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MLB ROAD TRIP 2001
2001.5.3 <VOL.11>
Days 15-18
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*We are in Salt Lake City, UT
Index
1. Day 15 - Phoenix, AZ -> Flagstaff, AZ
2. Day 16 - Grand Canyon
3. Day 17 - Zion National Park
4. Day 18 - Snowstorm on the road/NBA Playoffs
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Day 15 - Monday, April 30 - Phoenix -> Flagstaff, AZ
We spent the morning driving around the Phoenix suburbs looking for the Desert Botanical Garden. It seems like a smart idea to figure out how to get to the place is before starting to drive there, but I thought we could wing it. After unexpectedly exploring Tempe and Scottsdale, we arrived at the garden, and spent a couple of hours walking through a vast collection of arid plant life. Thousands of cacti and other desert plants may sound boring, but it is actually quite interesting, at least for someone from Canada. With the temperature a balmy 95 degrees, it was definitely a true desert experience, and with Japanese translations provided, Aya was able to appreciate it as well.
We then headed up I-17 to Flagstaff. Along the way there was a sign indicating Montezuma Castle National Monument was at the next exit.. I had heard about it previously and as it was only a couple of miles from the highway, we decided to check it out. For those of you who don't know, Montezuma Castle is a 5-story dwelling that was built in a cliffside by Sinagua farmers in the 12th century. Words don't do it justice, check out our webpage for some pictures of this amazing structure - click on the Drives button and click the Phoenix-Flagstaff link. For more info, try www.nps.gov/moca for the National Park Service's webpage.
Back on the highway we headed to Flagstaff, taking a detour through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona. Yet more stunning scenery as the sun was setting, which really brought out the red that colors the buttes surrounding the highway. It seems like the constantly changing scenery can't get any better, but tomorrow is a day at the Grand Canyon, which promises to be memorable.
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Day 16 - Tuesday, May 1 - Flagstaff -> Grand Canyon -> Kanab, UT
A new month begins. What better way to get it started than a few hours at the Grand Canyon. Located about an hour north of Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon National Park is one of America's greatest sights. You can spend days there hiking down into the canyon and camping, but as we only had a few hours, we just hiked along the rim. I won't describe the Canyon in detail, if you haven't seen it, you should, it is really, really big and really, really amazing.
One thing I would like to mention is that the National Parks Service offers an National Parks Pass for an unbelievably low price of $50 - this pass allows you and anyone in your vehicle entrance to any site in the National Park System for one year from the date of purchase. As the Grand Canyon and other large parks have entrance fees of $20/vehicle, the Annual Pass is something that you should consider if you are doing a road trip in the U.S.
Anyway, after we left the Grand Canyon, we drove north through some amazing scenery. Lots of hills and curves made the driving fun (Aya used the word frightening). Today was also our first time change - as we left Arizona traveling into Utah, the clock suddenly jumped ahead one hour. I immediately felt the effects of car lag as my I was still operating on Pacific time. I am typing this at 1 am, so I can only hope that things return to normal tomorrow.
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Day 17 - Wednesday, May 2 - Kanab, UT -> Zion National Park -> Beaver, UT
Had trouble waking up on time due to the lingering effects of car lag, but eventually got going. We took SR9 into Zion National Park, which contains Zion Canyon, a long relatively narrow canyon that follows the Virgin river. After parking the car at the visitor center, we boarded the free shuttle which takes you up into the canyon. There are a number of stops where you can get off and hike simple trails that offer splendid views from the canyon floor. Although it was cloudy and cool, the conditions were perfect for short hikes.
Zion provided an interesting contrast from our previous day at the Grand Canyon, where we had spent our entire time at the top looking down. After a few hours at Zion, I think that it is definitely more interesting to see a canyon from the bottom looking up - it makes you realize how big everything really is.
After eating a late lunch, we drove on to Beaver, UT, which is famous as the birthplace of Butch Cassidy. It is also the first place on our trip where temperatures were below 35. This is not looking good for the weekend as we continue to travel north.
Tomorrow is Salt Lake City where we hope to catch the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks in the final game of their first-round NBA series.
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Day 18 - Thursday, May 3 - Beaver -> Salt Lake City
There was some funny white stuff on the ground when we got up. According to the TV weather it was snow. This is supposed to be a baseball trip, so snow is not supposed to happen. I am very upset with this development.
Anyway, I figured it was just a temporary aberration but as we got onto the highway I realized that I was mistaken. The first hour or so of our drive was through a snowstorm. Bringing back memories of my days in Ottawa, I was quite nostalgic as the car was buffeted by wind and snow. Fortunately we were on I-15 in the middle of Utah, which meant that traffic was very light. As we descended into the valley, the snow turned to rain and the driving improved.
By the time we got into Salt Lake City, the rain had stopped, but the wind was so strong that I-15 was closed temporarily just north of the city. Thankfully we were off the highway and on our way to the hotel, so the weather problems were over for today. After checking in, we walked to the Delta Center, home of the Utah Jazz. Tonight was the 5th and final game of the first-round series between the Jazz and Dallas.
The ticket window guy said that tickets were sold out and there was NO chance that there would be any tickets released before the game. We went looking for scalpers but there weren't any around the arena. On returning to the ticket window about 20 minutes later, there was a line-up. Apparently some tickets had in fact been released. The ticket guy was lying! Ignoring this affront, we got in line and asked what they had - only one pair left, 2nd row of the 2nd deck, pretty good seats so we bought them. Suddenly, it looked like our trip was going to become the NBA playoff road trip - a game in Phoenix, and now one in Salt Lake.
The game itself was excellent - although Utah had a 14-point lead after 3 quarters, Dallas stormed back in the 4th behind Michael Finley, taking an 84-83 lead with 9 seconds to go. Utah had one last chance to win, but missed two shot attempts and Dallas had won the series. The Utah fanzz were in shock, but this game showed that their team is old and past their prime. Look for Dallas to be a team to be reckoned with in a couple of years and for Utah to begin rebuilding.
Some interesting trivia - Salt Lake City has 6 pro sports teams - the Jazz (NBA), Starzz (WNBA), Blitzz (Soccer), Freezz (Indoor Soccer), and Grizzlies (Minor Hockey) all have the "zz" in their name. The sixth team is the PCL team that we will see tomorrow - up until last year they were call the Buzz but someone in their marketing department realized that the "zz" thing was actually annoying and changed the name to Stingers (named after the honeybee, state insect of Utah which is also known as the Beehive State).
Anyway, enough trivia. Tomorrow we will be in Salt Lake and hope that the snow holds off long enough so we can check out the Stingers take on Memphis.
Finally, we'd like to apologize for the lack of baseball updates, but don't worry. After tomorrow's game here in Salt Lake, next week is our Iowa minor league baseball extravaganza with 7 games in 7 nights, so we will have lots of baseball info then.
Take care all.
Sean and Aya
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Our home page is at http://www.mlbroadtrip.com/english
For more info on the National Parks Service, please see http://www.nps.gov