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.

Grand Canyon, finally.

I posted a few more pics to my album. Arrived at our hotel on the South Rim around 4:30. The drive was pleasant enough. It was nice to be the rider for a change. 2 days of driving a total of 1200 miles had taken it's tole on me. At this point, honestly, I'm ready to go back home. I don't plan on doing that. But it's how I feel. When you're sick you just want your own bed and your own place to bum around. I have just crossed the 24 hour mark with my antibiotics and I'm hoping to see an improvement tomorrow. I've already seen some improvement, it's small. I still get tired really easy and need rest. Enough about that.

Today was spent collecting Jeremy from the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and then loading up the car and hitting the road for a 3.5 hour drive from Phoenix to Grand Canyon, Arizona. We had no idea what we were in for. Our little Prius loaded with luggage, food and whatever else had to go from 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet and it lest us know it was not happy about that at all. We went from forests of Sequoia Cactus to dense pine trees. We drove down historic Route 66 for a bit and found a historic looking Jack in the Box. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, I need to see how I feel.

Phoenix

I went to an urgent care facility earlier today. Turns out I have an infection in my throat along with a high fever et al. I got three shots and six medications to take. I gotta say I started to feel better almost instantly. So much so that I went ahead and decided to drive on to Phoenix.

What a boring drive. I-10 through New Mexico really only hits on major town, Las Cruces. The other three are small. It was amazing. Just miles of nothing. What was really odd is they didn't have any warnings about the lack of gas stations. Of course, this was not a problem for the Prius which made the 6.5 hour drive to Phoenix on one tank. I got into Phoenix around 8:00 in the evening. After checking into my hotel I met up with Chris. We had dinner and enjoyed getting to catch up with him.

My throat is still sore and I still get tired easy. I think I'll be ok for the trip I just might have to rest a lot.

Houston to Alpine in 7 hrs 30 minutes

I do not know how long I will have to write, my sister is on her way here right now. The drive was not that bad. I would not call it fun, but it was different, lot's to look at. I think I'm timed it just right. By leaving at 4 a.m. I was just leaving San Antonio as the sun came up. So the boring part of the drive that I'm used to went by in the dark. I left Houston with half a tank of gas and had to fill up in Boerne (sp?). Made it to Alpine with two bars left. Whew. I got gas in Alpine for $3.79/gallon most expensive yet. Not a problem I budgeted for gas to be at $4.00 for the trip. I have to say to any of my Prius loving family who is reading this, going 85 in the hills brings the Prius back into ranks with other cars. I was averaging 38-41 mpg and you should have heard that little engine on the hills.

I'm sitting in a park in front of a court house with a church playing "Holy, Holy, Holy" to let us know the noon hour has begun. I will update this post more later I'm going to start writing about the drive right now while waiting for Abbey.

I am actually sort of surprised with myself. I didn't get to bed last night until midnight and what sleep I got was filled with anxiety dreams.


I'm not surprised anymore. By the time I got to El Paso I was obviously getting very ill. I barely made it into the hotel room. Fever and then cold. I laid down right away and slept from about 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm then back to bed at 10:30. My throat is killing me, my back hurts but the headache is gone and I feel like I have more energy. Right now I'm not sure what's going to happen. I think I have a fever, but I'm not sure. I may just stay here another night and see how I feel on Monday.

Now back to Alpine. I had a lot of fun. The ranch that Abbey works on is amazing. It was stunning. It looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. Evidently they shoot movies there. We went and visited one of the sets, the Old Mission. This Brooks & Dunn Video was filmed there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyNzkrnzvx4

Pictures that I took: http://gallery.me.com/casperey1978/100034

Of course after I left for El Paso things started to go downhill fast.

