2002 Southwest USA

About a week before the big date (3/28/02), we started having second thoughts about the chances for standby travel over spring break. A quick check showed that purchasing tickets now would cost around $1400 per person so it was standby or bust. As we counted down the final 24 hours to our Great Southwest Adventure, we watched all the Cincinnati to Phoenix flights go from "Poor" to "Not Recommended". I came home early from work to try and find some alternative. Over the course of 3 hours I reverse-engineered Delta's flight routes into Phoenix. Starting with flights into Phoenix I tried to find one that looked promising. Out of 20 some odd flights on 3/28, there was only one, flight 989 from Atlanta @ 8:25 am that looked feasible. The problem was getting a flight to Atlanta from Cincinnati... every flight was fully over-booked and had numerous people listed for standby travel. *** I looked at flights into Las Vegas and even reserved a car (at a much higher rate) in case we wound up flying there. At 6:30 pm we made an executive decision- the surest (and realistically only) way to get on a plane was the Atlanta flight and Delta was not going to get us to Atlanta so we would have to do it ourselves. I called and rented a car at the airport for a one way drive to Atlanta. We frantically finished packing and left at 8:15 pm to drive to the Cincinnati airport. We parked the van and picked up our Grand Marquis rental car and were off to Atlanta. We had not eaten yet so we swung through McDonalds just before 11:00. I drove until 2:30 or so and then Gina drove for a couple hours. After 493 non-stop miles (except for gas) and 8.5 hours of driving, we arrived in Atlanta around 5:30. *** I bet Uncle Keith is REALLY glad he did not have to take us to the airport!

After dropping off the rental car and getting checked in we got a bite to eat. Things still looked reasonably good for the 8:25 flight. On the way through security Ryan got stopped and had to take his shoes off and get a body scan. I had the digicam, laptop, spare batteries, lenses, and a bunch of cables in my laptop bag and they did not even blink... I can only imagine what that mess looked like in the x-ray machine.

At 7:45 we still had not cleared with Gina and myself listed as 16/17 on the standby list and Ryan and Kyle listed as 34/35 (they had lower priority passes). Atlanta has nifty LCD screens that shows the standby list and who has cleared the list (i.e. got seats). At 7:50 Gina and I cleared (see you in a few weeks kids ;-) and at 7:55 Ryan and Kyle cleared. Whew- The Atlanta drive gamble paid off!

When we got boarding passes, mine printed out on a little coupon while Gina, Ryan, and Kyle's printed out on regular boarding passes. For some reason because of the buddy passes they had to go through another security check at the gate (but I didn't). They started with Ryan... off came the shoes and he had another body scan and backpack search. There was a bunch of people in line behind them and an official looking guy asked if the 3 of them were together and if so said to just check Ryan.

Almost exactly 12 hours after we left our house, we were on our way to Phoenix and we relaxed for the first time in a week. The flight was smooth and when we landed we stepped out into 80 degree sunshine. Now the vacation could begin!

This place was too cool. It showcased just about every type of plant that grows in the area (and there are a lot more than you might think). If you are ever in Phoenix, this place is well worth checking out!

On our way out of the Botanical Garden the sun was setting. Ryan and I saw the potential for a great sunset (photographically speaking) so tripod in hand, we went off the trail and found a good vantage point. Our prediction was correct- it was an incredible sunset! *** Afterwards we went to a nearby "super" Wal*Mart to get a couple styrofoam coolers, snacks, water, milk, and of course a couple boxes of Wheaties. We then ate dinner at Fazoli's and headed back to the hotel.

Ryan and I picked up our rental "family truckster", a red Ford Explorer from Hertz, and after a couple painful loops around the terminal we found Gina, Kyle, and a big pile of luggage. We loaded up and were off to our first hotel- the airport Days Inn. Of course the kids immediately wanted to go swimming.

We cruised around the area near the airport and checked out the Papago Park area (a large hill made of some really strange sandstone like rocks with cave sized holes in them). We then headed back to the hotel so the kids could swim. Around dinner time we headed off to the Desert Botanical Garden.

Montezuma Castle consists of the remains of several indian dwellings built into the side of a cliff.

We got up at 7:15, had a quick breakfast, packed up, and headed off to the Grand Canyon. As soon as we left Phoenix it started to rain (I thought it never rained here!). Hopefully this is not an indicator of the weather we will have! *** It rained steadily for 90 minutes and 100 miles until we arrived at our first stop, Montezuma Castle, and then abruptly quit and the sky cleared to a deep blue with nice white cloud.

Now it was time to finish the remaining 130 miles to the Grand Canyon. The terrain quickly changed from dry (well except for the rain we drove through) desert plains spotted with a few little hills to higher elevations with vast forests of evergreens.

We were getting hungry so we figured we would get some fast food on the way to our next stop, Montezuma Well, which was just one exit up the interstate. *** Note to self- there does exist a place in this country where there is not a McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell at every exit. As a matter of fact, the average McDonald's density in Arizona appears to be 1 per 100 miles of interstate! So after realizing there were no people, much less food, anywhere near the Montezuma Well exit, we back-tracked down I-17 until we found food- not fast food... it took 30 minutes to go through the Taco Bell and Burger King drive throughs. We then headed back up to Montezuma Well and ate at a picnic area.

There is a loop trail that goes from the parking area to a creek formed by the runoff from the spring that fills the sinkhole (something like 1.5 million gallons a day). *** The trail then goes up to the sinkhole itself. There are a number of indian dwellings/ruins in the crater surrounding the sinkhole. The pictures don't really convey how neat this area is because you can't see the surrounding desert. After looking around for an hour or so, we were ready to go and realized Kyle was no where to be found. Gina continued down the trail while I turned back figuring that one of us would find him and we rejoin on the other side of the loop). Well Gina and I rejoined but neither of us encountered Kyle... we were starting to get worried when he comes walking up from the side trail that goes down to the creek- he saw a lizard and was chasing it.

Montezuma Well is a sinkhole that filled with water and is now sort of a desert oasis.

I've never been to Flagstaff so I had expected it to be similar to Phoenix... basically in the middle of a desert. It actually looks more like the Pacific Northwest- complete with a massive looming mountain (Humphreys Peak), part of the San Fransisco Peaks- what are they doing in Arizona!?!. It was snow capped and even though we were already at around 7000 foot elevation, the top still looked way up there.