Family

Spring break was all about family. Starting with a visit to Angela, Jeff, Michaela, and Ryley in NC. It was great to hang out with them for a couple of days and have fun.

Then it was off to see Tova, Daniel, and Eliana in sunny FL.

Chillin out, soaking up the sun at the beach (the water was still way too cold for swimming), and catching up. Tova just landed a new job, so I had a day to myself. I went down to St Augustine and did the tourist routine.

But that was really just a side trip. Really it was all about visiting and spending time together. The nice weather was a bonus too, but family is what this trip was all about.

Up, up, and away

So after all the running around Zion and Grand Canyon with my friends, I left for Sedona to meet up with my family to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. My sister has a timeshare there which we all enjoyed very much. And it was great spending time with my niece and nephews.

In addition, we got a chance to go on a hot air balloon ride over the Sedona desert. I had planned to do that on my previous visit but the weather was uncooperative. Things worked out this time and we got up VERY early for them to pick us up and take us to the launch site.

Just inflating the balloons is pretty impressive. It is hard to describe what it is like. Just how big the balloons are and how intense the flame is. Every time the pilot hit the flame, I could feel a wave of heat blasting us.

Soon we were up in the air and looking across the gorgeous valley. When the flame was not on, the ride was extremely peaceful. You can barely tell you are moving at all, except for the scenery passing by.

An amazing experience, truly.

Thanks

Every year at Thanksgiving, we all make a list of the things we are thankful for. And this year is no different. So much to be thankful for really. I have such a wonderful family. I am so happy about the newest member Eliana and am excited that I will finally be seeing her, Tova, and Daniel soon-ish. And I am happy for Jesse who has a new job and a new apartment and new possibilities ahead of him. And I have an amazing set of friends (old and new) in so many places. I am doing well, in a job that I really enjoy, in a part of the country that has lots of beauty to be found. I could go on and on.

I really have very little reason to ever complain about anything. Though trust me, I find plenty of excuses. From the movie Grand Canyon (if you haven't seen it, put it in your Netflix queue, amazing) "But that's how you get yourself in trouble. By thinking how nice it'd be to be happy more." So how about a different kind of thankfulness instead. Every night before going to bed I'm gonna try to be thankful for the day I had. Because no matter how bad it was, someone else's day was worse. And every morning I'm gonna try to be thankful for the day ahead. Because somewhere, someone didn't wake up today. When you put it in perspective, the vast majority of us are incredibly blessed, and few of us really did all that much to deserve it. So be thankful, not just today, but every day.

Time to Make the Donuts

Everybody goes through ups and downs in their lives. It's no secret or surprise that after Deb passed it was a very tough time for me. The mantra that I got from a lot of different sources is "fake it until you make it". That is, keep going through the motions until it gets better.

At the time, I was finding it difficult even to get out of bed in the morning. But there was work to be done and things to do. It made me think of an old commercial by Dunkin Donuts.



Wow. That's old. Anyways, that's what I told myself every morning I woke up not wanting to face the world. "Time to make the donuts." Basically, it didn't matter that I didn't want to get up. I had to anyways. Those donuts weren't going to make themselves.

I wish there were some great wisdom in that but sometimes you just need something to hang onto until the storm has passed. Here's another favorite (and more current) version of the same idea. "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects.

South

Our big hike was at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Originally, we had planned to do a Rim-to-rim 24 mile hike. Frankly, I wasn't sure we would be up to it in the June AZ heat. When I found out plans had changed to a Rim-to-river-to-rim hike (a mere 16.5 miles lol), I was a bit relieved. Still a very daunting hike, but much more realistic.

The weather was even more cooperative. The day before the hike was planned, the high temperatures in the canyon dropped from 105 to a chilly 85! The plan was to get on the trail before sunrise so we could be on our way back up before the hottest part of the day. We started our way down the 7 mile South Kaibab trail before sunrise.

It was actually chilly and cloudy at first. But we warmed up once we got going and the sun came out.

The South Kaibab is a steep trail with no water along the way, ideal for going down. We quickly descended which gave up a totally different view of the canyon. It is one thing to be looking down into the canyon. It is something completely different to be in it, looking up.

We made pretty decent time. After a few hours, we were a at the Colorado river, which was a beautiful and impressive sight up close. Much different than that little line we would occasionally glimpse from the the rim.

A short ways away is Phantom Ranch, a camp at the bottom of the canyon. A good place to stop and rest for a bit and to fill up on water. I bought a t-shirt and mailed a postcard (yes, they have a post office) to prove I had made it.

