Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 23

We are traveling, again. From Las Vegas to Arizona we took the Interstate 93 to go South.

When we came through the Hoover Dam, we had to open every door of our car, so that the officers could check everything. They said, it was a "random security check", but what had caught their interest was the car, packed and loaded with thousands of bags, a tent, sleeping bags and, of course, the two stuffed animal dogs, which sat above all this on the back seat of the car.

But after 5 minutes, we were allowed to go on driving and we continued our way to the hot desert of Arizona.

Before we left the city of sin, we'd been in the Hard Rock Café and in the Hard Rock Hotel, where we watched the exposés of 50 years rock history. Mostly, old costumes, worn on music videos or concerts, you could also see the guitars of rock heroes like Pearl Jam, Greatful Dead, Kiss and Johnny Cash.

Our destination for today is a little town near the famous platform on the Grand Canyon where brave tourists can climb a few steps to have a great over view over the Canyons. After the hectic and ‘big city’ evenings in Vegas, we want to find a nice little motel, or a camping ground, where we can stay and visit some indian reservations and the Grand Canyon - but without the brave tourists.

Unfortunately, we did not know, that the clocks in the desert are so much different to the clocks in LV. When we arrived at the "Canyon's End Motel" it was 11pm and everything was dark and closed. The motel office was locked and it seemed as there weren't even guests in the dark motel rooms.As if there is even a worse case: We were running out of gas and when we drove to the next little town, where a sign said "Gas! Food! Camping!" - but just like the motel everything was closed, dark and locked.The only chance to get some sleep, this night, was to stay in the car. With a blanket from the "Air France" plane, a sleeping bag and some towels, Georg and I prepared for a night in the car.

Of course, even though we were tired to death, we could not find any sleep - but in the dusk of the next day, we woke up and, fortunately, we saw people with cans of coffee working in the motel office.

We put on our jackets - it was very cold outside, because the sun did not come over the tops of the mountains, yet - and went in to get one cup of hot coffee.

And we could check in to room number 7. Blue sky, sunshine and a little nice and clean room: perfect!