The long drive

Saturday - and time for the loooong drive from Anaheim, California, to Cameron, Arizona. This was going to be our base for the next two nights while we explored the South Rim of the mighty Grand Canyon.

We set off early from Anaheim, as we knew it was going to be about an 8 hour drive. Turns out it was longer as we added in a few rest stops along the way..... so it was lucky we left early! We have a temperature gauge on the car (a Chevy HHR - bright red, and butt ugly), which shows us the outside temperature - it got up to 113 Fahrenheit today - about 45 Celsius - blimmin hot. Lucky we have air con! Lots of long, straight roads, and easy driving. And a good KFC in Needles, CA for lunch - where it was stinking hot and we wondered why anyone would live there. But the people were nice, and the KFC good. We bought a chilly bin in LA for the road trip, so thankfully we could keep water cold, as we drank gallons.

We crossed in to Arizona after lunch, and it was apparent that there are a lot more rocks there than in California. Despite this, the landscape is still quite flat - but rocky. As we drove from LA, at sea level, we didn't realise how far up we had climbed, as it was all very easygoing, and by the time we had reached the Grand Canyon area, we were up around 2000 metres above sea level. The landscape in Arizona is very desert-like, but the rocky kind, rather than the sandy kind. Lots of bare rocks in interesting formations and colours. We made it to Cameron at about 7.30, so it was about 11 hours after we'd left LA that morning. Killer day.

Cameron is about an hour from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, so a good place to base ourselves to check it out.

Meanwhile, check out our red beast - I think it looks like a painters van: