It was lunchtime on Saturday and we were listening to one of our favourite radio shows: Jess Gillam’s This Classical Life and the two words “Grand Canyon” were spoken. Such a simple prompt for a conversation of reminiscences.

Our 2012 road trip took us there and clearly the place left a deep and lasting impression on us, though possibly not quite so strong as the hotel where we stayed, because that was where the focus of our chat went.

“Oh heck…remember that hotel? I wonder if the sweet wrapper is still on the carpet?” (It stayed there on a main staircase throughout our stay, revealing the thorough cleaning routine) and,

“Wasn’t there something about the woman in charge of the dining room? I can’t remember why she would stick in my mind”

Clearly, there was only one thing to do…

Find the journal.

Under normal circumstances, googling my blog here might provide the answer but for some reason I sensed that this was the kind of personal detail I might not write in my blog. I went to the shelf and looked for the right paraphernalia tied to the spiral, though at this point, I couldn’t remember what I was looking for.

Of course! Mount Rushmore and a little pot of red rocks from Sedona, plus a metal luggage tag from Promontory Point in Utah.

There it was. The totally scatty and somewhat disorganised woman in charge of the restaurant seating wore a distinctive eye patch and had a most peculiar manner, completely muddling our reservation for a table for three. In her system, she had a table for 7 people at 3pm…but, as she reassured us, it can’t possibly have been our mistake, because she “always trusts her guests”. Errmmm?

Needless to say, we couldn’t return the journal to the shelf without going on to read more, so spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon reading the whole journal again and reliving what was a fabulous road trip - a classic, in fact. We thought of Mary and wanted to share the fun reminiscences, so I grabbed my camera and photographed each page, uploaded them to Dropbox and shared the link with her.

A couple of hours later, an email arrived from her. She too had enjoyed a couple of hours reliving the fun we’d had, remembering some of the small details we’d all forgotten.

Trivia, really, but the kind of things which make for a great trip and which made/make us laugh.

Of course, I then went to see what I’d written in my blog. Oh dear… Way back then in 2012, I was still using Blogger and had simply copied it across when I moved my blog to Squarespace some years ago. Here I was, reading about one of the most magnificent landscapes and the photographs were tiny.

Perhaps I’ll upgrade them.

Not only that, but many of those old posts here don’t have index photographs. Though I upload one with each fresh blog post these days, I’ve not gone back to add them to the very old posts from years ago. Perhaps I’d better do that too?

Two days later, all the blog posts from that 2012 Road Trip are updated and have index photos. If you feel like a road trip from Scottsdale AZ to Chicago (with a couple of short flights along the way) then here you go - start here. I’ve really enjoyed reliving that great experience and remember it as one of the best we’ve done. Let’s get this pandemic licked so we can do another one!

Definitely time well spent then, for after all, look what gems would have been forgotten had I not gone back and looked 😎 But who knew how hearing those two words would lead to two days of fiddling about!?

And yes, there are more blog posts to be updated where I found those, too.