The Grand Canyon – so close, and yet so far
Written by: Kurt Frohlich
April 2011
Our Spring Break vacation to the Grand Canyon started out iffy, and got worse from there. A few days before we were scheduled to leave, it looked like Congress might not have a budget in place to keep government entities open…which includes state parks like the Grand Canyon. As a seasoned project manager, I got the family together and we started contingency planning against this “risk” on the Wednesday before we were supposed to leave. The Grand Canyon trip had us going through Las Vegas, so we looked at our options:
- Federal budget goes through, we stick with the original plan – “turn left” and head to Arizona;
- No budget – “turn right” and to head to Disneyland
So we reserved a car, set up the hotel in Anaheim just in case, and waited. As you probably know, the budget passed, so we looked forward to our original plan: a week at the Grand Canyon on the south rim at the Bright Angel Lodge (which is adjacent to the famous El Tovar Hotel). Because we’d never been there before, we were pretty excited at the prospect of seeing something new in our own “back yard”, take lots of photos, and spend time as a family. With Amanda heading to college this fall, our opportunities for family trips are getting slim. Plus, work had been pretty hectic and the break was very welcome.
So we all headed out to the Reno airport Saturday morning, and to my dismay I already had some congestion and a sore throat…had to be hay fever, right? The high desert air and cool temperatures would fix that right up. We arrived in Vegas with what had to be the hardest landing possible without blowing a tire or crashing and killing everyone. I think we bounced hard three times, and our teeth clacked together; people shouted and caught their breath. Another bad omen. But as they say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
We checked into the hotel and then spent the evening wandering the strip. The girls hadn’t been there before, so we did as many kid-friendly things we could think of while trying to avoid the obnoxious nudie cards and flyers the creepy escort people hand out, which end up lining the streets and sidewalks. Anyway, got crepes at the Bellagio and enjoyed the fountain show, watched the pirate show at Treasure Island…you know the drill if you’ve been there. By the time we left for Arizona on Sunday, I had “the cough”. Anyone who knows me and has heard “the cough” expects a lung to come flying out. Been like that every time I get sick since I was little. The bug either takes root and causes a sinus infection, arrives in my lungs in the form of bronchitis, or in this case…both.
We arrived late Sunday at the Grand Canyon south rim, and wow is it a beautiful place! The size, depth, and colors make it look like a huge painted mural that’s miles across, miles wide, and hundreds of feet deep. Plus it was pretty cold and they had about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The rim looked like it had white powdered sugar and icing on it. We took an evening stroll on the rim trail, caught sight of some elk (which we’d never seen before), and I decided to tough out this bug, whatever it was. The place was too cool to miss.
Monday, we took another nice walk along the rim (which is when the photos below were taken). It was still cold, but the snow was melting, the sky was blue, and the air was clear. If you’ve been there, you know there are lots of opportunities to get pretty close to the edge and really get the sense for how big the thing is. But standing on the edge of such a huge chasm had a weird effect on me. It’s almost like there’s extra gravitational pull at the edge of large drop offs that makes me feel like I’m being pulled in. I’ve had a similar feeling at other high places like the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Twin Towers in New York, Niagara Falls, and later on this trip, looking over the edge of Hoover Dam. It’s very weird. Anyway, “the cough” got the better of me despite trying to fight it, deny it, and try to talk myself out of it. I was done and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in bed. And then the fever came. I woke up Tuesday morning soaked through my clothes, and with a really unnerving gurgling on the right side of my chest. The girls had gotten up early before I woke up to go on a short hike. I decided it was time to go to the hospital, or clinic, in this case. I dragged myself to the shuttle bus, which dropped me off at the clinic stop, only to learn it was about a mile walk from there, which was miserable. The good news was that the clinic was slow that day, so I got in, got diagnosed with a bad case of bronchitis, and was sent on my way with codeine cough syrup and antibiotics…and another mile walk back to the hotel.
And there I lay for the rest of the trip, with the Grand Canyon just outside my hotel window. I couldn’t see it from the bed, but I caught a glimpse whenever I had to get up to eat. In the meantime, the girls did their thing and saw everything there was to see, but got no sleep due to my incessant coughing. It was pretty miserable for them too.
On that Friday, we drove back (and stopped at the Hoover Dam along the way), spent one more night in Vegas, and then flew back to Reno on Saturday. I didn’t really feel any better for another week but went to work anyway, still barking that awful cough that scares everyone away.
So, I guess I can say I’ve seen the Grand Canyon, but didn’t really get a chance to experience it. Kind of like bragging that you’ve been to some exotic place when all you really did was fly into its airport to catch a connecting flight. At least the girls got the chance for a limited (sleep deprived) Grand Canyon experience, but we definitely need to go back and maybe do the rim to rim hike, the burro ride, or a rafting trip. Anything would be an improvement. Now we need a vacation from our vacation.
Best Regards,
Kurt Frohlich- President
