When I was working, I had to go to Phoenix, Arizona on business. Not one to let an opportunity pass me by, I started thinking about bringing Marianne. She had never seen the Grand Canyon, and this was an opportunity. The canyon was only three and a half hours drive north of where the meeting would be held. That should work out for us. We planned to fly into Phoenix, rent a car and drive to the Grand Canyon. We made a reservation to spend the night at the lodge at the canyon. If we could get there early enough, we would be able to take in the sights during the day. I still remember when we first drove up to the canyon and saw it for the first time, it was spectacular. Truly one of the great wonders of the world made by God over millions of years.
The canyon is about 7000’ high. In the south and 8000’ at the north rim. The Colorado River has cut through the land, and it is one mile below the land above. You can get to the bottom by walking, hiking, donkey or by taking a raft down the river. A friend of mine said that we had to take the donkey ride to the bottom of the canyon. He said the donkeys walk on the outside of the path, and it scared him to death. The donkey handler said the donkeys were smart because they didn’t want you to reach out to the wall and push them off. I had to think about that!
Our accommodations at the lodge were fantastic—rustic yet comfortable, with stunning views and delicious meals. We turned in early that night, as we needed to drive to Phoenix in the morning for my presentation. Additionally, the weatherman had forecasted snow, and we had a long drive ahead of us.
We got up early and the weatherman’s predictions were right on. Everything was white, we got in our car and started down the mountain. As we drove, we monitored the radio. They had all kinds of alerts about the weather. The important information was that the snow was increasing, and they expected a couple of feet in the mountains. They said that when you reached 3000 feet it should turn to rain, we were about 7000 feet at the time. The road that we took down from the canyon was rustic to say the least. There were NO cars or life on the road at all, just woods and more woods. Not a place to get stuck or have a flat tire. That’s when the windshield wiper on the driver’s side came flying off. We were afraid to stop since we didn’t have any chance of finding the wiper in the snow, and no tools to fix it anyway. We had to get to the 3000-foot level where we would be a lot better off. Driving was almost impossible. Marianne tried to steer the car from the passenger’s side where she could see, and I tried to operate the pedals based on her commands. Very slow and tedious going. And of course, it continued to snow and got deeper and deeper. If we got stuck, we would have frozen to death. But we didn’t, we kept going forward, slow but sure. You can imagine how relieved we felt when we got to the 3000-foot level, and it was raining.
At the time, I was working with the General Departments at AT&T, where my role was to streamline the process for assigning services when customers requested new installations. This involved coordinating telephone lines, cables, central office resources, and outside line assignments. The meeting went smoothly, and we wrapped up that afternoon.
The Grand Canyon is a MUST-SEE location.
