Getting our bearings.

I forgot again, we changed altitude by climbing almost 4,000 feet yesterday and I forgot to let the air out of the Sleep Number mattress.  I went, “ thunk” again when I went up to go to bed last night.  It was a quick fix though and I had the pressure just right for both sides in a couple of minutes.  I was happy that the high pressure did not damage the mattress, valves or pump though.  I really am going to have to add the mattress pressure to our breaking camp check-list.

Another first last night is that we slept with windows open and just a vent fan running, no A/C’s.  It was so incredibly quiet.  We had to turn on a room fan to add a little white noise so we could sleep.  The temps were cool but not as low as advertised.  It was 61 degrees this morning when I got up at 5:30.  That’s okay, it was fantastic compared to what we have been doing for the last couple of months.

Cyndee was not quite as ready to giddy-up-and-go as I was.  She stayed in for a few more z’s while I had breakfast, showered and got out for a short bike ride around the campground.

That is another first.  For the first time since leaving Georgia we have taken the bikes off the bike rack.  The tires were flat and the shifting cables were frozen up.  Getting air in the tires was easy with my 12v air compressor but getting those shifting cables freed up was a little more work.  But they are both working, mostly, now.

While doing my bike ride I caught a glimpse of the canyon through the trees at one end of the campground.  There is a small path between two campsites that is an access point to the Transept Trail that follows the edge of Transept Canyon.  I went back to the rig and got my camera gear, put on some tennis shoes and headed back down to the trail.

Wow!  As I climbed down the access path it soon intersected the hiking trail at a point where the trees stopped and just a thin rock ledge was between me and I don’t know how many thousands of feet of sheer drop.

 

 

After snapping the above pictures I started the climb out and back up to the campground.  It really was not that much of a climb but you could not tell it by the way my leg muscles were burning and my chest was heaving trying to extract the diminished amounts of oxygen at nearly 9,000 feet of elevation.  I wonder how fast I can build hemoglobin to help abate the altitude shortness of breath.  When we were in our 20’s we would hike starting at a trail head at 9,000 feet and backpack for seven miles to a base-camp at 11,500 feet.  Many times we would be sick as a dog with headaches and nausea but usually after a nights rest and lots of water we would be good to go.  Now at a more, ahem, advanced age I don’t know how long that kind of recovery is going to take.

Cyndee was up and ready to go by the time I got back and we headed out to explore the North Rim Lodge.  We needed to see where the post office was and wanted to check out what the dining room and deli was like.

The lodge is about a mile away from the campground.  I suggested to Cyndee that we ride our bikes but that elicited an immediate stink-eye look from her.  She said; “Let’s see what the terrain is like by driving it first”.  Smart girl, as we drove towards the lodge and the edge of the rim it was almost all downhill.  Nice ride going, would have all but killed us coming back.  We’ll have to get our stamina built up a little bit before we make that ride.

Walking up to the lodge to its main entrance is not all that impressive.  It appears to be a low structure with a minimal amount of architectural interest.

 

 

But as soon as you step through those doors, it is a whole different experience. 

Huge log beams, soaring rock walls and pueblo-deco, giant size.  Regardless of the grandeur it was still casual and inviting.  We lingered for awhile and took it all in.

That's Cyndee sitting there trying to get text messages to the kids.  We briefly had a weak signal while at the lodge.

Those are not murals, they are huge plate glass windows and the observation room is built hanging out over the canyon.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the inside of the lodge and went out on the observation deck.  It was getting close to noon by now and the change in light was showing us a whole different look.  In the picture below the South Rim Grand Canyon Village is about ten miles straight out from this vantage point as the crow flies.  You can't tell it from here but there are about a gazillion people over there right now.


This picture and the next are the same except the one below is zoomed in significantly.  Look at the white rock outcropping.

Now, with the rock outcropping zoomed in, take a closer look.  That little smudge of maroon is me.  Yes, I did get a head-rush when I first stepped up to the edge.

We got back to the entrance side of the lodge and went to the barred window that was the entirety of the post office for zip code 86052.  We met two Post Masters, one was her last day and the other her first.  But we got ourselves on the list for mail to be bundled for the National Park Service employees.  We will now get our mail brought to us, same as the rangers.

It was getting lunch time and I was starved, in fact, I have been hungry all the time since arriving.  Don't know what is up with that.  But we made our way back to the campground and Cyndee fixed some really good chicken salad.  While eating lunch some powerful thunderheads formed and the skies soon opened up.  The sound of rain, feeling cozy in our camper and fatigue from staying up too late and getting up too early was just too much.  I went out like a light and did not twitch until there was a knock at the door just a little after 3:00pm.

It was Kelly, our Volunteer Coordinator and she had two technicians in tow.  One was going to hook us up to a 1,000 lb tank of propane and the other was going to work on our shoddy power.  Is she great or what?

After several hours of work, Jude, the electrician had disassembled buss bars, cleaned corrosion,  and tightened connections in three breaker boxes leading to our rig.  All to no avail.  It would seem that our low voltage is (probably) the result of a bad splice in the buried cable between the last breaker box and ours.  Jude said he would come up with a plan for a fix tomorrow.  It is all a matter of whether he has the cable in stock to bury a new line or if he will have to dig up the existing one and find the splice and work on it.

We get trained in the morning.  They are going to teach us how to wear the uniform, drive the electric cart and go around putting "reserved" signs on the camp site posts.  Not rocket science but there is a process that has to be followed to keep the computer reservation system happy.  Somewhere in there we should find out which days we work.  We will split the week with the other host, we just do not know how they do the split yet.  Regardless, you can bet I will be getting loads of pictures on our days off.  There are infinite exploring opportunities out here.