The Road Less Traveled

This was a great weekend. Gina and I hopped over to Henderson to help our Grandson Brandon celebrate his 11th birthday, and what a grand celebration it was! We arrived about 2:30 Saturday afternoon, and our Daughter in Law, Angela, and two of our Grand Daughters rolled in shortly after. Son in law Harry had a mess of boneless pork ribs in the smoker all day, and Bob, Brian, and Corrie (friends of Harry and Kristine) all came over to help with the event! The food was awesome, as was the company!

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No, Brandon is NOT enjoying a cold one!

We headed out this morning (Monday) and while traveling down US93, we decided to pop over to the Hualapai Nation and take a peek at the Skywalk they installed recently. We had both heard of it, but never made the trek before. We were in the mood for an adventure!

We turned off US93 at Pierce Ferry Road. The signs basically told us it was a 50 trip in, and 50 miles back out the same way. Oh, well, why not? 28 miles east, and we turned right on Diamond Bar Road. What we were not expecting was 14 miles of very rough dirt road.

We finally hit the last 7 miles of paved road, albeit very full of potholes, and arrived at the bus station. Yup, you heard right, bus station. Unexpected event number 2, it costs $43 per person just to get to the Skywalk by bus. That's $86! I had to ask 3 employees to find this out. no one would answer me!

I asked what it costs to go out on the Skywalk. Again, no answer. Evidently they want you out of your vehicle and committed to the experience before you chicken out. I decided we were not prepared to be fleeced today, so we made a U turn and headed back toward home. We were still feeling adventurous, though, and made a left on Stockton Hill road to make it into Kingman via a back way. About 6 miles into this 36 mile shortcut, I felt the truck begin to pull to the right. I pulled over and gave a quick inspection, only to discover my right front tire going flat.

My Nissan issued jack was not sufficiently tall enough to raise the truck to a height which allowed the new tire to go on! Praise God, a helpful gentleman named Josh, who works for the Caterpillar distributor in Kingman, spotted us and stopped to help. With his jack and ours, we were able to swap the tires.

Note: AAA is rather worthless when you are remote enough to not have cell service.

While we were there, I spotted what I thought was a swarm of bees in a nearby tree. I trotted over with the camera, only to discover a few dozen black wasps were actually what was swarming! I took the shot, getting as close as I dared, with a camera that only has a 3X zoom.

The dark patch in the middle is one grouping, and just below and to the left is a second, smaller grouping. There were 3 groupings all together, and maybe a dozen in the air.

We finally made it home, 8-1/2 hours after we left, feeling rather blessed to have had a bit on an adventure, having met Josh who blessed us on the roadside, and having seen some beautiful countryside in spite of not wanting to pay extremely high prices to see another bit of the Grand Canyon. By the way, we have since been informed (although tis is unverified) that to actually walk out on the Skyway is another $75 per person. Then there's the helicopter tours...