Those of you who know me know of my philosophic aversion to flying. That does not mean I am afraid of flying; just that I prefer other means of transportation that allow me to remain on the ground, where I feel I most belong. Both Evelyn and I thought we felt something sharp on our necks, and before we knew it...
After regaining consciousness, we did a lot of this...
...in this little guy who...
...and drove through remarkably long, flat, fairly barren, and incredibly monotonous desert land from Nevada to Arizona. This would have merely been a long, draining drive had not this been our destination:
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We zipped to our campsite, set up camp, and headed out. I felt giddy; nervously excited; always on the edge of running, trying to move just a little faster. The Grand Canyon keeps it all hidden; you get no preview. You can see mountains and hills from afar, and they slowly urge toward you. You don't see the Grand Canyon until you see it; until its right below your feet. I was too young to remember this, but it must be like seeing the ocean for the first time. Walking up the sand path, flanked by dunes, you rise up just high enough and there, in front of you, is the vastest thing you have ever seen - and as you get closer and closer, you see even more its depth. You realize that those little 'shrubs' down there on that cliff are actually hundred-foot trees, and that means they are much further away than you originally thought. It makes you tingle in the back of your knee and want to sit down. Oh my goodness it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen.
We hiked home, and I slept like a baby.
