The Southam Family Road Trip: Friday a hot trip through the desert to the Grand Canyon

Needing to make up for the time we spent whale watching we need to make the journey from Los Angeles to Williams Arizona in one hop of 450 miles so an early start but still caught up in rush hour traffic for the first part of the journey but soon we were going against the flow so making it much easier when we turned on to Interstate 40 the SATNAV issued the command continue for 320 miles. After crossing the Colorado river and entering Arizona we climbed in to the high desert where we need to use one of the very infrequent rest areas to have a break for lunch the outside temperature was somewhere around 115 degrees and while preparing lunch the was suddenly a very loud hissing sound! On investigation it turned out to be the propane tank venting excess pressure caused by the heat so an evacuation of the RV was called for not fun in these temperatures but after a few minutes the venting of propane stopped and after opening all the windows and doors on the RV to clear any build up from inside the van we were able to continue. On the way we needed to put another £100 of fuel in to the RV yes I do mean £100! So we took the next junction that said fuel was available, you have to ask why anyone lives out here as there does not seem to be any meaningful farming and certainly no industry but this town sorry city of Seligman this is a very 1960’s American town which seems to have dedicated its self to “Route 66” see the pictures from here it was only another one hundred miles to our site for the next two nights finally arriving at our site by 5.30 after a little confusion over time zones, Arizona is on “Mountain time” but does not use daylight saving. I decided to have a camp fire tonight as all pitches have fire pits so we bought fire wood and the girls tried to light the fire but it went out, so Dad has a go and it looks as though its going to take but it also fails so much for camping skills!

GRAND CANYON

Today is the day that I get to put a big tick on my list. Fern and I are going to take a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. Part of the check in procedure is being weighed! We were sharing our flight with a Belgian family who now live in New York, when we arrive at the helicopter the reason for the weights become clear, there are only eight seats (two rows of four) including the pilot, we each have allocated seats to balance the aircraft but even though I was in one of the inner seats on the back row I head a great view, I was really surprised how smooth the flight was having not been in a helicopter before and the noise cancelling headphones that everyone wears make remove nearly all the blade noise and make communication between everyone really easy.

After the helicopter ride we all were about to take a shuttle bus so we could walk along the canyon rim but a thunder storm (it's monsoon season!) appeared to be moving in so the Rangers closed down the outgoing transport so we headed off for lunch when we came out everything was now back to normal. When walking along the canyon rim it is clear to see why they are so jumpy when it comes to lightning there are numerous trees that show the results of lightning strikes. Although the helicopter ride was exciting and a fantastic experience to see the canyon close up and look down with your feet on the ground is truly awe inspiring. We left just as the sun was setting and came across an Elk just across from the car park it was a great end to a great day