Tag hiking grand canyon down up in one day

So yesterday’s drive was lengthy and made lengthier by a very nasty storm we hit around the Tampa area.  We were driving in near blinding wind swept rain for quite awhile.    The last two days I have noticed something different with the way the van sounds.

The check engine light problem disappeared when we got back to our normal near sea level elevations. However it now sounds either like there is a small miss in the motor or perhaps an exhaust leak.  The van just sounds louder to me.

It got us home, that is all that matters.  To be honest, asking the party van to take me to the most western point I have EVER driven was a gamble.  We drove it hard and long, covering the bulk of the nearly 5500 miles traveled in a span of 7 days.

The overall mileage average for the van was a pretty paltry 15.89 mpg which added up to a total gas expenditure of $1087.  Yes that is a painful but expected number.  There is a price to pay to cross the country in conversion van comfort.

The most I ever spent on one fill up was around $93.  The cheapest price I paid for gas was $3.19 a gallon (in Alabama I think?)  The most I paid was $4.19 a gallon at the area by the Grand Canyon where they basically have you held hostage since there was only one gas station . The Grand Canyon area also has a very high sales tax, right around 9%, just an FYI.

My wallet was vomiting with credit card receipts, all of which I put into Quicken this morning.  Yes the trip was not cheap but thank goodness Cindy split the expenses with me.

Looking back on the trip, it was pretty f’ing awesome.  Of course the highlight was hiking the Grand Canyon down and back in a day, something that I would not recommend to anyone unless you are crazy, like me.  The hike pushed me closer to my personal breaking point than I expected.  However it is also one of my proudest physical achievements so I’ll trade the pain for the pride I will always take from the moment we emerged from Bright Angel Trail, 9 hours after we started.

As awesome as the Grand Canyon was, it was preceded and followed by some other pretty incredible experiences like partying on Bourbon Street, the solemn walk through the Oklahoma bombing memorial, the beauty of Durango and sledding down sand dunes at White Sands National Park.   Each event will stick with me until I am done on this planet.

In total I took close to 500 pictures.  You can see them all here.  There are some AWESOME shots in there.

There was concern on both Cindy and my part about how we would get along being on a long road trip together.  It really was fine.  Since we are both “doers” we complimented each other well.  There were only a few annoyances on both sides of the fence and they were minor at best.  Overall the trip went very, very well which is a tribute to both the prep that Cindy put in leading up to it and the effort we both put into just enjoying things for what it was, an opportunity to see some of the great things that are out there if you just take the time to look.

Last night and today have been mostly about getting things back in order although Cindy and I did take time out to go to the DD ride this morning.  After seeing I gained 3 pounds on the trip the four alarm fat bell is sounding in my head.  The 20 mile ride was just the start of my efforts to get things tightened up asap.

I have tomorrow off as well.  I’d love to get the shaggy grass mowed but Mother Nature seems determined to dump water on the property daily in high amounts.