The End of the America Adventure

We had imagined that Victorville would be a small town stopover before attempting to negotiate Las Angeles.  It was another sprawling area with heavy industry alongside poorer housing, and then the other extreme with lovely homes that even had gardens and lawns.  It was a bit of a surprise to hear gunfire though, but turned out to be a shooting range across the motorway.
Our last big pack up and then we went to find a couple of malls near San Bernadino.  They were huge, one was like a whole city within the mall, with 'streets', food stalls, live music and even a train.  If we had more time it would have been fun to explore further.
We had planned to go to Santa Monica to enjoy the glorious 80F temperatures, but after battling the traffic for ages, we reset the GPS and headed to the rental car drop off.  It was a bit of a relief to get there in once peace and then have someone else take the responsibility for getting us safely to the airport.
We decided on a final celebratory drink to round off the adventure but with one round costing $60.00 decided that would be the limit of the celebration!
We bumped our way across the Pacific, landing in Auckland at 6.45 am.  It was a bit said to say goodbye to the Browns after such an adventurous road trip.  Unfortunately we didn't have a direct flight and had a stop over in Christchurch  The last leg of the journey was definitely the least pleasant with strong winds as we came in to land.  It was so good to touch down safely and to be met by Ella with a birthday balloon and flowers.
Bags are now unpacked and will be put away awaiting the next adventure.  Bring it on!!!

Expensive Beer!!

The End

Last days before home

Our last morning at the Grand Canyon was topped off by seeing a beautiful male elk wandering through the forest, as we packed the cars.  He was very obliging and posed for photos, showing off his antlers in the morning sun.  Our stay at Yavapai Lodge was lovely, as much for the amazing scenery as for the environment, where it felt like we were miles from the tourist hustle.

We seemed to drive through vast areas where there wasn’t a lot happening.  It never fails to amaze as to what people do in the houses that are dotted across the desert without a town for miles.  Just because we could, we left the Interstate and drove along the old Route 66.  We joined the road at Salllgman where we stopped to look at some of the memorabilia from the 50-60s when the Route became famous.  There were a number of shops catering for tourists and the one we went into was amazing.  It was great fun looking at the old vehicles and advertisements of the era.  Bought the mandatory tee-shirts, of course!

There were some amazing stretches of straight road, one we measured at more than 20 miles long.  For anyone who has seen the movie Cars, it is easy to see where the inspiration for Radiator Springs came from.  There were towns along the Route that the Interstate really has forgotten.  Many look like the people have just walked away while those who have stayed don’t appear to have much of a future.

Toward the end of our detour we stopped off at the Hackberry Store.  It was a collection of a amazing array of anything from petrol pumps, cars and even an old piano.  Well worth a stop over.

Another highlight of the day was a stop off at the Hoover Dam.  Once again we noticed lots of infrastructure development to manage the huge number of tourists.  We walked across the bridge to get a view of the dam and then drove across the top.  Even on second viewing it is still an impressive sight.

On to Vegas which was a shock after our days of wide open spaces.  We negotiated the traffic during daylight, this time, and found our way back to our hotel.  Our adventures had been planned around the Van Morrison concert and it didn’t disappoint.  The one hour and forty-five minute concert was wall to wall music and was such a buzz.  The Colosseum is a fantastic venue and the sound quality was stunning.  After the concert, we wandered back along the Strip, stopped off for gelato before going back to the hotel to sit on the balcony, watching the lights and reliving an amazing evening.

Next day and another morning with blue skies and a forecast for the temperatures to beat previous records and reach 75F.  We drove to Red Rock Canyon, on the outskirts of Las Vegas.  Having been spoilt by the fact that there were very few people at the previous National Parks we visited, it was a bit of a shock to find ourselves in a queue to even enter the Park.  The road is a 12 mile loop and is clearly a popular place to visit on a warm Saturday.  Lots of walking trails and rock climbing.

