Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Grand Canyon, First full day

It's a little after 7:00 AM, I'm awake after having taken my meds and temperature. 98.8 this morning! My throat is still sore, but it feels like the sore area is much smaller. The temperature right now is 36 degrees outside with a high of 76. We will be checking out of the hotel this morning after getting a few things together for the next two days. Today we are planning on doing some exploring along the south rim of the canyon. We are also thinking about taking a helicopter tour, though nothing is decided on that yet.

Sometime in the afternoon, 3:00 PM at the latest we are going to take the following route:


View Larger Map

As you can see it will take us along the south rim for a ways and I am told this is a great way to see much of the South Rim. We will stay two nights at Cliff Dwellers.

We had originally wanted to stay at a lodge on the North Rim but it is booked solid a year out. I did find another Holiday Inn on the North Rim but at this point I think we'll just spend our two nights at Cliff Dwellers. I think that we will spend Wednesday at the North Rim, then head back to Cliff Dwellers for the night. On Thursday we can explore Lee's Ferry and the Vermillion Cliffs before making the 7 hour drive to Santa Fe. We'll be traveling down I-40 which follows Route 66, In-fact if you sing the song backwards you'll know all the town we're going to hit between Flagstaff and Santa Fe. Currently we plan on spending two nights in Santa Fe. We want to go to Los Alamos, and the quaking Aspens. Then on Friday we are going to this Japanese Spa called 10,000 waves. It comes high recommended. The perfect way to relax and refresh before Saturday.

On Saturday it will be time to make the long 14 hour drive back to Houston. I highly doubt we will do this all in one day; though with 2 drivers and a motivation to be back in our house we may just do it. I drove 12 hours by myself with a 2 hour break about 8 hours in. If we switched every 2 hours we might be able to do it. However, if we get too tired we will will stop and continue the trip arriving in Houston on Sunday. I took a day off of work on Monday just to have some time to get laundry done and hang out at the house.

I know this was a long post but I wanted to let everyone know what our plans were as we will most likely be "off the grid" for the next day or two. I am amazed at the places that have internet around here though. I hope everyone is well, and keep me in your thoughts and prayers and I continue to get better.

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