September 9, 2025
Grand Canyon, Arizona
It’s 909! Today was an amazing day, even though I was stressed out a bunch of times which turns me into a crabby-face. Apologies to my dear husband!
We got up way too early. Neither of us could sleep. So, we decided to just hit the road early.
This morning we went to Winslow, Arizona. We stood on the corner. We took a bunch of photos. I even took a pic of the Route 66 symbol in the middle of the square.
We went into the Standin’ On The Corner Gift Shop and bought some more magnets and trinkets. They play Eagles music all day, every day. I wonder if the folks working there are tired of hearing those songs!* When I was in the store, they were playing a live album. Brad got us a Route 66 sign we will hang on the wall somewhere at home.
We met a guy who plays bluesy music on the opposite corner at the Arizona 66 Trading Company. He played like B.B. King though he insisted he is an amateur guitarist.
The dogs were great, but it was a little hot.
There were about 15 other people taking pictures of each other on the corner.
One of the streets is called Glenn Frey Road. There’s a statue of Glenn when he was young, and another statue of him older. I didn’t realize it at the time, but in one of the photos Brad took of me, I’m standing in almost the exact same pose as the statue.
The Standin’ On The Corner Foundation Park was dedicated in the town of Winslow on September 11, 1999. Two years before “the” 9/11. The anniversary being two days from now isn’t lost on me. Another coincidence.
After Winslow, we drove to Flagstaff to pick up some groceries. Flagstaff is lovely with huge pine trees and it kind of reminded me of New England or Germany with the big hills (Gray Mountain). Brad said it reminded him of Berkeley, California. Well he did go into the Whole Foods! Flagstaff is a college town, and I saw a ton of 20-somethings riding their bikes and electric scooters around. It looked like they were zipping to class or back home to one of the nearby apartments. It was a very cool looking place. Brad says it’s one of the most popular ski areas in the U.S. My only problem, once again, was the altitude. It was beautiful, but I felt like I was wading through Jell-O. Walking the dogs around Whole Foods’ parking lot felt like an intense workout.
The big event, the one I’ve wanted to do my whole life, was our next stop: The Grand Canyon! That’s where I’m writing from now. We arrived here around lunch time. Check-in was easy. But when we got to the visitor center there was barely a parking space to be had! We found one though, and we used the restrooms, got a map of the Park, and walked with the dogs to the South Rim. There were SO many dogs. OMG!
This thing, the Grand Canyon, words cannot describe. It looks almost artificial. It is just incredible. Pictures do not do it justice. Nevertheless, I took a bunch. But my battery on my iPhone was draining and the dogs were getting hot, so we went to find our campsite.
While I was waiting at the car for Brad to pick up a map and get water, a huge, black bird (I thought it was a crow) was hanging around and Petey was very interested and was barking at it. I noticed the bird seemed to be scavenging for food. Then, someone else in the parking lot tossed a cracker or something, and the bird grabbed it and flew up into a tree.
Later on, I found out these birds are RAVENS! They’re huge. Bigger than any of the seagulls on the beach. The rangers told us to make sure we put away everything because the ravens are very determined.
We are camping here for three nights. Tonight is Tuesday. We’ll check out on Friday.
I was unable to charge my iPhone with the solar battery we brought so I figured I’m meant to stay offline for the next few days. If I can charge it up someplace in the visitor center or something that will be great, but I’m not counting on it.
I was a little cranky tonight after setting up the tent, the other sites began to fill in with other guests and Petey of course had to bark at everything. Charlie joined in, but he’s not as annoying.
So, I’m hiding in the tent with both dogs, writing this. In a little while, we’ll go sit outside and look at the stars.
Tomorrow, we’ll go back to the South Rim and look more closely at the canyon. The whole thing is surreal.
More tomorrow! Goodnight!
September 10, 2025
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Day two at the Grand Canyon. We went back to the visitor center and I looked at the canyon without taking photos. I wanted to experience the experience.
