so i’m writing this update as we are driving from flagstaff to albuquerque. i always love these cross country trips because it reminds me of our country’s roots; our strengths of fearless exploration and rugged individualism. it’s cool to think that i made a journey that used to take people months in less than twenty-four hours. and holy crap, we just had another blow out on the trailer. like just now, as i am writing. we are pulling over to the side of the road and the wheel is falling off the axel. wow, it’s like channel 7 actionblog! i’ll keep you posted on the tire situation. anyways, it feels like the oregon trail; epic journey, close quarters, and then suddenly you blow an axel while trying to ford the river and before you know it you die from starvation and scarlet fever because you can’t get the replacement part in time. ok, well maybe we won’t die. but still, it is kind of frightening.
and of course, since i am writing this it means we made it out of the canyon alive, which is of course exciting. it was a camping (as in in tents…or if you will intense) six days. six days of dehydrated food, no showers, no deodorant, minimal dental hygiene…and in fact even though we have been off the trail for a almost five hours we have yet to take a shower. that comes when we check into the hotel tonight in the aforementioned city of albuquerque.
oh good the tire is now fixed. it appears we had a spare. all is well, you can stop worrying. back to you in the newsroom, bert. thanks rob. we hiked about thirty miles total, all the way from the rim to the river and then back again, and it was glorious. once we made it to the river, we spent the following few nights along the colorado river at different campsites. when not walking or eating, i spent most of my time sunning on a rock like a lizard, soaking in the sun. if i closed my eyes it was almost like being on the beach, minus all the people, music, real food, waves…ok it wasn’t really anything like being on the beach. but it was fun and i did go swimming. and i have a wicked sunburn, it’s, uhm, for lack of a better word, eye-opening.
so the crazy thing about the grand canyon is that it is big. i mean, like really big. but you don’t really even appreciate its awesome scale until you are inside it. i mean, when you are looking from the rim down into the thing, it looks almost fake, like one of million photographs or thomas kincaid paintings. i’m always like, “so, what? it looks like a painting.” but then once you are at the bottom looking up, you realize how huge the place is, how real it is. it’s kind of shocking. and the thing that baffles me is that it was carved out by a river. it really reinforces the notion of how mysteriously things are created, and even though we can describe it using all the technical details we want to, we still don’t comprehend how it was made. it is just that big. looking back, it makes me wonder how many other amazing creations i take for granted every day. maybe if we were all a bit more observant of life’s beautiful mysteries we would treat the planet and each other a bit better.
pictures are on facebook. come find me next week and we can talk about your spring break.
