Grand Canyon National Park!

We left the Tucson KOA after one last delightful trip to the tropical pool bound for the Grand Canyon!! Our first travel glitch happened as we made our way out of Tucson when we rattled over a bumpy road. The air suspension error came on the dashboard and Orlando’s huge mud flaps started dragging on the ground. We pulled into a gas station. Lando’s first idea was to call Pop (lol)! We said a prayer and put our heads together and figured out how to override the warning and get the trailer balanced and the back of the truck back in the air. Then just to be safe we stopped by the Dodge ram service department in Tucson. Fortunately, the service manager was kind and came out to run a diagnostic on the suspension system. He said nothing was wrong and could have been that the bumpy road switched the suspension error. Yipeee! We were back on the road!

The kids slept a solid couple hours in the first half of the trip. We listened to another Roald Dahl book, the BFG (big friendly giant)!  The kids loved this one because of the funny way the BFG talks and the part about whizpopping (farting) and the associated sound effects.  We attempted (and later aborted) a stop for dinner in Sedona Arizona. The drive through sedona was gorgeous but became a little tricky to navigate with the 28 footer behind the truck. It became clear we had to find another place to stop when we almost got pinned between a narrow hotel entrance and unecessary round about. So after a couple prayers, we extricated ourselves from Sedona and continued on to stop at AJs in the Canyon. Less visually appealing than any Sedona restaurant but it was exactly what we needed to recover form the stress of the pickle we got ourselves out of. We got burgers and fish and chips. They had ice cream and espresso and matcha (orlandos new favorite tea) which made it an even bigger real winner for all. 
The chitlers (children as the BFG says) did another amazing job on this leg of the journey. We arrived at the “Great Canyon” (as Sophia calls it) around 745pm just as the sun was going down and just in time for Lando to spot a bald eagle (a controversial sighting that is still being reviewed by the officials-mostly Orlando) and several impressively large elk at the park entrance. We stayed in the park at the Grand Canyon at one of the few places that had full hookups called Trailer Village. It was packed! Every spot was taken. We had a pull though spot at the end of one of the rows which was nice.

Our first adventure at the Grand Canyon was a hummer tour through the park called BuckWild tours. Our tour guide and driver was a 70 year old great grandma from New Mexico named Gigi who wore large sunglasses and a bright neon head wrap. She has been in the driving business for more than 40 years. We couldnt help but imagine if Ana had this job how funny the tours would be 😂 she was very knowledgeable and took family pics at every stop. The Grand Canyon was a wonder. Just driving up alongside of it and was enough to give you chills. When we got out onto the land is when you could really feel how impressive this place is. Lando was a little scared of the Canyon and Sophia was a daredevil getting as close as she could and climbing onto the rails to get a better view. Some of this could have been also trying to get a reaction from her brother but she had no fear at all.

When we finished the tour we had Gigi drop us off at the visitor center. We said goodbye and thanks for such a fun ride. She told us the best place to see the sunset in the park was at a place called Moran Point and that she would be there with her evening tour. Also gave us a recommendation for a hike for the next day called Shoshone Point which was just over a mile each direction. we had a picnic lunch and made our way to town nearby called Tusayan where we escaped the heat at the IMAX watching a movie about the early explorers of the Colorado River. We had a scrumdidliumptious lunch at the Yippe IE Oh steakhouse. We were feeling energized and the kids were still in great moods so we went to see the sunset at Moran point!
 

Day 2 at the Grand Canyon was way more relaxed. Orlando made breakfast on the portable Weber grill that we had to fuel us up before we went to the recommended secret spot called Shoshone Point and had a picnic lunch there. For a secret place, there was a well equipped picnic table with shade. We spotted a couple brave lizards at this spot scittering across the edge of the Grand Canyon. We took the afternoon off to get ice cream and do laundry to clean up all the dirty clothes we had generated.