16-18th Jan 2010...
Saturday afternoon. It was a long weekend and my second last weekend in US. Most of my friends had some plans but I had opted out as I had to sell off my Mustang and take care of a lot of other small small things. But when I woke up, I decided to postpone selling off my car for the last weekend. :D I wanted to go somewhere... but all my friends were already away!!!
Just a week earlier I had met Zeenat, Manoj and Anupama, and we clicked as they were also travel enthusiasts. That day they had recommended a couple of places. So I decided to visit one of those, but I wasn't able to remember the name of the place. So I sent a text to Zeenat and here is the exact conversation that followed.
Me: Hey Zeenat, Mayank Here... Can you guys tell me the name of the place you were talking about that day.. Lost something....
Zeenat: R u taking us along????Will tell you about the place only if ur drive plan includes the 3 of us :D :D
Me: hehe... wel I am still alone and just want to drive somewhere. You 3 are most welcome to join me.
Zeenat: It's called "lost coast" up north of california.
Zeenat: Will be glad to join you. When do you wanna start? We are game for Grand Canyon as well if you desire to see that before you head back to India.
Me: Great. Thats exactly the place I was planning to head to if I was not able to find info about the Lost thing... What about starting for grand canyon in an hour from now????
Zeenat: Oops. We are out. Please give us 2 hours or so!!!
It was already 3 in the afternoon when we were exchanging these texts. At 5, I left my place to go to Grand Canyon with 3 people I barely know and have met only once for a couple of hours till now!!!! At 6.00-6.15 PM we started for Grand Canyon approx 760 miles away!!!!!! The drive was smooth and fast and even with 2 decent 45-60 mins each breaks I was able to cover this whole distance in less than 12 hours and were there before the clock struck 6.
Our timing had been just perfect. The first rays of sun were just about to show up and the whole place just looked awesome. The whole place was covered with snow. We were on the South rim of the canyon, standing on ice, the canyon in front of us and the sun rising from the right. It was one the most amazing sight I have ever scene. The layers of canyon were in different colors and the colors gradually changed as the sun kept on rising up. I just wish I had a better camera and I knew how to take better pics!!, as words (specially mine) can never explain the beauty of that sight. After a couple of hours spent admiring the beauty , it was time to eat. We had a nice heavy breakfast and then just started walking around the canyon, trying to see it from different angles.
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While taking a walk we came across the Bright Angel Trail and decide to do some hiking. We had hardly started the hike when we realized that the trail is covered with ice and is very very slippery. We all were struggling to walk without slipping. We kept moving slowly and I think we had covered around 2.5 miles, when we decided to head back. The hike took around 3 hours and by the time we reached back on the top it was 1 in the afternoon.
Time to decide what next!!!! We were thinking of taking a room and rest, but the met department had predicted very heavy snowfall (2-3 feet) for that night!! I had to be at work on Monday, so could not have risked being caught up there! So I suggested to drive to Vegas and spend a night there. It was a 300 mile drive and after some discussion we decided to go for it. :) Had a nice lunch and started the drive at 2.30. The drive consisted of passing over the Hover Dam, and the whole thing was a treat for the eyes. :)
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Finally we reached The Sin City and checked-in in a hotel around 9 PM. We were all tired but decided not to rest. A quick shower did the trick and we were down in the casinos at 10! :) Around 11 my friends went to hit the bed but I wanted more of Vegas as this was going to be my last trip to Vegas in near future, so I continued alone. After a few beers, a couple of LITs and a few hundred dollars down the drain, I returned to our room at 4.00 AM. (Still pretty early for Vegas, but all my money had already gone :( and I surely was tired by now.)
The next morning was a relaxed one and we lazily woke up around 11. After spending some more time on the streets and the casinos, we started our journey back home around 3 in the afternoon. The return journey was uneventful and we reached back home around 12ish in the night.
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So in a nutshell:
2 days and 6 hours:: 1600 miles (2560 kms!!!!) of driving.... 3 new friends... lots of Floyd, Doors, AC/DC and Indian Ocean... a few hours of site seeing at breathtaking Grand Canyon....a few hours of hiking.... 1 night of gambling at Vegas... (needless to say yet again lots of money lost)... lot of good food.... 6 hrs of sleep!!! It was a great great weekend :) :)
