![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Posty goodness!
I do appear to have lost a card's worth of photos, so I shall describe it as best I can without them.
I also have a![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metahacker and a galaneia as of last night.
I went to the Flagstaff Arboretum, where there was a very nifty raptor show. In addition to the expected description of the raptors that they had, and showing them flying from perch to perch in pursuit of treats, there were crows (or ravens?) which were trained to take people's dollars and put them into a container, and one of which was still pretty young. The young one was more interested in playing with the bills than putting them in the container, and was _very_ interested in being fed, and being pet. The trainer who was with myself and another couple of people let us pet the young crow, who was _thrilled_ by the attention and pettings. I got to pet a young crow!
There was the expected plantlife, not all native due to the fact that there is very little that is native that can grow that high and dry (7000-ish feet?).
After the gardens, I headed for my campsite in Bonito Campground, rather close to one of the edges of the huge fire in Flagstaff. I have pictures, although they are not sure that they want to be visible in flickr yet. While camped in Bonito, I visited Sunset Volcano National Monument with all the crazy volcanic rock that little to nothing was growing in, and which clinked when walked on. Sadly, these pictures were in the stuff that I do not have. I also visited Wupatki National Monument, for which I do have some pictures for later. This set of pictures took me _right_ up to sunset, which was pretty interesting for photos and for hiking.
Slept in Bonito, stopped by Flagstaff again long enough to pick up food I had forgotten at the hostel, get gas, and get ice.
Then, I started my slow trip toward Las Vegas. First, I went to a place called Bearizona, which has only been open about a month, to my surprise. Very very cool place! Does have black bears, both adults in a large enclosure and two cubs in a smaller one which were utterly adorable. There were also three wolf cubs, again very cute. They have a number of other baby animals which were not yet old enough to be in enclosures and also still had their enclosures being built. Very much worth the trip!
After this, I headed toward Seligman, AZ on the way to Grand Canyon Caverns and a wildlife park that ended up not being open by the time I got there. I noticed that I was rapidly losing signal the further from Seligman I got, so turned around in order to have signal for a call withmetahacker. Except then, even though it claimed full signal and I could get online, I was not actually able to receive calls from metahacker, nor voicemails left for a long while, nor SMS for an even longer while. Exercise in frustration, that, for both of us!
Once I understood that the call was not possible, I headed to a campsite for the evening near Kingman, AZ, in Hualapai Mountain State Park. Unfortunately, I had significant problems with not enough electrolytes and irritating neighbors (who did stop cursing out his kids while setting up their tent after I wandered over to offer to help), so that was a less than pleasant evening. Not awful, but not great.
Went to Grand Canyon Caverns, which was pretty cool, if not terribly close to the Grand Canyon. The air in it, however, is from the Grand Canyon. :)
Tried to go to a nearby nature park, which was closed on Tuesdays. Ah, well!
Went to Oatman, AZ, for no particular reason but because it was close. They have burros in the streets! Just everywhere! Pretty funny, and they are pet-able. Got back to my car, it said it was 107 in it.
After this, headed toward Hoover Dam and asking people where they suggested I camp for the night. Almost went to Grand Canyon West and their Sky Walk, but decided that it was too far out of my way. Crossed over Hoover Dam, through security, and decided to come back in the morning for the tour. Instead, hunted around for the campsite that I was told about, and finally found one at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Set up my site, then realized it was _way_ too hot to sleep. Considered trying to find a hotel, but was much too tired from the previous two nights of poor sleep. Finally did sleep, fitfully, once it cooled down enough to not be impossible.
Went to Lake Mead visitor's center, had a suggestion for the beach.
Had a nasty, nasty headache all day, and was drinking electrolyte-supplemented water nearly constantly, since I was pretty much covered in sweat all the time.
Went back to Hoover Dam, through security again, and walked from the free lot to the visitor's center, taking lots of pictures. Failed to get through security the first time because I forgot that I carried a leatherman, but made it through the second time. Did a tour - probably not worth it for people who are not strongly interested in interesting engineering feats - had rather crappy lunch because it was very late for food and I was quite hungry, and decided to go back to Lake Mead as suggested that morning to try to be a bit less absurdly sweaty. (it was 113 when I got back to the car)
So focused on getting less sweaty that I kind of forgot that the sand would be _REALLY HOT_. Burned my feet on the way back from the bathroom where I changed, threw my clothing on the ground so that I could stand on it while I pulled out some shoes, and then went down to the water. The blessedly cool water!
