We had heard many great and wonderful things about the Grand Canyon Skybridge on the west end of the canyon so after finding out that it was a manageable $29 to walk on, we drove off in that direction. We drove for miles and miles on dirt roads at barely crawling speed. Yes you read that right. Dirt roads. In the 21st century. On the way to a major attraction. Arizona people, get with the times, please, for the good of us all.
Upon arriving at our destination, we walked inside the ticket place and discovered that they wanted $75 to walk on a bridge - even though their website says $29. We had previously called ahead to be sure that we wouldn’t have to pay anything other than the $29 and they had assured us we would not. When we kindly asked the lady to please break down the price for us, she looked at us like idiots and said:
Lady: $29.99 + $10 fuel charge + $5 tax + $29.99 bridge walk
Us: What’s the first $29.99 for?
Lady: Look, it’s broken up right here!
Us: Yeah, but what is the first $29.99 for?
Lady: I told you! Fuel charge and tax!
Us: Yes, but those are separate. What’s the first $29.99 for?
Lady: (sighs) IT’S RIGHT HERE!
Us: That’s ridiculous. We’ll think about it.
So we used their bathrooms and turned around and left without even seeing the Grand Canyon. We planned to camp near the east end of the canyon since that is the larger and more popular side, so we took off in that direction.
Arriving into the town just before the national park, we discovered that we had the best luck in the whole entire world! Once a year they have free national park entrance passes for a full weekend. It just so happened that this was the free weekend! We also learned that since it’s a national park, you don’t have to pay to camp anywhere! This was happy so we stopped by McDonalds for some garbage food. Mickey D’s was pretty much the only place open after 9 pm and it was packed with tourists. I believe we were the only English speaking people in the building, except for the cashier and even then she was suspect. The poor janitor was waiting around for us to finish brushing our teeth so he could clean but finally gave up and just cleaned around us. We weren’t planning to leave until we were good and ready.
We found a nice spot off the side of the road and pitched the tent. After telling some ax murderer stories to sufficiently scare ourselves, we sausaged ourselves into the tent and tried to fall asleep.
Not happening. Char and LeAnne entertained themselves by texting Nate and each other from either side of Martha, while Martha tried to pretend she couldn’t hear the clicking keys. Poor Nate was subjected to many random texts and was grilled mercilessly. Rutabagas and other vegetables were also discussed in some depth. This put us in a rather sleepy mood and we settled in for the night listening for ax murderers, in much squishy-ness and with rocks in our backs. Martha would like to comment that the stars peeking out between the trees were absolutely beautiful.
Was that a KAO?
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