The Bald and the Beautiful

Williams, Arizona

After a good night sleep in Williams we ate the motel breakfast (orange juice and hamburger with scrambled eggs and white bread). For those of us that could stand more of the “fancy” motel breakfast, it was topped off with two waffles with maple syrup … not me!

We returned the keys to the room and took off with the promise of bad weather ahead. An elderly couple we met during breakfast told us that we should prepare for snowy conditions. We definitely needed something warmer than what we had planned for. Why we did not think of it is probably due to poor planning, and the expectation that we would only ware shorts and t-shirts. The Las Vegas forecasts told us it would be close to 25 + degrees Celsius. The south-east rim of Grand Canyon is a five hour drive from Las Vegas … why should the weather conditions be any different? Yeah, right! However, we were lucky. The sun was shining the entire stay.

Grand Canyon and the Colorado River

Coming in to the Kaibab national forest area we stopped to get some warm clothing, a pass to enter the Grand Canyon national park, and some tips on what and where to go. As expected the first view at Mather Point was breathtaking, and can only be described as one of the world´s most spectacular sights. To really understand the vastness of the canyon you have to be there and experience it in person. To draw a picture, if you took the Empire state building and placed it at the bottom of the canyon, you would not be able to see it. From Yavapai Point on the south rim to the Colorado River there is a change of 1400 meters, yet the river still flows 750 meters above sea level.

At first we tracked the rim as normal tourists before we decided to do what we came for. Trekking! We took the shuttle bus to one of the more difficult trails down the canyon; The Kaibab Trail with steep and expansive views. The trail begins south of what is called the Yaki Point. To get there you must ride the shuttle bus to the trailhead. According to the information we got, this trail gives the best views for a relatively short hike. The walk itself took us about an hour both ways (not including the stops). The total drop was about 400 meters; hence, to get to the river we would have to drop at least 900-1000 meters more which is an entirely different thing, requiring at least two days with a backpack and sleeping bag.

Once back up from the canyon we stopped by a fairly “unknown” burger shop named McDonalds. As we had no reason to stay behind we ordered “take out” and hit the road, but before we took the I-40 back the way we came we stopped in Williams to refuel. Stopping there we met a bunch of old school cowboys (some even carried revolvers). As previously mentioned the weather was wonderful during the entire stay by the canyon; however, once on the road again the promised weather hit us with full force.

Kaibab National Forest, Arizona

It started to snow … heavily! For about two hours we drove under fairly familiar conditions (being Norwegian) with no more sight than a hundred meters. In a short while we had just experienced the tricky weather conditions of the Nevada mountains. No sooner than the snow had arrived we drove out of it and into desolated desert country with nothing but sand, rocks and small bushes … for miles and miles.

Hoover Dam

Being back on the I-40 we turned our focus towards Las Vegas. We figured the drive would take us about five hours. Fortunately it did not take us more than four even though we kept the speed limit “to some extent”. To get to Las Vegas we opted for route 93 going north through the Hoover Dam. From the I-40/route 93 junction towards Hoover Dam it took us about an hour.

Hoover Dam is without exaggerating a spectacular sight with its massively huge power generators. The dam created Lake Mead which is the reservoir created behind the dam, named after Elwood Mead, who oversaw the construction of the dam. Hoover Dam, originally known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. When completed in 1936, it was both the world’s largest electric-power generating station and the world’s largest concrete structure. Currently, there is a new bridge project that takes place in front of the dam.

The dam was was a perfect end to the trip before we ended up at our final destination; Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas!

Woke up early today … leaving for Las Vegas, and the annual NAB tradeshow. Today I got up at around 6 AM, and got to the airport around 8. Met the guys a bit later as I was the first one to get up this morning. That is, I sent them a text message about me “taking a shower”, which apparently woke them up Don´t know why, but they seemed to complain that I made sure they got up early … LOL!

Our flight for Copenhagen (Denmark) left as scheduled around 10. The flight took around an hour and a half. Upon arrival we only had a short while before the next flight leaving for Washington (U.S.A), so we did not have much time to do anything besides walking to the next gate. A bummer actually, because I forgot to buy a power converter.

In the air

The flight for Washington took around 8.5 hours. We arrived just an hour ++ before our next flight to Los Angeles. Once off the plane we were herded like cattle on board a shuttle bus. They tried to make sure that those with the earliest flights got first off and into the customs line, but as usual that did not work well as they did not manage it, hence, the mess they created just added to the time pressure as we had to go through customs which took about 45 mins +. In short we ran for the gate, and barely made it.

The flight to Los Angeles took around 5 hours ++. We managed to get some sleep on the way over, and landed 7:15 PM. As usual one could say, we took first things first. Starbucks! For some this chain of coffee shops probably serves the best coffee in the world. I could not care less, except it was a nice opportunity to take my first picture of something really American.

LAX - Starbucks

We managed to get ourself out of the terminal, and fetched our luggage without no hassle. The latter was a small disappointment to some as it would have meant some extra dollars to spend if the luggage did not get onboard in time in Washington. Outside the terminal we spent a good 20 mins waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the car rental service. Once there we got off the bus, first in line, and managed to get all the contracts signed pretty quick. As we got out to look for the car it was no in its designated lot, and we had to ask for it. Finally we found it, but of course it was not cleared, and we had to wait another half hour to get a new one. Once in the SUV we rented we started on our road trip towards Grand Canyon.

Travel Inn Motel in Victorville

Things got off to a bumpy start as we took some wrong turns here and there, but when we finally got a hang of the mini-map we got for free at the car rentals, we got ourselves out of Los Angeles. Without any accidents on the way, and only one close encounter as we tried to get off one highway and onto another, we ended up in Victorville on the I-15 freeway. We all bunked in a three-man room (with queen-size beds ), and after trying to read some e-mail, google the place we ended up at, and of course trying to watch some local porn, we fell a sleep … it was a long first day of 26 hours of travel!

To be continued …