We had one night in Phoenix to pick up my dad. Simple, right? We got some good deals on Groupon for a hotel near the airport.
We did a big drive from Joshua Tree and finally made it to Phoenix in the afternoon. We checked in and… no Pappy. Odd since his flight was due 2 hours ago.
I checked the flights, all on time. No message from him that he had any problems making his connection. Must be the long line up at the rental car office due to Thanksgiving. I tried calling just to check, no answer. He must be signing the documents as we speak. We checked into our room and waiting.
An hour later, 3 hours after his arrival, a call from Dad. Where was the hotel? Someone had sent him on a wild goose chase looking for an exit on the interstate that didn’t exist. He made it to south and west Phoenix but not to the hotel. A few simple instructions on how to get from 25th to 75th street sorted everything out. If only the GPS he brought from Canada wasn’t filled with European maps from our Italy trip 5 years ago. And if only he splurged on a data package and could use Google Maps. Alas.
We went out for a lovely dinner at a trendy restaurant. It advertised an “anti inflammatory” menu. Regardless, the food was delicious and I think I countered the health kicks with the few beers I drank.
Hanika noticed a weather alert on her phone which said a massive storm was coming and would close down the interstate up to the Grand Canyon (our intended destination)! We’ve not been great at keeping up with the world. We don’t listen to the local radio stations because we have Spotify and we don’t watch TV because we’re masochists.
The more we looked, the more nervous I became. They were calling for 2 feet of snow in the Grand Canyon. What to do? We could stay in Phoenix where it would rain, forgo a night or two in Williams and relax. Or we could haul up the next morning and hold up in Williams (think The Shining). The hotel owner assured me they wouldn’t lose power. A quick google showed that the town had a few basic ammenities and that we were unlikely to starve. One slight issue was our lack of snow gear. The kids had jackets, but no gloves, boots or snow pants!
We waited until the next morning to make our decision. The forecast called for snow only in the afternoon so Hanika made the executive decision to push on. We stopped via Walmart but couldn’t find anything for the kids! The drive up was fine apart from a bit of sleet past 4000ft of elevation. We effortlessly checked into our hotel as the snow fell.