3/28/08: En Route to EWR

11:15 am (est): Just crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains on our way to EWR. Smooth flight so far, great seat (thanks to Buhz). I’m sitting next to two non-revs from CO. One is flying on business for the company the other is pleasure flying. I almost thought I was going to have a seat to myself, but no the flight is full. Most of the people around me are reading or dozing we have about one more hour to go before they make us put our stuff up. For some reason I am starving. I had cereal this morning then I had a banana at the airport and then cereal and a banana on the plane. My stomach is still grumbling, but it’s just going to have to keep on going cause I’m not eating again until I get to EWR. I definitely prefer flying on the larger plane, the AVOD is rather cheesey though, but who cares? I’m on my laptop with my legs stretched up into the first class cabin only problem is I have to lean out into the aisle to accommodate the guy next to me. The three fattest people on the plane are seated in my row. I’m one of the three for now. I got the seatbelt on though, with out an extension.
Once we land I need to grab my other bag, get the train and maybe grab a snack. Then take the train from EWR to Penn Station then grab a cab down to my hotel and relax a bit before the first part of my class tonight. I swear, if this class is retarded I’m not going. I’ve already decided not to go Sunday and I might decide to just not go Saturday. We’ll see. If I feel like I could be more productive sitting in my hotel doing work then I will.
As I sit here I can’t help but ponder as to why planes are made to look so sterile. Oh well, I think I’m going to dick around with the avod. More once I’m in my hotel.

From Dominica to San Juan

We left later than expected for San Juan which is going to create a mild crunch for me to get to my gate and boarded on my plane for the Dominica flight. I've got this super rude guy sprawled out next to me. I think he's from France although I'm not sure. He walked up to me, brandishing his ticket, and informed me that I was in his seat. In fact, I was not in his seat, I was in my seat. He had the window and wanted the aisle. NO SIR. I sit on the aisle so I can poke my legs out. He went up a row and sulked until take-off. And now he's sleeping with intermittent moments of waking up and glaring at me. It's great. It's at times like these I think that people should remember that being in my country is a privilege. Just like me traveling to their country is a privilege. So take your foreign visa, sit down and behave with your gaudy Dolce and Gabbana (sp) belt.
I thought that we were going to be arriving around 11:00 a.m. in San Juan. Well evidently we are arriving at 11:27 a.m. so I'm going to be booking it to get on my flight to Dominica. I think that it leaves at 12:45 or something. God, I'm stupid I haven't even checked. I think that I should do that now. Ok, checked. And once again I had it in my head wrong. We're actually right on time. Damn and I was working up another good case to hate AA. The only reason I really don't like them is sometimes their interiors are shitty. This plane smells moldy. Oh and yeah, Tom can't get me an Exit row seat. I FEEL SO CRAMPED AND UN-PARTIALLY-SPOILED! Having people like Tom take care of me is a great reason to fly CO, and I guarantee that if they flew to Dominica I'd be on CO all the way, even if it was more expensive. So far this flight is much smoother than yesterday's flight.
OK, I'm officially bored these short flights are nice. I don't have to worry about entertaining myself for a very long time.
OH, I just found a reason to hate AA, beverage service only. GIVE ME A BREAK, at least some pretzels. Last time I was marooned on an AA flight we had stale chips and stale hoagies. THAT'S YUMMY. Ok fine, I just like CO. Oh almost tasty beverage time. Thank goodness I brought my own breakfast. CAUSE WHO WOULD WANT BREAKFAST at 8:00 in the morning. Certainly no one that I know. The RUDE guy woke up now he's leaning on the seat in front of him. I think he's hung over or maybe he's a terrorist. The world may never know. Ok, that's enough for now. The guy in front of me is creeping his seat back. Time to lock my knees.

IAH to FLL

Lifting off the ground means breaking free from the constraints of work, school and other home related commitments. The flight feels good, and I remember how much I love night flights. I'm sitting beside some cool guys who enjoy talking.
This time CO checked my luggage all the way to Dominica which is really good, I think. I have extra luggage with me so long as my luggage isn't lost for to many days I should be fine. The most valuable thing in my other bag is John's extra clothes. I think I feel like watching a little bit of family guy right now.