Stop 9: GRAND Canyon

Our drive to the Grand Canyon started off like any other drive, Andy driving, me navigating, kids in the back. We ran into some construction about an hour into a 4-hour drive so while we were parked on the interstate waiting for the tires to roll again, we played a little switcheroo game and Andy moved to the back seat, Sarah moved into the navigation position, and I took the driver's seat. We started rolling again and it wasn't long before Andy was snoozing in the back seat.

But it also wasn't long before I started to feel like it was getting hot in the car. We were heading toward our hottest destination yet and it was clear that our air conditioner had called it quits. Andy thought that maybe if we let the car cool off a little but, something might kick back on so we stopped at WalMart and waited in the shade for 15 minutes or so. But when we turned the van back on, we were still feeling a blast furnace from the vents. We pressed on toward our destination with the windows down. At first the kids thought it was awesome but that novelty wore off very quickly and they were soon annoyed by not being able to hear anything and stuff flying around the van. We were cruising down the interstate at 80 mph with the windows down, making it impossible to have a conversation, hear the radio, or do much of anything except feel hot, sweaty, and shouty.

Knowing we'd be in Vegas soon for a two-day stay, I looked up the number for a Honda repair place and Andy called to make a reservation. Vegas weather was forecast to be 100+ degrees so the prospect of driving for hours in a vehicle with no a/c was less than appealing.

We zipped into Horseshoe Bend but decided we didn't have the physical bandwidth to do the hour-long hike see it so after a $10 donation to make that decision, we hopped back into our Honda HOT-dyssey, we steamed on to the Grand Canyon. We pulled in around dinnertime and found our room to be more than adequate. We made sandwiches in the car and headed to the rim. Two-thirds of our kids liked it a lot. Sarah was terrified of the height and stayed mainly away from the edges. Charlotte and Alex went right up to most of the sides and looked right over. Alex has little fear of dangerous things like heights but he's terrified of dogs, even those on leashes. Autism is fun like that.

Spot the Charlotte on "her rock"

Sometimes Sarah needed some curbside company

There was an area that wasn't fenced and allowed more free range climbing. More "advanced" climbers went out there and Andy wanted to go, so Charlotte naturally asked if she could also go. I wasn't confident in her "staying upright" abilities so I said we'd watch from some overhang boulders. We all hung out at the top for a while, watching the sunset and listening to a group of travelers from New Zealand. Eventually I caved after seeing some real novices make their way to/from that area and no one fall. It was a very pretty view but I was so worried about Charlotte or Alex falling that I had a hard time enjoying it.

Andy is way down there checking out the area--really just an excuse to get good GoPro footage

Sarah was content to keep watch from the top

 I have a theory about why it's called the Grand Canyon; it's casts a "grand" spell over the kids while they're in awe of it's magnitude--there was little to no arguing/disagreement/bickering, most notably from the teenage variety. The girls even seemed to enjoy one another's company for a bit. Sarah offered to do Charlotte's hair so Char enjoyed a little braiding/ponytail session at the Canyon's rim during sunset. Can you think of a better salon location? I sneaked in some photos because if they'd known I was there, I'm confident the kindness would have turned to loathing in 3 seconds flat.

After seeing a beautiful sunset, we headed to shop for souvenirs and went back to our room. The air conditioning wasn't working very well but the outside temps were delightful so we opened the windows and brought in the box fan we'd packed in our "big mac". It was the perfect room temperature in minutes.

Charlotte and Andy's brains cracked in half and they decided to go a sunrise hike so they were up and out the door by 4:40am. (The rest of us "regular achievers" slept in until 8:30am.) They returned about 5 hours later with dusty shoes, sweaty faces, and smiling faces. They told stories about friendly rock squirrels (they didn't feed it), a passing group of tourists on mules that stopped next to them and told a story about a girl who died in the canyon years ago and whose face now appears in the rock, and how much they loved watching the sun rise in the canyon that morning. It was a hard climb down and even harder climb back out but they had a great time together. I'm glad they'll always have these memories.

Everyone got showered and we loaded up into our HOT-da Odyssey with our sights set on the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. The temps were in the 70's when we loaded up so it was very pleasant. It was loud in the car with the windows down but we were comfortable. As the miles cranked higher (we crossed the 3,000-mile mark), so did the outside temperature. When we got to Hoover Dam, the car registered the outside temp at 101 degrees. No matter how many windows we had open or how fast we were moving, it was just H-O-T. And dusty. And this combination makes for an uncomfortable ride.

But we made it to Hoover Dam with about 20 minutes to spare before the gift shop closed. The kids weren't in the mood to hear us talk about the engineering marvel that is the Hoover Dam. Charlotte started feeling ill from the heat, and Sarah was not having the heights. Also, my brain decided it was the perfect time for an ocular migraine so I was working with vision in only one eye. Andy was just happy to be filming something cool with his fancy cameras. This dam trip wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But I'm glad we did it and the kids can check it off their list.

Cranky, tired, hot, and kinda woozy, we headed for Las Vegas. Most people gamble in Vegas. We knew what awaited us in Sin City: Wally's. Wally's would fix our air conditioning and at this point, the cost didn't matter. We just needed our trip to be quiet and cool. 18 more days of this loud, hot, dusty crap wasn't going to cut it. So we drove down the strip and to Freemont St. to show the kids, Andy dropped us off at our hotel (Treasure Island) and he dropped the hot van off at Wally's so she could be examined in the morning. We hope it's good, not blindingly expensive news. If you look closely in the second picture, you can see our hotel in the background. It was only a 4-minute drive to Wally's from our hotel. It gets great reviews on Yelp. Right now, we just need them to help.