When I was a kid I watched National Lampoon’s vacation (the original and BEST one) about 1000 times. My Sister and I could recite the whole movie word for word. I always wanted to visit the Western half of our Great Country and see some of the things they saw. This movie spoke to us. Heck, it was literally OUR childhood vacation. We took it every year to visit our Grandparents, it Florida. Usually just the 3 of us, trapped in a car for at least 14 hours (our best time was 13) from Pittsburgh to Daytona Beach. My Dad would point out Hawks and Buzzards and Cows along the way…but we didn’t stop to see the second largest ball of twine or house of mud. Honestly, we were lucky if we stopped to pee! 🙂 Sound like torture? It was actually mostly fun…staring out the window…seeing our beautiful country along the highways. Spending time with my Dad, listening to him tell us stories about all sorts of things and then seeing if we could beat last years time to Grandma’s house.
I actually loved it so much, that when Jay and I retire, it is our (MY) dream to buy an RV and drive all around the country…stopping at all the places that we catch on a whim, letting the road take us where it will, and luckily having our own bathroom on board! I honestly look forward to all the places that we will go. I love driving and sight-seeing with Jay. It is one of my favorite things to do together. So when we found out we would only be 5 hours from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon…we rented a car (believe it or not, the Mustang was the cheapest thing to rent in Vegas), and we took off for Arizona. neither of us had ever been there before, so that made it even more special. Here are some of the pictures we took of our trip! Enjoy!! 🙂
Up at the crack of dawn…just like Dad taught me! 🙂
Our ride!
Smokey the Bear was on the way into the park…I LOVE Smokey the Bear!
We made it!!! and WHOA is really all I can say!!
You honestly should have seen me hurtling rocks to make it to him before the shutter clicked…so funny!
I went to the edge Mom, but I was REALLY careful! 
This picture makes me think of this song…Thanks Mr. Kravitz!
There were signs everywhere that said “Don’t feed the Squirrels…they Bite” Well, DUH!
Jay was a Geology major at WVU, and he found some Geodes
When I was little, I read lots of books about Native Americans…I was obsessed! I thought it was probably the coolest lifestyle and if someone ever asked me to go back in time…I would choose to be a Native American.
Jay and I stopped to photograph “mean Arizona Cows” as I affectionately called them…when all of a sudden this heard of ??? darted. 10 Points to whomever can correctly identify this animal!
It was such a great trip! One note…if I go back, I will take lots of eye drops. Apparently I have dry eyes and something about the desert air did not mix well with my eyes. When we got back to Vegas we found a pharmacy that had a whole aisle devoted to this very problem and I finally got some relief. But if YOU have dry eyes, do NOT leave home without some drops. You will thank me greatly!
