Battling Thunderstorms from the Grand Canyon to Heart Attack Grill all the way to Tucson...Day 2

Day 2
Saturday, October 2

Day 2 started off earlier than I normally get up...4:15am that is.  Now, I'm used to waking up 6-7am with an alarm.  So I was astonished when I actually woke up on my own at 4:15am (I accidentally set my alarm for 4pm) after only going to sleep a measly 4 hours earlier.  Faustino and I made it to our car by about 4:30am after stumbling to get our stuff ready to go.  When we went to open the door with the clicker we realized something was wrong.  Either the clicker was broken or the battery was dead because it wasn't unlocking!!!  What the...  Its only our second day and our car is not working.  This can't be happening.  After about 2 seconds, I tried the car and you guessed it...our battery was DEAD.  Kaput.  Beyond life.  Again...this can't be happening.  Oh no, what do we do?  I'll call a tow truck so they can jump it...  Wait a moment, why do that if I can call Jackie and have her jump our car.  She couldn't have fallen asleep that quickly, we only just left moments before.  Jackie's phone's dead...what the???  So I ran back to her apartment, knocked on the door and yes she was still awake.  So after about 10 minutes of giving juice to the car, we were finally able to start the car.  And phew, we were on the road by 5am.  But boy was that nerve wracking.  It had all the signs of ruining our trip.  And I'm too much of a control freak that I would have let it drag me down for the next 10 days.  But luckily that wasn't the case.

So here we are, on our way out of LA and everything is going smoothly, until wait for it.  We missed the exit to the connecting freeway and didn't realize it for about half an hour.  Faustino's sleeping because he needs to sleep (running on 6 hours of sleep for two days isn't healthy you know).  FAUSTINO!  Wake up!!!  Where are we, we missed the exit.  Do we go back or keep going?  Luckily, Faustino with his dreary eyes found that we would hit another freeway that would continue to take us to the Grand Canyon.  Phew!  Relieved to say the least.  Hopefully we'll only lose an hour or so.  And that is probably all we lost being that I was driving fast and there wasn't any traffic because who is up at 5am on a Saturday to go to the Grand Canyon anyway.  Me...us.  We're that crazy, yes we are.

View from the road on the way to the Grand Canyon

Driving in the Mojave Dessert

 Driving through the Mojave desert was the most beautiful site I had seen (but each day as you will see, I saw many beautiful things).  It was so desolate which made it even more pretty.  Anyhoo, as we were driving, I saw ahead of me a massive amount of rain.  In a couple moments I would be driving through a rain shower so heavy I could only see 10-15 feet in front of me.  And then a few minutes later we were out of it and it was bright as day.  And there we were in the Mojave Desert again with nothing around us but hills and land.

So after about 5 hours of driving and finally getting to the Arizona border I ask Faustino to drive.  I need a break and he's awake.  Driving through northern Arizona was nice and fast (I feel like we have the slowest speed limit in the U.S.). 

Getting into Arizona, obviously

We only had about an hour left to go before we got to the Grand Canyon and what did we see in front of us?!?  More rain and gray skies.  Though some think its dismal, it was spectacular to me. 

Rain on the car

Then lightning!!!  I loved seeing and looking for all the lightning coming down.  Little did I know, that lightning would follow us through most of our trip. :)

Lightning seen on our way to the Grand Canyon

Finally after several hours of driving we get to the Grand Canyon!  Woo hoo!  We finally made it.  It was still raining when we arrived but it wasn't too cold or windy.  We decided to pack our cameras and go for a hike which was only a little more than a sprinkle.  When I saw my first ever live view of the Canyon I was amazed.  So amazed that my mouth dropped and Faustino had to tell me to close it (haha).  At the beginning of our hike, we only saw 2 other people.  20 minutes into the hike, the rain stopped and it was a nice day with mist covering the Canyon.  Soon there were 20 people and then 200 (okay maybe not 200 but still, many more people started showing up).  We were able to take a nice slow hike, taking pictures and we were able to really just enjoy the moment.  We weren't there to be professional hikers, we weren't there to build up a sweat, we were merely there to enjoy the scenery and be amazed by what this world truly has to offer.


Faustino and I

Faustino enjoying the view

Photo by me...

After revelling in the immenseness of what the Grand Canyon is, we bought a couple hot chocolates and decided to be on our way.  Our next stop: Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona.  Let me start this part off by saying that we are huge lovers of a good burger.  That paired with Faustino seeing an article about the Heart Attack Grill on msn.com and it was settled.  He had wanted to visit this restaurant since he saw the article over a year ago, so what better time to do it when we are on our way through Arizona.  Off we went to Chandler.  We had 3 or so hours to drive and we needed to get to the restaurant by 8:30pm.  We were making great time, we'd be there by 7:30-8pm.  But of course everything in the world said nope you aren't going because as soon as we got to Phoenix we hit traffic, then once we got off on our exit we made a wrong turn, and finally our car was saying that we had such little gas that if we kept going we'd die right there in the middle of the street.  But I pushed it, Faustino wanted to go and even though he said it would be okay that we didn't I wanted to make it there for him.  I'm controlling but I like to see other people happy too.  We turned the car around, and made it to the Grill about 5 minutes before they shut down the kitchen!  Woo hoo, we would have our lard cooked french fries after all.  And I must say, that even though the women are dressed in tacky and demeaning outfits (think Hooters), the restaurant is filled with cheesy decor (again think Hooters), and it could give me a heart attack, despite all of that...the burgers were awesome!  They were indeed superb.  I wouldn't go again but I enjoyed the experience.

Faustino in the hospital gown and wrist band provided by the Heart Attack Grill

From Chandler, after getting gas that is, we drove down to Tucson.  And as soon as we got back on the road the lightning started up again.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, it was so beautiful.  And each time the lightning struck down I smiled.  The 1.5 hour drive to Tucson was quick and we made it Shelly's house and hopped into the shower.  That night we went to a place called the Sky Bar in the hills of Tucson with Shelly and her roommate Allison.  We had a couple of tall beers and caught up on each other's lives.  It was great seeing Shelly since I haven't seen her in a year and the likelihood of me seeing her before Kiersten's wedding next August are slim to none.

After closing down the bar at 2:15am, we headed back to Shelly's.  Faustino and I passed out shortly thereafter, seeing as it had been the longest day (22 hours that is).  Once our heads hit the pillow the lights were out.  What a great day!

Lesson from Day 2:  Never think just because you're only listening to music for about a half an hour the night before that your car won't start.  It doesn't take THAT long for your battery to die.  And if you have an instinct from the night before that the battery is losing life, don't dismiss it.  You don't want to wind up in the streets at 4:30am with a dead battery and an 8 hour drive ahead of you.  Word to the wise...

Thought on Day 2:  I loved sharing the Grand Canyon experience with Faustino.  It was both our first time seeing such an incredible place.  I felt like a kid again, so naive.  But this time I had some knowledge about the world being bigger and more remarkable than I could have imagined.