Southwest Ramble-Day 1

Fifty-nine years old and I'd never seen the Grand Canyon! I have spent plenty of time in the western United States, but the Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico part of the region was pretty foreign territory to me. My wife and I had decided a short trip somewhere was what the doctor was calling for, and this itinerary kind of made sense. We were not disappointed - mostly.

We flew out of STL on a Tuesday, about a noonish departure, and arrived in Las Vegas around 2 PM. Their airport is a monstrosity...especially the aspect of getting to a rental car. Best case scenario...you take one shuttle to the "Car Rental Center." For lucky us, our rental car company required an second shuttle from there to their rental agency... So, my hoped for departure time of 3 PM to get on the road to the Grand Canyon was more like 4 PM, if that.

We headed towards the Grand Lodge at the Grand Canyon, choosing on the fly to not make a stop at the Hoover Dam due to the lateness of our departure. Still, we got some pretty good views of the lake from the interstate, and part of our mission was to think about places we'd spend more time in the future. Still not sure if that'll be on the agenda - partially because we're not certain we'll come through Vegas next time.

We made a stop in Kingman, AZ for an elegant Micky D's dinner and got back on the road as night was starting to fall. As we headed closer to our destination, the sun left us and the beautiful star-filled desert sky greeted us. At some point, Laura informed me there was starting to be snow on the ground, and we realized we had entered a beautiful high desert winter scene. The land seemed to just glow with the snow reflecting the moonlight.

We had planned a stop in Williams, where you turn north off the interstate to travel the final 50-ish miles to the Grand Canyon area - for us that night, we'd be staying in Tusayan. Anyway, Williams is most certainly on our itinerary for a more thorough visit to this area. It is a charmingly beautiful

small town - and, it has a very nice Safeway where we bought a few things to keep our meals costs down. We finished up there, filed the gas tank, and headed north on Hwy 64 for the final hour of driving.

Again, the country was stunningly beautiful. As we drove, I thought about how much fun it was going to be to see that country in the daylight when we left. The wind by now was really howling, and though the sky was crystal clear, drifts of snow covered the road sporadically. After about an hour, we pulled into Tusayan where out hotel was located. At least in winter, this little town is also charming. I imagine at the height of the tourism season, my thoughts might be different.

We checked in to the very nice Grand Lodge at the Grand Canyon, and tried our best to sleep as we eagerly anticipated watching the sun rise over the Grand Canyon in a few hours.