The Great Baseball Ride: The Grand Canyon.

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.” – George Will

The agenda today is to see that hole in Arizona, get our car from the shop in Flagstaff, give them a good chunk of our money, and proceed to Kingman, AZ for our overnight.  I think Phoenix to Flagstaff is supposed to be about 2.5 hours, but everything takes us longer, so it seems more like 4 or so for us. No matter, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, the drive is absolutely stunning, and I would come back to Arizona just for that.  Desert, cacti, mountains, and trees abound as you ascend and it is wonderful.  

We pull through Flagstaff and head the 1.5 hour drive north to the Grand Canyon.  Another beautiful stretch of roads. We end up getting into the Grand Canyon for the low low price of $20 since my mom is a senior and can get a year National Parks Pass for that amount.  This saves us $15, although full price would have been worth it. We’d never been there before, and the Grand Canyon is amazing beyond words. Any pic you’ve seen won’t do it justice; a definite recommend to see in person. That said, here are a bunch of pics of the Grand Canyon –

It almost looks fake; like a movie backdrop.

A glimps of a massive Condor flying overhead and a can’t-be-bothered elk that decided to come eat next to hundreds of humans added to the joy of the day.  In awe, we head back down to Flagstaff. 

An Elk. I think.

Our car was supposed to be ready by 1pm that day, then 3pm, then 3:30pm.  When we arrived at 4:30pm, they needed another 20 minutes. I was a bit annoyed, but I just put 610 miles on their loaner Honda CRV, so I guess we’re even.  We headed over to Culver’s for some comfort food (reminds us of home), and then headed back to the dealership to get our car. Clean and out of surgery, our car is ready to go. We hand over part of Soren’s college fund, and proceed out of town.

We got about a mile when I noticed that the Check Engine light was on.  I had only seen this light come on as I start the car, never in it’s intended warning capacity.  I call the dealership, lucky to catch Kyle, the service rep, as the service department closed at 6pm and it was now just after.  He tells me that if it isn’t flashing, and their is now performance issue, to take it to the Honda dealership in Kingman, and have them send him the bill for anything.  Sounds good in conversation, but I am leary of how this will play out.

It’s a bit of a nerve wracking drive to Kingman as we don’t know what this issue may be and it is getting dark, but we make it.  We are happy for such a wonderful day, but I can’t take my mind off of what the new car issue may be.

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