Grand Canyon Project:
Day Thirteen
Saturday May 20, 2000

Leaving the Grand Canyon and the Breakdown.

Click on a picture to view it larger - Rick

It was another cold night in the Canyon, but Jane and David fared better after they got three more blankets at the Family Dollar.

We left the Grand Canyon early in the morning, eager and energetic. David was due to fly out of Las Vegas at 2:00 p.m.  However, we didn't get to Las Vegas until 11 hours later.  The van began to overheat as we neared the desert mountains of Nevada. The whole time, Jane entertained us with rousing choruses of  "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name."

We pulled over often, so we had plenty of time to soak up the sweltering 106-degree heat and to make a close study of the desert. We saw many dust devils and cacti. We were also surprised to see many mountains. We had thought the desert was flat.

Near the end of our journey, we stopped for a breather in the town of Searchlight, Nevada. Something wasn't right there, but we just couldn't put our finger on it. We thought maybe the aliens had taken over, but maybe it was just our heat exhaustion.

When we finally made it to Las Vegas, we marveled that we were freezing in the morningand broiling by noon. Extremes like these have marked our experiences of the West.