On the road again

So we picked ourselves up out of bed and made it to the bus because we had to get on the road again and make it to our next destination the Grand Canyon! On the way we stopped at Walmart to pick up "supplies" - our tour manager uses this phrase constantly and it had Stacey and I in a tizzy the first few stops as we were like how rugged are the surroundings we're in that we will need "supplies" but as it turns out its just a language barrier and he meant pick up fun stuff like snacks and liquor - so we're cruising through Walmart and we picked up some ridiculously cheap booze and our best purchase yet our puffy bomber jackets with a warm fleece lining because since the blistering sun of vegas we have entered below zero temperatures! After Walmart we kept cruising and we had to take Route 66 formerly known as the main street of America or the mother road running from Los Angeles to Chicago

Fun facts:
- Commissioned in 1926
- runs for 2448 miles (roughly 3490 km)
- passes through 8 states

We enjoyed a delicious club sandwich from the road kill cafe "you kill it we grill it" being their slogan.

Finally we made it to the Grand Canyon! Enjoyed a quick sunset view before dropping our luggage off at the cabin the first night was low key because we had to get up early for our helicopter ride!

It was a bit chilly before bed so I switched the thermostat to "comfort level" holy moley the thermostat and I have very different comfort levels Stacey and I woke up at separate times through the night thinking we had been cooked through because it was so friggin hot! The only pro that came out of it was I think we sweated some excess kilos off, gotta be happy with that! but seriously you have been warned thermostat comfort levels are not what they seem!

So once we woke up from the sauna coma we braved the freezing temperatures to board a helicopter that flew us over the grand canyon

Canyon fun facts
- 5 million visitors per year
- 277 miles long (roughly 446 km) at some points it is 18 miles wide (29 km) on average 10 miles wide (16 km)
- American Indians had secret paths to get across that they wouldn't share with the Spanish explorers
- formed over 3-6 million by the carving of the Colorado river
- the south rim (where we were) is 6900 feet (2.1km) above water, a lot of ear popping and shortness of breath

The view was nothing short of breathtaking no photo does it justice you just have to be there.

After the helicopter ride one of the contiki kids said he was doing the Angel Trail Hike into the canyon so we tagged along and man I thought it was cool to fly over but walking inside the canyon is ridiculously awesome!

Seeing as we exercised up a storm we rewarded ourselves with cocktails at the fancy bar and got to see an
Elk! Just chilling out the front and devoured some delicious chipotle BBQ ribs whilst bonding with some of our fellow contiki travellers.

~JBomb