I remember the drive last year, and I remember the terrain changing from flat and dry, the road rising, the land along the side of the road rising even faster, passing through a canyon. I remember this section of the road being otherworldly beautiful, and I remember Denise almost stopping. She knows better though. Stopping along the side of the road when the cars are absolutely flying by is just not a good thing to do. I remember her thinking that particular chunk of interstate would have been good to traverse on her bicycle.
I wonder if I'll be able to control Denise's desire to stop on the interstate to take pictures. What do you think?
This funny big airplane that we're riding in left Manchester at 11:20 this morning. We didn't need to leave for the airport until 9:20ish, and Denise was thinkng she sneak in a quick wander on two wheels before we headed out. I thought that she should sleep later, but she set the alarm for early. Early! When that annoying sound woke us this morning we could hear water outside. Rain. Riding in the rain on purpose is not something that Denise usually does, so another hour of sleep was in order. Ah, that felt good...
We're sitting over one of those wing things that extends out from the side of the plane. Wow - I wish I could sneak outside and dance on the wing. Denise told me that it's very very cold out there, and that we're moving so fast that I would end up flying on my own. Oh, and the windows don't open. I guess I'll have to manage inside by playing with words. Maybe I'll take a nap too so that I'll be fresh when we head out of Las Vegas. I think I'll ask Denise to roll down the windows in the car so I can feel the wind. I checked the weather forecast before we left this morning and I don't think that will happen either. It's supposed to be 97 degrees in Las Vegas this afternoon, and in 80s in Springdale. 97! That's really, really hot. I'm glad we're not staying there because I hate being stuck with only air conditioned air.
Oh look at those very tall mountains below us! They are wearing a glistening cap of white. Snow!
What a long day today was. We landed in Las Vegas, picked up our car - and wouldn't you know that Denise didn't take the car that was assigned to her? She said it was too big, so she went marching back to the little office out by the cars and they happily gave her a different car. I guess it's OK to ask nicely for a change. It worked for Denise. We finally jumped into the car, and it was time to hit the road.
It took a while to clear the outskirts of Las Vegas, but then we were just flying down the road. The speed limit was 75 for most of the way, and the cars all seeed to be sticking to 75 to 80. Wow. That section of road I mentioned before? Cutting off the corner of Arizona? It was as beautiful as I remembered, and Denise behaved and didn't stop on the side of the road. So we still only have word pictures of the slanted rocks, shades of red glistening in the sunshine, the river carving out a place for itself among the rocks.
It was a long travel day, a day for thinking of tomorrow's hikes. Time to sleep, to dream of wandering...
And oh! Look who we met as we were wandering through Springdale this evening, shaking off the travel cobwebs. Isn't he beautiful?
