Days 8.5 – 9 - Albuquirky, making an impact, and a Grand day out (oh, delicious puns!)

Current location: Flagstaff, AZ
Time / distance traveled since last post: About 9.5 hours,  about 525 miles
Total time / distance traveled: About 47.5 hours, 3225 miles

 

I write to you tonight from the bar of purgatory (aka Buffalo Wild Wings) in Flagstaff, AZ. I am “enjoying” a dozen boneless wings along with extra celery, which is evidently what you get when you ask for a side order of veggies here. I entered the bar wearing a Flyers hoodie, only to find out that we were shut-out by Buffalo tonight. Oh well, my day was great enough that I'll forgive it.

Whence last I posted I was finishing-up at the hipster coffee house adjacent to the campus of University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The free refills with my coffee had me jittering, so I went to the Planet Fitness on the north west side of town for a double workout / shower before I met-up with my cousin Kirsten. All was going well (save for still being stuck at the bench-press plateau of 260lbs which I am determined to snap during this trip), and then, as I got undressed for the shower, I noticed that I had gotten substantially more sun than I had suspected I would for only two hours of shirtless skating. For the most part I would just call it "color" but my back might actually end up peeling a bit. This was comparable to about 5 hours at the beach, so I had no idea why this had happened.

Well, I meet up with Kirsten soon after and she explains to me that Albuquerque is actually a mile high in elevation (and that Denver just stole the good nickname... jerks) so fair skinned people like herself can get burned just getting in and out of the car too many times in a day. Good to know! I can now blame any tricks I didn't land or weights I couldn't lift to the thin mountain air... right?

After making friends with Kirsten's 5 cats and geriatric teacup poodle (who best resembles a turkey, both in poise and voice), her fiance Anthony came home and I got to meet him for the first time (ahead of time of many of the extended Russells). He's a man's man with a great sense of humor who accepted me as soon as he found out I have an iPhone, so I'm glad to accept him on behalf of the family. We all went out to Whataburger, a fast food chain I had first noticed in east Texas but never had ended-up going (since I can't live off of just fast food for a month without paying for it in the end), though now I wish I had because their food is legitimate (a grilled chicken sandwich that looks like, tastes like, and by all means actually resembles chicken!). 

The two were gracious enough to let me crash on their couch for the night and even throw-in a much needed load of laundry! I thank them both very much for helping me out on this trip.

But... you know what this means, right? I went to the gym... got some sun... and did laundry... I GTL'ed for the first time in my life (and I did it in Albuquerque of all places)!!

I awoke the following day as my Anthony and Kirsten were leaving for work. I thanked my hosts, folded my laundry and departed by 8:30am. After a quick workout and shower at the gym, I stopped in a doughnut shop. Ever since Texas I had noticed that independent doughnut shops can be found all over the place, which coming from the Dunkin-dominated east coast was a welcome change. I can't remember the last time I had a doughnut, so I decided to just get my father's second-favorite (since they didn't have Boston Creme), a chocolate frosted French Cruller, along with a coffee of course (which I drank black, all for you Pops!). I fueled-up, bought some ice for the cooler, and finally grabbed another breakfast burrito from Twisters for the road (I wanted so badly to go to the restaurant which Andrew had recommended, but I was already pressed for time and had huge time-depended plans for the day!).

As my last comments with regards to Albuquerque, I very much enjoyed my stay and do hope to return some day. With all this said, some of my negative impressions (which Anthony, a native of ABQ, maintained are his own negative impressions of the city) made me realize that while all cities have some issues, they just vary a bit by region:

1. There are billboards all over the place to "Be on the lookout for signs of human trafficking"... Not exactly something which affects us up in Baltimore much.
2. I did notice that there are several lab supplies stores throughout the town. Now, hospitals and legitimate labs need to get their supplies from somewhere, but having run a lab I can tell you that they are ordered from catalogs (no one's job is to run out to the lab store and get some beakers... though that may be a good use for interns which I had never considered during my tenure in management...). If you don't understand what I am inferring from this, then look-up the topic matter of the show Breaking Bad, which takes place in Albuquerque.
3. When I asked Anthony what you call the exact Navajo coloration with which is found on nearly everything in ABQ (turquoise of sorts and a pale red-brown) he said "Oh, it's called 'tacky.'"

At this point in time I'm not going to keep you in suspense as to my plans for the day. I was headed towards the Grand Canyon. I had booked a room in the Days Inn in Flagstaff (the closest civilization to the canyon, some 75 miles southeast) the previous night as I had been concerned that high-demand for rooms from people with similar frames of mind as myself would leave me SOL and homeless for another night (I later found out that plenty of people "camp" in their cars at Grand Canyon National Park and no one gives them shit about it... figures, since this is the one time I plan ahead). The drive to Flagstaff (which you hit first, and then continue on to the canyon) was scheduled to be about 5 hours, and having left ABQ at 10:15am, meant that I could probably get to the canyon by 4:30 if I hauled-ass. Wanting to be able to experience the sights at both daytime and sunset, it was HIGHLY prioritized that I got there as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, there were many, many sights along the way, and I had to do some quick prioritization en route.

Headed west from Albuquerque, the city abruptly emptied into a barren desert that resembled everything I had ever envisioned of the southwest. Mesas could be found in every direction (and on occasion the road would cut right through one) and all looked as though I was on the set of a Roadrunner cartoon (I was on the lookout for loose boulders mounted in catapults, anvils tied to ropes and mysterious X marks drawn in the middle of the road... meep meep).