We were a little behind schedule by then and it was starting to heat up. About 80 and actually a bit humid (for AZ, not for us northerners). Actually, it was pretty much what we were used to on a summer NY day. So it was time to move on. At that point, we switched to the Bright Angel trail, which goes along the river for about a mile and a half. We couldn't resist dipping our feet in at a couple of places.

Unfortunately, it was time to head upward and the "real" part of the hike began. Hey, only 8 miles left to go! And all uphill. It was steep but really, not bad compared to some of the other hikes we had done.  Along the way I couldn't resist having a little fun with the sign that basically says "What you just did. Don't do that!"

We stopped at Indian Gardens campground to rest, refill on water, and eat for a bit. The weather was starting to get chilly, and once we left the rain started coming down. We were getting closer to the rim, which we found out later was having crazy thunderstorms and even hail all day.

So we stopped at the 3-mile resthouse to wait out the storm a little. We chatted with a ranger who had lots of good stories about people and rescues in the canyon. The weather wasn't really too bad. So we trudged onward and upward for the final 3 miles to the trailhead. We even made good time, completed in about 12 hours including stops. I think at the end we were motivated to get to the top.

Along the way one guy said to us that we were doing something special. I suppose that's true in a sense. It was definitely the toughest hike I have ever done. But actually easier than I expected. We were very well prepared. This is not a hike that you just get up and do it without knowing what you are doing. But I think what I would take from it is just the opposite. We weren't all that special. We aren't super-athletes. But when you put your mind to it, people can do more than they realize, if they are willing to take a chance. Ha ha. Cue cheezy music. Anyways, that's my take on it.

Inspiration

When I was first talking about getting my motorcycle, a friend of mine who rode recommended a TV series for me, "Long Way Round". It was at "Really Long Wait" in my Netflix for quite some time. But early this year it became available and I immediately put them to the top of my queue.

It is hard to describe the series. Mostly, because when you get started it sounds like an urban legend or a bigfoot story. The movie actor Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, Big Fish, and perhaps the only good thing in all of Star Wars: Episodes 1-3) and Charley Boorman (an actor friend of his) decide to ride motorcycles all the way around the world. From England to Siberia, then a short flight to Alaska, and continue riding to NY city. You might think the hard thing about that is the distance. Don't get me wrong, it is truly amazing. But it is trumped by driving in Mongolia and Siberia on surfaces that cannot legitimately be called roads (or even what we would consider off-roading). I saw the series and I still don't know how they did it.

So it's impressive. So what? What does that have to do with me. Well, it is more a matter of timing. Those DVDs were sitting there waiting for soooo long, and yet when do they arrive? In the months before my trip to AZ, when our plans were to hike rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon. Hmmm. Makes you wonder. Maybe it was a message. Maybe I was just looking for some sort of motivation. Well, coincidence or not, it was interesting to watch this huge adventure unfold while packing my hiking gear. And then watching the canyon forecast jump in the last few days to over 100 degrees. "I'm in awe of it, and I'm completely terrified at the the same time." I agree Charley, I agree.

North

After Zion, we headed down to the Grand Canyon. All my previous trips had been to the South Rim, which is very family-friendly and touristy. All fine and good, but this time we were spending some time at the North Rim, which is a whole different creature.

It is much more remote and so you feel much closer to nature there. The North Rim is also much higher elevation than the South, so it is cooler there. Forecast was 70s for the North Rim, 80s for the South Rim, and 100s for the bottom of the canyon. That first night, we got there in the late afternoon. Just enough time to catch a quick view of the canyon and setup camp.

The next day was a big hike day. We went down the main trail into the canyon, the North Kaibab Trail. We were taking it 4.7 miles down a side canyon to where it meets the main Grand Canyon.

In my mind, this would be our big test for the big hike we had planned later in the trip. The idea was to get up really early and go down and back before it got too hot. Unfortunately, on the way down we were falling behind schedule, mostly from stopping to take tons of pictures. But at the end, we were rewarded with a wonderful view of our destination, Ribbon Falls.

At the falls, we stopped for lunch and cooled off in the water. It was getting pretty hot as we were pretty close to the bottom of the canyon. So we decided to wait for about an hour, but the heat wasn't going to let up for a while. On the way up, the first mile was rough, as there was really no shade and it was close to 100. But we were smart and paced ourselves, drank lots of water and kept our electrolytes up. We were prepared. After that 1st mile, we re-entered the side canyon. Since it was much more narrow, the canyon walls gave us a lot more cover from the sun and the rest of the hike was a lot more bearable. It was definitely a tough hike, but I was feeling a lot better about our ability to hike in the high temperatures of the canyon.