Into every life a little rain must fall

Yesterday ended week 6 of the trip, 42 days on the road.  I finally ended up in some rain and had to use the windshield wipers for almost 5 minutes.  First time I remember using the wipers on the trip so far. 
I drove from Vegas directly to the Grand Canyon visitors center is Tuscayon.  You can buy your park pass there and if not driving into the Park, can catch a free shuttle to the Park's visitor center.  From there you get a 2nd shuttle bus to take you to the main walking point kickoff area.  You can also take a 3rd shuttle bus out to the 9 main points.  They encourage you to do so, as they claim you need to take 3 gallons of water with you to hike the 8 miles.  I took the 3rd shuttle and got off at Hopi Point.

  I then walked it to Mojave Point.  The walk was short enough that I decided to continue walking to the next stop.  As I got there, I saw a bus pulling up and decided to jump on to continue to the next stop.  Turns out I got on the wrong bus as it was headed back.  I ended up back at Hopi Point.

  Finally got to the last stop at Hermits Rest. 

Everywhere had gorgeous scenery. 

  This raven decided to also take a rest at Hermits Rest.

  It looked to me that some weather may start rolling in.  It had rained a bit (OK more than a bit) for the previous hour.  I also had heard some thunder.  I jumped back on a bus to head back on the route.  The roundtrip for shuttle bus 3 is 80 minutes.  While on the bus, the driver announces they just had reports of lightning in the area and they were going to evacuate the rim.  They were honking horns at folks walking and told them the canyon was being evacuated.  Most got on, others did not.  Some did not speak English and we did not stop to make sure they understood.  The bus got overpacked, but we made it back.  Every bus was now unloading for the shuttle bus 2 to get us back to the visitors center, and there was a long line.  Finally made it back just in time to catch the original bus back to Tuscayon.

After 5 hours of a drive from Vegas, 3 hours at the canyon, 2 plus hours of bus rides, I then had a smooth 3 hour ride to Jessie and Mannie's for the nite. 

  Tried to get a selfie with Jessie, and the 3 dogs.  Only Tootsie actually made it into this photo.

Today will be an easier driving day down to Phoenix for the Diamondbacks game.  Tomorrow will be a longer drive to El Paso, TX to see Richard Labs.