The Trip
How did I end up on a 3-week roadtrip to the Grand Canyon as the coda to my work sabbatical?
Nicole has been planning this epic journey for more than a year. Her and the boys (Perry & Kyle) were going to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, arriving via every other point of interest between there and Detroit in a giant loop thru the western US, sometimes camping. Sometime in late October, I was offered Kyle’s place on the trip.
I couldn’t point to the Grand Canyon on a map of the US. Like, I’m pretty sure it’s in Arizona? I can only name 4 of 15+ stops on this journey. But I definitely know how to backpack & winter camp, and heaven knows I could use a hard mental reboot and a few weeks with my son.
The car is packed, the GPS is ticking, and we’ve just exited the city. Our spouses are holding down the fort at ICHQ and humoring my broken dog for the next 3 weeks. When I return, I’ll have one more week to rest and then it’s off to Montreal to see what the future of my job holds.
I’ll update as I think of it and have a signal.
Comments
Five minutes into the trip, Nicole turned on the frozen windshield wipers and one of them flew off on the first stroke.
We were driving right thru the Bourbon Trail territory, so I found a small distillery named Neeley Family and we extended our trip by a grand total of 15 minutes to park and let me taste their single barrel bourbon and rye, and purchase the latter.
Spun the nextdoor Kentucky Speedway pokestop and received no gift - brutal dice roll. 😝
I can just picture you asking Nicole if you can stop, please please pretty please, with that shitty grin on your face like a little kid and Nicole being like... FINE BUT ONLY 15 MINUTES
| Nicole turned on the frozen windshield wipers and one of them flew off on the first stroke
I usually fly off on the first stroke too
Um, why are you going to Kentucky before you go to Arizona???
Um, why are you going to Kentucky before you go to Arizona???
You’d have to ask Eisenhower.
I can just picture you asking Nicole if you can stop, please please pretty please, with that shitty grin on your face like a little kid and Nicole being like... FINE BUT ONLY 15 MINUTES
For the record, she coaxed me INTO finding a distillery along the freeway. But the second part (time limit) is accurate because we WERE arriving just in time for the hourly tour...
So we roll into Tops BBQ, a Memphis chain, at 30 minutes to close. There’s 2 people working. I look at the menu and ponder aloud that a cheeseburger sounds damn good. “We don’t have any more burgers today.” Oh, that’s fine, not the best pick in a BBQ joint anyway, I was just thinking. A minute passes. “We also don’t have any more ribs today. Or the brisket.”
As I review the menu, I quickly assess they are telling us: pork sandwich , or pork platter. 😂 Fair enough. Anyway, the pork was good!
How has your phone not yet figured out how to take pictures right-side-up? It's been years, man!
But for reals. Have a great time. The massive mental reset that a trip like that affords is a great thing.
The upside down photo is actually 2 Vanilla editor glitches: reading the wrong meta on the photo, and also not allowing me to delete it on mobile to try again. Oh well.
Last night, Nicole understandably wanted to turn in after 10 hours of driving, so Perry and I had some adventures. Two internet searches later, our destination was set: Beale St and the river. We set out about 10:30pm, hit a jazz club and a dueling piano bar, caught all the Pokemons, and walked along the river. We got in about 1am local time.
More upside down photos I’ll fix someday:
>Spun the nextdoor Kentucky Speedway pokestop and received no gift - brutal dice roll. 😝
Smalltime trainer much? 15 min stop should be 4 spins.
-Digi
The shop wasn’t in range, it was a driveby!
More like Bottoms BBQ
If only we knew a vanilla developer that could fix those upside down pictures 🤔
I left my laptop in Detroit so I wouldn’t be tempted to do shit like that.
You could also rotate your phone the other direction when you take photos
Today was a 7-hour drive to Roswell, NM with a couple quick stops to capture Pokemon Go gyms in the few towns in between. We ate Mexican (whaaaaat?) for dinner, then Nicole & I visited the, uh, quaint International UFO Museum (& Research Center!) for an hour and then walked around the downtown.... most of which I claimed in the name of Team Instinct. 😁
(yes I made one right side up)
I’m not saying it’s aliens but
ALIEN DONUTS!?
Across the street and to the left when you leave the UFO museum used to be a local coffee shop. They had a strawberry shortcake coffee that was 100% legit. Best part of the half day I spent there.
Get you some New Mexico red and/or green chile while you're there. Smother a burrito with it. Bathe in it if possible. SO GOOD.
Already done. Got a green chile burger for lunch in Hatch. A+ burger. Dare I say it? I think it bested Five Guys.
Wednesday was Carlsbad Caverns National Park & Guadalupe National Park.
At Carlsbad, Nicole arranged for us to go on their most challenging cave tour. Helmet, knee & elbow pads, and gloves required. We had to crawl through a narrow box to prove we could do it beforehand, and there were multiple “are you really sure” cautions before we started AND after the first challenge.
(the test - yes that is how actually narrow parts were)
We made it to the Hall of the White Giant after 90 minutes of hiking, crawling, side wriggling, rope assisted climbs, and one extremely narrow 12 ft ladder. Then we turned around and did it all again, spending over 4 hours underground. At the lowest point, we were over 1000 ft underground.
At Guadalupe, we did the Devil’s Hall hike which took us a few miles into the mountains and thru a giant, fairly narrow rock pass. We got back to the car just as the light faded, well past sunset.
I don't think my thigh could fit through there
I concur with Brian, Looks cool though.
Me too, I am about 250 pounds now and fat.
Thursday found us on the road again, this time to White Sands National Park. We did one long hike thru the beautiful dunes, and a couple short hikes to points of interest. Perry was in rare form, at one point taking a diving tumble down one of the dunes.
In the summer, this is probably a fairly murderous hike, but in January on an overcast day like it was, it was extremely nice and leisurely.
The second leg of Thursday was to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico for a dip in the hot spring water at a riverside spa.
After that it was off to the campground in Lordsburg for rest.