Day 69

August 16, 2017                                                                                                            Day 69

Freezing cold...that is what I woke up to in the middle of the night.  I quickly grabbed my jacket and threw it on but that didn’t offer much assistance so I proceeded to spend the rest of the night curled up in a ball, shivering from the cold and getting no rest at all.  When morning finally came, the first thing I did was make a hot cup of coffee to warm me up.  Then I decided that I would make some oatmeal for the first time in quite awhile.  When I opened the container of oatmeal I could see the exoskeletons of little bugs on the side of the container.  The oatmeal itself looked fine and since I had nothing else to eat for breakfast I figured I am boiling it anyway so what harm could come from it.  Once it was cooked, I added some cinnamon and sugar to it and it actually tasted pretty good as I ate it straight from the pot.

 

With breakfast done and the dishes cleaned up I unhooked my camper planning to leave it behind as I drove to the park.  However, I did not get far at all for as soon as I started up my vehicle the low tire pressure light came on and did not go off.  So I got out my tire gauge and checking all my tires I found out that the rear passenger tire was lower than all the others.  At the entrance gate to the park I asked if there was a garage that had an air hose and I was relieved to find out that there was indeed one.  Finding the said garage was a challenge in itself for it was concealed and had no sign at all.  Eventually, I found it and had one of the guys there add air to my tire. 

Finally, by 08:15 I was on my way to sight see the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The day turned out to not be that exciting at all.  The South Rim is nowhere near as amazing and breathtaking as the North Rim.  The South Rim is way more busy, crowded, has less enjoyable hikes, it is warmer but not by much and the entire environment and atmosphere is different.   In either case, I stopped at Grandview Point, Moran Point, the Tusayan Museum and Ruin, Lipan Point, Navajo Point and the Desert View Watchtower.  None of my stops had anything to report and each only lasted a few minutes.  The watch tower was packed but was my favorite part just because it was unique. 

Leaving the watchtower I drove back to the main visitor center but all the parking lots were full so I had to park at the Yavopai Point and Geology Museum.  I went into the museum but quickly turned around and left for one could barely move inside it was so crowded and there was no way I could get to any  of the plaques to read the information.  Instead I left and walked along the rim trail to the main visitor center and then back to my vehicle.  At this point in the day I was tired of driving around and navigating the crowds of people so by 14:00 I headed back to my camper; which thankfully was still there.

Back at my camper, I was finally able to relax and began updating my blog. That in itself took quite some time and when I moved to uploading my camera pictures to my computer, so I could add them to my blog, I made dinner.  Dinner consisted of some very spicy and delicious bowtie pasta with garlic toast.  As I was cleaning up my mess from cooking you would not believe what happened!  So I am squatting down on the ground to check the progress of my uploads when a car slows down and decides to pull in.  Okay so I am thinking they are probably just heading to one of the many available and visible campsites near me…hell no.  They fucking back up and park literally three feet from me!  Now for some background information my vehicle is no longer attached to my camper and is parked off to the side but behind my camper.  Right in front of my camper where my vehicle would go to hook up are two very large trees.  This couple literally backs right between the two trees to my camper; I actually had to ask them if they were leaving tomorrow which when I asked they gave me a look like why the hell do I want to know but answered that they were indeed leaving tomorrow.  So I responded to their questionable looks by saying that the reason I ask is because I have to put my vehicle there in order to hook up my camper.  Now one would think that most people would be like oh wow yeah okay we will just move now so that you can access your camper…nope not these people.  They just continued setting up camp and it was so awkward for they didn’t even talk to me or anything.  I’m sorry but to me that is just plain rude, uncomfortable and where is the camping etiquette?? I can literally see at least six different camping sites around me that they could have gone to instead of being three feet from me!

So let’s just say I wasn't in a decent mood the rest of the evening and felt so uncomfortable having them right on top of me which probably explains why I didn’t get any sleep at all.  I was so irate that I called my mom to talk to her about it and since she does not own a cell phone I had her get on Skype so I could message her the situation.   Let’s just say I absolutely love my mom she is so hilarious.   She came up with three scenarios to explain why they camped right on top of me the last of which is my favorite one.  First, she said that maybe they were scared to be alone.  Second, maybe I look like I know what I am doing.  Third, this is the best one, maybe they are going to ask me for a threesome!  HaHa. Oh mom!  We were literally both in tears laughing over all of this.  Then my dad put in his two sense and all three of us were laughing so hard and just coming up with crazy ideas and pretty much spent the entire 1.5 hour conversation discussing my situation.

Once our conversation ended I tried to go to sleep but to no avail.  At first it was because I felt so uncomfortable that these people were right on top of me but then it moved to pain.  My big toe on my left foot, whose nail is completely black, had a small blister on it which was no big deal but now it was throbbing and shooting pain up my foot that kept me up all night. I was going to wake up at 04:00 am to go hiking but due to this pain I decided that it would be best not to push it and let my foot rest up some.  I should have taken some aspirin or pain reliever; however, I try not to take medicine and the said pills were outside in my vehicle and I was way to cold to go get it.  I just dealt with the pain and at some point during the night sleep came to me. 

Who says camping food has to suck.

Freezing cold but this jacket is amazing!