This wouldn't be a road trip blog if I didn't regale you with our experiences of getting our rental car and driving to the resort.
Our flight departed Atlanta late. We ended up in Phoenix well after midnight. The pilot hauled, and we paid for it through some wicked turbulence! We went through the normal luggage ritual: watch the first 5 pieces drop on the turny thing and then nothing for fifteen minutes until the luggage pours out.
On the shuttle drive to the car rental building the driver clued us in on this little nugget of information, "Ladies and gentlemen, the car rental desks all normally close at 1am (it's after that time by this point), but the last drop I did Hertz was still open, so we'll see what happens."
HUH???!!!
Those who know me can probably see what followed my initial reaction, so I'm not going to rehash some of the colorful language that danced in my mind and escaped my mouth (very briefly--I'm on vacation, just let it go Desiree). Let's just say I was surprised by Phoenix airports, uh, small-town-po-dunk approach to taking care of air travelers.
So we pulled up and sure enough a lot of the desks are dark. But fortunately, the company we rented our vehicle through still had the office in the pick up garage open, whew! See, I knew it would all work out (looking around sheepishly).
The Rental
I had reserved a Jeep Cherokee. Well duh, look at the picture on my blog, and all the pictures in our travels. Are you really all that surprised? I was surprised when they said they were all gone. Now what's the point in reserving...sigh...nevermind. We could have opted for the Suzuki XL, or LX, STIX, PIXIE STIX---something like that. But instead we stuck to our guns and upgraded to this:
She a beauty, trail-rated and all! The Jeep Commander. Okay, it's not our SRT8, but it's a Jeep, and that's what counts...to us anyway.
The Drive to the Resort
I am going to spare you all the details about how we got lost, with a navigation system that was an extra charge, after market device. And yes, commanders, like all Jeeps comes standard with their own navigation system, but the rental joint doesn't use them...racket! I'm going to spare those details, cause they could go on for another 5 paragraphs.
There wasn't a soul on the roads. It was approaching 2am, so I guess that had something to do with it. It was refreshing. The roads are very well maintained!!! And something we noticed on Operation Griswald (see earlier posts from March) was that out west when they build bridges, they incorporate art into the concrete. I didn't snap a picture (maybe tomorrow if I see any), but they had mosaic geckos into the bridges! Cool! And when we got to the city of Carefree (yes that is the name of the town where the resort is!!) the intersection and lighting was done very well. It was very obvious that city planners thought all these details through before building.
Again, I said it was late, so it was difficult to see a lot of landmarks. But the one thing I noticed on our last leg of the drive was that the moonlight put off a glow in the sky and what I could see were cacti outlined with a deep purple/black back-drop. Gorgeous. And that was in the dark!
Until next time.
2 comments:
I enjoyed your blog. It reminded me of the one and only time I traveled by airplane. I, too, remember waiting for our luggage, and when the bags quit coming mine wasn't there! I had to go through a lot of hassle in order to find it. I didn't have to rent a car because a friend had left theirs at the airport, so I didn't have to go through that. It showed me that even though traveling is fun, it can be also be a hassle.
I love to travel! Since I don't get to do the traveling i would like these days, I love reading your blog. I have so many photos and stories of my own travels, your site has inspired me to start omy own blog about my travels.
In regard to your last sentence about the desert sky, I agree that the desert sky is amazing.
I remember driving under the first desert sunset I had ever seen, and I just sat in the back seat with my face pressed against the window (like a child) and cried (like a baby). It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. No photo could ever do that sunset justice. It was toward the beginning of my roadtrip out west, and experiencing that beautiful Texas sunset reminded me of how amazing our creator is. It was this beautiful masterpiece that triggered such spiritual feelings and thoughts within me.
The sun sets every single day, yet I will never forget that one Texas desert sunset that revived my (then) 17-year-old soul.
-Mary
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