Since it has been about a year since we were married, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the grand canyon. We spent one day each way driving and three days at the south rim of the canyon. The trip to the canyon was interesting. We use Microsoft Streets and Trips to plan our route. Southern Utah is really very beautiful and the route took us along some very pretty vistas. At one point the road we were driving on continued in a dirt road and the paved part took a sharp left. We, naively believing that MS Streets and Trips would not put us on a dirt road when we selected the option of 'quickest route,' turned left and promptly came to a toll booth at a state park entrance. Upon querying the personnel there we discovered that MS Streets and Trips had in fact put us on a dirt road. Not only that, but after giving our four-door Nissan a concerned look, the lady informed us that we had better not try the road our route suggested. However, there was another road, about five miles back that we could pass with our car.
That should have warned us. Furthermore, we should have known we were in for something interesting when we noted that every vehicle passing us in the other direction was a four-wheel-drive truck or jeep. The occupants of which gave our car a strange look as they passed. The first mile of the road wasn't too bad, just a normal dirt road with potholes big enough to eat tires and washboards that will shudder your car off the road. Then the road went straight down along the precipice of a cliff, while turning sharply to the right. Promptly at the bottom the road shot up out of sight, still along the same cliff edge but this time turning sharply to the left while apparently becoming a single lane. I was just glad no one came over the top. When we did reach the top (poor car) we were again plunged downward and around a corner, fortunately we were no longer along the edge of the cliff. This was because we were at the bottom of a wash, complete with a little (fortunately shallow) creek. After creeping up the other side of the wash a few more steep ups and downs, with the associated potholes and washboards and we were finally out of the worst of the road, meaning we could finally travel at the posted speed limit of 25 mph. It only took us an hour and a half to traverse the 34 miles of 'passable' dirt road. I would hate to have seen what the impassible road we were supposed to have taken was like.
We finally made it to Page, Arizona at about 1:30 pm. We were still 100 miles or so from the Grand Canyon, but we had not yet had lunch and we were quite hungry. Upon entering Page I saw a sign for a Pizza Hut and suggested that we eat pizza. Michael was amenable and we headed further into town. When we came to the Pizza Hut Michael saw a pizzeria off to the left and suggested we go there. That sounded better than Pizza Hut so there we went, disembarked from our car and chose a table to sit at. Soon a waiter came by and got our drink order. Returning a few minutes later with our drinks he took our order then disappeared. We waited hungrily, sipping on our drinks. Another group came in after about ten minutes and were seated by us. Shortly thereafter they had drinks and bread on their table. I eyed their bread but stayed seated. Not very many minutes later they also had appetizers. We had been seated for about 25 minutes by now. Another group came in and were seated, soon to have drinks and bread, and promptly thereafter, salads, too. Michael was becoming antsy and I was debating asking the next table over for a slice of their pizza. We had now been waiting with only drinks for 35 minutes. We finally flagged down a waitress and asked for our waiter. She said she would find him. Five minutes later she returned and said he was making our salads. We glared and mentioned that we had not ordered salads. She apologized and asked what we had ordered. We got up and as we walked out suggested that any food would have been acceptable, we had been waiting 45 minutes and not even gotten bread! So we left. Loudly.
And took our way over to Pizza Hut, where a large line of foreign speaking people were debating what kind of pizza they wanted. We just wanted anything, so we left. Fortunately we spied a Mexican food place not far away and were quickly seated and enjoying a large bowl of chips and salsa. Our food orders were also quickly delivered and we consumed them rapidly. My hunger had been slightly appeased from the chips and salsa, so I only wolfed down the first two or three bites of chicken fajitas. Then I started to eat more circumspectly, cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces before stuffing them into my mouth. This is how I came to notice that the chicken pieces were still raw in the middle. I discovered that I was not hungry at all any more.
After obtaining a replacement dinner (no they did not take it off our bill) we quickly made our escape out of Page hoping never to return.
