miles, but I won't be forgetting it anytime soon.
After our ride we showered, changed and headed back ip to the canyon in the truck so we cod watch the sunset. We walked about a mile along the rim trail. Again, unbelievably beautiful.
After the sunset we headed back to the truck. We were hoping to go for a sunrise run in the morning so we took a detour to scope out a different parking area. It was dark now and the roads were pretty empty.
While we were driving we saw a young guy walking along the side of the road. He was weaving a bit and appeared to be hitching for a ride. We passed slowly but did not stop. After a few more miles we realized we had missed the parking lot. We turned around and headed back to the main lot. When we passed a scenic pull off and it looked like someone was beating up the kid we had passed earlier because he was sitting on the ground. We made another u-turn and went back to the lot. A young woman flagged us down and told us that the guy we had seen had fallen into the canyon and climbed out. He wasn't hitching, he was trying to get help! I was really wishing I was already a nurse so I could offer some help... We were amazed that 4 young college girls had stopped to help a guy on a dark and deserted road.
They had just called 911 so we waited with them until the police came. The guy was disoriented and cold but amazingly he seemed ok. It turns out that he actually crashed his CAR into the canyon and then climbed out. We gave him the blanket we had in the truck and he waited in the girl's car until help arrived. First the ranger was going to bring him in his truck but they decided to wait for the ambulance instead. After the ambulance arrived we headed back to our hotel.
I checked the news today but couldn't find any news about the crash. Hopefully the kid is okay!
Today we heading to the City of Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
**Also, I promise to write a more detailed post about our GC visit once I have access to a real computer and better photos!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
1 comment:
Wow! That is scary! Glad the guy seems to be alright.
Those are some seriously amazing pictures. The Grand Canyon and Zion Ntl Park are on our todo list. As great as the GC is, I've heard that Zion is even more amazing (hard to believe).
Have fun!
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