I said to Brad, “If you don’t believe in God after seeing this, there’s something wrong with you!” Then I said, “Well, maybe God is an alien!” Because this thing is otherworldly, It looks like a painting. A montage. 3-D. Pictures do not do it justice. When I was in the restroom, I heard another lady say the same thing, “It looks like a painting!”
After that, the dogs were hot and I was still a smidge dizzy from altitude sickness ( I needed an altitude adjustment). So, we stopped at the laundry area to see what it was like. We have been traveling six days and it would be nice to have clean clothes. Well, we had everything in the car, and nothing else to do, so we did our laundry. It took like two hours, and I was even able to charge my phone there! My battery had dwindled down pretty low, so I didn’t want to use my phone. Now I know where I can charge it, as we are here for one more day.
When I asked the ranger where to charge my phone, he pointed to the outlets and then he asked where I am from? I said South Carolina. He said, “You don’t have a South Carolina accent!” I shrugged and said, “Well, ok, Boston!” I’m guessing my pronunciation of the word “charge” might have been his hint.
While we were at the laundry, we had the radio on in the car and we heard the news that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. I swear every time we travel huge news happens and we miss seeing TV coverage because we have no access to television. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s the rundown:
Our “honeymoon” cruise January 2020: As our boat was pulling into port in Fort Lauderdale, the TV in our cabin was able to broadcast again after a week at sea. There was then-President Trump (his first term) and [whatever his title was] Anthony Fauci, announcing that a dangerous virus was going around in China, Italy and India, but (they said) there was no danger of it coming to the U.S.!
Next! January, 2021: We went camping in Florida in our first camper van that we named Vanadeiu. The January 6th riots took place during that trip. We had no TV and didn’t hear about it until several days after it happened. We had our sick and dying cat with us and we spent January 6th in a veterinary clinic, sobbing into our Covid masks, as she passed away in my arms.
Continue: We were on our way to Pennsylvania in July of 2024, and we heard on the radio people screaming and shouting during a top-of-the-hour news break. Turns out Candidate Trump was shot at during a rally IN Pennsylvania! We didn’t see any coverage. We had no TV for that whole trip except for a station that showed news one day after it happened.
And now this. Charlie Kirk shot and killed near Provo, Utah, where we are literally going in a few days. I don’t know too much about him. He seemed to me to be a polite and kind young man who had traditional values. He was much too young, and left a young widow and two little children.
It seems every time we travel some major news story happens. Yikes! Maybe we shouldn’t travel anymore lol.
Back to our trip: we spent the rest of the day at our campsite. I like Arizona, but it’s way too dry. I can’t seem to hydrate no matter how much water I drink. Gatorade helped a little. So, it’s from one extreme to the other: South Carolina is way too hot and humid; Arizona is way too hot and dry! What?! When people say “But it’s a dry heat” from now on I’m just going to roll my eyes. I suppose I’m more comfortable in humidity, at sea level.Share
Tomorrow is September 11th. We usually participate in the 9/11 Memorial Ride in Myrtle Beach (motorcycles), but we agreed we can miss this year, because next year is the biggie (25th anniversary) and we don’t want to miss that. Tomorrow I’ll note the date. We must never, ever forget.
Until then!
September 11, 2025
Today we remember the day 24 years ago, when our country got attacked by terrorists. All around the National Park, flags are at half-staff.
I have to tell you about another weird thing related to the Kirk assassination. We booked our next hotel several days ago, in a town called Page, Arizona, known most especially for Lake Powell. Well, I heard on the news today that Kirk’s body was transported from Provo, Utah (where we’re going next week) to Page, Arizona. This is getting so weird!!
