Western Vacation – Part 2

I’m (very belatedly) wrapping up our mini-vacation in this post.  It’s a little out of order, but that’s how my pictures uploaded, so we’re going with it!  One afternoon we drove over to the Hoover Dam. I couldn’t get great pictures of it with my real camera, so these iPhone pictures will have to work!

I posted a few of these pictures to Facebook and one of my grandmother’s friends left a comment.  She told me she and her husband had done this exact same trip with my grandparents, probably 25 years ago.  Both of my grandparents passed away more than 15 years ago, so it was pretty special to think that I was standing in some of the exact same places that they had been.  History can be pretty cool, y’all.

The other highlight of the trip (and probably my favorite part) was the Grand Canyon.  The drive out there was long, hot and boring, so that part was not my favorite. We actually had a little bit of an adventure on the drive out there though…

We were getting very close to the Grand Canyon, and following behind a brand new Nissan Altima.  The driver kept swerving back and forth, and I just assumed that they were looking out of their windows and sight-seeing instead of paying attention to the road.  I told Kevin not to get to close because they’re probably going to wreck.  The next thing Kevin and I know, we go around a curve, and the driver swerves off of the right side of the road, then jerks the steering wheel back, overcorrects, crosses the center line and drives right into a canyon wall on the left. Airbags explode and there is dust everywhere.  There’s really nowhere for us to stop, but we pull over quickly and jump out.  There’s a big cactus thing on my side when I jump out so I’ve got stickers all over me, and I’m calling 911.  When the operator answers and asks where we are, I’m thinking “I HAVE NO CLUE! I’M FROM SOUTH CAROLINA!”  Luckily, I was the one watching the GPS to tell Kevin where to go, so I knew somewhat where we were and was able to tell them.

We got back to the people in the Altima and they were already out of the car.  Thankfully, they were fine.  As we were talking to them, the man looked at Kevin and said “We’re from North Carolina.  This is a rental. I sure am glad I bought that insurance. This car is totaled!”

We waited with them for a bit and then continued on to our actual destination…

This is one of those instances where pictures really do no justice to the majesty of where you were.