The Longest Day

Sunday, June 21 (northern hemisphere summer solstice):

5 am EDT (T=0 hours), Cleveland Airport Marriott hotel - John gets up and wanders to the lobby to read a newspaper. We gave up our Cleveland-to-Phoenix tickets yesterday in return for $300 vouchers and a flight to Phoenix via Las Vegas this morning. It's going to be a long day, but first class seats on the flight to Vegas starts it out in comfortable fashion.

6:45 am EDT - Marcy's awake for the 7 am shuttle to the airport

8:30 am EDT (T=3.5 hours) - Our flight to Vegas departs. First class rocks. It would be best not to get too used to this.

9:30 am PDT (T=7.5 hours) - We land in Vegas and negotiate a terminal switch to US Airways. We have been given "Elite Status" on our tickets, which helps get us through another security line without waiting an extra 45 minutes.

11:30 am PDT - Departure to Phoenix. A quick flight, watching I-10 below (or in John's case, watching the inside of his eyelids).

1 pm MST (T=11 hours) - Land in Phoenix (it's hot!), collect luggage from Continental, pick up Tug from the "Park, Sleep, Fly" hotel (nice option), shop for food, make a quick stop at Waffle House for lunch

3 pm MST (T=13 hours) - Drive north on I-17.

6 pm to 7 pm MST - Arrive in Flagstaff, collect Howie (we're all back together again!), get gas, start north on highway 89.

Drive 300 miles through Navajo Nation, watch RAAM cyclists and support vehicles all the way along highways 89 and 160 to Colorado (very cool!).

1 am MDT (T=22 hours) - Arrive at Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado, pull into our RV spot and crawl in bed without unhooking Howie or doing any setup (it can wait until tomorrow).

Now THAT was a long day!