Trip Report | Day 6: Grand Canyon, Arizona
Last night I slept alone on the loft bed and felt the need to sync back up with myself. I stopped myself from reaching my eyes for another novel on my Kindle or a look at my phone, and let myself click back into place. I said hello. I felt a calm I haven’t felt in a long while.
I have been running. There’s a lot of running on this RV vacation, which runs counter to everything you might imagine. Hurrying to make camp or break camp, to get dinner prepared or to clean up after, to shower quickly and not use too much water, ditto washing dishes, rushing to get the dog walked at a pit stop before Dave finishes pumping the gas, hurrying to shake out the rugs or get the camp permit or buy whatever I’m in the store for because Dave is waiting, or some nice people I only learn afterwards are Trump supporters are holding Nola outside.
Near Mather Point, Grand Canyon rim trail.
We met them after pulling into Trailer Village at the Grand Canyon. Got a great site at the end of a row, surrounded by trees and scattered with pinecones, but it was so steeply angled our 8 levelers were no match. The Trump supporters had just pulled in too, and offered us their levelers as well. First we all walked to the general store to see if Dave could buy some. The husband offered to wait outside and hold Nola’s leash while the rest of us went in. I didn’t know not to trust him yet but still didn’t want to take time to buy everything on my list, so I stuck to basics like water.
On the way back, the wife told me they were retired but she now goes into disaster areas as a volunteer nurse for the Red Cross. “I have the skills, so it just makes sense to use them.” Back at their rig, they introduced us to their little dog, Biscuit, and I imagined us walking the dogs later, post-leveling, so I could hear about her nursing experiences. “We should invite them for a drink,” I said after we left to go shove their plastic levelers under more wheels of our rig.
“Maybe,” Dave said. “Did you see the bumper sticker?”
“No,” though I had noticed the model name on their trailer was Connect.
“Trump-Pence 2020,” Dave said.
“No!” I immediately pictured her saving lives and whispering, “Thank Trump” into her patients’ ears.
“If it was for 2016, I could maybe let it go,” Dave trailed off, “but…”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s not like they lied to us or anything, but…” We avoided their row for the rest of our stay, and left some candy outside their door when we returned the levelers.
Newbie tip: Most of this stuff you can live without.
Gas: 26.06 gallons, 227 miles, 8.75 MPG. Next stop: Thank God we’re staying put for once.