Day 15 -- Tuba City to Grand Canyon Village RV Park -- 89 Miles

So far on this vacation we've had some truly red-hot luck. Last night, for instance, we got the very last RV spot at Tuba City's Navajoland RV park when we really hadn't expected to be so lucky. This morning we got up early so we could visit the Wells Fargo Bank when they opened at 9:00 a.m., grab some bottled water at the Dollar Store, then gas up the rig by 9:30, and finally head off for the Grand Canyon with an eye toward arriving about the time they'd let us have our camp spot.

Guests are not allowed to check in until noon, and we arrived about 12:15 p.m. The thing was, Concetta had succeeded, through some more towering luck, to secure two nights in the Grand Canyon RV Park, which is most often booked up for months in advance. And even though the reservation was for two different sites, when we arrived today the ranger at the park entrance agreed to combine our two reservations into just one camp spot. More amazing luck.

On the down side, I just got back from walking to the Grand Canyon Village market for some groceries and reminded myself just why I don't make long-distance hikes anymore. Our site is probably only a quarter of a mile from the store, but my 75-year-old muscles just kept asking me why I didn't wait for the shuttle bus that stops at the RV park every thirty minutes.

So we've secured two nights in this paradise of a camping area. We have a whole heard of elk youngsters for what the camp manager in National Lampoon's "Vacation" movie called "wildlife fun." The sun is shinning, the breezes are cooling, and everything is right with the world!

There's only one tiny problem with the camp location we've encountered so far. When I attached the surge protector to the 30-amp electrical connection for our site, the little darling told me that the circuit had an open ground and I shouldn't use it. So, we're making do with 110 volt power for the time being. We're not running the air condtioner, so we'll probably be alright for the duration.

But, we're not the only ones having good luck. This morning Concetta and I knew we'd be a tad early for our Grand Canyon RV Park check-in, so we pulled into one of the Grand Canyon overlooks, parked the rig in a level spot, and set about wasting an hour. We strolled around snapping photos and enjoying the view, but eventually came to sit on a low wall oposite some French motorcycle riders who were getting ready to leave.

We didn't learn they were from Grenoble, France, until the motorcycle riders had sped away and left two of their friends there. The couple was driving a rental car, a Ford Mustang convertible. As we sat on the wall trying to make out what the man and a woman were saying since the man had just opened the hood of his car and was peering into the engine compartment with a look of concern on his face

Finally, couriosity got the better of me, and I went over and asked what the problem was. Well, the man spoke enough English to let me know that their battery was dead, and they were uncertain what to do. I told the guy, whose name turned out to be Oliver, that I had a set of jumper cables in the rig, but he would have to find someone else to jump from since I couldn't block the entire width of the rest area with the 32-foot rig as I tried to get next to his car to run the cables.

Amazingly, Oliver quickly found a nearby Jeep owner to provide a healthy battery, and in short order we had the Mustang's engine going, and all of us were grinning from ear-to-ear. After that, Concetta suggested that we get a photo of the couple, and Oliver invited me to sit in the driver's seat of his Mustang for the photo.

Tomorrow our plan is to grab the park shuttle when it comes to call here at the park and ride it around the Grand Canyon area. The shuttles are free and are a hop on/hop off sort of arrangement. We've done it before and it really works well. Naturally, since this is our third visit to this totally magic place, we have probably seen and done the things that are doable short of doning backpacking gear and heading for the floor of the canyon. Still, I'm sure at least some things have changed since last time and some exhibits will have been refreshed.

One of the great mysteries about the Grand Canyon is how the Colorado River made a drastic right turn and carved its way into the upthrusted Colorado plateau when the river would have been much lower in elevation than the uncarved plateau. From the book I just recently read, one theory is that there might have been a deep lake in the plateau and the water pouring from that body down the face of the uprisen block of the plateau carved a channel that the Colorado River intercepted and overpowered. Subsequently the Lake's Channel flow was reversed and the drained lake served as a breach in the plateau's continuity. At least that's how I understood the book on my nightstand.