Le Grande Road Trip to Amurica - Day 4

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Day 4

Staying in the Flagstaff area

Well crap.

No don’t worry, we’re still avidly playing the RV game, the results of which I will present at the end of my post. I just messed up our Air Bnb reservation yesterday. I booked our two nights starting today rather than last night. But, thinking quickly, Ken grabbed his phone and hooked us up with a room at a local Ramada (as a bonus it had a pool). It ended up being an alright sleep once the “techno people” turned off their music around midnight. Though I was a bit stressed most of the day about getting our booking figured out, our host Sal ended being a really nice guy and offered us a refund for the night we wouldn’t end up using.

Now Flagstaff, despite being in Arizona, has a milder climate than many of the places we’ve visited as of late. It feels much like home in that it cools down in the evenings. This makes being out and about more pleasant and makes a certain pony car much happier. It is also surprisingly forested with Ponderosa Pines filling in much of the landscape. The whole city sits in the shadow of the mighty Humphrey’s Peak, of which Ken takes great pride in for some reason.

In the morning after enjoying the motel’s half-assed attempt at breakfast (we both had cereal) we decided to get some exercise and try a hike on Humphrey’s Peak. We were well aware of our limitations as hikers and at the daunting hike the mountain posed as the state’s highest natural point. (Natural point? So did someone build an artificial one that’s bigger so they could litter it with burger joints and gift shops? Like “Skip the crowds at Humphrey’s and c’mon down to ‘The Monstrosity’, the tallest peak-mountain thingy in the tri-state area! Be sure to grab a t-shirt and a fridge magnet!”).

Anyway, sorry, what was I saying? Right. So we decided we’d just hike up as far as we were comfortable going and then head back down again. We were let’s say “sort of” prepared to hike. We had shoes that weren’t sandals, ball-caps, sunscreen, 4 bottles of water, and a backpack. I even had a real professional looking walking stick! Ken and I marched right up to the trail head where there was a Forestry Service check in point. Seeing us approach, Ranger Bill greeted us with “So this has got to be your 5^th or 6^th time up today eh?” We admitted it was exactly our 0^th time up today. Bill was expecting this. He began to say “Now the hike up the peak is rather long…” We acknowledged that and told him our plan to only go part way. “I’m glad you’ve made a decision in that regard,” Bill said, “however, might I suggest one of our other trails. If you go up the Humphrey’s trail after half an hour it’s pretty much just tripping over rocks and roots through the trees all the way to the top. This other trail over here is more moderate and you’ll pass through some alpine meadows and get some decent views of the valley below.” We took his advice. Ranger Bill is a wise man.

We followed this other trail as it meandered up and down along the side of the mountain, gaining some elevation along the way. As Bill promised, there were meadows and a couple views of the valley and OH CRAP WHERE DID THE TRAIL GO? Uh. Hmmm. Well this looks like a log we hopped over before and… oh, this patch of ferns doesn’t look familiar after all. I could hear Bill chuckling to himself from miles away at our inexperience. Once again Ken grabbed his phone and with the magic of Google satellite view we found our way. In our defence we knew the general direction we had to go and we could have stumbled our way back on our own. This just made it faster... man our pioneer ancestors must be shaking their heads right about now.

For dinner Ken found a place called the Galaxy Diner which to the surprise of no-one is on Route 66. He admitted he had me in mind when he picked the joint. I may be known to appreciate the pop-culture of days gone by... daddy-o. After eating nothing but a tiny bowl of Frosted Flakes and a Cliff bar all day, that was one of the best cherry shakes I’ve ever had.

Duh duhduh DUHHHHH! The results are in folks! Today’s winner of the RV game is “Anal Tradition”! Hahahaha! Just let your mind wander with what that could mean! God I crack myself up. Now, we’re looking to renew for a 5^th “season” but audience ratings are starting to slide. I think we can get at least 2 more days… er, seasons out of this series before our audience starts writing stern letters about how this blog is nothing but toilet humor.

There was something else that happened today... uggghhh what was it? I thought I... riiiiight the Grand Canyon. It lives up to its name. I honestly don't know what to write other than it was like nothing I had ever seen before. We found a lookout point away from the throngs of tourists and we just gazed into the vast expanse in silence. I can't describe it and I can't capture its true essence in a photo. You just need to go there.

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Photos

Valley View
View from the trail

Obligatory selfie
We are much faster at taking these than other tourists

Mine Inspector
Photo of an early 20th century mine inspector. I think I ought to wear my tie underground too.

Galaxy Diner
It's a happenin' place daddy-o

Grand Canyon
Words cannot describe

Grand Canyon 2
Words cannot describe

Grand Canyon 3
Words cannot describe

Look out tower
Look out tower on the southern rim

Grand Canyon 4
Words cannot describe