Epic Roadtrip: Day 1

With the best intentions we planned to be on the road by 6am. I'm not a morning person.  And we were up late with last minute prep and of course the keys got misplaced. But the dogs got a good walk. My Zoe knew something was up and tried to make a break for it and almost made it to the car.  Damn dog is getting too smart for my own good....

You know, it takes what seems forever to get out of LA County, let alone California. After getting some required coffee we finally got on the 5. It was after rush hour, thank goodness. We had to pull over a few times. Pluto isn't quite a car dog yet and wasn't too happy. A few potty breaks later and we were finally making good time.

Pluto is a lover. There is only so much doggy love I can take, so I practically jumped at the chance to drive until my eyes fell out. Luckily, we made it to the Grand Canyon before that happened. We made it in about 4/430 (surprised me, I did the speed limit the whole way! Cruise control). That gave us enough time to get settled, have dinner, and still make sunset at the Grand Canyon.

We stayed until full dark and played with Google Sky Map to pick out constellations. The moon was so bright though that even at 1030 it was hard to see more than the brightest stars.  Still, it was more stars than I've seen since I was a kid living in Mojave.

We ended the night driving back to our hotel without hitting any deer or elk and adding camping in the Grand Canyon to a bucket list. There is so much to do there! It helped that we talked to some people who were camping for the whole week.

Pluto making friends while we wait for the stars to come out.
It was pretty dark, so I couldn't focus my phone correctly.