Day 2

<p>Let me start this off by saying it's really hard to type on this phone in the car so I'm going to make this as efficient as possible. Yesterday was crazy. Here's some stuff that happened:

-Woke up early and set off from Barstow

-Waved hello to the Las Vegas Strip and the Hoover Dam from the road

-Arrived at Grand Canyon Ranch where we were greeted by Cowboy Dave who was awfully invasive but ultimately entertaining

-Drove on a bumpy dirt road up to Grand Canyon West

-Arrived on the Hualapai Reservation and immediately found out that I had latched the trailer incorrectly which caused 3 bags and a box to fly out the back. A nice man collected 2 out of 4- my bag full of all the clothes I have for the next month and Eric's bag of shoes and belts, both of which were pretty banged up. The box was unimportant so the real loss was my moms big 1990 Diane Von Furstenberg that was mostly empty but I'm pretty sure it had my favorite postcards from those that I've collected on my travels through the US and Europe. I'm really really sorry Mom. We filed a missing item report and there's only one road there so there's a good chance it'll turn up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Deep breath. Moving on...

-We chose Grand Canyon West instead of the regular national park because of the skywalk (Google it) but it turned out this side of the canyon is a huge tourist trap. To see the canyon we had to buy bus tickets. $45/person. To walk on the skywalk was extra. $30/person. Want a picture? $30. So we forked over money for the bus and skipped the skywalk. We were disappointed until we saw the 2 beautiful points of the canyon they took us to. Breathtaking.

-At that point the only place to eat was the Hualapai Ranch which was $15/person for dinner on a styrofoam plate. We were so hungry it was totally fine with us. We had some laughs about the setting: very few people eating, an intrusive magician, a country singer.

-Back to the ranch. Did I mention our cabin was surrounded by ponies, teepees, and covered wagons? There was a cowboy singing by a campfire but we just hunkered down in our cabin and read the entire fascinating ranch brochure. The amount of sarcastic commentary coming out of our mouths was a pretty good indicator that this place was not marketed to us.

Now we're somewhere in the middle of Arizona headed for El Paso. Arizona is beautiful with its wide open spaces and majestic mountains. Today is our longest drive- about 12 hours- so there may not be much to report tomorrow.

P.S. Mom...again I'm really sorry about your suitcase. I know it was a gift from Dad. Let's hope the security officers who drive the road daily find it.