10-26-02

We check out of Disneyland and hit the road for Arizona. As we cross over the mountains we see fields of windmills. We see them for miles. What a site. Instead of corn they grow windmills. We also see the big socorro cactus. Maybe that isnft the right name but they are the neat cactus that you see in the movies. This is the only place in the country that I have seen them. I try to take a picture and when we get to our hotel in Mesa they have the biggest one out in front. We drive around in a downpour and hailstorm. It is also cold here. It was cold in California that we had to wear a coat each day and now it is cold here. We check out the Chicago Cubs spring training field area to see if we want to come back in the winter. We find a hotel close to it and check in. We are thinking of staying here for 2 nights. The hotel isnft the greatest. We go out to eat at TGIFridays.

10-27-02

The next morning we have breakfast in the lobby and decide to leave the area. We drive past the campus of Arizona State in Tempe. We pass thru some beautiful country on our way up to Flagstaff. We do the laundry there and get a pizza from a girl who is walking around selling them at this strip mall. We then head up to the Grand Canyon. We get our name on the waiting list to hike down the canyon and stay at the Phantom Ranch. We stay the night at the Maswik Lodge and prepare for our hike down in the morning IF we get to go.

10-28-02

We check the waitlist and find that we do get to go so we go back to the hotel and eat a hearty breakfast and do final preparations for the hike. We board a bus to take us to the trailhead. We are on our way. Things go well on the way down. We have a perfect day for hiking. We finally arrive at Phantom Ranch. We have an old cabin (one of the originals). It has 2 bunk beds and a pot and sink and desk. It is pretty rugged. We have to go to a separate building to shower. We go to the meal hall and have a beer. I attend a ranger talk. We have stew and all the trimmings family style. Then I attend a ranger talk.

10-29-02

We find out at 6:30am breakfast that we do get to stay for another night, we were on another waitlist. Jack and I hike along the river trail. We have our sack lunch outdoors by the creek. Then I decide to take an awesome scary hike while Jack rests. We have to have steak and veggie supper since the stew supper was full. We attend both ranger talks that night. What an absolutely great place to be. We have met a lot of nice people down here.

10-30-02

We have our hearty breakfast, grab our sack lunch and head on up. We have another perfect day to hike out. We get to the top with no problems. We get a room at the Maswik Lodge. We clean up and head back to the Bright Angel trailhead to see if T and are up yet. We get there just as they get up. We then meet a first cousin of the Jiles. We have a not so great supper at the cafeteria at Maswik. We go to sleep and donft have any trouble sleeping.

10-31-02

We head out of the Grand Canyon. We decide to spend the night at Flagstaff. We have a great supper there at some bar. It is Halloween but it really doesnft seem like it except that some people are in costume at the bar.

11-01-02

We drive to Albuquerque and get a room at the Holiday Inn Express on the west side. We head to Old Town to buy some red chili Christmas light covers and strings of red chilis. We then stop by the atomic museum that Jack use to work at. It has just moved to a new location by Old Town. We then go to eat at the restaurant of the twins. It is great Mexican food.