After many months of this ‘new normal’ 2020, we decided to make another road trip memory & drive to the majestic Grand Canyon Park via a stop at Las Vegas for short visit with family. [As seniors traveling we were very aware of social distancing & mask wearing.] We needed an excuse to hit the road so when The Big Guys’ sisters decided to have a mini [very mini] reunion in Vegas, we said sure! Yes, the time on the road was pretty long – leaving house on a Friday a.m. & walking back into the house the following late Thursday night but well worth memories made!
We put [round trip] mileage on the rental car of over 3,300 miles! The Big Guy & I enjoy these road trips seeing new scenery/sights & conversations along the way. Road trips are a ton of fun when you like your traveling partner & we really just wanted to get out of the house. Road trips are a fun trip for us so though the travel to Las Vegas thru West Texas was uneventful, we added some great memories.
We played it safe & Vegas was not busy so distancing was never a problem. We were welcomed with huge smiles & ‘thank you for visiting our casino’ – Covid had tremendously slowed down tourist so casinos were happy to see ‘tourists’ stop in.
Some Memories in Vegas Baby!
Awesome visit with family! I hadn’t played Bingo since I was a kid [you know, back in dinosaur days, Ha]! Did you know it is all electronic now? The family took us out one evening to play & we just had a great time. Basically, all you do is pay for the “machine'” & it does all the work for you in keeping up with numbers called.
We found Mr. Mama’s restaurant. This place was suggested to us so we visited for breakfast. The waitress recommended Mamma’s Big Burrito & it was awesome! Not on our regularly scheduled meal plan – Ha – but we were on vacation:) I’ll post pic in food post.
One day while The Big Guy & I were on our own we walked over to The Strat to see about making reservations for dinner that evening. Dinner didn’t happen but this did….as we walked thru the casino doors, a fast talking salesman approached us. Long story short, we ended up signing to view a vacation timeshare later that day with promise of ‘rewards’ at end of session. We thought nothing to lose but a couple hours & supposedly we would get these cool rewards for our time.
Shuttle from World Mark picked us up later that afternoon and we were off to the presentation. We told the sales reps NUMEROUS times we were not interested in buying – we just wanted the free stuff! How much clearer could we be? Ha. After presentation, the sales rep was awesome until she realized we really weren’t going to buy so they sent us down to the shuttle for ride back to hotel. On the way we stopped at the desk to pick up our ‘goodies’. We both chuckled that it would probably be a bunch of crap but lets go pick it up. Here is what we received: 3 day/2 night hotel stay [domestic & int’l destinations!]; $100 voucher to use in gambling [we sure did]; $50 visa card [it was good & we used it] & the absolute cherry on top was the 2 free helicopter rides [valued $180] over Las Vegas Strip at sunset that evening!!!
I have been to timeshare demos before years ago and the gifts were…lets just say crap… you know soft side bags that they called luggage, you get me right? Well, I cannot say that we will never do this again as the ‘rewards’ were well worth our time. Definitely would suggest doing this on your Vegas trip if you have the time!
Memories Made Heading to Grand Canyon!
After a few days in Vegas, we set out on our return trip to Texas. We stopped just across the Arizona state line to take some photos of the mountains & we were photo bombed! Ha. The Big Guy & I were concentrating on trying to take a selfie with the Colorado River running thru the Canyon when all of a sudden this face pops into our screen with a big ole smile! That is how we made our first road home memory by making new friends Sue & David from Kansas City. They were on a road trip as well. We chatted & both went on our merry way down the road. Who knew that when we parted that we would see them again a few hours later at the Grand Canyon – a reunion! Love meeting new people & forming friendships from just a accidental meeting…
On down the road we started seeing signs for “Grand Canyon National Park”. Free entry to Grand Canyon Park! Not sure if it was a freebie day but we were asked if anyone in the was over 62 & “yes” – we were given a map & welcomed to the Park. Let me say photos cannot give the Grand Canyon justice. The closer we got the more excited we were – wanting to see The Canyon but not really sure what it would really look like? We’ve both seen it from the air flying over & there are photos galore of it but to be right there on the South Rim viewing the Canyon was absolutely amazing! No photo I’ve seen gives it justice! It is a must see on anyone’s Bucket List.
Grand Canyon National Park
The views were amazing! This is a taste of view from the South Rim of the Park.
The Raven
This was a pretty decent size bird – not quite chicken size but definitely larger than the black grackles we see here in central Texas. It is the larger cousin of the crow & entirely black from its beak to its claws, it immediately made me think of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven”.
Here are a few fun facts about this scavenger. They mate for life & being ranked among dolphins & chimpanzees in intelligence, they are very adaptable to various habitats. They have been known to create/use traps to hide food or nests from other predators. Communicating better than parrots in captivity & can be very playful with each other. They will copy wolf or fox howls to draw them to carcasses that they were unable to tear open. When the wolf/fox is finished, the Raven will eat. Because of its blackness & seemingly intense stare, some European countries see the Raven as a sign of evil, death, souls of murdered people, etc. Some Native Americans considered the Raven a God like creature.
The Elk
Shortly after we entered the Park – in the distance – a huge deer ran across the road in front of us. I mentioned to the Big Guy ‘wow that was a huge deer’ but something about it looked strange. Well duh, figured out soon enough that it had been an elk. It didn’t really run gracefully across the road, more like a gangly teen all arms and legs, but an elk. Does that make sense? Not native to Grand Canyon, 303 Elk were relocated to the South Rim from Yellowstone Park back between 1913-1928! Elk are dependent on humans for fresh water which has left many of the beasts without any inhibitions regarding tourists. Depending on the time of year, Elk can be extremely aggressive & tourists are warned to stay at least 100 feet from the beast but as you can see from this photo two Elk strolled in front of our car right up the the walk where tourists were probably 20 ft away! Surviving on grass & shrubs a bull elk can reach 700 lbs.
Final leg home…
In awe of sights we saw in Grand Canyon, we drove thru the night thru New Mexico & just as we near the New Mexico/Texas state lines a snow storm stops us in our tracks literally, on the highway – 5 a.m. traffic came to a halt for almost three hours! Snow/ice had the highways shut down. All we could do was wait with the other many motorists until we were given the clear to drive. Semis, RVs & autos were in ditches and/or flipped over. What a mess! So for those 3 hours we chatted/took photos of the turbines/dozed. But we were greeted with beautiful sunrise over the snow. Just gorgeous!
An hour after traffic started moving again, we ran out of the snow & we were heading south home!
Wrapping Up our trip to the awe inspiring Majestic Grand Canyon:
We cashed in our coin jar to use toward this trip. $300! Amazing how fast coin adds up.
Just for transparency purposes, here is a breakdown of our costs for this fabulous road trip.
Enterprise Car Rental $303 with unlimited mileage [the only way to go on road trips. Enterprise always takes care of us]
Residence Inn Hotel $177 [We were able to benefit from family/friends rate. Great hotel & love the beds!]
Gas for Auto $210 [We rented a 2020 Ultima with all the bells & whistles & happy w/gas prices & mileage].
Food on Road $130 [For the few meals/snacks we ate out away from family or on road]
Total cost $820 – $300 = $520.
With all the rewards we collected from the vacation share presentation – this was really a win win for us.
Last Thoughts: Again I’ll say it – The Grand Canyon National Park is a must see!!!