The Grand Disappointment

From El Paso, and the grand time that it was, with plenty of celebrating with Cristina, Raúl, Yaya and the gang, as well as breakfast with my friend Gaby, we headed off for Phoenix, AZ. Though Texas was in and of itself quite hot upon our leaving, I texted my friend Andrew and learned that the temperature was to reach up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit the following day, and so it was upon our arrival. Thus, once there, we feasted on a chicken and pesto pasta meal, prepared by Andrew and his fianceé Genae. Then we simply crashed out for the evening, watching a documentary on baseball over the past 30 years or so, which recounted the strike, the home run race, and the fact that baseball was the only sport that, at least for a while, did not outlaw the use of steroids.


The next day brought a tour of Arizona State University albeit a short one as we quickly felt the effects of the heat and needed to relax and recuperate our strength. The summer heat of Arizona is comparable in some regard to the winter cold of the north, everyone stays inside, and only ventures out when the weather breaks. Thus we headed to Andrew's aunt and uncle's house in Scottsdale, a beautiful area encircled by dusty brown hills and populated with adobe styled feats of architecture. With fountains and much green to boot, they stand on some of the most expensive real estate in the country. After this we headed back to Andrew's place to enjoy an afternoon of college football! It was a great time to kick back and relax and catch up on a few things online. Life goes too fast sometimes, and it was nice to step back and just be.


Later that night we shared a lovely dinner at the Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale. An amazing salad and great service, it was a definite highlight of the time spent in Phoenix! Great company with Genae and Andrew. Hopefully we will be back in time for their wedding in June of next year!

The following morning we set out, with a little help from one of Andrew's friends, to the little town of Supai on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in northeast Arizona. We left a bit late, but caught some great shots of the sunset against the hills that surround the Grand Canyon, arriving to the town during the pitch black night. The road there takes you 60 miles through an arid landscape with a great deal of small trees, but we saw none of it, since we headed down the road so late. We traversed the whole stretch in pitch-black darkness interrupted only by a sudden bird, that mesmerized by the light flew directly into the driver's side of the windshield, scaring the living daylights out of Daniel, who continued the drive until we made it to the campsite. Once there, we rustled the men in the lead camper. I simply walked in, as the door was open, and the two men rolled over as I asked, "is this where you register?" They quickly informed me that I could wait until morning, so I headed to the car, and after a splendid meal of strawberries, chips, salsa, meat and cheese, Daniel crashed out in the car, and I in the tent right outside.

In the morning we started to hear the rumors of the rain that had affected those that had hiked down the day before. You must understand that we had heard from many different persons of the beauty of waterfalls including Havasu and Mooney, and that the hike is absolutely incredible!


The sunrise gave promise of a beautiful day for the hike down, which takes about a half a day, however the rumors of rain continued, and even as I watched, the storm clouds gathered over the canyon. It was an amazing sight, but I was not surprised when they decided to close down the canyon for the rest of the week.


Thus we took a few parting shots, and by mid-morning departed from the Grand Canyon. A disappointment to be sure. We could have headed back east to the south rim, but as it was we hesitated to go backwards on our journey west. So we headed for Nevada and the golden lights of Vegas!