Our honeymoon was nothing less then an adventure! We laugh about it now and think about how fun it was! At the time though, it did not go according to plan.
I love going to places I have never been before. I love the outdoors, and the Grand Canyon fit both of those criteria.
We left our wedding in a trashed car, and completely exhausted. We were though utterly thrilled to be going home together as husband and wife for the rest of eternity!
Upon arrival at our new apartment I could sense something was wrong when I saw some pieces of confetti outside. Of course as soon as we got the door open their was confetti EVERY WHERE! It covered the floors and our bed. There was also streamers, condom balloons filled with confetti, streamers, lubricant on the bathroom handle, and seram wrap around the toilet.....
I collapsed to the floor crying. I just wanted to sleep with my new husband before we had to leave town the next day. I even called my mom in tears. Looking back, even looking back the next day, it was kind of funny and they did add roses and some gifts that was really thoughtful.
However, I wish that we would have gotten a hotel with some dinner that night.
Instead I had to take off our bed sheets that were covered in confetti. We froze with barely some blankets. We also had no food in the cupboards and ate some pop tarts for dinner.
Why we didn't go get food? I am not sure, I just wanted sleep.
We had forgotten some things at the reception center and at our homes. Like shoes, make up etc and had to stop by both of our parents houses before leaving town. Thankfully we loaded up at the grocery store for breakfast, and snacks to take on the road trip.
Road Trip
We finally headed to Vegas! We spent the time on the road talking, singing, discussing our life to come, and enjoying each others company. We took turns driving, and had fun taking stops and taking in the scenery. We weren't in a rush as we drove our painted car.
When we got into town, we checked into our hotel, a nice Hilton right behind the strip. After settling into our hotel and resting we headed off to visit with some of my family who live in Vegas, who weren't able to make it to the wedding. The rest of my family were still in Utah from the wedding.
That night we didn't go to any fancy restaurant, just a fast food place actually, and headed to Fremont street. We walked a little around, but it didn't interest us at all.
We grabbed our magnet and went to the hotel room for early retire.
That next morning we got up for the hotel breakfast and headed to the hotel pool for a little before we checked out. Everything was relaxing and enjoyable even if we didn't really do to much.
As many times as I had been to Vegas growing up and even camping at lake mead, I had never seen the hoover dam. We headed there first. It was busy and very hot. It was really interesting, and a place we have to see at least once in a life time.
We didn't spend a lot of time there, for we thought we had a six hour drive to the Grand Canyon. Thank goodness for GPS on a smart phone! Makes road trips so easy!
Taking the route to the Grand Canyon Ranch resort lead us down dirt roads not near the rim of the Grand Canyon we thought we would be at.
Actually when we pulled up to the Ranch we hadn't even seen the Grand Canyon.
I thought for sure we were in the wrong place.
Unfortunately it was the right place as we checked in.
First of all don't get me wrong staying at a running dude ranch would have been really cool if that is what I had prepared for. I would have brought my riding boots. Not a rolling suit case I had to roll across the hot Arizona desert. Yes a running dude ranch is where we were at, it was something from the movies for sure!
We got to our cabin and unlocked the ready exhausted and confused. We found our selfs a twin bed and a cow looking straight at us through a small window, that when Brent went to close it the curtain fell off.
I cried again...
I called my mom again.
It just wasn't going according to plan at all.
We tried making the best of it though! On top of us not being near the beautiful Grand Canyon if we did want to go see the ugly west rim we would have to take a toll road through Indian reservations and then have no where to hike. Actually the really cool pictures you see of the glass walk way over the Grand Canyon is in this part. To go on the walk way costs $50 a person and then you couldn't even take your camera! Not worth it at all! The lady working the front desk in the dinning hall even told us to not wonder off far, there were lots of rattle snakes, she advised us not to go hiking. their wasn't much to do around the camp except sit in the shade and listen to all the cattle... or take a cold shower but even then dust would be covering us back up in a minute.
The Ranch dinning hall was the only place to eat for 4 hours! Only place around! We had no choice but to eat there. They knew it too as they charged an arm and a leg for us to eat! Still one of the priciest paying places we ever been.
It would have been my chance to get Brent on a horse but yet again they wanted $200 for them to take us on their horse around camp not even on a good trail ride! It was all unbelievable!
We spent an arm and took a sunset wagon ride where we got to see more cacti, snakes, cattle and dirt.
We were very disappointed and hadn't planned on all of this in our budget.
We finally said screw it and took a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon! It was pretty awesome! Actually cheaper then us driving too it or going on a poney ride!
(our cabin)
It was odd that we were the only Americans staying there who weren't the dude Ranch Cowboys who lived there..
They had a singing Cowboy with a guitar following you every where. I am not even joking! He got word that we were on our honey moon and as we left the camp fire that night from teaching the foreign how to make s more he sang about how we probably wouldn't be staying up all night talking about politics....
then I got chased by a cow in the dark.. not joking again!
I seriously wish we would have had a video crew with us, it would have made the perfect movie!
It was the adventure we were looking for that's for sure!
After spending a couple days in the dessert in the middle of no where, we still wanted to see the Grand Canyon we originally thought we would be seeing.
So we made a reservation in Kanab for the next night!
We headed off to the South Rim! The Ranch had given us a short cut through another very long dirt road. They always scare me that we are headed miles in the wrong direction, but at the end we finally made it to Route 66. We passed through a cute town, Williams town, for lunch that was very historic Route 66 we loved it!
Finally after a very long ride it seemed like we pulled up to the Grand Canyon visitor center. I couldn't wait any longer, I ran to the edge until I could finally see the Rim. I wasn't disappointed at all! It was all I had ever imagined! Beautiful and Majestic! I totally understand why Native Americans think such places are holy and spiritual!
We still had a long drive ahead of us to Kanab, so we weren't able to spend a ton of time at the Grand Canyon. Sadly we weren't able to go hiking like we had planned on from day one. We stopped at every view point though and more! We took in as much as we could!!
We can't wait to go back there! Specially the most beautiful North Rim! We need a camping trip there! The drive from the Grand Canyon to Kanab was beautiful and fun! We were so happy we had finally seen that wonderful Canyon!
That night in Kanab we were excited to have a nice hotel room and relax. We walked to dinner and enjoyed the night.
The next day we drove home ready for our life to begin together!
Knowing we had a welcoming apartment that needed cleaning!
