Day 5: Painted Desert
It is the Dopey's again!!!
Today we woke up at 5:30 in Roswell at the New Mexico Military Institute and said goodbye to the aliens and hello to the artist of the dessert. The crazy thing about Arizona is that the state doesn't follow daylight savings time so the sun was up when we were up! We hopped in the bus and had a scrumptious breakfast of bagels with TWO options of cream cheese and an orange, it was so filling and delicious. Then we made our way from New Mexico to Arizona and of course we had to play High School Musical music when going through Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the van we played carpool karaoke and did a 5 questing interview with everyone to get to know everyone! On the way to Arizona we stopped at the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. While there we had two presentations: the Petrified Forest (Callee Chesser) and the Painted Desert (Seth Enzor). We took many pictures with the national forest signs and kissed the FAMOUS petrified forest rock, for tradition and extra good luck. The painted desert was a great preview to our later stop of the Grand Canyon!
 |
| We love van interviews |
 |
| We almost lost Ian and Grant! |
We had peanut butter and jelly along with chocolate pudding and chips. Shortly after our lunch, we hit major traffic which rerouted us to a long drive on Route 66 today, which was a TWB first (we are making history out here). We saw some of the most beautiful deserts, mountains, and rocks. We also saw a mini dust tornado not far from the road!
Headed towards the Grand Canyon, nearing the end of the drive we enjoyed a dinner consisting of hoagies, potato salad, macaroni salad, and zebra cakes! About an hour after our dinner we arrived at the Grand Canyon! Driving in, we saw A LOT of elk as well as BABY elk! This was one of the most precious things many of us have ever seen! We made it just in the knick of time to see the sunset! Our first look at the Grand Canyon came with many jaw-drops and "OOHHH's" and "AAHHH's". Many of us described the Grand Canyon in one word "breathtaking" This view is something that some will only be able to dream of seeing again one day! After many pictures, we arrived to our campsite for the next two nights to set up and go over our game plan for tomorrow as we hike this amazing beautiful natural wonder of the world. As of writing this, the stars have been shining, this is something that many of us have not seen before as there are not as many in the city. We will be hiking very very early in the morning with hopes of getting out of the Canyon by 11 in the afternoon to beat the heat! Please send us all the good luck and prayers!
