The biggies

Day 2

It's all been clockwork. None of our worst fears have materialized thus far. Flight connections have all been perfect. Hertz gave us a brand new car (with only 4 miles on it). The Luxor in Vegas had a very nice room for very cheap with incredibly comfortable beds. Food in Las Vegas was a bit sketchy. It is quite expensive and very meat-centered. But one of the Hotel restaurants was featuring pineapple upside-down pancakes and that got us off to a great start for the scenic phase of our journey.

Abby and I decided that Hoover Dam would be our first destination and then we would push on to the Grand Canyon for sunset. We strapped on the GPS and very much enjoyed leaving Las Vegas. The stereo had an iPod interface so Abby took her navigator/DJ job very seriously.

Our first minor SNAFU occurred as we approached the Dam area. The music was too loud and/or there was some visual distraction at a key moment and we somehow missed the Hoover Dam turn off. Suddenly the GPS found herself (she' a female Australian who can't correctly pronounce "Hoover Dam") on a road that was not in in her database. She kept wanting us to turn around as soon as possible and find a familiar named road. We were probably 10 miles down that unfamiliar highway before we figured out that the "Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge" that we had crossed a while back was the new bridge that spans the same gorge as as the Dam, only much higher. The strange thing to me was that the last time I had been to the Dam, the bridge was still under construction and I remember thinking how terrifying it would be to cross it since it is so high above the gorge. But the reality is that you can't see a thing from the bridge (at least not from the driver's seat of a Kia Rio) so you find yourself thinking about the tragedy of Pat Tillman instead of the potential tragedy of your car hurling into Boulder Gorge. So we crossed it it twice (and then a third time later) without any change in blood pressure.

Soon, our Kia was snugly tucked into the Hoover Dam parking structure and we set off to experience the full tour. Well, it turned out the FULL tour would start in a couple of hours and could jeopardize our Grand Canyon sunset, so we elected for the Power Plant tour that started in 15 minutes. Our docent was pretty fun with a dry sense of humor. He enjoyed throwing in "dam" in the form of an expletive during key moments of his presentation where it seemed like he was swearing until you thought about it for a second. (Example: "Did security mention our photo policy in the power plant since 9/11? No? Good! Because we have no photo policy. Take all the dam photos that you want!")

The guide enjoyed talking about the role of the Federal government in negotiating between the states, financing & constructing the Dam and then recouping the investment for the people, with interest through selling the cheap hydro-energy over decades. After the Dam was paid off in the 1980's, the energy now goes to 9 regions, selling it to them at cost. Interestingly, Las Vegas only gets a small percentage of the power since the electricity rights were negotiated well before Vegas was the monstrosity that it is now. So the Strip is powered through burning coal. Ouch!

After the tour, we walked around and took in the visual splendor. I inadvertently dragged Abby into what I thought was a relics museum but turned out to be a boring, pedantic recorded presentation where you must remain seated while a 3D model of the topography of the whole Southwest lights up in certain places as a stern voice describes the effect of the Colorado River water system and its dams. Abby was pissed off at me for about a half hour after that. It didn't help that we were both hungry and thirsty and anxious for the Grand Canyon phase of our journey,

We drove through desert and rock for quite some time before spotting a kitschy roadside former tourist trap-looking hole in the wall to sell us a couple of cheap bottles of water. We pressed on and found lunch in a Route 66 town, Mohave, at a great restaurant called "Calico's". We couldn't resist checking out a few second-hand stores while we were there.

Judging by the GPS, we would arrive at Grand Canyon National Park about an hour before sunset. We decided to go there first and worry about lodging later. Good decision. We arrived at the edge at "golden hour" and I was excited when I noticed that in a few minutes, the sun would sink below a singular, chroma-blocking cloud. When that happened, we got the full Grand Canyon deluxe treatment with shadows and colors and depth and beauty. We hiked along a ridge toward the sunset, snapping pictures.

It was dark when we sidled in to a great little Mexican Restaurant in Tusayan, Az. It advertised "Great Vegetarian Meals" on their sign. (We never saw THAT in Vegas.) They were right! The complimentary chips and salsa were fantastic and Abby and I split an order of vegetarian tamales with beans and rice. I could not resist trying their house Margarita, which was also perfect.

Tusayan has plenty of lodging, being the nearest town to the Park but it was dark and late and we were dog tired. The name-brand chains all had no vacancy so we settled on the retro "Seven Mile Lodge". Abby described it to her sister on the phone as "scary" and the pile of beer cans on the ground at the bottom of the steps to the second floor, did not help that assessment but the room was clean and had a refrigerator to preserve my half tuna melt sandwich from Calico's.

Well, we've missed the opportunity for Grand Canyon sunrise but we will take one more look this morning before continuing our journey to Zion National Park.