Week 28 (Continued) - Grand Canyon "The Mountain Lying Down"

Hello Family and Friends,

We had quite the adventure transversing the dessert from California to Arizona.

Views from the interstate somewhere east of San Diego and West of Arizona.

While traveling through the desert, we had a true desert adventure, almost getting stranded. Let me explain; with the desert comes desert temperatures.

Brett says that once the temperature reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit, electronics start to fail. This is bad for us as we are driving an all electric vehicle.

There are people who say that dry heat is better than humidity, Brett is one of these people. And I agree that 91 degrees with 95% humidity is worse than 91 degrees with 9% humidity. However, 119 degrees feels like the earth is trying to cook you alive. I don't dare even walk through a parking lot without my water bottle. Just a few minutes outside and your throat goes so dry that it hurts. It is so hot that I wear long sleeves so that my skin doesn't feel like it is on fire. The worst of dry heat is worse than of humidity. Humidity does not allow it to get up to 120 degrees. So now I have set the scene for getting almost stranded in the desert. We started out the day trying to charge the car; with the key word being "trying". It was so hot that the charger was running slow, the car was using so much energy to cool off the engine and the car. This means we only got 20% charge in the same time that we usually get 80% charge. So we decided we would just go to the next charger and hope that it was cooler there so that we could actually get a charge. Great idea, right, except there aren't that many charge locations in the desert, meaning zero. The car predicted that by the time we reach the next charging location we would only be at 5%. It is not recommended that the car ever get below 10%, but we were already on the road. Brett drove under the speed limit and reduced the air conditioning so that the temperature stayed at a tolerable level. This raised our estimated arrival percentage to 7%. Okay, so we are going to make it, but then we hit construction. So now we are sitting in the heat just running the car to stay cool. By this point I am checking the side of the road for any form of shade. I saw a little bush and thought maybe I can fit Atlas under that little bit of shade so that he doesn't get too hot. Our estimated arrival percentage dropped down to 4% and ahead of us loomed a mountain that we had to go over. As we headed up the mountain, not only did Brett stop telling me how many miles we had remaining but once the car reached 5% it also stops telling how many miles are left on the battery. We get to about 10 miles away and only had a predicted 1% battery left. So I start thinking about plan B. I told Brett that we aren't going die in the desert. We are only 10 miles out and have our electric bikes so we can ride into town. It won't be fun as the temperature is still deathly high, but we could make it and then call a tow truck. Brett said, "that's the spirit". We did make it over the mountain and didn't have to ride our bikes. We arrived to the charger with 2 miles to spare and the temperature on the other side of the mountain was a cool 91 degrees. We charged and made it to the Grand Canyon in a calm and boring manner. However, once we got to our lodging we were met by a heard of cow moose right on the lawn.

A whole family of cow moose on the front lawn of our hotel.

On our first adventure into the Grand Canyon we decided to bike into the park as an attempt to avoid the long lines that can form at the entrance of the park. However, we biked about 3 miles out and realized that we did not have the keys to our bike locks. So back to the hotel we go and by the time we got the keys it was warm and toward mid day. We adjusted course and drove into the park to catch some of the scenic views along Desert View Drive.

The smoke in the sky is from the fire burning along the north rim of the canyon.

The canyon is one of those things that is so big that your brain doesn't quite comprehend what it is seeing. But then you realize that the canyon is 3 Empire State buildings deep. And the Colorado River that looks like a calm stream at the bottom of the canyon is actually a rushing rapid as wide as a football field. And that is when it hits you how truly grand the Grand Canyon is.

The glassy structure in the distance is the Colorado river. This is the river that is thought to have carved the grand canyon.

There are so many dimensional levels to the canyon that the camera just could not capture.

I am glad I added that extra memory to my google photos before we arrived to the canyon.

I told Brett that I'm going to stop taking pictures and just enjoy the scenery, because there is just to much for the eye to behold.

I caught more than one person crying at the overlook.

Of course we had to make sure that Nathaniel could have a good view of the canyon as well.

The tree where we shared Nathaniel with the Grand Canyon.

The canyon is one of those places you hear about and then it hits you that you're really here seeing one of the seven natural wonders of the world. While we were visiting it felt like the world was there. It was rare to hear someone speaking English. The most common language we heard was French. And let me tell you something about these French people: they are rude. Brett says they just do things differently. I mean I may have been raised in the South, but I have become accustomed to the city. Personal space is really not all that personal and if you hold the door, that is now your job. So I do not need all those southern niceties, but the French have every American city beat in the level of rudeness.

The next day we did finally get to bike in the park. Hermit's Rest is only open to shuttle buses and bikes. It was really fun on our electric bikes. We saw quite a few people riding manual bikes and we did not envy them.

Hermit's Rest at the end of Hermit Road. The turn around point of our bike ride.

Let me tell you something else about this park: they take every opportunity to take your money. There are at least 7 different visitor centers with different tchotchkes to buy. Two of the gift shops were more centered around the Hopi people who are are native to the canyon. Ya'll best believe that I made sure we went into every gift shop. It became my side mission to visit every gift shop in the park.

The Grand Canyon is our final national park. I'm glad we didn't miss it and ended on a high note!