Day 3: Grand Canyon

After careful weather calculations we figured our first day in Flagstaff would be the best to make a break up to the canyon. I can't say visiting the Grand Canyon in December would've been my first choice of timing, but we were there so we were going to see the dang thing. The South Rim of the canyon was about an hour and 45 minutes away so we got an early start.

Hills on the way out of Flagstaff

It was cold. Like real cold. We learned an exciting fact, the thermometer in the Corolla actually reads negative numbers.

The closer and closer we got to the canyon we got this was our view, increasingly more and more foggy. At this point we were beginning to get concerned our view of the canyon was going to be obstructed.

So we got up to the rim and it was blowing wind and COLD (see at trend on this trip). We were so excited to actually be at the Grand Canyon. We suited up, barreled out of the car, took a little walk out to the view point and...

Here is it... we were standing at a view point on the rim and there was nothing grand to see except the fog :(

I was rather disappointed, here we were at the Grand Canyon and there was nothing to see. Literally. But, there was local there with his camera and we got chatting. His words of advice were that the canyon will come just as quick as it goes. Wait it out, the fog will blow out. But you better be quick to get your photos in because the fog will roll right back in. While we were standing there talking with him the fog began to blow out of the canyon and we got a glimpse of what's to come.
The cool thing was how the fog and the canyon dampened all the sound. It was such a strange silent muffled feeling. Hard to describe, but almost like talking in heavy snowfall.

The cacti were buried in snow and looked like the spiny guys from Super Mario Brothers :)

This is to show you just how bundled up I was. I think I had everything in my suitcase on at once (including leggings under my jeans).

We went and walked around the lodges and shops and killed time waiting for the fog to burn off. Unfortunately it was too snowy and icy to do any hiking off the main paths. Our patience paid off, we managed to catch some amazing Canyon views. You had to be right on the camera though or else the fog would come back real fast. The Canyon was absolutely stunning... perhaps you could call the views grand? :) When you stand on the rim of the Canyon looking in you feel so tiny and when you think about how it was carved into the earth you feel so powerless. Amazing experience. As much as I had been complaining about the snow, it actually made the views unique. The snow caught on the layers of the rock and add some beautiful contrast to the red rocks. We feel fortunate to have visited in December because we probably never would have chosen this time of year to go. Next time will be a bit warmer though - I want hiking weather!

Warning: Lots of (probably boring) Canyon photos ahead.

Hey look! Blue skies!

Working our way East along the rim.

Yay! We can see the Canyon!
Canyon Watchtower

View from the Watchtower window

We headed back towards Flagstaff through the Painted Desert. We caught the sunset along the way which really made the "painted" part true. Unfortunately, we wanted to get back to the hotel before dark because of the road conditions so we watched the sunset from the car along the way.

Car sunset

We got back to Flagstaff that evening and planned the next day's adventure - Sedona.

Day 2: Albuquerque, NM ---> Flagstaff, AZ

After an exhausting evening we woke up to a very, very frigid Albuquerque. By the way - Kirtland Air Force Inn - top notch accommodations. Besides being the first stop outside Texas, I was excited to stop in Alb and check it out. Chris frequently travels to Kirtland for work (he's there now actually) so it was fun to see where he actually goes :) First order of business, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Chris has visited this museum for work and wanted to show me some of his work related stuff. The museum was very well put together and considering I don't know much about that slice of history it was very enlightening.

The museum

Periodic table of elements entry way - cool!

Someday, this will be in my driveway.

The road to Flagstaff was long and occasionally snowy. The scenery started getting more and more interesting along the way. Chris and I passed the miles pondering the difference of mesas, plateaus and buttes. Bet you don't remember from high school!

Mesa? Butte? Plateau?? Will we ever know? (yep, I'm funny).

Color! Hills!

Along the way, we drove through some really depressed Native American land. You can tell these tiny towns with little tourist stops were hanging by a thread and the rough economic time has severed that stream of income. Very sad.

Uh oh. White stuff again.

Continental Divide! We seem to see a lot of this on vacation (Multiple sightings on the Glacier/Banff vacation of 2010).

We made it to sunny, beautiful... Arizona?

I was hoping to lay by the pool and soak up some Arizona sun. Next time.

Two most critical things about me on road trips. I like to nap. I'm a map watcher. I watch the roadsigns and stare at my map. No tacky tourist trap will escape me. No little town will go unnoticed. National Parks? Viewpoints? Not going to miss them on my watch. I was thrilled to see we'd be passing right through the Petrified National Forest National Park. One squeal and obsessive pointing at my map and Chris knew his husbandly duties.

We pull off to get to this...

And get this... for reals?

No worries - our daylight was limited and there was this killer tourist trap coming up. Meteor Crater. There had been billboards for hours. A must see. We get off the freeway and drive for miles through cow pastures.

This guy helped us along our way...

On my way to see a meteor crater!

