I had planned on leaving work at 3:55 pm to catch the bus on Friday, but it started raining, so to be on the safe side, I left at 3:35 and the bus was 20 minutes late arriving home. My dad drove me to Hobby Airport, five minutes away, at 5:00 pm, and the flight was at 6:45 pm. The line for Southwest check-in was packed- a 30-45 minute wait. Normally, I would have just gone to the gate, but because of the terrorists incidents, I would not be able to carry on the multi-purpose mini-tool (which has a knife) and the metal stakes for the tent; therefore, these items were packed in a box. Even though the terrorists struck in New York City, Washington, and rural Pennsylvania, the incidents will somehow affect all of us- in my immediate case, cheaper air fares and longer waits at the airport.
This was only the first time I had travelled using Hobby. I noticed how the many of the traveling women at Hobby were dressed up. The other thing of note was the Middle-eastern travellers had their baggages opened and checked. It's diffcult to accuse the airlines for descrimination during this period because they are obeying the laws and trying to protect the flying public from future incidents. I didn't noticed any of the folks raising any issues- I think they understood the situation.
A middle-aged woman standing behind me and I chatted off and on while during the wait. She seemed very much like the southern belle type. She said she didn't mind the Middle-eastern travellers were being checked, but then she added the men in the hijacker photographs looked all the same, which bothered me a bit, because I didn't agree. Maybe she said it out of bitterness or maybe out of foolishness or maybe that was truth to her.
A guy my age had hig baggage checked at the x-ray machine because he had a nail clipper inside. He told security, he had removed the nail filer. I walked through the check point without problems.
After the check point, there were some reserves with rifles. I would think this would be more of the psychological thing, since anyone smuggling anything pass the check point would practically be home free.
While waiting 45 minutes for the plane to arrive, I realized what I had forgotten: the tape recorder to track daily thoughts and the toilettries (including contacts and glasses). The flight boarded around 6:30 pm for a non-stop flight into Phoenix. This particular flight was about 3/4 full, and I was able to get a window seat in the last row even though I was one of the last passengers to board. A college-aged guy, who slept through the whole flight, sat on the aisle seat, while the middle seat was empty.
The plane took off almost immediately in the overcast weather. While in the air outside Houston, the dark clouds gathered and lightning spurted constantly below the aircraft. Generally, we associate lightning from the ground, but to see it so closely at the source was incredible, like a science fiction movie come to life. I looked around to see if anyone else was looking out their windows, but no takers. While reading their books or sleeping, they were missing a magnificent act of nature- water coming together to produce electricity. I watched for minutes wondering what the next lightning bolt might be like. Especially beautiful where the horizontal lighting.
It was a cool night in Phoenix when the flight arrived 9:30 pm. The baggage was slow to make it to the conveyor belts. The only reason I had a check-in box was because I was bringing along a multi-tool (has a couple of pull out knives similar to Swiss knives), tent stakes with the tent, and camping stove with fuel bottle. Normally, the multi-tool and and tent stakes would make it on the plane, but since the terrorists incidents in which the hijackers used sharp weapons, any type of sharp metal objects are banned from carry-on luggage.
While waiting for the box, I headed over to Advantage car rental to pick up my car reservation, but I was in for a little surprise- good and bad. First, my original reservation made a week prior to the trip was for a economy car for $95/week and $19 for each extra day- which comes to roughly $135 for a 9-day rental, and $175 total with the extremely high 30% tax in Phoenix. Still a good deal which comes to less than $20/day. However, the sales rep at the counter said my total was $240, which shocked me. She had to call to call the office to get things worked out back to the original quoted price. These kind of screw-ups worry me because I had no control over it- the reservation was made by phone and no paper trace other than writing down the confirmation number and quoted prices. At that moment, I felt this whole trip was a mistake.
The sales rep suprisingly gave me a free upgrade to the compact car, Kia Spectra with a trunk, which I really needed since the only economy car they had was a 2-door Geo Metro, which has a hatchback and would therefore leave my gear in plain sight. A very bad situation in a place full of tourists, which also means full of thieves. I asked her why I got the upgrade, and she smiled and said "Don't ask why." Originally, I was hoping for a 4 door economy car, which would generally have a trunk. Finally, I made the mistake of paying for a full tank of gasoline. The actual total at this point was $200.
One last note on the sales rep- apparently there was a mix up somewhere with the reservations. Listening to her conversation with the office, it seems the office was accusing her of changing the reservation which resulted in the much higher rate, which caused her to bark back at them. I believe this mix resulted in the free upgrade.
The couple in front of me did not want to rent a Dodge Neon, another compact car, because the husband said it was too small. What were they planning on transporting, office furniture? I suppose some people will never be satisfied with having just the basics. After this 15 minute fiasco, I went back to the luggage belts, and my box was already taken off and on the floor. Again, because of the September 11, airport security removes luggage off the belts if they sit too long. They also check the luggage tickets now.
It was a long wait for the van to come pick up the car renters and take us to the actual rental lot off airport property. When I got off the van and saw the red 2-door Geo Metro, I was very relieved not to get it because I worried for the safety of my belongings- all essential. The Kia Spectra looked a lot larger, but still small.
This was the beginning of the real trip. To be grounded and to be able to travel the country. A perfectly cool evening in the desert to begin a week-long excursion.
As always, once I hit the road, no direction was perfect and any direction was fine. I actually found Interstate 17 heading north a couple of miles from Advantage, but wanted to make a phone call to Toan and Binh, friends in the area. I couldn't reach neither of them the first time and it was very late at this point, so I decided to leave the city heading towards the Grand Canyon.
But then when I was at the edge of the city somewhere in the industrial northwest section, I gave Toan a call, and he finally answered. We agreed to meet at a Chevron near the center of the city, and then spent about 2 hours at the nearby Denny's. When we got out the weather seemed a bit cooler.
I plugged in the portable CD player and put on Iron Maiden's Strange World Live. Generally, I wouldn't have packed along the CD player and CDs, but since I had a check-in box for the tent, I decided to bring the CD kit along, and it turned out to be a great idea considering how much time was spent on the road.
The only thing I needed at this point was gasoline for the camping stove, so I stopped at an Exxon. While there, a couple of middle-aged ladies asked if I had change for a 50 (I suppose the Exxon did not take any bills larger than 20 at this time of morning). Being somewhat street smart, I knew displaying any large amounts of money to strangers can be dangerous, especially at this wee morning hour in a strange place. (I had tucked away most of my gambling money, keeping it seperated from the wallet.) One of the women suggested I just buy them a tank of gas, while the other woman rejected the idea. When I heard the suggestion, I knew I wasn't going to like the suggestor very much. I pulled out enough money from the wallet to accommodate them without letting them see how much was in the wallet. They thanked me as they were leaving.
It was well past midnight at this point, and I needed to find a camping site. The Grand Canyon would have to wait until tomorrow. There was a camping are off Highway 74, which was not in the 1998 Rand McNally Atlas (my faithful companion on many of the road trips). It cost $10 for a primitive camp site along the lake, but I was never able to find the directions to the lake at 2:00 am in the morning, so I set up the tent at the last developed campsite, and went to bed at around 3:00 am. Since I didn't have my contact cleaner, case, and glasses, I slept wearing the contacts.