Sorry for the delay between entries. Between unpacking and waiting for the internet to be activated, I just haven’t gotten a chance to write my final Cross Country Move entry.
So, we woke up early on Wednesday morning, ate breakfast, and started driving north to the Grand Canyon. We stopped for gas, where we saw our first prairie dogs. They were cute, but it didn’t take us long to realize that prairie dogs are the (destructive) squirrels of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is about an hour and a half north of Flagstaff, but after only driving for a half hour, we could already see it in the distance. We considered driving on up to the North Rim, but the drive was several hours longer, so we decided on the South Rim instead. After driving through a lot of flatland and a lot of Navajo farms and roadside stands, we started climbing the mountains into the park. We were surprised by how heavily forested it was.
Our first stop inside the park was the very first viewing area (called Desert View), and here, we got our first real look at the canyon. My grandfather told me the first time he saw it, he cried. I can see why. There is no way to describe it. Pictures and words can’t express the massive scale or the myriad of colors. It is the most spectacular thing I have ever seen, and it’s something everyone should experience at least once in their lives.
After recovering from the initial shock and taking plenty of pictures, we drove another 30 miles or so to Grand Canyon Village, where we were able to access the Rim Trail. This trail leads from the Grand Canyon Village to Hermit’s Rest, a distance of several miles. We ate some surprisingly cheap hot dogs in the village before walking a couple of miles along the trail, stopping intermittently to take pictures and just admire the view. At certain points, we could see down onto the Bright Angel Trail, which leads all the way to the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. This trail is famous for the donkey tours, which we were tempted to do, but resisted in the interest of conserving money. If I ever return to the canyon, I’ll definitely be prepared to go down the Bright Angel trail, either on donkey or on foot.
Exhausted from the long, hilly walk, we took the shuttle bus back to Grand Canyon village, where we had a beer in the Bright Angel Lodge. We drove back to Flagstaff and ate a quick, delicious Mexican dinner at a little hole in the wall. We got up early the next morning, where I discovered the camera was missing. I searched for at least an hour before I decided it had been left either at the Grand Canyon or the restaurant from the previous night. Disheartened, we ate breakfast and left for LA. On the road, I called everywhere I could think of in search of the camera, but to no avail. We were both heartbroken at the thought of losing all our Grand Canyon pictures, so we didn’t really do anything fun on the road to LA.
When we arrived in LA, we quickly got our keys and a tour of the building. We immediately started unloading the car so we could return the UHAUL the next day. Despite its age, the building has been very nicely refurbished and we were immediately pleased with our new loft. Over the weekend, we got some furniture from IKEA and started unpacking boxes. The best news is, in the process of unpacking, we found the camera buried at the bottom of a backpack.
As far as the apartment is concerned, we still have a few blanks to fill in, but it’s coming together nicely. The city itself is more crowded than I imagined. The sprawl goes on forever, which makes it really nice to be downtown and in walking distance to great restaurants, movie theaters, shops, and plenty of other ways to spend money. Our location in historic LA seems to be undergoing a sort of renaissance, with a lot of old buildings being purchased and fixed up. I’ll be spending a lot of time exploring and looking for things to show friends and family when they visit.
Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the road trip. Thanks for reading!
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