24 hours in the car

All seven of us spent a total of 24 hours together in the car over the past week...it was a lot of riding- and driving-induced delirium. We had a silent retreat in Tucson and figured this was our chance to fit in a visit to the Grand Canyon, so last Friday after work, we hit the road.

We rolled into Grand Canyon National Park around 2:30 a.m. and had to leave for the sunrise by 4:45 a.m., so there wasn't much sleeping involved. But we piled on to the tarp of our tent (there's no way we could have gotten the tent set up in a reasonable amount of time), and slept under the stars in 39-degree weather. It was cold, but it was all worth it when we woke up for these views:

We also went on a quick hike into the canyon, about an hour round-trip. We would've loved to go further, but we had to make it to Tucson to meet the rest of the SoCal and Arizona JVs for a BBQ. Some highlights, including the appearance of Zig Zag the dashboard Zebra.

Never seen as many cacti as I did at Saguaro National Park in Tucson.

Soundtrack to our trip: