In November of 2022, I left my co-workers in Las Vegas at the end of a long week of working at our annual conference. While they headed to the airport to travel home, embarked on my first solo vacation. I updated them along the way with some fun e-mails which have also served as some fun travel journal entries. They are shared below.
11/8/2022: Hello from the Grand Canyon! I’m having an amazing time, and best of all,
I’m not on “The First 48” yet. I carry my pepper spray everywhere and keep this RV locked up like Fort Knox. Feel free to skip my monologue and go straight to the pictures below!
First, the RV is super cute and comfortable, and I drive it like a champ. If I had any passengers, though, they’d surely suffer from motion sickness. (I can’t tell you how nice it is to have my own, personal potty on board.) My first stop out of Vegas was at Walmart to load up on food, drinks, and supplies, then I hit the road for Lake Mead. I had a beautiful lakefront camping spot and woke up to a fantastic
view. After all that walking in Las Vegas, I even ventured on a 2-mile hike to the water. I found one of the previously sunken boats along the way and was stunned by the impact of the receding water.
After Lake Mead, I hopped over to The Hoover Dam for another 2-mile walk with over 100 stairs (ugh), and some more fantastic views making the effort worth it. As expected, I didn’t spend more than an hour or so there, and I jumped back in the RV for the approximately 4-hour drive to the Grand Canyon. I arrived after dark, but the views coming in at sunset were unreal.
I’m here for the next two days, so I’m taking it easy in the RV this morning, then headed out for a group excursion to see some Grand Canyon sights. It’s a 3-hour off-road sunset safari. Yep, a 3-hour tour (iykyk).
Here are some funny RV faux pas:
1. Lake Mead RV Park – Plug into campground power and hook up to campground water. Can’t get the TV or microwave to work, but the lights work. Plans for dinner were a Lean Cuisine. I ate an Uncrustable instead and gave up on troubleshooting. While hiking the next morning I review in my head everything I can think of for why these two items won’t work. The ah-ha moment - I never turned the breaker on the campground electrical panel. The RV battery was doing the work of powering the lights, but not enough juice for the TV and microwave. Duh!
2. Hoover Dam – Very warm – opened RV back windows for some air. Driving over the dam and thinking, wow, I can hear the conversations from the folks walking on the sidewalk very clearly through those windows. The police officer peaks his head in the side door of the moving RV, “Hey, your door is open!”. As I stop and unbuckle, a man with a strong accent runs up and slams it shut and yells, “I shut for you!” Yay! I’m an idiot female behind the wheel of an RV.
3. Hoover Dam – security check. Two officers want to board the vehicle through the same side door – I can’t get it open from the inside. Maybe they thought I was hiding my stash?! Once they met me, they understood. 😊
4. I have yet to visit the dumping station…oh geez. Please don’t let me have a story to add to this list!!!
Have a great week and I’ll stay in touch. I’m leaving lots of breadcrumbs along the way, just in case. Oh, and the pepper spray goes everywhere!
11/9/2023: Good morning from the Grand Canyon, Day 2! Yesterday was in the upper 60s and sunny, but last night the weather turned into something like a monsoon (or whatever the West Coast equivalent is called). The cold, strong winds and the driving rain made it feel like I was sleeping inside a car wash all night. I still slept well – I cranked up the heat and built myself a blanket cocoon. About 30 minutes ago I heard it get very quiet outside, so I opened the shades to see what was going on…well, it’s suddenly a winter wonderland and the snow is accumulating very quickly. That’s my cue to pack it up and move on. Bye, Grand Canyon!
I've had so much fun here! On my Safari Tour, 5 of the 8 of us were from Maryland. One from Ocean City and 4 from Baltimore. Another solo traveler was here from London.
The best parts of yesterday besides seeing the Grand Canyon:
I found a Starbucks in town – haven’t seen one since Las Vegas on Sunday. Hallelujah!
I parallel parked the 23” RV in a single try to squeeze into a parking lot to visit the Grand Canyon Chocolate Factory (which sucked, btw). Have I ever told you parallel parking is my special skill? I may not be able to work that RV side door, but I can park this thing just about anywhere!
Bye for now! Enjoy a few pictures below, and have a great day.
