Penny Thoughts

Day 5…Began like most mornings do, contemplating pushing back the cozy covers and a trip to the bathroom. Only on this morning, the walk to the bathroom would involve getting completely dressed including my jacket and the possibility of coyotes outside my door. At least it’s winter and the rattlesnakes are even less inclined to be outside than me.

There are no photos because I had my phone in one hand for the light because it was pitch black, and my personal protection device in the other because coyotes.

And when I say pitch black I mean pitch pitch black – but the upside of that is that the stars were the brightest and most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. I wish I had a quality camera that I could have captured some of it for you.

Several years ago I asked my Dad for his bucket list places that he would want to visit one more time. The Grand Canyon, Colorado for an elk hunt but with a camera this time instead of a rifle, the Hoover dam, the Inn at Death Valley, The Racetrack (near Death Valley), and Colonial Williamsburg.

Several of those places were all relatively close and very doable in a single trip. We never got the chance to go anywhere though, he became too frail even for rides in the car let alone a big trip out west.

After he died, I resolved to make the trip. For him, for myself. I miss him so much, but he is so with me on this trip in tangible ways (The Portable Bar, for one thing) and in some profound intangible ways too. Colonial Williamsburg and Colorado will have to wait, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it out to the Racetrack this trip. It looks super cool and I’m not sure my Dad ever saw the article in the link below so I’m not sure if he ever learned what magic propelled the rocks across the playa:

https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/the-racetrack.htm

Sedona was the Spiritual part of this trip and kind of my “Mom“ portion of the journey. My walking meditations were always conversations with her while trying to let the Holy Great Spirit fill me up with peace and joyful contentment. The Grand Canyon begins Dad’s part of the trip…the Adventure.

I arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park a little after 6 AM. Still dark but just the faintest hint of blue-black on the horizon. There was one other car in the parking lot.

Sunrise was due at 7:31 AM so around seven I finally got it out of the car and bundled up and headed to Mather point on the south rim. Over the next half hour more and more people gathered, taking selfies and group shots, all of us bundled but still kind of giddy at what was about to happen. And I made a new friend.

Then finally, the sun peeked out to kiss the tops of the mountains.

Please forgive the shakiness of the following video. When you’re standing there holding the camera letting it run for three minutes, you think you’re standing still but then when you run it back at high speed you find that you are very much not.

When I got out of the car to walk to the canyon, I was mostly thinking about how cold it was. I followed the path that takes you behind the viewing amphitheater built at the end of that path, which blocks the view on approach so there was that moment when I came around the side of it and the canyon just opened up in front of me.

I’ve never been here. I have never been to any of the places on Dad‘s one-more-time bucket list. I’m only here right now because of him. I had been chatting with him (to him?) the whole ride up the evening before and I fully believe he is the one that jacked the GPS so that I would take the beautiful scenic ride instead of expressway.

I was pretty much the only one on that road, I think I saw four other cars in the hour plus drive from Flagstaff to The Van at the Nest.

I’m not sure when I will get to Colorado so on this drive I told Dad that this would be a perfect time for him to roll out some elk. There was nobody around, I could easily pull off and take pictures, it would be great if he could do that for me.

No such luck.

So anyway, when I rounded the corner of the amphitheater and saw this great expanse before me, I burst into tears.

I’m sure I’m not the first and won’t be the last person to be overcome with emotion at the grandeur. I wish I could bottle what I was feeling. Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe it and the emotion of the moment, being with my dad or at least as connected to him as I could possibly be at that moment……was just overwhelming. I lost it and I just let it happen. And it felt great.

You can’t really see him but a great big bird flew into the frame while I was taking this picture. He’s behind the tree. It was like something out of a movie, I’m having this emotional moment and this gorgeous bird comes soaring into view.

Oh but wait.

I got back in the car to leave the park and head toward breakfast in Williams and on to Route 66 for the afternoon. The benefit of being at the park so early is that there just aren’t that many people so again I pretty much have the road to myself. Cruising along when this happens:

I can’t even. I pulled over and just drank in this Herd. Of. Elk. having some roadside breakfast.

Thank you, Dad. 🤍

This it’s probably going to be recorded as the highlight experience of this whole trip. It’s a pretty high bar, because Sedona was already more than I could’ve hoped for.

So onto Williams, and the start of my route 66 adventure.

Enjoyed a very tasty breakfast in this super cute café and bought a few mementos. I would have stayed longer and walked around and shopped but it was pretty early and not many of the stores were open, just restaurants. So on to Seligman we go.

Route 66 is not what I expected. And maybe it’s just the section of it that I went on. There’s nothing there LoL. I tried to capture a couple of the Burma-Shave message boards but the videos are terrible so I stopped trying and just enjoyed the experience. Here’s one anyway:

Stopped in Seligman to gas up and pick up a few more trinkets from the trail. Next stop, Peach Springs then Hackberry.

The sign knew.

There was nothing in Peach Springs or Hackberry, not that I could see from the route and I wasn’t adventurous enough to do any deeper searching. So next stop Kingman, like the sign said.

It was weird, I was there late morning, maybe early lunch and nothing was open. Maybe it was a route 66 holiday or something. So I was about to head out of town after driving up and down a couple of the streets when this came interview, so I popped in.

I have always considered Route 66 to be a car-guy thing. I don’t know why, maybe because cars/motorcycles and Route 66 are like beans & rice. I like cars as much as the next person, but I do love me some history. I learned a ton about the Route and it’s history…which is the history of America really, and highly recommend this place if you find yourself in the area.

Kingman is where my Route 66 journey ends this trip. I had intended to go down to Oatman and then up to Boulder city via Laughlin but I was getting tired and didn’t think I had three more hours of road trip in me and I don’t do well driving when I’m the tiniest bit sleepy. Just ask my Ford Escape.

If we ever go on a road trip through these mountains and valleys together, you are probably going to have to drive. I have learned that I may have a slight case of driving-induced vertigo. Climbing up mountainsides wasn’t terrible but the eventual down, especially when there are curves, and there are plenty around here, there’s nothing between you and the edge of a cliff but a measly guard rail and my brain was having none of it. There was one curve where I stole a peek off to my left and for a moment I thought, gosh that’s beautiful, and then my freak out brain took over and I had to laser focus on the center lines of this 2 lane highway and slowed down to about 40 mph to probably the great ire of everyone behind me. Sorry dudes.

So you’ll need to drive and I can either enjoy the view from the passenger seat or curl up in a ball in the trunk until it’s over. I guess Mom came along for this part of the journey after all (inside family joke).

I didn’t really plan to get to Hoover Dam this evening, just wanted to get into Boulder City and chill out, and hit the dam in the morning. That plan worked out nicely.

Thanks for checking in!