Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River.

I’ll write a few blog posts about this trip. They aren’t really project management related, but related to life, and after all, project managers and other folks live lives.

Las Vegas

The first leg of the trip comprised a flight from Dulles airport near Washington D.C. to Las Vegas via Denver on Sunday June 27th. I spent a few days in Las Vegas with my wife and sons about ten years ago. That was when Vegas was in its family-entertainment days. Vegas has returned to concentrating on adult entertainment now. I won’t describe in detail the shows and clubs that each large casino has.

We arrived in Vegas at 9 AM local time. Let me get this straight – I  don’t understand what time zones Las Vegas, Arizona, and Utah are on. I am confused on the matter, and my GPS-equipped iPhone was equally confused. We went over to the Luxor where we stayed about ten years ago. We had the big Sunday brunch and then went upstairs to watch Mexico vs Argentina on giant screen televisions. Those guys at the World Cup really need to work on the officiating.

Marble Canyon, Arizona

After the game, we went back to the airport to join the Louisiana delegation – six members of the group were from Louisiana and one from Mississippi. A five-hour bus ride brought us to the Marble Canyon Lodge in Marble Canyon, Arizona. The town of Marble Canyon is so small that it does not have a Wikipedia page. It is a few miles from Lee’s Ferry – an old crossing of the Colorado River.

The Cafe and Store part of the Marble Canyon Lodge

Here is a photo of the Marble Canyon Lodge. It has a cafe, a store, and about 50 motel rooms. Meals range from $10 to $25 per person. This is out in the middle of almost no where, so the prices are about right. The food is pretty good. I had green chili stew with a tortilla. Everyone else had things like cheeseburgers and roast beef. Why eat that stuff out in almost no where Arizona? You can have that anywhere. When in no where, eat what the no whereans eat.

The walls and ceiling of the cafe and store are covered with beautiful old wood paneling. That doesn’t make any sense as there are no trees in sight. Rock and sand would have made more sense.

The Marble Canyon, Arizona Post Office

There is a Post Office next to the cafe, and a gas station next to the Post Office. Here is the obligatory photo of the Post Office (there is something about Post Offices that attract my camera). Notice the two pay phones to the left of the Post Office. There was also a pay phone at the motel. I’m not sure why they still have pay phones here. Our cell phones worked as cell phones pretty well.

Our cell phones didn’t work well as clocks. Somehow the GPS part of the cell phones kept switching time zones. I would be in one time zone at one time and then in another time zone 15 minutes later. All this without moving. Someone in the GPS office needs to work on this one.

At 8 PM local time (again, I don’t know how that translated to any standard time zone), we met with our guides from Tour West. The tour leader told us about the safety features of the trip and kept talking about how they only have to bring back 80% of the customers. I thought that he was kidding most of the time.

After the meeting, I concluded that it was midnight EDT. I went to bed. The motel is adequate, pretty much what you would expect in a little town next to a National Park. New mattresses, sheets, and carpet would do the place wonders. What was important was that the air conditioner worked. It was about 100 degrees F outside when we went to bed. It was, however, a dry heat.