Day 10 - Good-Bye Grand Canyon

We were excited to get up and pack up for the last time.  We loved the trip, but we were ready to get back to civilization.  We shot a few rapids and had quite a bit of flat water to our destination at the Hualapai Dock.  The Haulapai Indians own and run the pull out and made us wait about an hour in the rafts before we could unload into our white bluebird unairconditioned bus.  We had a fresh lunch of shrimp and sandwiches, chips and cold pop .  It tasted so good.  We unloaded and took apart all the rafts and then they were deflated and put on a truck to go back to Lee's Ferry for another trip.  

Our wonderful guides at the end of our trip
We forgot to get a picture of the rest of us

We got on the bus and drove an hour on a very, very bumpy dirt road to get to route 66 to drive back to Flagstaff.  We stopped in Silegman, Az at the Snow Cap burger joint.  It was a funny little place with all kinds of crazy decor.  It had several old "cars" cars out in back.  We all had milkshakes.  The order takers played practical jokes on all of us.  He squirted me with a mustard bottle and I didn't even flinch.  I had been wearing that shirt for 4 days and I didn't care if it had mustard on it.  It was just yellow string.  He asked Mark if he wanted a spoon and he said yes.  The guy pulls out half of a spoon and Mark says, I want a whole spoon and the guy pulls out a spoon with a hole in it.  It went on and on just like that.  We laughed and enjoyed our cold milk shakes and then got back on the bus.

We got back to our hotel at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  We jumped off of that bus and practically ran to our rooms.  I took a long shower.  It never felt better!  I got dressed in clean clothes and did my hair and make-up.  Geoff knocked on the door and I answered it and he just stared at me with a blank look.  He could see all our river stuff on the floor and said he realized it was the right room but he couldn't figure out who I was.  I said, "Geoff, it's me".  He started to laugh.  He thought maybe Mark met a new woman in Flagstaff.  I don't know if that's a compliment or not.  

We ate at the Outback with the Johnsons and had a wonderful night's sleep and then drove back home on Friday.  

We were so happy to be home. Everything was well taken care of while we were gone, but Beni ran away 7 times from our neighbor's house.  The dog catcher knew his name.  

We are so happy we did our adventure but once is enough and we are grateful for our beautiful home and all its amenities!

Day 9 - Willy Wonka's Chocolate River

After a windy night with the rapids as my sound machine, we woke to a strange sight.  I looked out at the river and thought something was wrong with my eyes.  I blinked and blinked again but it still looked strange, weird lighting I thought.  Walking to breakfast, I got the word to wear clothes that could be thrown away.  A flash flood had happened sometime upstream and the river had turned very brownish red.  The Colorado (color-red) earned its name.  It looked just the river of chocolate in Willy Wonka's factory.  The rapids looked like churning hot cocoa but smelled very earthy/dusty--no hair washing today.  We all marveled at the change.  The water even looked thicker.

Mark saved a bucket of clean water that had been filtered but not used so I could wash my gritty-stringy hair.  It felt good but once we got into the first rapids, it was all undone.

We got into Tess's raft again with the Johnsons.  After a few rapids, we stopped and hiked up to a site with a few petroglyphs.  They weren't what I expected, but the hike was fun and a little challenging.  Mark saw Cole jump up a big rock like a mountain lion and he wanted to do that too.  After three tries, he made it up but near as gracefully.  

Back in the rafts, we went through a big rapid and we headed straight for a huge several story lava rock wall.  I heard Tess swear and start yelling "high side" over and over again with her voice pitch raising at each exclamation.  We didn't remember our instructions given 8 days ago.  As we bumped into the sharp wall, I was sure the raft would be pierced and deflate underneath us, but it just bumped and one side started to raise as the current is very strong against the rock.  I yelled to Lynn in the back to move over to Carol Sue, so he did and with all of us on the "high side", we pulled away from the wall and went around it safe and sound.  I was a little shaken up after that.

We went about 34 miles today.  It was a long day of flat water with a few rapids.  Tess did lots of rowing.  Carol Sue kept getting after Lynn to help row as she felt sorry for Tess.  Mark and Lynn tried their hand at rowing and it was harder than it looked.  

We dropped off people who wanted to jump off of some rocks right on the river.  Mark did it and then swam through a rapid in the chocolate river.  

The last night was on a sandy, but weedy beach.  There were lots of bugs and it was a tough night.  I couldn't wait to be done.  I looked at Mark and asked if he would ever do this again and he said no and I said I wouldn't either.  It was one night too long in our opinions.  Maybe if it had been 8 nights on the river we would have still thought it was too long.  We are just so excited to be clean and sleep on a soft bed.  We did enjoy the chile relleno casserole for dinner.  

Every night when we pull into camp, the guides filled up buckets with river water to prepare for the next day on the river.  They added some drops of flocculant and stirred the water and the sand dropped to the bottom and then they sent it through a filter.  This is the water we would drink the next day.  Tonight, it was very dirty and I could not believe it would be clean enough to drink in the morning.  

Day 8 - Lava Falls, the big one

We were up early and packed up ready for a full day of rafting.  We have 66 miles left to go so we are going to have to book it to make it.  We've gone 70 miles the whole trip to this point (mile 90 to mile 126 total).  

