We hit the road about 8:30 am. Got breakfast (at Chick-fil-A, of course!) and picked up 12 bottles of water at Wal-Mart (an absolute necessity in the desert). Then we stopped by the Goodwill... strictly for comparison to the Goodwills back home. And they win here. Clean store, lots of stuff, and reasonable prices. Thus began the thought process that accompanied every shopping experience on this trip: Will if fit in the suitcases in order to go on the airplane?? Or do we have to ship stuff home? Or will we have to do without?
Then we headed north to a couple of scrapbook stores. We got some cute Arizona/Grand Canyon things. They were nice stores. I even saw a couple of new things I had not seen yet. By this time, it was lunch, and they happened to have a Del Taco where we were! I miss Del Taco so much!
It was 1:15 and we were ready to head to the Grand Canyon. We had called this morning and made reservations for a bus tour there that began at 4:20 PM. More than one person we had asked told us it was 2.5 hours to the Grand Canyon. So we get in the car, I plug up the GPS, enter where we're headed... and it indicates it will take us 3 hours to get there! We are not going to make our tour. We make this entire wonderful, beautiful drive through the desert and cannot stop to take pictures of anything and have to worry the entire time about making the tour.
We pull into the park about 4:15... and the entrance line I pick to go through is slow as molasses. We finally get in and realize we are not going to make it. I call the tour desk and explain the situation. The helpful person on the other end of the phone says, "I would have left earlier." Well, duh?! Then he tells me to go to the first lodge we come to (Yavapei Lodge) and reschedule the tour with the tour desk operator there. We park, and I see a bus. So I think it's the tour bus, and I start rushing Mom and we go running toward the bus stop... but the bus kept going. We go inside and the girl at the desk was wonderful... she called for a car to come pick us up and take us to meet the tour bus! How awesome is that?!
The driver picks us up and the only thing he said to us the ENTIRE drive is when he pointed to the right and said, "There's the canyon." !!! Again, duh!! I so wanted to ask him if he was always like that or if he was ticked cause he had to come pick us up! LOL He pulls up to the bus, which is at it's first stop, and we run up to the bus driver with our ticket and I tell her "We're the late ones." She points to another bus parked behind hers and says "You'll be on that bus." So we start over there and THAT bus driver comes down the steps and yells to the first driver, "They have to go back to Yavapei Lodge - you need to take them." Well, the first bus drivers huffs and puffs, snatches the ticket from us and says, "Get on the bus!" I said, trying to lighten the situation, "I'm not feeling wanted." And she says that her bus is packed and he had room. Well, we get on the bus and there are 5-6 empty seats!!! What a witch. It really did not start the tour off well at all.
The scenery was beautiful, though. I know I keep saying this over and over, but pictures do not do the Grand Canyon justice. It is really something you absolutely have to see for yourself to feel the magnitude, how immense, how beautiful, how awe-inspiring. And the bus driver did get better... she even pointed out a rock formation for us. The tour was called the "Sunset Tour" so we did get to see the sunset. It was beautiful. I took so many pictures! I'll post some here later.
After the tour, we came on out to the little town where our motel is (2-3 miles out of the park) and ate at McDonald's (there are not a whole lot of choices out here). Then we went over to the motel to check in. And that was a whole 'nother adventure! We didn't realize there was a problem... until we got to the building where our room was and found it was on the second floor and there was no elevator! My mom's knees are bad, and after dragging the suitcases up the stairs and almost passing out myself, I decided this was NOT going to work for 2 days! And then I'd have to get those suitcases back DOWN the stairs when we leave on Saturday. So I called the front desk and told them that they should have asked us if a room on the 2nd floor with no elevator would be acceptable... I then told them if they suggest we move and move our own stuff, to forget it. But she promptly moved us to a deluxe room in the main building and sent someone to move our suitcases!! Then we found out that the air conditioner uses re-circulated air from the outside and will not come on if the outside air is cooler than the inside!! Does that make ANY sense??? So he just opened out window!!! Unbelievable! I'm all for going green but I am not sleeping with my window open in a strange place... or any place for that matter!! It did finally cool down in the room and I closed the window before going to bed. It wasn't as cool as I would like in here, but I'm sure Mom was comfortable!! LOL
So that's the story of a looooonnng day! More fun due the next one!
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