I did not get very far out into it, though, as burned feet and rocks that I could not see do not combine very well. Lay down in the water, though, which helped remove some of the sweat. That was wonderful!
Next, I decided to go to the airport a bit early, since I was scared to be driving in Vegas and knew that I would probably get lost. I did in fact get a little lost, but managed to find the airport and short-term parking. Got into the airport around 3:50, and found a flights board.galaneia & metahacker's flight was very early! Instead of about half past 5, it was quarter of 5, instead. Is good that I headed in early! Got a text around the new flight time saying that they landed, and then that they had to wait for a gate to open up, they were so early.
Met them, warned that I had a nasty headache, got hugs frommetahacker, but entirely spaced on hugging galaneia so far.
Bags were collected, then we went to the car. It was, indeed, much too small for the amount of luggage (and formetahacker's height), so we next headed to Hertz.
Confusingly, they were not really able to increase the car class size due to my monthly rental agreement, butmetahacker managed to get them to give us something somewhat larger anyway. More confusingly, even though I swear the guy at Colorado Springs said that adding additional drivers would be free, it was in fact not free to do. So metahacker was added, but galaneia was not. This took an inordinate amount of time, and I was rapidly feeling worse and worse (not aided by having had a crappy lunch due to intense hunger at Hoover Dam, nor by having not had dinner yet). Thankfully, metahacker took charge, even though he'd been traveling all day. During moving stuff from vehicle to vehicle, I ended up drinking a lot of electrolyte water, although I needed to pace myself because drinking too much too fast only worstened my nausea.
Went to hotel, fought our way through the excessive casinoness, finally got into the room. Had room service since we were not really up to finding a place to eat, and we were all exhausted. There was much cuddling, which was lovely.metahacker's choice for what I should eat was very much correct. Also, there was a shower.
Then, there was sleep.
Morning came, we wandered around a bit to try to find breakfast, which did eventually pan out. Now, we are going to head out to Grand Canyon North Rim. :)
I also have a
metahacker and a galaneia as of last night.I went to the Flagstaff Arboretum, where there was a very nifty raptor show. In addition to the expected description of the raptors that they had, and showing them flying from perch to perch in pursuit of treats, there were crows (or ravens?) which were trained to take people's dollars and put them into a container, and one of which was still pretty young. The young one was more interested in playing with the bills than putting them in the container, and was _very_ interested in being fed, and being pet. The trainer who was with myself and another couple of people let us pet the young crow, who was _thrilled_ by the attention and pettings. I got to pet a young crow!
There was the expected plantlife, not all native due to the fact that there is very little that is native that can grow that high and dry (7000-ish feet?).
After the gardens, I headed for my campsite in Bonito Campground, rather close to one of the edges of the huge fire in Flagstaff. I have pictures, although they are not sure that they want to be visible in flickr yet. While camped in Bonito, I visited Sunset Volcano National Monument with all the crazy volcanic rock that little to nothing was growing in, and which clinked when walked on. Sadly, these pictures were in the stuff that I do not have. I also visited Wupatki National Monument, for which I do have some pictures for later. This set of pictures took me _right_ up to sunset, which was pretty interesting for photos and for hiking.
Slept in Bonito, stopped by Flagstaff again long enough to pick up food I had forgotten at the hostel, get gas, and get ice.
Then, I started my slow trip toward Las Vegas. First, I went to a place called Bearizona, which has only been open about a month, to my surprise. Very very cool place! Does have black bears, both adults in a large enclosure and two cubs in a smaller one which were utterly adorable. There were also three wolf cubs, again very cute. They have a number of other baby animals which were not yet old enough to be in enclosures and also still had their enclosures being built. Very much worth the trip!
