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!