Redwolf's Journal (continued)

I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I don't remember much of the previous trip. I know we hiked down to Horseshoe Mesa - camping down there before coming back up. I vaguely recall an old mine in the area. So... this was almost new to me. And the initial view is... impressive. I can see how some initial explorers would have seen that and declared it nothing but a huge, desolate hold in the ground. I can see how scientists, especially geologists, it's an incredibly fascinating source of information. And I can see how artists are drawn to the grand views and colors and the interplay of those amazing colors and shadow of clouds above. I wasn't exactly "roughing it" as much as I might have planned for (yay, overpacking!). My dad and stepmom were set up in their trailer, fully hooked up, with AC and a small shower, and the restroom nearby. I slept in my tent, but ended up not needing to do any cooking myself. We had pizza in the Grand Canyon Village one night...

Well... good trip overall. Let's see... Saturday: Scrambling to get things together and trying not to stay up too late. Watching weather, I looked at an alternate path. Sunday: Got up and set out by right around 8 am. Daunted by the huge storm moving over Arizona, I decided to take the long way, cutting south through Albuquerque (which I could almost do in my sleep) and taking I-10 west from Las Cruces. Everything was nice until abour Bernalillo, then the dust started kicking up. It got even worse to the south. It was mostly blowing in certain areas, so on and off. I tried to go through Hatch and cut the corner off my trip there, but was turned around and went on to Las Cruces to see a notice there that I-10 West was closed due to lack of visibility. As I stopped to fill up on gas, I overheard a couple truckers talking and exchanged a few words. They expected things to clear up after a few hours when winds die down toward the end of the day. Ironically, they mentioned that I-4...

New Mexico could really use some more stable topsoil. I'm pretty sure most of the state was airborne today. I'd planned a more direct route, but with a massive storm over most of Arizona, I figured I decided last-minute to take a much wider path to try to avoid the snow and likely road closures in Flagstaff. It's enough to make me wish Real Life (tm) came with a FAQ or guide so I could see the path not taken. I did avoid snow. But instead, I dealt with sand storms (even before reaching the area with permanent "high winds" signs) culminating in an interstate closed due to poor visibility. That ate up close to three hours on a journey that was already taking longer than I'd planned. But I do know there were snow-related closures more nothernly, so... was this better or worse? No telling. I was hoping to end the day closer than Tucson, but it'll have to do. I did get south enough that I should be able to avoid snow tomorrow too, I think, so... more of a ...

Cut for space and interest. My departure Saturday morning went of smoothly. I flew in to Denver without a hitch and made sure I was checked in for the next legs of my flight. As my three-hour layover dwindled, though, I started to wonder. The Denver-Charlotte flight was reassigned to a different gate. And it still wasn't there half an hour from the departure time. They can turn those things around fast, but not that fast. The plane got to the gate about half an hour later than it was scheduled to leave. Over the hard-to-understand PA system, they said it was having some mechanical issues and it would be at least half an hour again before it was ready to leave. When I only had an hour in Charlotte to begin with, I knew about this time I'd miss my connection there. They announced those of us missing flighting there would be rebooked on the next available ones, but you never know how that's going to turn out. The plane left almost two hours later than originally planned...