RV Trip Day 19: Grand Canyon

Posting this a day late because there was no cell service at our campground in the Grand Canyon so I couldn't post last night.

Today our goal was to get to the Grand Canyon, which was a 400-mile drive through windy roads, so we wanted to get started early. We packed as much as we could last night, then set our alarm to wake up early. Michael went straight to the RV and drove it out of the steep driveway onto the side of the road, and my dad drove the bikes and bike rack down and helped Michael put them on. I gathered up the children and the last of our things, walked down to the road, and made everyone breakfast in the RV while Michael was attaching the bikes. Then we headed out and the kids zoomed into classes from the road.

We stopped for gas and snacks in rural New Mexico and found we were in Trump country. There was a huge Trump sign outside of the gas station, and a sign on the door saying they would serve you with or without a mask, in spite of the governor’s order saying you must wear masks. Inside, no one was wearing a mask, not even the people working there. I was glad I had just bought some new N95 masks, and tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. I would have preferred not to give them any of my money, but it was the only gas station for hundreds of miles, and we wouldn’t have made it to the next one.

I knew there would be some cellular dead spots today because we were going through the mountains, and I had been carefully following the T-Mobile signal map trying to time the dead spots with my kids’ school breaks. However, the signal map was overly optimistic, and the kids had some frustrating times trying to get into classes and missing some classes. We spent way too much time troubleshooting internet problems. Then, just when we thought we’d gotten through the worst of it, google maps rerouted us around construction and into a bunch of dead zones just in time for Lucy’s Hebrew class.

I was relieved to see at the end of the day that our meters were reading "low" for both the gray water and blackwater tanks, which means the gray water was leaking less than it was before (before it would empty so fast that it wouldn't even get up to low), and the blackwater wasn't leaking much at all (it fills less quickly than the gray water tank, so it should have been low even if it wasn't leaking). That means all that work Michael did actually did make it better! When the sun started to set and it got cold, I turned on the heater and it got warmer. And there was no noise so I actually had to feel it to check whether it was on!

I bought a cart full of groceries, and baked salmon, potatoes, and kale in the oven for dinner, timing it to be ready as we arrived at the Grand Canyon. We arrived with no RV troubles, and settled in for an early night so we could see the canyon early in the morning.

Our route for the day: