Back to Denver

October 10, 2009
I made it back to Denver this morning. Nothing is ever "smooth sailing" even at 6:00am. Since the airbag light was on in the truck I thought it would be a good idea to take the truck to the shop while we are back in Denver. I looked up a shop and wrote down a cab company's phone number...good to go right? We left the hotel at 5:30am and drove to Ford. On the way there we called a cab. We got to the address where Ford was supposed to be only to find out it had closed and was no longer there! We had to cancel the cab and try and find another Ford shop and still get to the airport on time. Luckily it all worked out but the next Ford shop we went to did not have an obvious spot for us to leave the truck so that took up about 5 minutes of wondering "what are we going to do". We finally found the right spot with the key drop box but they didn't have any forms to fill out with our truck info. I had to write things down on a scratch piece of paper I had in the truck. We eventually did make it to the airport on time and all was well with the flight. We got back to Denver and it was 16 degrees outside with light snow...I was not expecting that. Luckily my friend came to my place while I was gone and turned on my furnace...it was warm when I left so I turned it all the way off (thanks Tweez). I spent the afternoon unpacking and then went to the grocery store. I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking different things, way too much for one person to eat but it was good and a nice change from restaurant food. I'll be in Denver for the week then I'm going home to MN to see family this weekend.

Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim

October 9, 2009
We finished up all of the routes in Grand Canyon this morning. We had one route and the truck gave me a couple of errors...rough morning. It was probably because there was evidence of a mouse in the truck. Really, I am not kidding. Other than the fact that it is really, really gross all I need is a mouse chewing on computer cables and power wires! Uhhhh...what next. Oh, the airbag light is also light up on the dash so I guess it is time for another stop at a Ford shop. We are spending the night in Peoria, AZ then flying out of PHX tomorrow.

I went to wash the truck today and after spending $5.25 I was only able to get one layer of dirt off and it is still pretty dirty...sad. Some guy asked me if the truck was the one that was used for the Google images. I said and tried to explain they use a 360 degree camera but he didn't really want to hear it he just kept talking.

Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim

October 8, 2009

Today the sun was out! We had a productive day and are almost done with this park. We have one more 26 mile long route left to collect tomorrow morning. We are then headed to Phoenix and will fly to Denver on Saturday morning.

Two photos posted are from the East side of the park. The squirrel (maybe chipmunk) was in a campground near the village and didn't seem to mind our loud diesil truck, it just kept on eating so I took a quick photo.

Just to tell you another glamorous part of my job...The Internet at our hotel is really bad. We keep getting dropped, not dropped from the connection but the browser keeps saying the page can not be displayed. I've called their IT 3 or 4 times and I'm done with trying to tell other people that something is wrong with their equipment. So, since the connection is terrible in the hotel I'm currently sitting in the truck in the parking lot of another hotel that has reliable Internet. Not like I don't spend enough time in the truck already but now at 9:15 at night I'm in the truck again so I can get on the Internet...gotta love it. The only thing that makes it OK is I'm listening to the Twilight soundtrack.

Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim

October 7, 2009
Today we woke up to wet roads! In the desert...really! The only good thing is that we are now on the South Rim where passing the time is much, much easier. We started down the Bright Angel Trail but made it about 1/2 a mile or so and then turned around. It started to down pour with sleet/small hail, it lasted about 5 minutes. We then just hiked along the rim. Overall the day has been rainy and cloudy with some periodic sunshine. We hope the rain is done so the roads are dry for us tomorrow! It was good to get out and hike some...We probalby hiked about 2.5 miles. We then ate lunch at one of the lodge restaurants which was pretty good and lodge atmosphere is always nice.

Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim

October 6, 2009
Today was a productive day. We collected about 43 routes today. It was a long day in the truck and didn't get to see much scenery. We did see some deer and a pretty big elk while collecting, the photo was taken from the truck. At the end of the day we took a short walk to look at the canyon from this side. Look close at one of the photos I posted and you can see the South Rim lodge, photo taken from the North Rim. It was hard to find but Jeff's good eye spotted it and I tested the zoom on my camera to try to get a photo...not bad. Keep in mind it is about 10 miles away as the crow flies (23 miles - via the hiking trail).