May 31, 2001
Grand Canyon
We left the Hoover Dam and rode for about 8 - 10 hours and stopped outside of Flagstaff Arizona. Actually we were about 30 minutes West of Flagstaff, in the lesser known town of Touristtrapstaff. I am not even sure of the name of the town, but I will tell you we stayed at the "Facelesscorporate Inn" and that our arrival at 10pm was the exact moment my bank decided to turn off my credit card.
I had made the reservations the day before (or the day before that, it is all a blur) when I was in Las Vegas. In any event, after 6 days my bank decided that I had just about enough adventure and now was a good time to bring it all to a screeching halt. When we arrived at the hotel, we did so in our usual "rumbling motorcycles and stinky road guy" fashion - sort of a motif we had been working throughout the trip. The postmenopausal woman behind the counter was giving us the raised eyebrow when we walked in and shook off the night cold / dampness. When the bank rejected my card (my ONLY card) she looked at us like we were something she scraped off her shoe.
After spending about 30 minutes on the phone with the bank, the card was back on and life was good. Apparently, my cross country excursion had tripped their computer's theft awareness program and I looked more like a man on the run than the rightful owner of the credit card. Worse yet, the supervisor was gone for the night - so I had to basically plead and threaten my way up whatever management ladder there is at a bank at 10 at night. Joy.
The next morning we were off to see the Grand Canyon. I
would like to tell you that the ride to the Grand Canyon is like a slow drumbeat
in the soul, that the excitement builds and builds while the scenery becomes
more grandiose until finally, at the breaking point, the Canyon majestically
lays out before you. That would be lying. The ride to the Grand
Canyon is littered with tourist traps, cheesy stands with tacky crap to take
home, and
arguably
the most expensive gasoline found on earth. Just about the time when you
can't take it any more, the Canyon is unceremoniously dumped on you - like
someone dropping a huge chunk of gold in the middle of a diaper full of orange
baby crap. After you wipe the orange-stinky out of your eyes though, you
realize what a jewel you were just handed. Here is a picture of Garrett at
the Canyon - all you can say is "wow . . " and that doesn't really cover it, now
does it?
There are TONS of shots like that one - such as:
Or
and even
My favorites though would have to be:
and
and
and even
We decided to take a different way OUT of the Grand Canyon than we took in - since the way in was such Traditional American Crap. What we found on the way out was "Traditional NATIVE American Crap," which made it totally better.
We did stop for this shot - I think it speaks for itself, don't you?
