{"id":1006,"date":"2012-09-12T20:13:58","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T03:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2016-08-28T09:35:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T16:35:03","slug":"september-12-grand-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/2012\/09\/12\/september-12-grand-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"September 12: Grand Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maricopa<\/a>
From Maricopa Point at Grand Canyon National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mile 7798 – Back in Williams, Arizona<\/strong>, because accommodations near the Grand Canyon are overpriced and mediocre.\u00a0 Last night we dined in Tusayan, a town set up just outside the park entrance for the express purpose of ripping off tourists.\u00a0\u00a0 I got that hint when the special drink of the day was a $150 glass of cognac.\u00a0\u00a0Most restaurant customers were of the Las Vegas, surf-and-turf variety, people who\u00a0chose Grand Canyon as a side-trip while losing money in Las Vegas and when at home eat in Mafia-owned restaurants with musical entertainment.<\/p>\n

Today the sky cleared hesitantly.\u00a0 We went to the IMAX Grand Canyon movie while the sun was getting organized outside.\u00a0 We arrived at the Canyon around noon and were greeted by light sprinkles, but after that, weather improved dramatically and we had gorgeous weather, with scenic skies and clear visibility the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Don’t come to Grand Canyon for solitude.\u00a0 Crowded parking lots and shuttle buses.\u00a0 We took the Hermit Road shuttle bus and hiked part of the way.\u00a0 P.J. ran into an elk.\u00a0 I spent time at a promontory watching birds of prey circling around looking for dead tourists.\u00a0\u00a0People\u00a0spoke French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Russian.\u00a0 English was rare, except for British.\u00a0 Americans don’t have time to visit their own parks, except for extinguished, retired people.\u00a0 Wait!\u00a0 I am retired!\u00a0 That’s why I was here!<\/p>\n

\"Tourists<\/a>
What Canyon?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Arjan<\/a>
Retired Person at Grand Canyon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vintage Postcard Project:<\/strong> September 12: Grand Canyon<\/a><\/p>\n

[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mile 7798 – Back in Williams, Arizona, because accommodations near the Grand Canyon are overpriced and mediocre.\u00a0 Last night we dined in Tusayan, a town set up just outside the park entrance for the express purpose of ripping off tourists.\u00a0\u00a0 I got that hint when the special drink of the day was a $150 glass … Continue reading “September 12: Grand Canyon”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arjan","category-pj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pjgardner.com\/travel1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}