10-1-16 Heat Escape - Day 51

                                              rafters on their way this morning

I had a meltdown last night, literally, it was too hot in the bedroom to sleep, the door to the flush toilet bathroom next to us was open and the light was blinding me in my bedroom window, and there was a noisy generator running at what I thought was 10:30 pm.  Quiet time is 10 PM to 6 AM. 

I got up, put on Lauren’s tee shirt, my glasses, my shorts and flip flops and went to the flush toilets to move the wedge from the door  that was allowing the blinding light to come inside my bedroom window. Got back in bed, and again, I was furious, there was a loud generator running.  I contemplated of going over, knocking on the door and asking them if they might shut it down being it was quiet time zone in the campground.

Luckily, I didn’t go knock on the door.  I didn’t realize we were on Mountain Standard Time.  It was only 9:30 pm, so glad I didn’t make a scene.

Today is our 35^th anniversary of our first date.  In modern times of face book, it would have been called “in a relationship,” bet ours has probably lasted longer than most of those posts.

This morning, we decided to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  For some reason, I thought it was 60 miles, it was more like a 100 miles one way.  It was 73 degrees, we left in short sleeve shirts, no jackets required, (at least for a little while).

The one thing Lauren wanted to see in this area was the California Condors.  We rode Amber down House Rock Road about 2 miles where they release the condors. It was a dusty, washboard road. We got there and a guy with his dog named Emma was there, and a bunch of cows.  The guy had a really impressive spotting scope, kept talking to someone on a 2 way radio. (By the way, I still have dust paw marks on my clothes from Emma.  She was a sweet loving dog,) Lauren was looking through the spotting scope set up for us tourist while gazing at the cliff and saw someone walking on the cliff.  The guy told us they were working together, (this was the guy he was talking to on the radio), and had released some condors last week and were checking on a particular one. We found out according to their GPS, there was one in the cliff and one flying above the cliff.  The guy left for another area to try to find the troubled condor in the cliff. We had planed our picnic lunch at the Grand Canyon, but decided to eat lunch and watch a little while longer.  About half way through lunch, Lauren spotted one. While he was taking pictures, I was watching through the scope.  I was amazed watching the condor flying, especially when he flapped his mighty wings.  Again, AMAZING!  Then I thought I was seeing double, but I wasn’t. there were 2 condors, and then a Raven started bullying them.  Unbelievable.

                                                             2 condors and a raven

It got cloudy and cool, so the jackets were required to continue our climb in elevation to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We went up about 5000 feet in elevation from camp.  The aspens are changing colors and are beautiful this time of year.  Lauren called one section of the road "Avenue of Aspens." One thing is for sure, the Grand Canyon is a lot bigger at North Rim than across the road from camp.  We hiked around the visitors center and took in the breathtaking views of the canyon.  We were cool and  in the 50's on the ride up, so we put on extra layers and gloves for our ride back.

We stopped by the Navajo Bridge where the condors were supposed to be at 5:30 pm. Again we were on the wrong time, and there were no birds.

Back at camp, we saw a double rainbow.  It must be a double kind of day, 2 condors and a double rainbow.  Can’t beat this.

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/1CgEw1ZSEE66rxPz9