Zones

This incident must have happened somewhen around 2006 / 07, not that it matters. Except it was It was pre children and pre smart phones. 

We were both working more than full time, crazy hours, weekends, too, and our reward was to travel throughout parts of North America twice a year.

Since we took so many trips, oftentimes to the same area we love so much, it has become impossible to determine when exactly we stayed where.

Anyway, it was either May/June or September, that's when we usually traveled to avoid the crowds. This is relevant because it means either way it was Daylight Saving Time.

Coming from Bryce Canyon, we arrived in Cedar City, UT, late in the evening. Not far from our hotel there was a McDonald's where we grabbed a burger and then headed to bed. Not without noticing they offered a breakfast sandwich my husband was interested in.

After sleeping in, we checked out of the hotel and went back to McD. They shook their head. 

We only serve breakfast until 10am, they said. 

It was 10:30. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Next destination: Grand Canyon. 

We had gotten engaged at Yippee-ei-o! Steakhouse a couple of years back, so of course that's where we went back for dinner. 

We didn't manage to get up in time to make the 10am deadline at McD's so we grabbed something from the general store across the street and went on our merry way.

Considering we were still recovering from our long-haul flight from Europe and therefore suffering from jet-lag, we didn't have a good sense of time and relied on the clock in our rental car or in the hotel room. 

Just throwing that piece of information in here. Time is usually not that important when on vacation anyway. 

Except if you want to be somewhere before 10am that is.

During one of our gas station / bathroom stops along the way I noticed a digital time display, and it didn't show the time I expected. It was an hour earlier. How could that be? Utah and Arizona are within the same time zone, aren't they? 

We started a conversation with the convenience store clerk, and he explained that Arizona didn't believe in Daylight Saving Time. Meaning during summer they were on Pacific Time!

Darn! We could have made it, we just didn't know it!

OK, but now we know! 

We manually set the car clock an hour back. We were going to be in Arizona for a while. So much to see and do! 

Next stop: Petrified Forest National Park.

We stayed in a hotel in Holbrook, AZ, and while we're usually not huge fans of McD we noticed there was one nearby, so we were determined.

We even set the alarm on the hotel's radio clock, which, btw, was an hour ahead. Looks like not even hotel employees knew about the Arizona thing?

We proudly checked out around 9:30am, jumped into the car and drove to McDonald's. The anticipation was huge! We did discuss that we probably had to manage our expectations though. Usually the promotional picture of a food item does not match reality.

9:40am, we walked into the fast food restaurant. I don't like the smell of frying oil, especially not so early in the morning, but hey, anything to make hubby happy. 

"A breakfast sandwich and a blueberry muffin, please."

I'm so sorry, we are done serving breakfast for today, the crew member said.

What? Why? It wasn't 10am yet?

I wouldn't mind asking my colleagues to make an exception if you guys were a couple minutes late, but it's almost an hour past, he apologetically explained.

What do you mean, an hour late? What time is it?

10:45am

"No! this can't be right! We have been trying to get to a McD's before 10am for days, and wherever we are, we are told, we are too late? What gives?"

The guy politely explained that while the State of Arizona didn't observe DST, the Navajo Nation, however, did. So when it was 9:45 in regular Arizona, it was in fact 10:45 in many parts around here. 

Are you guys going to Monument Valley by any chance? They will be on Navajo Time as well, just a heads-up!

Whoa! Who knew??

We purchased some regular burgers - after all it was almost lunch time - and went back to the car to set the clock an hour forward. 

Next stop: Canyon de Chelly. A coworker had recommended to visit this special area. 

No incident there. No McD's either.

Wait, there was an incident. At the only hotel in the immediate area, they didn't have any non-smoking rooms left. We spent the night coughing and obsessing about lung cancer. 

Next stop: Monument Valley. We learned that our Annual National Park Pass was no good there. Why? It's technically not a National Park, it's a Tribal Park, and also we had to park our car and book a Tribal Tour to get close to the Monuments. 

An open air vehicle we shared with a dozen other tourists, took us on the 17 mile loop drive. The road wasn't paved, and I had a hard time trying not to get sick. It was worth the pain though, look at this!

We were ultimately supposed to go to Las Vegas, and the best route was via Page, AZ. For some reason we missed the turnoff and found ourselves on our way to Hopi Reservation. 

Why not? There was a visitor's center where we learned about the Hopi. Hopi translates as peaceful people, and they are considered to be the oldest of the native people within North America. 

There was a restaurant where we thought we might have lunch later. It was just before 11am. The person said it was recommended to make a reservation since it usually got busy, and there were not many restaurants in the area. 

"Sure. How about 12 noon?"

We drove around for a good hour, and when we returned, the restaurant was empty. 

Sorry, the kitchen is not open yet, they said. 

What now? Were they trying to fool us? 

So. 

Hopi Reservation is surrounded by Navajo Nation. 

Hopi Reservation, just like regular Arizona, did not do Daylight Saving Time. 

It was not 12 noon. It was 11am.

We gave up.

Have time zones or daylight saving time ever messed up your plans? I mean, apart from the dreadful annual spring forward disaster?

Thank you for being part of this year's A-Z and Ultimate Blog Challenge. Keep your eyes open for the reflection post summarizing all my posts and experiences throughout the months of April!