Today wasn’t that great. In hindsight, we should have only camped two days here at Grand Canyon National Park. Brad gets bored, the dogs do too, and the elevation has really been getting to me. I don’t feel “seasick” anymore but when I move, I still feel like my legs are stuck in mire. Even the slightest activity takes three times longer than it should. Having to find things in my bags or in the tent is getting really old. I like to have one little bag (or sometimes none, preferring to just use my pockets). I feel like I’m carrying ALL of my valuables around with me all the time. It’s really grating on me and it’s heavier than it should be because it feels like I’m on a different planet with twice the gravitational pull!
Last night, we basically had the campground to ourselves. Or so we thought. “Quiet hours” are from 10 pm to 6 am. Well, we got here Tuesday night. People were whooping and hollering until way past midnight. On a TUESDAY! Wednesday night, we thought we lucked out and there were only a handful of occupied sites. Nope! People started arriving at 9:30 pm One after the other after the other. They were all slamming car doors, hammering tent stakes into the ground, talking, yelling back and forth, shining bright lights. One guy’s car headlights aimed RIGHT INTO OUR TENT every time he opened the car door they came on automatically. Then he’d close the door loudly. He was hollering the entire time to his wife, and she back to him. They talked really fast and really loud. We were cracking up asking each other, “Who talks so fast like that?” Then, after they got the tent all staked out and I think maybe they were even cooking, they hit the start switch on an inflatable bed. It was so freakin’ loud all we could do was laugh. I mean, what else can you do?
All of this took place well after 10 pm. I think the couple with the inflatable bed and headlights aimed right into our tent finished setting up at around 11:30.
We ended up meeting them in the morning, and they were really nice people. The wife apologized. They said they had gotten delayed on their drive from California and they were so sweet, so we accepted their amends.
I had forgotten to mention that every night there’s someone who trips a car alarm.
Also, there must be an Interstate nearby because all night long, and all day, you can hear the highway roaring. It never stops.
The stars aren’t as magnificent as they should be because of all the lights.
I mean, this is supposed to be the wilderness. Hello? Nope!
So, I was cranky today. We got up early. Went to the Canyon again. It was too much for Charlie Brown Hound who was heating up after getting too COLD the night before. The temp last night had dropped down to 46 overnight and he hasn’t been in temps that cold since last winter. Plus, we were in the tent and even though he was lying on a dog bed on the tent floor it was just too cold for all of us. Charlie was shivering when we woke up that morning. We were wearing our winter coats, hats and gloves - inside the sleeping bags! Then Charlie dog got too hot only a few hours later when the temps skyrocketed past 80 and there was not a cloud in the sky.
It was so cold in the tent that night both dogs were shivering. I’d never seen Charlie shiver before in 13 years! It was very concerning. I had the infamous red blanket handy and covered him with that, even after we got up and went outside. Poor guy! Petey is so small he can just crawl into the sleeping bag with me, and he did. But Charlie doesn’t have that luxury being a big ol’ hound dog.
So, we spent the bulk of our day today at the campsite, doing not much of anything. I was really cranky because I’m just uncomfortable. The dogs are getting filthy dirty from the dusty dirt on the ground where they are sitting all the time. They bark a lot. But not as much as I thought they would.
I tried to nap, and couldn’t — it was just too hot. The sun was blazing. After wearing my winter coat this morning! I can’t seem to hydrate. We’ve gone from one extreme to another in the same day.
The highlight of today was when the dogs were napping in the late afternoon. They were sound asleep in the tent, thank goodness. Two female elk came by and they spent about an hour right next to our site. They were probably 12 feet away, maybe a little more. I took too many pictures of them. But it made my day, so it was worth staying here today to see that. Animals have a way of brightening everything up – especially wild animals.
Tomorrow, we head to Page, Arizona which will be our home base (at a hotel!) for another three days. We are planning to visit Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Lake Powell.
Next Monday: In Utah we stumbled upon some best friends!
My memoir, “Dear Hobie: Letters to My Heart Dog” is available now on Amazon. We hope you enjoy our stories and thank you for reading.
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