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22nd Oct 2005
The Gallup Flea and the Canyon
Saturday 22nd October, 2005
We were up early; it’s a glorious morning … slightly frosty in the shade.
Anne had the bright idea for everyone to walk to the ‘downtown’ (“its only half a mile’). Well, it might have been half a mile to the nearest end of the downtown … but it felt a hell of a lot further, consequently, I turned back just short and wandered back to get the car in order that we weren’t spending most of the day wandering up and down the length of Gallup.
When I returned the others were ensconced in a small café and the colour scheme which somehow seemed very 1950s, brought on a Martin Parr moment (for those that don’t know his stuff, his pics are often very bright and graphic …) and I shot off some frames of the décor.
After breakfast (which has now reverted to more traditional fare) we satisfied our belt requirements, with Anne getting the leather component for her buckle, I bought a belt at half price in case I came across a buckle at some point and Harry got himself the full-monty buckle and belt outfit.
Today is Gallups flea market day and we crossed the tracks in order to drive out to the field … which was a very popular venue. Lots of jewellery, but also car parts, engines, tools, clothes, shoes, candy … and rabbits, puppies and kittens. We saw loads of kids walking around carrying bewildered pups or kittens having just bought them for a few dollars. Bought Anne a turqoise necklace; large rough lumps of the rock which look really chunky and bright. It was baking hot wandering around and I was glad to get back to the car.
We were underway towards Flagstaff and Grand Canyon by about 12.30. It’s a long haul across, just relentless miles of massive skies and long straight roads; an amazing number of lorries on the road (for Saturday).
We dipped our toes into Sunset Crater NP literally for a few minutes in order to determine what was available to see for the entrance fee in the limited time available. The answer; not a lot more than we’d seen from the highway outside the park, so we disappointed our friendly, but slightly sniffy Park ranger and reversed out of the Park!
We arrived at the east end of Grand Canyon National Park in time for the sunset (about 20 minutes to spare) and were admitted to the park by ‘Robert’ who had a particularly fetching Park Rangers hat, worn at a slightly rakish angle and restrained from falling over his eyes only by the timely intervention of his ears.
We were at the right end this evening … the west end of the GC seemed to be in deep cloud and shade. It was a spectacular introduction to the Grand Canyon for the boys.
We drove on in dark to find our hotel; the Quality Inn at Tusayan.
It wasn’t explicitly signed and this turned into a bit of an excursion as there were a number of road options. Anne who had been in charge generally of the forward planning and prior booking of this particular phase of the trip, had been hinting at the general cost of staying near the Canyon and as it turned, out all the ‘Rim Hotels’ were completely booked
So we ended up slightly out of the park and the cheapest room was about twice what we’d ever spent before; hence we all came to be crammed into the same room for the two nights.
I rested up in the room while Anne and the boys bought some Imax tickets, got Pizza and then at 8.30 we all met up to see the Imax Grand Canyon movie which was great and gave us an insight into some of the history … particularly the early exploration by John Wesley Powell.
Thankfully, the chilli breakfasts were a thing of the past so there wasn’t too much to worry about in that department, but the room became a bomb-site nonetheless. Harry occupied a campbed across the window, Nick had a bed to himself, Anne and I had another and Ben slept on the floor across the doorway.
Harry spent a bit of time fretting about being carted off by a mountain lion in the night, but his concerns fell on sleepy ears … and by the time we’d had a couple of beers who gave a stuff anyway?
Everybody was so knackered that we were all off to sleep really quickly.
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