Here's a video that much better captures the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzyC9OhiObw

Along the way I encountered what I can only imagine is a New Mexico meth-head who is under the delusion that he is, in fact, Wile E. Coyote judging by the bizarre items he was towing:

That, ladies and germs, is a truck pulling an old Cadillac convertible with a water heater strapped inside, and otherwise filled with - you guessed it - antlers. Anthony had warned me that people get weirder as you get farther west...

The only other features of the route were a few "authentic indian trading posts" that I'm sold whatever the crap they felt like at unreasonable prices to tourists who find novelty in that sort of thing. The only major change I noticed crossing into Arizona is that the tribe affiliation boasted by the trading posts segued from Navajo to Hopi. There were some cool rock formations right as I crossed-over though:

Pretty soon thereafter the terrain leveled-out and became a bit more of the high desert that I had encountered driving north in New Mexico, tumbleweeds and all. Pretty soon I encountered my first big decision of the day, whether or not to go to the Petrified Forest. Signs told me to tune into AM 1610 for more information, which turned out to be a radio station dedicated to promoting the various national parks and landmarks of Arizona. It's not a bad idea, but I found that the "In a world..." announcer voice added a little bit of a tacky aesthetic to landmarks and natural formations that otherwise were not tacky.

This may be a highly criticized move, but I ended up skipping the Petrified Forest in the interest of time (the driving trail was said to be some 28 miles long, which at a 10 or 20 mph speed limit would greatly diminish my time spent at the canyon). I was happy to find that though I skipped the National Park drive, I did get to see plenty of petrified wood formations on  the side of the highway as I drove by. I've seen petrified wood tons of time, so much so that the impact of "Wow, these used to be organic trees but now their inorganic minerals?" has somewhat worn off. In the end, I do not regret this decision on the merits of what I did get to accomplish later in the day with my saved time.

Some 45 miles later another landmark DID steer me off of my course to the canyon: the infamous Arizona Meteor Crater. As a NASA history buff, this was a must-see (so much NASA training and testing took place in this crater in order to best simulate the moon). Not to mention, this is the largest above-sea crater in the world, so that's really cool. Again AM 1610 attempted to make the attraction seem like more of a tourist trap than it is (the receipt of my $15 admission ticket even said "Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc." on the top). Further reinforcement that the property may be a private venture and not a nationally protected space were the cattle roaming the property:

Nevertheless, I had a blast.

The drive-up:

Views from the rim of the crater:

Some videos of the same: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7Z2UvBlG4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UhqgWVTNiM

Proof that I was actually there:

NASA training pod!

I spent about 20 minutes on the rim and bopped-around the museum a bit, which wasn't actually tacky at all, and then I was back on the road. No more distractions, I was headed straight for the Grand Canyon and nothing would stop me. As I came into Flagstaff I saw my first ever snow-capped mountain (of the range called the San Francisco Mountains), and did some pic-and-run as I cut through the town and ensuing national forest that led up to the Grand Canyon:

Why President Ford created the Department of Preventing Forest Fires and appointed Smokey the Bear as its first (and current) cabinet secretary (I think the lineage of Presidential succession comes right after the other made-up seats of Roosevelt's Secretary of Keepin' it Real and Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security).

And finally, after hours and hours of driving and paying a $25 week-long pass (no day passes), I arrived at the Grand Canyon.

I'm honestly not going to say much about the Grand Canyon aside that "Grand" is the greatest understatement imaginable. This canyon is so mind-blowingly impressive that no combination of adjectives or similes could ever come close to describing this thing. As my brother Adam said "You go up to it thinking, yeah, it's gonna be a "grand" canyon. Then you get there and you just say 'OH!'"

If I have done nothing else with this blog I hope that it has inspired some of you to take trips to some of the incredible places in this country, so please let me just say that if you even have the slightest interest in the Grand Canyon, JUST GO.

...and when you go, feel free to expect as grand of a canyon as you could ever imagine, and I promise you that it will be much grander of a canyon.

Arriving at 4pm (apparently I had saved an hour with another time zone change to MST which has no daylight savings), I walked up to the closest part of the rim that I could find and snapped my first picture:

Taking in the incredible sights from a couple of different lookout posts on what is called the South Rim (the North Rim is of course the other side of the canyon, which requires driving around and through Las Vegas since there's no bridge or anything), I then proceeded to hike west along the Rim Trail for about 4 miles, which afforded a seemingly infinite progression of breathtaking views, most of which had no guard rails or anything of which to speak to protect the hiker from falling right-in. Grabbing a green tea at a snack bar before turning back east along the trail, the sun began to set and the colors of the rocks were enriched, providing even better views for the return trek.

If you want the best views of the canyon, go yourself because no picture or video will do it justice. If you want the best pictures and videos, my iPhone on a smoggy day (air pollution from southern California rolls in and cuts the visibility in half (though I still won't complain if I can only see clearly some 12 miles in the distance) won't give them to you (just go to Google for the best pics), but these are just some of the literally hundreds of shots and videos I took that day.

The hoodie is because it dipped into the 50s and 40s at night; pretty big juxtaposition from the hot New Mexico desert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rNxphtlohM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp-SrF-iCAY 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf8TQvXboaM

After returning to my car I drove east 25 miles (still along the rim) to Grandview and then Desertview (two other main parking / observation points) to behold the final sunset. I drove back to Flagstaff taking a different route, heading east into the Painted Desert (which was too dark to photograph but still a great sight) and then south (I guess I just don't want to re-trace any roads on this trip). Finally, back in Flagstaff I checked into yet another Days Inn ($40 a night is the next best thing to free), got some B-Dubs (at which I started this post), came back and passed out. I just checked out a moment ago (and am thus finishing this post so I can once again hit the open road!).

Please enjoy the photos and videos, and keep posted for more adventures to come!