Nearly a wasted day

Day 10

Abrigados is a lovely resort. If I were a timeshare person, which I'm not, and had disposable income, which I don't, I might buy there. Our 90 minute presentation turned to 3 hours as we tried to convince the sales people we weren't buying any of their increasingly better offers. Then they made us drive back to the hotel with paperwork to insure our room was comped...a complete waste of an hour do to road construction. We won't make Grand Canyon today, despite it's close proximity.

We climbed about two thousand feet along the highway switchbacks to crest the Mogollon Rim. This divides the the Colorado Plateau from the lower section of Arizona. The scenery is once again quite different here. It's an exciting drive.

We're experiencing some more odd nostalgia here. Del Taco, Sizzler and Bonanza Steak houses, Sinclair Gas, and Shasta Cola are a few of the childhood brands that still exist here. We sampled a Del Taco lunch. They now serve hamburgers and ALL the combo meals come with french fries. Burritos and fries. That's just wrong.

We pressed on toward the Grand Canyon, with a side trip to Sunset Crater State Park. This is one of the last of a series of volcanoes to be active in the area (about 1000 years ago, so it exists as a big event in the lore of a number of native tribes here. Sean got another ranger badge as we explored the twisted black landscape. By the time we had finished it was getting dark. We decided to camp in the shadow of the volcano. The camp ground was very nice (the first with no showers though) and we capped off dinner with toasted marshmallows. Not a bad day, considering how it started.