Stops:
Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
Las Vegas, NV

Music selections:
Dead Can Dance - Spiritchaser
Custom "Mish Mash" CD
Frank Zappa - Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, Disc 1
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Click on highlighted words for pictures...

I awoke early in my wigwam after a good night's sleep... I'm surprised how well I slept through the trains going by... I knew I had a big day ahead of me, so I had to hit the road early.  I loaded up the Alero, bid my teepee farewell, and headed off towards Flagstaff.

The drive to the Grand Canyon is quite beautiful in itself... It's mind boggling what it took to create all of this landscape. Whenever I've driven through this type of terrain on my trip, I've always put in that Dead Can Dance disc, and let it play over and over... it's an interesting mixture of the music of Native American, Hispanic, and other cultures... and seems to make a fitting sound track for a drive through these areas.

The way I took into the Grand Canyon is, in my opinion, the way to go...  I came in from the Cameron Junction side (the east entrance), and basically went backwards of the way the park is laid out.  I think everything is geared for people to come in the west entrance, and go straight to the main visitor center.. which is positioned in a place that offers the most panoramic view of the canyon.  The nice thing about coming in this way is that the first stop along the way is the smaller Little Colorado River Canyon.

Many people had told me that going there would be like the old Chevy Chase "Vacation" movie... you'd walk up to the edge, look at it, and say "Okay, we saw it" then want to get back in the car.  I guess I'm glad I'm travelling by myself and not with those people... I ended up spending 6 hours at the canyon, and I took well over 100 pictures with the digital, and another 60 or so with the 35mm..  The only reason I didn't take more with the 35mm was that I ran out of film, and wasn't going to pay the outrageous prices they were asking for film at the canyon.

When I arrived at the Desert View viewpoint, I was awestruck.  The magnitude of what it took to make this spectacle really humbles you.  And there's nothing quite as scary as standing on the edge of a cliff with a 5000+ foot drop off right next to you, with a fairly strong wind blowing.  I thought the Royal Gorge bridge fucked my my fear of heights, but that was a picnic compared to this. 

Here's a collection of my shots at Grand Canyon National Park.

Canyon1 - Canyon2 - Canyon3 - Canyon4 - Canyon5 - Canyon6 - Canyon7

There were other "scenic" things to see there, also.. namely a fair amount of really cute women... One particularly attractive woman decided to give me a show as she was getting items out of the trunk of her car.  She was wearing a rather short skirt, and a tiny little thong underneath... and she'd bend over into the trunk giving the entire world a stunning view of her nice butt.  For a second, I thought she wasn't wearing panties at all, because all that could be seen was the little patch of cloth right over her coochie.  I managed to hastily snap a picture, but it came out kinda blurry. 

My big scare of the day came when I lost my footing and slipped climbing down to take the picture you see at the top of the page, but fortunately, I managed to stop myself from sliding and only came out of it with a bruise on my arm.  I was only about 6 feet from the edge, and the drop off behind me there is a few thousand feet straight down.  I sat down on the rock for a while and let my adrenaline rush subside.

I found myself walking around to each view point... just to see what else I could see.  I would really love to take one of the hikes across to the other side of the canyon, but I certainly wouldn't do it in the middle of August.  Way too hot. 

I really wanted to stay longer, but I had to hit the road for Vegas if I was gonna get there at a reasonable hour.  So I grabbed a quick bite and something to drink, and headed out to the highway again.  I gave Sam (he's the guy on LS1.COM with the yellow WS6, but I don't remember his user name) a ring on the cell... and we got talking about the Powerball jackpot in Arizona (it's $280 million - Yow!!).  So on the way, I bought a few tickets.  I figure that it's probably a waste of money, but you never know.  If I won that $280 mill, I would probably just not end this road trip... of course, I would buy a little more comfortable car for the road... Not that the Alero isn't comfortable, more that I'm sure there's something more comfortable out there.

The sun was setting as I hit the turn off to Vegas... and it lit up the sky behind the mountains in a brilliant array of reds oranges, and yellows.  By the time darkness hit, I was about 100 miles from Las Vegas.

As I drove, I kept noticing that there was this one spot on the horizon that you could see light... it was as if the sunset had gotten "stuck" and you could see the faint glow of city lights in that one area..  That couldn't be Vegas, I thought to myself... but as I drove closer and closer, I noticed that the glow got brighter and brighter.... Now I'm starting to wonder what I'm about to witness when I get over those mountains.

I made my way across Hoover Dam... unfortunately it was dark, so I couldn't really see much other than it is FRIGGIN HUGE.  I will have to go back up there and see it before I leave town.  I'm also debating on making a jaunt out the Extraterrestrial Highway to Rachel, NV... home of Groom Lake and Area 51.

I came around a corner and saw my first hint of what I was about to see...  A large casino, lit up very brightly with thousands of lights and neon, and a huge display board...  But once I came over the hill and started the decent into Las Vegas, I was totally dumbfounded.  I have never seen so many friggin lights in my life!!  Oh my god... this is unreal.  Out came the Dead Kennedy's CD, and I jumped to the last track...a really messed up cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva, Las Vegas".  Very fitting.

I headed over to Sam's place, dropped off my things and took a shower.. and then he took me out to show me around the town a little.  We had a couple beers at a place called The Beach which seemed pretty cool... Sam says the place is hoppin' on the weekends, so I may just go down there and cruise for some booty... we'll see.  We cruised down the strip, and he was showing me all the casinos... Talk about excess.  This city is so over the top that it's unbelievable.  I never thought I would see a life-size replica of the Eiffel Tower on my trip, that's for sure.  I think I may head down there for a while today and just check stuff out... but the one thing I'm finding is that if you're from out of town, everything costs a lot more in this city... Example:  When we went to the bar, Sam got in free because he was local.  It cost me $10 to get in.  Ouch.

So who knows what's in store for tomorrow... Hopefully I will get to meet the infamous "CrkHedMat" sometime while I am here...

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