The alarm sounded at 5:30 a.m. and our master plan of walking to the Grand Canyon to watch the sunrise was instantly struck down by our desire for more sleep. Katie turned off the alarm (in the tent) and we got another hour of sleep until a crow decided to break into our Styrofoam cooler. Little did the crow know that there was nothing but beer and yogurt left in it. We got up to shoo the crow away and then decided we might as well pack up camp and get an early start on the day. Since we had sweat profusely for the last two days and didn’t have an opportunity to shower, we decided $1.75 for a 5 minute campground shower was well worth the investment…
After consulting the atlas, we realized that going up to Colorado was probably not going to work with our original traveling plans as we had anticipated. We decided to head south out of Grand Canyon instead and head towards New Mexico. Katie’s friend Katie W’s brother lives in Santa Fe, NM, so we decided to give them a call and see what they were up to. They invited us to stay at their place that night, so we set the Garmin to Santa Fe, NM.
On the way to Santa Fe, Katie spotted a sign for the Meteor Crater National Landmark. For some strange reason she felt compelled to see it, so we made our first “tourist trap” stop of the trip. For the bargain price of $15 each we got to see a huge hole in the ground. It actually was very interesting, although a bit overpriced.
Back on the road, we drove until we hit Gallup, NM and stopped for lunch. Our first choice “Jerry’s” was closed on Mondays, (as we soon found out, most restaurants in Gallup were closed on Mondays). We eventually found a place called “El Sombrero” that was open. It was very good and cheap Mexican food. We washed the car for $4 in a self service car wash and then got back on the road.
We bought yet another losing lottery at a gas station, filled up our gas tank and then arrived at Patrick and Kathy’s house around 7 p.m. We met Annie (or as Patrick effectionally calls her the little Dutch boy because of her recent haircut), Lara and Iris (the yellow lab) for the first time and then all had dinner together. It was great to have a good home cooked meal.
After dinner, Kathy put the kids to bed and we headed outside to the patio for some after dinner drinks and to watch a meteor shower. We all managed to see several shooting stars and talked until about 11 p.m. when we all decided to call it a night. Patrick had to get up for work the next morning (something we are slowly getting accustomed to not doing).