Conclusion

Conclusion

Dan here…

This trip across the US has taught Kari and myself a lot. We were able to see so many different parts of the country. We started in the Midwest and moved onto the grassy plains of South Dakota, to the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. Then we passed on into the canyons and towers of Utah and Arizona, through the desert of Nevada and west California. We experienced so much and had such a wonderful time together. One of the best parts of taking a road trip like this is not just to get to experience all of these beautiful pieces in our country, but to be able to do it together. Kari and I had such a wonderful time. This trip was a first chapter in a long life together that starts now in Los Angeles. We can’t blog the whole thing, but we hope to share many memories together in the years to come. Hope you enjoyed the travel blog of our road trip. We hope to see you all soon!

Day 14

Day 14

Dan here…

Well… today is the last day of mine and Kari’s road trip. We woke up at a decent time, checked out of the hotel, and headed on our way. It was only going to take about 4 ½ hours to reach Los Angeles. We were planning on heading straight to Jeff and Michelle’s, so there was no hurry.

We arrived in Los Angeles in the middle of rush hour, and it was a rude awakening. We knew what traffic was like in LA, but it always sucks to be reminded during rush hour. We took advantage of the route Bob and Barb had given us the night before and also took advantage of the carpool lanes. Eventually we arrive and were met by Michelle and the kids. Jeff arrived shortly after and we had a glass of wine and caught up. It will be really great to have some family around out here. They prepared a wonderful dinner and we stayed up late having wine and sharing stories. Such a fun time! Thanks Jeff and Michelle for hosting us for dinner and allowing us to stay for the evening.

It was a long day and we crashed for the evening. Tomorrow, would mark the next chapter in Kari and my future together. Can’t wait!!!

Day 13

Day 13

Dan here…

Kari and I slept in this morning. We got up eventually and walked around to grab lunch and just enjoy the day. The temperature was around 106, so we had to spend most of the day walking around inside. But it’s Vegas and who wants to be outside in Vegas?!? As for what we did all day until dinner… well… what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

The only plans we had for the day was to meet with Kari’s aunt and uncle Bob and Barb. They were hosting us at there house in Henderson, NV, just outside Vegas, for dinner. Kari and I showed up and had a great time. Bob and Barb are always a blast. The food was spectacular, the wine was plentiful, and the conversation was wonderful. Such fun people! There home is very beautiful and we appreciate them opening it up to us for the evening. Thanks Bob and Barb!!! After a lovely dinner and evening, Kari and I headed back to the city to call it a night. This was the last night of our road trip before landing in Los Angeles the next day. We were very excited. Kari’s cousins, Jeff and Michelle offered the extra room in there house to Kari and I for the next evening and we were really looking forward to seeing them and their kids. So, we called it a night and headed to bed.

Day 12

Day 12

Dan here…

Kari and I woke up early this morning, grabbed our complimentary breakfast, and headed west to see the famous meteor crater located about 45 miles east of Flagstaff, AZ. I had seen it in 1998 when I visited with a friend from Tennessee, Coach Thompson. It was pretty cool and I wanted Kari to see it. We got there early, grabbed admission tickets, and headed into the visitor center. We took our time at the visitor’s center. We walked around and saw the exhibits, watched a short film on the origins of the crater, and then followed a tour guide for about 20 minutes. He gave us a run down on the history and fun facts about the crater. We then walked around the crater for a short period of time. It is very cool to see. The crater is so big that the bottom can hold 20 football fields side by side. If you ever get the chance to visit it, I recommend it. You can’t see a more pristine example of a meteor crater on the planet earth than the one here. In the pictures below, you can see the same white square area at the base of the crater. If you look at the closeup, you can see a wood cutout of an astronaut standing beside the american flag. In the wide angle, you can get a perspective of the scale of the crater with the same white area.

After leaving the crater, we headed back to Flagstaff, AZ where we were going to turn south towards the town of Sedona, AZ. The drive to Sedona is beautiful. The windy road through the mountains opens up to reveal massive red rock cliffs. The contrast with the surrounding green trees makes for beautiful vistas. We traveled along the winding road until we reached the town of Sedona. The town is a small quaint place. It has many shops and trust me when I say that there isn’t a bad view in the city of the surrounding mountains. Everywhere you look is beautiful scenery. The town felt very clean. Kari and I drove around for a bit and eventually pulled over to do some shopping at a place that Gayle and Frank had recommended the day before. We went into a few shops. Kari found a very nice ring that she bought and I purchased a cactus. Yep… that’s right. I got a cactus that was growing in a read rock with brown deposits giving it a swirled look. I love my cactus. We eventually found a really great place to stop and eat. We took our time and relaxed in Sedona. It is one of those places that would be very easy to just lose a day relaxing and wondering around. It’s definitely worth a visit.