So we roll up to the visitors center. Just on the other side of that building exists a 1 mile wide, 550 ft deep crater created by a rock from space. Cool. Except... the admission to see a hole in the ground was $16. For the two of us... THIRTY. TWO. DOLLARS. Call us cheap, but...uh no. (And it was blowing wind and freezing, surprise) Anyways, we passed on that attraction, I'll leave it to google to show you what we would've seen.

Luckily the view was pretty sweet. Flagstaff was just over those mountains!

We made it to Flagstaff with no further complication. One little nervous moment when the driveway to the hotel was closed (snow, again) but luckily we found the back parking lot. We checked into the hotel in time to watch the sunset over the hills before heading out for pizza and beer at the Beaver Street Brewery in downtown Flagstaff (and a few snowy back roads too icy for the Corolla).

Sunset while we were unloading the car

Beer sampler

Pizza! With blackbeans!

The next two days were tourist days. No driving! We carefully watched the weather to decide if we'd spend our next day in the Grand Canyon or Sedona. A snowy day would put a real damper on this portion of our vacation.

Day 1: Wichita Falls, TX ---> Albuquerque, NM

After graduation we couldn't get out of Texas fast enough. We had booked a room in Amarillo (4 hrs away) but when we learned graduation would be earlier in the morning we made a decision to cancel the room and push on West - we just wanted the heck out of Texas! Our new destination was Albuquerque, NM - a solid 8 1/2 hr drive away (in good weather...)

Goooodbye Sheppard AFB!

Our first stop to kick off our roadtrip was at 501 Winery in Childress, Texas. I was looking for a bathroom break and the giant winery billboard on Hwy 40 worked it's advertising magic. We stopping in for a quick potty stop and wine taste. The funny thing is we visited the sister winery in Wichita Falls so it was fun to stop by this one. The lady hosting the tasting bar was so sweet, typical Texan, big hair, too much makeup and a heart the size of the state. She chatted with us and we told her what we were up to, she thanked Chris and myself for what we had just been through and threw a few extra gifts in our box.

My favorite red was named after this sweet girl, one of the winery's resident longhorns!

The next stop was another leg-stretcher at a roadside tourist trap. They usually have good bathrooms and you can zip in and out without buying anything. I know, sounds horrible, but if you bought something everywhere you stopped when you have a bladder my size you'd be broke before leaving Texas! So Big Tex Steak Ranch it was...

Big Texas Steak Ranch on Classic (ie - trashy) Route 66

Really?

No, you can not have a set of long horns.

There was no reason to stop in Amarillo, except for lunch and the tacky tourist stop of Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is public art - Texan style. A bunch of half buried Cadillacs in the middle of a field, all decorated in graffiti. A must see in my book. We jumped off the freeway, parked and hiked out to the cars. The walk out there wasn't far but it was FREE-ZING with blowing winds (a sign of things to come). After a (cold and quick) look at the Cadillac Ranch we were back on the road - couldn't stand to waste more time in Texas than necessary :)

Cracker Barrel front porch rocking chairs

Even the gate had graffiti on it...

Walking in to Cadillac Ranch


Look at the ice dripping... told you it was cold...

Good photo, except for the word over my head. Wish we would've noticed that before the photo :)

Apparently graffiti here is illegal? Who would've thought.

As we continued the flat, boring drive out of Texas I received some good news. Our National Certification exam results were to be mailed home to us, but because I was going to be gone for a month my instructor agreed to text me a yay or nay on my results so I wouldn't have to wait until I got my mail. I heard the text come in and was scared to even look at it... but a deep breath and a quick glance at the message - I PASSED! Not only did I pass, I aced it. Highest grade in the class actually (ok, I'm done gloating :). That made the mood in the car skyrocket. Chris graduated with honors that morning, I got my test results, vacation had officially started and we were heading home. What an emotional high.

We continued on, smiles the size of Texas (ok, last Texas reference) some good tunes on the radio and some good hearty laughter for the first time since July. We felt we could take on the world. That is until we crossed the state line at stopped at the New Mexico welcome center (pee stop and a new map!). Where they felt it necessary to ruin our good luck. "Your heading Alb tonight on 40? oh...be careful" "Snow reported East of Alb. They might close the freeway" "There's been a few spin-outs on the highway already, it will only get worse" Great... Considering we were in the middle of nowhere we had no choice but to push through. The kind ladies at the info booth were indeed correct, it did get worse, a lot worse. As soon as we left the visitor's center it started to flurry and than just began to straight up dump snow (add a little snow in there for even better driving conditions....) and by this time it was dark (no street light dark). Long story short - the Corolla is a champ. Things got real nasty on the freeway, but luckily for us the accidents were all headed East bound. Slow and steady got us to Albuquerque safely (our last hour took three, ugh) with only a few anxiety attacks on my side of the car. Side story here - while in Disneyland we got talking with an employee who had made the drive Eastbound on Highway 40 the same time we were coming west. Our conversation led us to the fact that we were on the highway at the same time (using semi truck accidents as landmarks) and we JUST BARELY escaped the highway closing. She was stuck sleeping in her car on an off ramp that night because the highway was closed for five hours, thank you freeway Gods for smiling on us that night. We arrived tense, exhausted, starving and cold at Kirtland AFB and checked into our room. It was late and even the thought of venturing out into Alb for dinner was too much to think about. Luckily Rudy's BBQ (if you've been there, you know what I'm talking about) was worth the trip out, filled our bellies and erased the nightmarish past few hours. We called it a night and collapsed into bed. What a day.

