Monday, November 07, 2011

Coffee + Coyotes + The Big Ditch


We got up bright and early on Tuesday and said good riddance to our sketchy hotel room in Blanding.  Without breakfast or coffee we jumped in the car and started driving towards Arizona, thinking surely we would come across another town in no time, maybe even a town with a Starbucks.  HA.  Two hours later we had passed a few tiny houses and many lovely rock formations, but no coffee.
    

Finally we reached the town of Mexican Hat which (hallelujah!) had a gas station.  So we drank Mexican Hat gas station coffee and ate granola bars and couldn't have been happier. 


While I was leaning out the window taking pictures of cattle crossing signs Tyler said Look!  There's two coyotes eating a dead cow!  Sure enough.     


Driving through Arizona, the eighth state of the road trip, we passed lots of interesting little roadside stands and tables selling crafts, pottery, and southwestern jewelry.  I wanted to stop and shop but we were getting close to the Grand Canyon!  So I resisted the urge to jump out of the car and buy knick knacks.  I thought Ric Mele would appreciate the sign below.  Your son has the ability to spot beef jerky in the middle of nowhere.  If Tyler was a superhero that would be his superpower.     


By the time we arrived at the Grand Canyon, or the Big Ditch as Grandpa Rickard calls it, it had been a loooong day of sitting in the car and we were so happy to get out and stretch our legs.  The first glimpse of the canyon, above, was like watching the clock all night long waiting for it to be Christmas morning then finally being given the go ahead to start opening presents...so exciting!  We went up in the observation tower which is also the GC gift shop and fought all the other tourists for the best spot to stand and take pictures.  I bought a panoramic refrigerator magnet.  We took hundreds of pictures and it was difficult for me to choose just a few to include in this post.  Like the Rocky Mountains the pictures don't do any kind of justice for the real thing.
     

It was alot to take in.  Tyler and I were joking that it was really just one big background matte painting, kinda like in the Truman Show.  It was completely 100% worth adding an extra day onto the trip so that we could see the Grand Canyon.  I'm so happy that we did.  It's a magnificent thing to cross off the bucket list and we couldn't have been there on a more beautiful day.       

3 comments:

sarah der! said...

WHOOOOOAA!!!!!! The grand canyon looks totally unreal!!! And those coyotes eating that dead cow was pretty gross. Also I really sympathized with your plight to find coffee. I would have been VERY very very grumpy if I had to wait two hours for my morning coffee. :) Thanks for keeping us posted and taking pictures to show us along the way!

Jake Murray said...

Dammit! It's so cool to see you guys on such an awesome adventure!! So happy for you! You guys better make it big in Cali!

Emily Rickard said...

Thanks for reading, friends! I was hoping the roadtrip pics would be mildly interesting to browse through, even to people who aren't my mom :)

Jake! If you wouldn't mind rounding up all the Lofters and bringing everyone to CA to visit us, that would be awesome :) We miss you!