Since I’m on business travel to Las
Vegas this week, I’m reprising some of my past trips there. This time I won’t be able to fit a side trip
in as I have in the past – in 2009, I took a helicopter flight to the Grand
Canyon; in 2011, I rented a car and drove up to Death Valley; and in 2013, Mary
and I went to Flagstaff and then took a day trip up to the Grand Canyon. Starting today with a recap of the 2009 trip,
I’ll post the highlights of those past trips.
In 2009, I took my first trip to the
NFMT conference in Las Vegas. I gave two
talks while I was there, and since it was back in the early days of on-line
media, I had several opportunities to be interviewed, either as a panelist or
as an expert on facilities management.
As it turned out, I also had enough
time to fit in an afternoon excursion to the Grand Canyon. I went on-line and found a helicopter flight,
and was lucky enough with the booking that I found a trip that included landing
in part of the canyon that is not within the National Park boundary. The tour company even provided a picnic lunch
while we were on the ground!
Here’s a link to the original post
about the trip, which took place from a small airport outside of town that had
been built to house the workers that were building the Hoover Dam – which was a
waypoint on our flight to the canyon, by the way.
The trip was timely for me, as it
turned out. Only a few weeks before I
had read and reviewed the book The Man Who Walked Through Time (Amazonlink). My post about the book can be
found here.
During the picnic, I sat near a couple
of the pilots from the tour company, and I talked about the book. I filled them in on some details – they seemed
to be enjoying the conversation, and I’m sure that they’d put any tidbits they
could to work on their tour spiels.
Still, I was caught by surprise when my pilot referred one of my cabin
mates to me when he asked about the sandstone and limestone layers that were
visible on the canyon walls.
Even though the helicopter trip was
expensive, I’d rate it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially for
anyone who hasn’t seen the canyon. It’s
a national treasure that everyone should visit, just like Yosemite.
Tomorrow’s post will be about my 2011
trip, when I took a side trip up to Death Valley. Catch you later!
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