Through Painted Deserts........
Day 4 and leaving Albuquerque later than I had intended due to work and a search for Starbucks. The drive through New Mexico to Arizona is breathtaking, much more than I had expected. I snapped the photo below because of the great scenery and learned later that I captured my a picture of a my NTC (in Clermont, FL) spin teacher's Indian reservation/ home town.

I arrive to the Grand Canyon around 2:30pm with barely enough time for a 3 mile hike down into the canyon. The view is spectacular and the weather is perfect, my only complaint is not having enough time to hike to the bottom.  Standing at the edge admiring the Glory of God and trying to grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ the Andrew Peterson song, nothing to say, comes to mind:

And I don't believe that I believed
In You as deeply as today
I reckon what I'm saying is
There's nothing more
Nothing more to say

And the mountains sing Your glory hallelujah
The canyons echo sweet amazing grace
My spirit sails
The mighty gales are bellowing
Your name
And I've got nothing to say
No, I've got nothing to say















That evening I made my way through the Red Rocks towards Sedona, Arizona and found myself a little Mexican restaurant with great atmosphere. Too bad the food was lousy. That night I stayed at Sedona's La Quinta (Spanish for free high speed internet) at the base of the Bell Rock. The next morning I was up in time to watch the sun rise over these glorious red rocks before heading to Phoenix.

This is where my road trip gets more exciting, Amanda, a traveling nurse I met during another adventure is flying into Phoenix for my last leg of the journey. After picking her up we find another Diner, Drive In, or Dive from the Food Network and meet up with a friend of hers. One amazing ham steak and red eye gravy later we were off and California bound. Sadly the drive to Cali is along I10 which just may be the most boring road in America. I also found that not all of California is nice. There are miles of desert with signs that say Prison nearby DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS! yikes kind of scary.

 But at last we made it to the coast, Oceanside California just after sunset. From the right coast to the left coast in 5 long days. That night we drove north through LA and found a great hotel in Ventura.