It was flat. I didn't lie.

A rather fancy entrance

Not sure what was so "enchanting" but we were one state closer to home, so that will do.

Trip Summary

A quick summary of the trip - (more to help me keep it straight :)

Nov 24-Nov 27:
Mileage: 303 mi (5 hrs) + a 3 hr flight for me
Ending Location: Austin, TX
Activity: Exploring

Nov 27-Dec 2:
Mileage: 303 mi (5 hrs)
Ending Location: Wichita Falls, TX
Activity: Packing, school and graduation

Dec 2:
Mileage: 509 mi (8 hrs according to google + 2 for horrendous snow storm)
Ending location: Albuquerque, NM
Activity: Cadillac Ranch (Amarillo)

Dec 3:
Activity: National Museum of Science and History (Alb, NM)
Mileage: 322 mi (5 hrs)
Ending location: Flagstaff, AZ

Dec 4:
Activity: Grand Canyon
Mileage: 150 mi (3 1/2 hr-ish loop)
Ending location: Flagstaff, AZ

Dec 5:
Activity: Sedona
Mileage: 90 mi (2 hr loop)
Ending location: Flagstaff, AZ

Dec 6:
Mileage: 253 mi (4 hrs) + another hour looking for a car wash :)
Ending location: Las Vegas, NV
Activity: Hoover Dam, Vegas Strip

Dec 7:
Activity: Vegas strip (and NOT being in the car! yay!)

Dec 8:
Mileage: 261 mi (4 hrs)
Ending Location: Disneyland, CA
Activity: Disney

Dec 9:
Activity: Disney

Dec 10:
Mileage: 36 mi (40 min)
Ending location: San Clemente, CA
Activity: Disney, sunset over the ocean and dinner with Proppers

Dec 11:
Mileage: 453 mi (7 1/2 hrs + some time for not paying attention to the GPS)
Ending location: San Rafael, CA
Activity: Meeting baby Eleanor

Dec 12:
Activity: Hanging out with Ben, Eileen and Eleanor

Dec 13:
Mileage: 566 mi (a very long 9 1/2 hrs)
Ending location: Albany, OR
Activity: Dinner with Jenna, Kyle and Payton

Dec 14:
Mileage: 49 mi (1 hr)
Ending location: McMinnville, OR
Activity: Evergreen Air and Space Museum, wine tasting

Dec 15:
Mileage: 39 mi (1 hr)
Ending location: Portland, OR
Activity: Explore, beer tasting

Dec 16:
Mileage: 78 mi (1 1/2 hr)
Ending location: Mt Hood, OR
Activity: Wedding madness and rehearsal dinner

Dec 17:
Activity: Eric & Laura's wedding

Dec 18:
Mileage: 224 mi (3 1/2 hrs) to Auburn + 75 mi ( 1 hr 20 min) to Kingston
Ending location: HOME
Activity: Dinner and HOME

According to Google: 3,131 mi (2 days, 6 hrs drive time) plus all the driving around lost, looking for food, etc. Add a few toll roads, a sketchy ferry in Oregon, a super bad snow storm and so roadside adventure and that about s

Graduation Day

So here's the deal on the vacation blog. It was a really long trip with many highlights. So, there will be multiple blogs. Gotta keep you guys in suspense :)

December 2nd - Graduation Day!

Even though I arrived in Texas on Thanksgiving we couldn't officially begin our vacation until Chris finished Tech School. The night before graduation was spent loading the car and packing (and my final Texan steak) with much anticipation of leaving the "beautiful" state of Texas. We were up Friday and off to the hangar for the graduation ceremony. Good thing about the military - they keep things to the point. An hour later we were on the road with the car pointed West. Finally.

Chris graduated with honors as A C-17 Electrical & Environmental Systems Mechanic. (When people ask me I say he fixes stuff on the big cargo planes) He still has training to do at McChord but now has his fancy maintainer badge on his uniform. Needless to say, I was a very proud Air Force Wife that day. So the disclaimer on these photos (all the vacation photos).... the new camera we got... sucks. So, these are kinda blurry, too dark, too light, whatever - but it gets the point across (I'm only going to complain once Chris). The one of me pinning Chris' badge on is particularly bad, I made a bad "can you take our picture?" selection. One of Chris' buddies had a nice camera and was going to share those photos with us, which I will pass on to you guys.

Class photo

Retired Thunderbird jet

I got to kiss him while he stood at attention.

There he is! SSgt Walker!

Proud wife :)

F15 cockpit - I learned a very important lesson that day as to why fighter pilots don't where dresses.

One last picture before we hit the open road!

I also took a video of Chris getting his coin for graduating with honors from the training Commander, BUT see above sentence about the crappy camera for why there is very little audio. Huff.

Next stop - Albuquerque