The Grand Canyon, Colorado and Albuquerque
So lets whiz through the next few days . . .
So we set of for Arizona and the GC and stopped on the way on the historic route 66 in the town of Selighman. Delightfully tacky, lots of tat and souvenir shops on a ‘route 66’ theme, so in the spirit of ‘getting my souvenir on’ I purchased the first of my license plates which will soon be finding a home on my wall! We continued on and made it the GC that afternoon and headed to the visitor centre for our included dinner (bad cafeteria food with Sprite that tasted like soda water) and then we attempted to watch the sunset. Attempted I say because our bus were the poor souls who had to stay an hour away in Williams, Arizona as all the local hotels were full, but hey I saw a bit of pink cloud!
That night we were all wrecked from Vegas and a long day travelling (we didn’t get to the hotel til about 9.30pm that night :() and happily I pulled in for my first early night and felt very proud of myself when I managed to get up early the next day to do some laundry!
Next day was helicopter rides over the Canyon! I was pretty excited but it was not overly exciting in the end. Taking off and landing was pretty cool as you could feel the speed at a lower altitude and you did get some sense of how big it was but it’s still hard to comprehend. If I ever go back I’d like to camp in the canyon, I think that would be the best way to see it. Afterwards we had a few hours in the Canyon so Naomi, Little Erin and I headed to El Tovar lodge in search of decent food and boy did we find it! I think of all the meals I had there this must rank in the top 5, there were even vegetables and the most pretty deserts ever. Then we did a little walk around, bought some souvenirs and took pictures. That night involved some card games in our room (me, Big Erin and Naomi) and a few drinks in the Doc Holiday bar in the hotel, where some random local decided to show everyone his wolf/dog. Weird.
Cortez was up next, long-ish driving day. On the way we stopped in the famous monument valley, home of car commercials and cowboy movies. We got driven around in the most rickety bus you have ever seen, it’s windows had been taken out and it looked like it could die any minute. We stopped a couple of times and took pictures and people bought jewellery from some of the Navajo stall holders on the way and I have to say it’s a pretty cool place. On the way out we had to get up a steep bank, but our bus decides it doesn’t want to. After much grinding and crunching the driver decides he needs to back up to get some speed (!) to get up the hill. At this point some people decide to bail and walk up it. Me being the brave (foolish?) person I am stays. And we start reversing, and reversing, and reversing for about 5 mins, until we think – is this ever going to stop? Eventually we do and our crazy driver floors it up the bank, we are all screaming and wooping (the other bus is cheering us on also by this point) and finally we make it to the top in a cloud of dust and grossness (just stopping before we go over the edge of a cliff may I add!).
After that excitement we shopped a little and continued to Cortez, stopping at the road where Forrest Gump stops running in the movie (our first movie moment of many!) for a fun little photo op.
So we finally get there and have our dinner at ‘Mexican Fiesta’ another delightfully tacky affair with the biggest margaritas I had seen (up til that point!). Amy decided to have 2 and entertained us all on the bus with her rendition of big spender, good times. The ‘hard core few’ then headed straight to the bar next to the hotel and sampled some local beverages including Fuzzy Puckers (Naomi – ‘Is there alcohol in that?’) and met some random locals. I decided it would be a fine idea to stay up really late, but I still made it on the bus the next day (yay me!).
We then drove to Albuquerque, again getting to the hotel quite late. Tonight was an included dinner in the hotel and it was pretty rank. I think I had some kind of enchilada but it tasted and looked yucky. Well at least I didn’t need to calorie count at this stage! I was again a good girl and went to bed nice and early. Hot air ballooning the next day and with a 5am wake up call I did not want to chance it.
So 5am the next day we all gathered and got in some little buses to the launch sites. In my balloon was Little Erin, Kate, Tai, Mark, Ben, Aaron (and maybe some more!). We moved to a site away from most of the balloons and we went up really, really high to start with as they were looking for some wind to move us closer to the others, but alas it was not to be found. We cruised around for about an hour, it was very peaceful and quiet (especially being so early in the morning) but the heater was so hot when they turned it on, the ‘pilots’ were sweating loads. We landed pretty well and the others helped pack the balloon (I took photos!) and then we headed off for some champagne and got some little certificates which was cute.
When we got back I had minutes to grab my stuff (and change as it had gotten so hot!) and we were on the bus to Amarillo! First stop for lunch though was the pretty town of Santa Fe. It’s very touristy and affluent and it’s where you can buy native American jewellery and such like and generally is a pretty place to walk around, except for the fact it chucked it down as we were leaving!
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