With much thanks to Bravo Chevrolet in Las Cruces, NM, and their awesome team, we finally got back on the road on May 20, after our truck had been in the shop for 12 days. Every one of those guys took great care of us and knows what customer service is all about: Rey, the service advisor assigned to us, came personally to pick us up at the truck stop where we broke down and made sure we were always kept informed; Albert, their diesel mechanic and transmission specialist, took the truck apart and piece by piece put our big ol' Humpty Dumpty back together again; Mauro, the shop foreman, personally stayed to help Albert the last day until 6:30 p.m. so they could finish things up and get us back on the road as promised; and Mike, the service manager, was honest and straightforward with us from the beginning. He has built a great team there. We feel like we couldn't have broken down in a better place. :)
From Las Cruces we drove a straight shot into Phoenix and stayed a couple of days with Max's brother and sister-in-law. As always we had a great visit, a relaxing time, and partook of way too much good food.
Then it was on to Williams, AZ, and the Grand Canyon. Some of you may have heard of the wildfire (still) burning at Oak Creek Canyon / Slide Rock, AZ. We saw the smoke from it for much of our drive north from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon. This picture was taken west of Flagstaff. Driving through it was a bit unnerving.
This picture was actually taken as we left the Grand Canyon that evening but it shows how far that smoke cloud extended across the horizon. (There above the inspection sticker and on across to the center of the windshield.)
The smoke seemed to channel right up through the Grand Canyon that day. The air was thick with it and the smell was a bit overpowering.
We still enjoyed it and knew that we would have the next day to hopefully get some better views. On our way out of the park we saw several elk--made our day!
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| Still in velvet and a bit scraggly. Shedding his winter coat, I suppose. |
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| And this big mama decided to cross the road unexpectedly right in front of us. They have no fear. |
The next day we did a guided bus tour along the south rim and over to the east entrance to the park and saw the Desert View Watchtower Bob, our tour guide, kept us entertained with stories as well as showed us some great sites. He said he couldn't prove it...but he was pretty sure...that in order to graduate from high school in Japan, you had to come visit the Grand Canyon. He couldn't prove it, but he was pretty sure. :)
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| The views were spectacular. No smoke. Just pure God-provided beauty. |
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| Bob guaranteed us we would see a mountain lion on the tour. Here it was. That Bob was a funny man. |
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| The Desert View Watchtower, a replica of the watchtowers of the Pueblo Indians, is four stories tall. |
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| We climbed to the top of the Watchtower, and the views were spectacular. You can see the Colorado River on the left side of this photo. |
We spent some time at the Watchtower, ate a bite of lunch, and headed back to the Visitor's Center on the south rim. We had been watching these rain showers move in while we were at the Watchtower, and they caught up with us on the way back. A bit of rain and even a bit of icy drizzle on the bus windshield. Bob said that was pretty common for this time of year--you never know what you're gonna get. What a great second day at the Grand Canyon!
From there, it was time to head to Bryce Canyon, Utah. The wildfires were still burning at Slide Rock as we drove back through Flagstaff, but as we got further north the skies cleared and it was a beautiful day. I'm learning to love all these beautiful red cliffs, blue blue sky and stark white clouds.
Highway 89A in northern Arizona is beautiful, with the Cliff Dwellings...
And the Vermillion Cliffs. And look at the size of these rocks!
Before you get to Bryce Canyon, you run up on two of these arches across the road. We had read they were 13'6", which is plenty tall enough for our Turtle, but we were told that was in the middle. We weren't too sure what the slope on the sides was so we were a bit worried about going through them. We intended to stay in the middle--but what happens if you meet someone?? We could tell from Google Earth that they were both on a curve, too. Just more to worry about. (I tell you--our truck fiasco kind of stole some of our feeling of invincibility. Maybe that's a bit of a good thing, but it also keeps my stomach more in knots than it used to be!) As it turned out, we got through them with no problem. We even met a car going through the second one so we had to stay in our lane. I held my breath. I'm sure that helped.
Finally we arrived!
The Grand Canyon is awe-inspiring. I think Bryce is just absolutely stunning. They are both canyons, but they look entirely different.
Bryce is known for these spires, or hoodoos as they are more properly called. To some they look like church steeples, Gothic spires, castles, animals, or even people. The legend of the ancient Paiute Indians, who inhabited the area hundreds of years ago, claims the hoodoos are ancient "Legend People" who were turned to stone as punishment for bad deeds. 
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| On the drive to the southern end of the canyon you see a bit of this. Controlled burn? Nature just taking care of its own? Or man? |
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| This cute little guy appeared to be on his way back to his nest with some brand new building materials. |
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| We saw ravens at both Grand Canyon and Bryce. They are big suckers!
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| Part of it runs across the very crest of the mountain. I can't begin to tell you just how much my sense of invincibility eluded me at this moment. |
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| And with 14% grades, we were very glad we didn't have the Turtle with us. Max read federal highways can only go up to a 6% grade (which can get pretty exciting sometimes), but obviously state highways are a different ballgame. |
And then last but not least at Bryce, we just had to do an ATV ride. What fun that was! ATV's are not actually allowed in the bottom of Bryce. The company we used took us down into the neighboring Casto Canyon. It was three hours of bouncing, dirt-eating, bone jarring, fabulously scenic fun!
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| To the top of the mountain! |
Max and Paula
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