After leaving Sedona, Kari and I head north again to Flagstaff where we would turn west. We were now going to be driving all the way to Las Vegas, NV stopping by the Hoover Dam on the way. The drive took about 4 hours before reaching the dam. In the past few years, the route to Las Vegas has been moved from driving over the dam, to driving over a massive bridge built just beside the damn. The bridge was intentionally made so that you can’t see the dam as you drive over it. This is to prevent people from slowing down as you cross the bridge. But, you can stop in a parking lot after you cross the bridge and walk back across it to get a great view of the dam. Kari and I did this first. We walked along to about the middle of the bridge, so that we could get a bird’s eye view of the dam. It was very cool. The dam is as massive as you imagine. I couldn’t help but think that Sector 7 was still holding Megatron under there somewhere. I guess we’ll never know. After getting back to the car, we headed down to the bridge. The temperature was dropping from 110 degrees to 107 degrees and the sun was about to set. Welcome to Las Vegas, where the temperature doesn’t drop below 100 even after the sun goes down. We parked the car near the side of the bridge and got out to walk across the actual damn. It was very cool to see. The water level appeared to be incredibly low. You could see the water line in the cliffs surrounding the damn and the water was bout 60-70 feet below the line. We spent about a half hour on the bridge, walking all the way across and stopping to get lots of photos and videos. It was a cool thing to see, especially as the sun was setting.

After finishing at the dam, we got back in the car and headed to Vegas. It only took about a half hour to get to out hotel. We were staying at the MGM Grand on the strip. We had a room for 2 nights and planned on relaxing and enjoying it. After so many consecutive days of traveling and full itineraries each day, it was going to be a welcomed change to be able to sleep in and do whatever we wanted. After checking in, we walked around the MGM and found a restaurant of Wolfgang Puck’s and sat down to have dinner. We spent an hour or so eating and polishing of a bottle of wine, got up and played a few slots, and called it a night. We had a lot of sleeping ahead! Goodnight!

Day 11

Day 11

Dan here…

Kari and I woke up this morning in Flagstaff, AZ. We had a full day planned with only half of it including site seeing. The other half was going to be spent with Gayle and Frank, who are friends of Kari’s family and live in Surprise, AZ. They were driving up to Flagstaff to meet Kari and I for the second half of the day. I had never met them and was really excited to get to spend some time with them.

First, Kari and I headed off to the Grand Canyon. The drive north to the canyon took us about an hour and a half. The coolest part about driving to the Grand Canyon is that, unlike most other places you visit, you don’t see it coming. It was unlike all of the other things we saw on the trip. As you drive into the Grand Canyon National Park, there are trees everywhere and you can’t see anything around you. The ground looks flat. We pulled into the parking lot near the visitor’s center, and still nothing. I had been to the Grand Canyon back in 1998, but Kari had never seen it. We walked past the visitor’s center to one of the main lookout points. As we approached it, you still couldn’t see anything. Then you come through the brush and the bottom drops out. It is breathtaking every time you see it. It’s always a rush to walk to the edge of it. You look straight ahead and there is nothing above your eye line. But if you look down, there is a whole in the world. All depth perception is out the door. You can’t even grasp how far down or how far away the canyons are. Hiking trails look like incredibly thin lines on the cliffs below. You can’t make out hikers without a zoom lense. Just when you think you found the bottom, you’ll see a trail leading up to an edge of a canyon and it just keeps going down. It’s a bit surreal, the first time you see the Grand Canyon. It’s bigger than you think it will be.

We spent hours walking along the southern rim. We drove part of the way, but would often get out and walk around to see the different lookout points. It was spectacular. You will be looking at a tower that looks like it is a mile away, when it is actually, 15 miles away. It’s impossible to describe the Grand Canyon… and no picture will every do it justice. It’s one of those things that you just have to see with your own eyes and stand in awe of to really appreciate it. We spent as much time as we could at the park, but it was time to leave. We can’t wait to visit again, and plan on hiking for days into the depths of the canyon when we return.

After a speedy ride back to Flagstaff, AZ, Kari and I got cleaned up just in time for Gayle and Frank to arrive at the hotel to meet us. We hung out and talked for about a half hour in the hotel and I knew immediately, that I was going to get along with them beautifully. We shared a lot of interest in golf, tennis, hiking, and just site seeing in general. They were lovely people. We left it up to them to take us out in Flagstaff to show us the town. They are very fond of the city and have spent quite a bit of time there. We headed downtown, parked and then looked for a place to sit and have a drink and chat. We found a table in an alley with a small stage set up with a live band. We got drinks and kicked back in the sun for a few hours. It was a great time. We shared stories and I got to know them even better. I am envious of them in many ways. They seem to really be enjoying life in Arizona and have a very outgoing and young lifestyle to be retired. We headed to a restaurant that they recommended and grabbed dinner. It was a nice place and we kicked back for another hour and a half or so. After dinner, they needed to begin the trip back down to Surprise before it got too late. They dropped Kari and I off at the hotel, and we said our goodbyes. I am really glad I finally got to meet them. Thanks Gayle and Frank for a lovely evening. Kari and I look forward to having another with you two soon.

