The Grand Canyon was one of splendor and grandiose, beyond anything I had seen before. Pictures do not do it justice, it is magnificent beyond belief. The one thing I saw in the "man made" part of the visitor's center was a cement circle in the middle of many tiles with decoration from native tribes, the inscription said, "Tribes Call The Canyon Home" with a hand print included in the circle. It was touching. Around that man-made area were large stone formations. They were like thrones for giants. There were many visitors that day, I heard it wasn't so busy since it was overcast and rain threatened. I was glad for that weather forecast! It was so crowded, I didn't go into the visitor's center, but I did use the ladies restroom. The line was only about 12 deep for all the stalls. The restroom was clean, even though the toilets were not modern...seems there is no sewer service in the middle of the Grand Canyon!
That night, we stayed in Arizona, at the border. The next day, we headed into CA, through the southern part of the state. We stopped in Fresno, CA for gas and a break at a park. It was obvious that irrigation was used, since there was green grass at the park where the local students played ball games. It was very hot, 106 degrees at about 7 PM. I saw to the south many wind turbines on the hills behind us. The hills were all brown...and nothing much grew on them. A wonderful place to put so many wind turbines! There were hundreds of them, on the peaks of the hills and in the foothills. All were turning in the wind.
That night, we stayed in a roach motel...the room was OK...we snuck the dogs in and out again. The fridge in one corner of the room was sending out a lot of heat...I looked at it and saw the door was open and the entire inside freezer area was coated with inches of frost. I took two towels, put one inside the bottom of the fridge, one on the floor in front of the fridge and pulled the plug. I turned the AC on (they never turn the AC on for you) and we went out to find something to do for an hour or so. We found another park for the dogs to walk, but it was still hot.
When we got back to the room, the fridge had defrosted (how could it not? it was soooo hot in that corner!). I cleaned up any water from the defrosted freezer, closed the door and plugged the fridge back in. During that process, I moved the fridge and a plethora of roaches came scurrying out from under the fridge. I did the Mexican Hat Dance again...as I did in Flagstaff, AZ when I cleaned out A's car in the morning before we left Flagstaff.
We slept, ate breakfast (A normally goes to the provided breakfast at the motels, I don't). The way the motels store the food makes me uneasy. Cereal is in large dispensers, all available to insects. Fruit is not put into any kind of bins, but left in baskets for the night. If there are roaches on the rooms, there will be roaches in the food storage areas, too! Besides, there wasn't a decent cup of coffee in the whole southwestern area! While she had her breakfast, I would pack up the room and get things ready.
Some time beforehand, we had decided since she didn't know how to ready anything to travel, her job would be to put ice into the coolers for the days travel. I discovered her ability to do this also lacked in quality. She didn't seem to know how to close a zip lock bag and the ice melted into the cooler anyway! So, I always checked the bags (ice was double bagged) after she got the ice into the bags. She was insulted, but by this time, I didn't care about her feelings. Seemed she was completely ignorant of what she was doing most of the time and how it influenced my safety.
Sneaking the dogs out of a motel room would be easy if they were both BB's size. I could carry him and easily conceal him. Angel was another matter. She was a mixed-breed Border Collie and weighed about 48#. We were careful and never got caught. But I was always so nervous when we were doing this. Especially concerned they had our (or my) debit card on file for extra fees to be added on later.
We traveled north through CA that day, headed towards the Giant Sequoias.
More later...