Terrell Brothers Road Trip - Day 1: Beginnings into Darkness
It would be nice to say that the beginning of our trip started trouble free, but that wouldn’t be true. Wayne, the Revel owner, called us the day before pickup to say the radio screen on the vehicle was out, but that a part had been ordered and Mercedes would fix it on pick-up day . . . could pick up be scheduled a bit later than planned? We said no problem. Naturally, things didn’t go according to plan. Ultimately, Wayne delivered the vehicle to us (instead of us picking it up), sans radio, GPS and back-up camera. More than a “part” needed to be replaced, it needed a whole new unit. The late delivery of the vehicle meant a late evening of goodbyes to family before we headed back to the AirBNB we were staying at.
When Len asked about whether we were still aiming for an early start, I told him my approach is to get a good night’s sleep on the night before leaving and to not be in a rush to get out of dodge. Starting a trip out tired due to a short night of sleep is not a good beginning. Nor is feeling rushed about departure. Better to take our time and just relax about any delays. We still got up at what I thought was a decent hour and were out the door about 7:00. Little did I realize that was just in time to hit Phoenix rush-hour traffic. Add to that the fact that the late vehicle delivery the night before meant Len and I didn’t have an opportunity to drop the rental car off at the airport, so guess where first stop was? And along the way we got separated by traffic. Phoenix drivers aren’t Portuguese driver bad, but they are a bit nutty.
Getting separated wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Len kept his cool about everything. As it panned out, I dropped off the car at the rental drop-off and just as I was approaching the visitor parking area at the Rental Car Center, Len was pulling into the lot. Great timing.
Although we were leaving later than we’d hoped, it wasn’t long before we were heading north on Highway 87, enjoying the sights, the company and that wonderful feeling of the rest of the world’s worries slipping farther and farther away with each passing mile. Oh how I’d missed that feeling!
I doubt that anyone would be surprised when I say after a bit of driving I was wanting some coffee. Fortunately that craving came just as we were driving through Payson, Arizona. When I told Len I was going to make a stop for coffee, Len immediately started making his best effort to sell me Jill’s recommendation that I try a McDonald’s Caramel Mocha Latte (excuse me, but no . . . the shock would probably kill me). It was right as I was responding when I looked off to the right and said, “There! That’s the place!” The Shroom Room coffee shop. You’d have thought we were in Eugene!
And a mighty fine latte it was! I love finding places like that in towns like Payson. It’s one of the unexpected pleasures of traveling.
Day 1 was always going to be a bit of a drive, so we continued onward, though not in a rush so to speak. At one point we stopped at a pull out to catch a view of the mountains. After the desert views in and around Phoenix, it was odd being in mountainous country. And while Phoenix was pretty darned hot (thank goodness I brought a couple of short sleeve shirts), the lookout was pretty darned cold. Snow was still on the ground.
We continued on our way, stopping for a late lunch at the highest rated restaurant in Holbrook, where Len said they served the best chimichanga he’s ever had (the shredded chicken flautas weren’t bad either). After lunch, it was only a short ride to our first photography destination - The Petrified Forest National Park.
We knew we were running late, but we told ourselves not to sweat it too much. I figured that if we were out of there by 6:30, we’d be at our campsite at Canyon de Chelly by nightfall. So we took our time driving through the park, made a couple of stops along the way, and skipped a few others (namely the ones with lots of people) . . .
. . . so we could do a hike along the Blue Mesa trail.
It was a productive hike.
It was nice having a real photography session on the first day. It often doesn’t happen that way. When having to cover a lot of distance, you generally wind up with nothing more than snap shots - even if they wind up being good snap shots.
But Len’s idea of doing a hike and taking our time at one main location in a park that would have been so easy to just drive through was just the thing to get our photography juices flowing this trip. Best of all, it gave me the time to work through those initial first-images jitters and to begin truly seeing images. It’s not often when I make an image I think is a real keeper on the first day.
Thanks Len.
Eventually the clock wound down to the “you must be in your car and driving out of here” time, and we made our way back up to the rig (we named her Baby Beast), to head out and to continue our journey.
Still, we weren’t in a rush and simply could not pass up the opportunity to stop to make one final image in the park before we left. One simply does not fail to take advantage of the lovely setting-sun light, not when you have a landscape like this in front of you.
We both agreed that the Petrified Forest National Park deserved much more of our time and that one could easily spend a good day there exploring all it has to offer. It will be on my must return to list.
Heading northward we realized two things. First, the time shift from Phoenix time to Mountain time does not happen at the Arizona - Utah border. Second, it was much later than we’d imagined (southern Arizona is in the same time zone as Oregon, so sunrise is much earlier and sunset much earlier than we had in our minds). There was no way we were going to arrive at our destination before nightfall. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men.
Unfortunately, or fortunately if thinking about it from a photography perspective, it was a pattern that would repeat itself throughout the trip - so many locations begged for more time photographically because of the image-making opportunities. You never spend as much time as you’d like in places (of course there are the requisite exceptions that just prove the rule), and you can’t see (or photograph) it all.
It’s been a while since I’d driven at night, and a very long while since doing it on unknown roads. We could tell that we went up and down and back and forth, but had no grasp of the landscape we were driving through. Google maps and road signs made sure we kept on course, except when it came to finding the Spider Rock Campground. Some idiot (read: me) had it in his mind the campground was on the right side of the road . . . it wasn’t. Well, I guess it was on the right once I turned around to back-track to it.
Finding a camp site was easy. I really didn’t need to make a reservation, there were lots of spaces and only a couple of them were occupied. We found a good spot to plant ourselves and I headed over to pay our very reasonable $15.00 honor-system camping fee.
It took Len and I a bit to figure out the workings of Baby Beast, but rest assured we did.
Would it surprise anyone if we told you we both zonked for the night?