Las Vegas to Williams

 "A little bit of this town goes a long way." - Hunter S. Thompson

I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. 

It wouldn't be the first morning I've had to do that in Las Vegas, but it's not for the reason you'd think.

Today was going to be a hard day - mentally and emotionally.

When you've pushed the envelope as far as you can push it, you know it. It's burned hard into the back of your mind. 

It was getting to that point.

We had leveraged every bit of the continuing pandemic we could, squeezed every last drop of silver lining from the travel-restricted cloud some are calling "the new normal".

With no impending travel on my schedule, the dogs with us, and nothing but a mortgage tying us to Houston this summer, we had opted to extend our vacation, and had already extended our Las Vegas stay twice - an additional four weeks over what we had originally planned. 

The extra time we'd taken had been a boon, and I felt we'd used every bit of it to best effect. We had hiked, camped, ran, explored, swam. Ate well. Drank well. Played hard. Slept hard. Worked when we needed to. Partied when we didn't.

For a brief run, we were able to live the only way one can live in the desert: one day at a time. 

I had seen the sun rise over the mountains in the east every morning, and slip behind the mountains in the west each night.

We had seen the stars - and now it was time to go home. 

If we didn't go now, it might not happen. 

There's precedent for that sort of behavior in this place.

Seventy some-odd years ago my grandmother passed through, fleeing a difficult home-life on the Nebraska plains, armed with unclear aspirations of the coast, and equipped with little more than a car full of children and some pocket money.

She decided to extend their pit stop in Las Vegas by one day because it was hot and the kids liked to play in the swimming pool. 

She lived there for the rest of her life, and became a fixture in old Vegas. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone with long roots here that didn't remember Hilda's.

But there was more calling to us, more adventure on the return route, more friends and loved ones in Texas. 

And so, with both some remorse and some excitation for the adventure to come, we loaded the and hitched the trailer, and ran through our round of pre-departure checks. 

By 1030 we had departed along US 95 Southbound toward the Arizona border. 

As the truck pulled the trailer steadily into the mountains, and out of the Las Vegas valley, we all began to feel a bit better, and set our expectations for the journey to come. 

Our first pit-stop was in Kingman, Arizona - a sleepy desert town with a unique and storied history - it's worth looking into if you haven't before. 

We had just intended to fill up with gas and eat our lovingly pre-packed lunch, but ended up with more than we bargained for - a bystander noticed some damage to one of the trailer tires and we ended up putting four new tires on Katherine's "Rolling Springhill Suites" - far sooner than I had intended to...but it's probably worth it for me to become more accustomed to the unexpected. 

After our brief but extended pit-stop we directed ourself along I-40 to the first stop - a KOA campground in Williams, AZ right outside of Arizona's Grand Canyon. 

"Mr. Whomp's Daddy"

My children had, somehow, never seen this natural wonder - and it had been years since I'd made it out his way, so we discussed it during dinner and decided to go take the children to have a visual experience that is unrivaled. 

At some point, Ian asked "When do they shoot it off?" - and we all stood perplexed until Katherine realized that he had misinterpreted "The Grand Canyon" as "The Grand Cannon".

If "The Grand Cannon" was along our route, I think we'd all gladly pay the $35 admission fee to see that as well. 

For those of you who have never seen the canyon, it's a sight to behold - an absolute marvel of geography and ecology, and one of the greatest treasures the Southwestern United States has to offer it's visitors. 

I am remiss to post our photos, as there is no way they can do justice to just how incredible it is. 

All I can say is, if you have the chance, GO...

Not later, not someday. Just go. 

We arrived precisely at dusk, and were treated to an incredible sunset. It was a pity we were not better equipped, and with more time. There's an incredible amount of great hiking and exploring to do here. 

Still, it was well worth the extra drive and the extra cost. 

Finally, we returned to our campsite, utterly exhausted and bedded down for the evening in the chill mountain air.

Before sleeping, I realized just how thematic the great canyon was to our experience here. 

A life divided between two equally beautiful, incredible places - divided by a seemingly insurmountable distance. 

Today's Statistics

Distance Traveled : 359 miles 

Fueling Stops : 2

Longest Distance Between Fueling: 124 miles

Today's Song(s): 

https://youtu.be/FAVQsnr4uYg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-D9rOwKj04 (Obligatory)