the voyage west: 2/4

Part 2: Greenwood, MS --> Amarillo, TX --> Grand Canyon, AZ

please look at how much land was traversed in 2 days. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were undoubtedly the roughest days of our journey. A double header of over 14 hours and 800 miles completed Tuesday followed directly by another 12 hours & 700 miles Wednesday. this is a lot of time in a Penske people. I would also like to mention that northern TX, New Mexico, and much of Arizona is not the most ideal landscape to stare at for 12-14 hours. These days, we took advantage of my aunt Nancy's road bingo, standup CDs, and even some excellent podcasts about mercenaries & bizarre Russian government experiments. A struggle it was, but we kept our eye on the prize: making it to the Grand Canyon Wednesday evening in time to see the sun go down.

a little on-road entertainment, compliments
of the ipad. thank you apple.

"gallup, new mexico. you aren't missing much".

after hours of driving, this gigantic antenna was much
funnier than it should have been.

I am happy to say that we reached our goal & rolled into the Grand Canyon national park early Wednesday evening in time to unload, bundle up, & head to the south rim to watch the sun's descent. 

"really-happy-we-made-it-so-i-don't-have-to-strangle-somebody".

. . .

We stayed inside the park, which was great because we could walk to the rim in less than 5 minutes. There were also mule deer everywhere (which for me was the real selling point). We decided we ought to to see the sunrise as well, so Thursday morning around 5 am we set out in the dark, sleepy eyed & shivering, to greet the sun. I'm very glad we did...

Laying eyes on the Grand Canyon was a highlight of our trip. It's as magnificent as everyone says & was a great reward to our laborious 2-day stretch. Seeing such immense natural beauty brings up a spirit of worship in me & I wonder if it does for everyone, even if they know it by a different name. It's astonishing that such places exist on our earth. I like to imagine the first humans who happened upon its edge and the varied expressions of shock that must have immediately spread over their faces...laughter in disbelief, gasps, tears, maybe curse words? Were they moved inside too? Did they see a mule deer and want to pet his head? : )

mule deer!