I'm feeling a little lethargic this morning, maybe some rapids to get me awake and excited.  Lava Falls is the big one today!
  
We load the white pads, the blue bags, the kitchen, the groover, and then our own white bags with us.  It is quite the production every morning and evening.

We mosied on down the river which very few rapids in the boat with Matt and the Johnsons.  I slept a little hoping to feel better.  We stopped for a snack and stretched our sea legs and then on to Lava Falls.

The rocks had lava poured over them 1/2 a billion years ago they say.  Like the rapids before, we pulled over to check out the Lava Falls Rapids.  It looked pretty exciting.  We loaded back on the rafts and Mark and  Lynn sat in the front with Carol Sue and I in the back with a death grip on the straps.  It was exciting and exile rating.  Mark took some waves over the top, but I just got splashed. The boat filled with water but soon self-bailed and all was wonderful.   I wasn't nervous at all, hardly even prayed.  What a small miracle.  In fact, I started thinking of all the small miracles on the trip--the hike, my feet, the fears, etc.

We rowed on down the river for many miles (24 total today) and pulled into our camp spot for the night.  It was hot and I was not feeling well.  I went up to the shade and sat for a spell and Mark unloaded and took care of our camp set up for me.  It took a few hours but I finally felt good by dinner.  I wonder if something bit me last night.  I also broke out in a rash on my arms and legs.  It could also be a combination of too much sugar (cookies for lunch), too much sun, and too long on the raft.  I also get bugged by too much on my head and around my neck.  The sunglasses with holders, the hat with neck strap, the cooling rag around my neck and the cooling sarong over my shoulders were just too much of lots of things.

It was a buggy, windy night.  Mark lost his shirt, sunglasses and hat sometime in the night.  Someone found his hat in the river, so at least he has that.  Right before going to bed I found a spider the size of a quarter by my pillow, I killed it with my shoe and surprisingly went right to sleep.

Too many nights on the hard sand or rocks, we are all getting excited for a real shower and clean clothes.  We talk about it like it will be the most wonderful thing in the world.  They feed us well, so no one is talking about food, just beds and warm clean showers.

Day 7 - Havasu Creek

Today is my Mom's birthday.  I will miss it.  Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!

It took some time to clean up and eat our breakfast of lox and bagels.  The facilities were quite a hike up the rocks and then in full view or all the boats.  I didn't like that one, although it was better than the day before's in the cave--too many thoughts of snakes!

Speaking of snakes, I worried for a bit on the ledges last night that it was the perfect place for snakes and mice to live and come out at night to harass us.  I quickly had to banish that those thoughts though or I wouldn't be able to sleep at all.

We got back into the rafts and hit a few rapids up front in Tess's boat.  Over one I had a big smile (open mouth) and I got hit and swallowed some of the Colorado.

We pulled over at Havasu Creek and climbed up the ledges and over the high rocks to the creek, it was pretty clean and got bluer and greener the longer we were there.  

Almost everyone jumped in a blender type hole except me.  I was not sad to miss this at all.  No amount of encouragement from Mark would change my mind.  I was already earning my hair shirt just being on the trip, I had nothing to prove.

See Brad up on the rock?  Throughout the whole trip I could hear a few faint chords on the uke in the background of everything we did.

Jeff went deep, came up and did not get air and was forced down again by the current a few times.  I was holding my breath watching him.  Derick jumped in and grabbed him out, Jeff looked grateful.  He really could have drowned.  I wasn't going to do it anyway but if I had an inkling, watching Jeff would have killed it.  

We walked up to another place to jump in and also slide with a tube and a blowup dolphin. I stood in the pool and enjoyed watching Mark being a kid, enjoying every minute.  The water got prettier and prettier throughout the day.

We hiked back to the boats and did a few more rapids and lots of flat water to our camp for the night--a long big be achy place.  We are very far away from the food and bathroom!

We all bathed in the river and surprisingly it does not even take your breath away anymore, 50+ degrees is almost feeling balmy!  Mark gets in like it is nothing.  The first day he was very worried, the second day he got in with his fleece ski turtle neck hoping it would be a little like a wetsuit.  Now he jumps in and comes up smiling and really the water is only a few degrees warmer.  That's acclimatizing for you!

It was a peaceful ride with Tess and the Johnsons today.  Lynn sang, we told jokes, and Mark had a little nap.  Waves crashing over me have become expected and I enjoyed the little showers over and over.  I still hold on to the ropes, but not quite as tightly.  The teenagers are swimming the rapids in front of our campsite over and over--they love it.

It is hard to believe we only have 3 nights left.  It seems like this is our life.  We hardly think of home or anywhere else.  We are becoming one with the river and canyon.  It is beautiful!

We enjoyed steak, smashed potatoes, salad and cobbler for dinner.  We listened to a few songs like last night and went to bed.  I felt something under my sheet and pulled it up and a large albino grasshopper hopped on out.  It bothered me enough that all night I could feel creepy crawlies.  Despite our oneness with the canyon, the ground is getting harder and I do long for my own bed especially when I wake up a little sore.