We had ideas of stopping at a few places on our journey West, but time kept slipping away and we didn’t arrive in Victorville until late in the afternoon.  Once again we drove through huge areas of unused land with very few inhabitants.  We did see a couple of massive solar farms, one of which looked like something from out of space. Having changed back to the Pacific Timezone, it is now getting dark an hour earlier than when we were used to in Arizona and Nevada.  Thankfully we found our way to our last motel in the daylight.  Darkness just adds to the stress!

It is David’s birthday today - Ella has managed to wish him happy birthday twice due to the difference in timezones between here and New Zealand.  Craig, Annette and I went to the supermarket to get dinner (we have a kitchen in the motel) which included chocolate cream pie and pumpkin cream pie for dessert., quintessential America food!  Couldn’t quite organise a birthday cake.

Tomorrow is our last day and we are not looking forward to battling LA traffic.  One of the things that has really stood out on this trip is, no matter where you are, there are always vapour trails in the sky.  Maybe it is because we have been lucky enough to have lots of clear sky to be able to see them.

A Grand Day

From the window in our room, we look out into the woods that cover the rim the Canyon and it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere when we opened the curtains this morning.  When we set off to do part of the rim walk it felt like we were the only people walking.  What a treat to be able to enjoy the quietness of the environment and the creatures we met along the way.

Today we saw an array of different birds, including woodpeckers going about their business.  A highlight was a very friendly squirrel who was keen for treats.  He was so friendly he would came right up to us and then disappeared into David’s backpack.  Apparently, if you get bitten, you can get the plague from them, but it was so cute!

After a picnic lunch in the sunshine, we drove to Bright Angel Lodge where we stayed 24 years ago.  It is closed for refurbishment but is still really quaint.  From there we walked down part of the Bright Angel Trail that winds its way down the Canyon to the River.  We met a few people who had walked down, stayed a couple of days and then walked back up, about six hours.  We also met a man who had started the walk at seven o’clock this morning and had nearly finished the whole loop in about eight hours.  

We have been so lucky with the weather and even ventured out in shorts today.

Finished the day with the a stunning sunset above the trees as it was in the wrong direction for over the Canyon.     Dinner to finish of at the tavern at Yavapai Lodge, another excellent day.

On the way to the Grand Canyon

An early start this morning to drive out to Panguitch Lake to see where David was skating.  Along the way we saw elk again, they are amazing to watch bouncing along and then running up the steep rocky hillsides.

The lake is really popular in summer, with baches scattered along the shoreline.  There were a few ice fishermen trying their luck.  We stopped to talk to one man as he pulled up a brown trout and then released it again.  The take it really seriously and set up on the ice with a tent, heater and the guy we spoke to even had a fish sonar.

Once the cars were packed we drove south to join up with the main road to the Grand Canyon. A couple of very pleasant stops along the way, one at Cave Dwellers where we talked to some local Navajo Indian women who were selling locally made jewellery.  As we travelled through the Navajo Reservation it was clear that this is the main source of income for many of the local people.  Seeing the vast areas of useless land that has been retuned to the people is really sad.  They may have the land, but there are no resources and they just become paupers in their own place.

We also drove through Lee Ferry National Park.  The road took us down to the edge of the Colorado River - it was cold!  There were more amazing rock formations and red cliffs.  While we were there, we caught a brief glimpse of some chipmunks and a coyote.  We couldn’t get close to either, but it was pretty cool.

Once we got into Grand Canyon National Park we stopped at the First Glimpse Lookout.  The sun was beginning to set and showed up the contrasting colours of the Canyon walls.  It was getting dark so we headed straight to Yavapai Lodge, our home for the next couple of nights.  The rooms are set amongst the trees about half a mile from the edge of the Canyon.  We are looking forward to exploring some of the rim trails tomorrow.

Have had more weather extremes today, 22F (-7C) and 65F (19C).  Glorious blue skies and now a super moon.  How lucky are we!