My Western Vacation - Planes and Rag Tops

Stay at the Page Boy, originally uploaded by spurlock.

My plan was to fly to Las Vegas, and then drive to various parts of Arizona and Utah to see and photograph some of the natural wonders found there. At the end I would return to Las Vegas for a few days to meet my old friend Jeff Long, whom I had not seen in around ten years.

The flight to Las Vegas left Cincinnati at ten o'clock am, and arrived in Las Vegas at eleven am local time. Traveling west is much nicer than traveling east when it comes to the time. As we were taxing into our gate, I could see the casinos out my window. It was strange, but they looked much smaller than I expected.

After collecting the luggage I went to pick up my rental car. I reserved a Jeep Wrangler from Fox Rent a Car. The reason for my choice was that I thought that I might be pulling off the road to take photos, and a jeep would give me more clearance and traction, and hopefully prevent me from getting stuck.

The airport runs a bus to the rental car center located on the airport property. Unfortunately, I found out that Fox is not located at that center, so I had to take yet another bus. I missed one bus by a few seconds, and the "kind" driver refused to open the door. Anyone around may have heard me mumble a few comments questioning the legitimacy of his parents’ marriage, but they would probably have needed to be pretty close.

When I finally made it to the rental car counter, I was not completely shocked to find out that they were out of the Jeeps. The entire reason that I had chose Fox in the first place was the good price on Jeeps. I guess you can give great deals if you don't actually have them to rent out. In any case the clerk offers me a major upgrade in the form of a Mustang convertible. Not exactly the kind of vehicle that you want to drive on gravel and dirt roads, but I grudgingly accepted. A failed hard sell for the optional insurance and twenty minutes later and I was on my way.

My first destination was Page, Arizona, about four hours from Las Vegas. I won’t bore you with which road I took to get where on the trip unless it happens to be important for the story. I don’t think it ever is important for the story though. I drove with the top down and it was pretty hot. The heat and the fatigue from my jet lag did detract a little bit from the drive.

I arrived in Page Arizona in the late afternoon. The reason for my trip to Page was to see a couple of slot sandstone canyons: Canyon X and Antelope Canyons. My reservation was at the Page Boy Hotel. The reason for this is that my tour guide for the canyons recommended it because it was owned by his girlfriend.

When I arrived at the motel and identified myself, the clerk smiled and said that she had to call my guide Charly. Charly is definitely one of the characters that I met along the way. In any case, the Page Boy Motel had clean rooms, TV (you’ll understand the reason for me mentioning this in a later blog entry), air conditioning, wireless internet and a small swimming pool. The price was low, and overall it was one of the best deals that I found during my entire trip.

I was pretty tired, but I decided to drive around a bit and take some photos before eating a late dinner. I went to the Glen Canyon Dam and took some photos there. There was a shot or two that turned out okay.

Dinner was at the Glen Canyon Steakhouse. The food was adequate, but hardly inspiring.

My tour started at 7:30 am the next morning, so I turned in a bit early. This was largely a travel day, so I wasn’t disappointed that I hadn’t taken a lot of photos yet, as I was confident that this would soon change.