After this, I headed toward Seligman, AZ on the way to Grand Canyon Caverns and a wildlife park that ended up not being open by the time I got there. I noticed that I was rapidly losing signal the further from Seligman I got, so turned around in order to have signal for a call with
metahacker. Except then, even though it claimed full signal and I could get online, I was not actually able to receive calls from metahacker, nor voicemails left for a long while, nor SMS for an even longer while. Exercise in frustration, that, for both of us! Once I understood that the call was not possible, I headed to a campsite for the evening near Kingman, AZ, in Hualapai Mountain State Park. Unfortunately, I had significant problems with not enough electrolytes and irritating neighbors (who did stop cursing out his kids while setting up their tent after I wandered over to offer to help), so that was a less than pleasant evening. Not awful, but not great.
Went to Grand Canyon Caverns, which was pretty cool, if not terribly close to the Grand Canyon. The air in it, however, is from the Grand Canyon. :)
Tried to go to a nearby nature park, which was closed on Tuesdays. Ah, well!
Went to Oatman, AZ, for no particular reason but because it was close. They have burros in the streets! Just everywhere! Pretty funny, and they are pet-able. Got back to my car, it said it was 107 in it.
After this, headed toward Hoover Dam and asking people where they suggested I camp for the night. Almost went to Grand Canyon West and their Sky Walk, but decided that it was too far out of my way. Crossed over Hoover Dam, through security, and decided to come back in the morning for the tour. Instead, hunted around for the campsite that I was told about, and finally found one at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Set up my site, then realized it was _way_ too hot to sleep. Considered trying to find a hotel, but was much too tired from the previous two nights of poor sleep. Finally did sleep, fitfully, once it cooled down enough to not be impossible.
Went to Lake Mead visitor's center, had a suggestion for the beach.
Had a nasty, nasty headache all day, and was drinking electrolyte-supplemented water nearly constantly, since I was pretty much covered in sweat all the time.
Went back to Hoover Dam, through security again, and walked from the free lot to the visitor's center, taking lots of pictures. Failed to get through security the first time because I forgot that I carried a leatherman, but made it through the second time. Did a tour - probably not worth it for people who are not strongly interested in interesting engineering feats - had rather crappy lunch because it was very late for food and I was quite hungry, and decided to go back to Lake Mead as suggested that morning to try to be a bit less absurdly sweaty. (it was 113 when I got back to the car)
So focused on getting less sweaty that I kind of forgot that the sand would be _REALLY HOT_. Burned my feet on the way back from the bathroom where I changed, threw my clothing on the ground so that I could stand on it while I pulled out some shoes, and then went down to the water. The blessedly cool water!
I did not get very far out into it, though, as burned feet and rocks that I could not see do not combine very well. Lay down in the water, though, which helped remove some of the sweat. That was wonderful!
Next, I decided to go to the airport a bit early, since I was scared to be driving in Vegas and knew that I would probably get lost. I did in fact get a little lost, but managed to find the airport and short-term parking. Got into the airport around 3:50, and found a flights board.
galaneia & metahacker's flight was very early! Instead of about half past 5, it was quarter of 5, instead. Is good that I headed in early! Got a text around the new flight time saying that they landed, and then that they had to wait for a gate to open up, they were so early.Met them, warned that I had a nasty headache, got hugs from
metahacker, but entirely spaced on hugging galaneia so far.Bags were collected, then we went to the car. It was, indeed, much too small for the amount of luggage (and for
metahacker's height), so we next headed to Hertz.Confusingly, they were not really able to increase the car class size due to my monthly rental agreement, but
metahacker managed to get them to give us something somewhat larger anyway. More confusingly, even though I swear the guy at Colorado Springs said that adding additional drivers would be free, it was in fact not free to do. So metahacker was added, but galaneia was not. This took an inordinate amount of time, and I was rapidly feeling worse and worse (not aided by having had a crappy lunch due to intense hunger at Hoover Dam, nor by having not had dinner yet). Thankfully, metahacker took charge, even though he'd been traveling all day. During moving stuff from vehicle to vehicle, I ended up drinking a lot of electrolyte water, although I needed to pace myself because drinking too much too fast only worstened my nausea.Went to hotel, fought our way through the excessive casinoness, finally got into the room. Had room service since we were not really up to finding a place to eat, and we were all exhausted. There was much cuddling, which was lovely.
metahacker's choice for what I should eat was very much correct. Also, there was a shower.Then, there was sleep.
Morning came, we wandered around a bit to try to find breakfast, which did eventually pan out. Now, we are going to head out to Grand Canyon North Rim. :)