Kari and I got back to the hotel and decided to head to bed at a decent time since we were getting up early the next day for our last consecutive day of traveling, before taking it easy in Las Vegas for a few days. After a few loads of laundry, we crashed for the evening.

Day 10

Dan here…

We got up this morning earlier than we have been lately. It was time to head to one of our most anticipated stops. We were headed east before turning north to make it to the entrance to Bryce Canyon. We had heard some wonderful things about the park and were very excited to visit it. It did not disappoint. As we drove into the park, there were many places to stop as you drove. The first view was the Sunrise Point, which offered some beautiful scenery of the canyons.

We stayed there and looked around for quite a while. We were allowed to hike down a ways into the canyon and we walked down a hundred feet or so to give us a different perspective. After we were done, we hopped in the car and drove up to the next point called Sunset Point. Here we spent a lot of time. We got out and looked around and decided it was time for another hike. After our very difficult hike the day before… we couldn’t imagine it being any worse. The hike was the Navajo Loop. It was very much worth it. We pretty much started hiking straight down into the canyons and ended up in an area about 10 feet wide with shear cliffs, a couple hundred feet high on each side. The rocks are an orange color and the sun was shining at this point. The lighting was beautiful.

The second half of the hike was pretty challenging and was straight back up the cliff. The drop offs on our side were pretty much straight down and no guard rail. It just added to the openness and scale of the area. It was quite a beautiful place. Kari and I highly recommend Bryce Canyon. When we come back though, we are going horseback riding through the canyon. We didn’t have time on this trip, but it looks like the best way to experience the park. Next time…

We got back to the car and continued on into the park, stopping by all the viewpoints. We almost got caught by rain. We walked away a couple hundred feet from the car at one point, and we could see the trees in the distance disappearing into a gray cloud. It was only a few seconds later that… drip… drip… We took off running and within about 30 seconds, it was a down poor. The storms sneak up so quickly there. As we continued into the park, we pretty much rode the edge of the storm and didn’t get wet for the rest of the day. Lucky us. It was time to go and we needed to head south into Arizona, where we were going to take the H-89A to the Vermillion Cliffs.

As we drove south, we passed through Kanab, AZ and headed south to the cliffs. We’d seen pictures of these cliffs on the internet and they looked like rolling waves of water. They were supposed to be really smooth and multi shades of reds and yellows. We were really looking forward to it. As we approached the Vermillion Cliffs, they got bigger and bigger. They cliffs are HUGE. Some of the biggest we saw in our entire trip. They were also a very deep red. They’re even redder than Sedona’s cliffs. If someone was ever going to make a movie about Mars, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t film it here. It reminded me of the surface of Mars in the movie Total Recall. Kari and I didn’t see the rolling cliffs we were looking for though, so we pulled into the only gas station we’d seen for hours. There was an Indian man behind the counter that was incredibly friendly and talked to us for a while. He explained to us that the cliffs we wanted to see are called The Wave. It was a 6 hour hike into the canyons to see them. Damn! We hadn’t done our full research on this, so we had to save The Wave for another trip. We are adamant to see it though, so Kari and I will definitely be back here soon. During our conversation with the man, we told him that we were headed to Page, AZ near Lake Powell and wanted to visit Antelope Canyon. We are lucky we did this, because he told us that Antelope Canyon was closed because of flooding. This was one of the main reasons we were going to Page. After hearing this, we altered our route and headed straight south at the nearby junction to Flagstaff. It was time to call it a night.

A few hours later, we arrived in Flagstaff, and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading to our hotel. We went to a local brewery and restaurant. It was full of people… probably because the weather was around 75 degrees outside. It was a nice evening. We then headed to our hotel and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. When we walked into our room, it sounded like there was a party outside. We called the front desk and they said they’d check it out. Apparently, there was a large concert going on down the road for the college students starting up their semester. The front desk manager apologized and decided to upgrade us to a sweet on the other side of the hotel. It was more room than we needed, but nobody turns down an upgrade, right. Besides, it was quit. It was getting late and we called it an evening. We needed rest, because tomorrow, Kari was going to get to see the Grand Canyon and I couldn’t wait. Goodnight!