Archives for October 2020

Hi Babe,
Had a good night sleep, to bed early last night and slept through to about 8:30, so I was feeling surprisingly refreshed this morning. I began by heading out to Publix to pick up a couple of things, and to fill up with fuel at the TA truck stop on the corner. I sat down for breakfast there as well, so I wouldn’t have to worry about doing dishes. I was on time and feeling pretty good, but unfortunately, that didn’t last. When I went to close the compartment underneath before hooking up the truck, I discovered not one, but TWO compartments doors were hanging down. One I didn’t even know was there, and when I tried to lock it, the lock was frozen solid. Then I tried the other one, which I remember I had tried to open previously but the lock was frozen on that one, too, so how they got it open I have no idea. It was still drizzling off and on, and the ground was soaking wet, so I got filthy trying to fix it. In the end, I was able to get one lock unstuck with pliers, channel locks and silicon spray, but the other was impossible, so I ended up just strapping it up with a zip tie, another job for me to do. Then I started looking around and discovered the spigot on the side had come off and was hanging 4 inches off of the side, and a piece of trip was coming off as well. More work for me to do!! But that will come later, for now I just got the compartments closed, hooked up, and drove to the boarding place to pick up the horses and Lola, where I arrived nearly two hours later than expected. They were fine with it, I just hate not being there when I promise to be. Anyway, I picked them up and we headed down to the Circle E guest ranch, arriving around 3:00. I made the mistake of stopping the truck instead of letting it run to cool down, and by the time I got registered, my truck wouldn’t start. That’s about the last thing I need now, to have problems with my truck! I figured it had just overheated from that long tough climb to get up here, remember that? I should have left it running. Anyway, I did other things waiting for it to cool, picked a new spot to camp on this side of the road to be closer to the activities and the dining hall, and started to put up the electric fence, which I didn’t realize I could do or I wouldn’t have paid for stalls, and by then, the owner was called and he was able to start the truck by pumping a little device to get more fuel into it. I guess there was some kind of air lock caused by the overheating, so I had him show me what he did so I’d know next time. So I finally started to pull the trailer around to the site, only to end up getting stuck, the ground having gotten very soft from all the rain, and there are no sites on gravel. I ended up having a backhoe help get me out, then I was able to line it up better and get in okay. I let the horses out on their anchors until I got settled in and the fence completed, then settled down for the evening. I’m very glad there is a good cell phone signal here, good enough for streaming, so I watched a movie, and I’ll be able to get some work done. I’m so far behind on so many things now, the unfortunately cost of taking time off for recreation! But it was worth it, this last trip to the Grand Canyon was fabulous! Nice and quiet here, looking forward to a good night sleep. Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hey Darlin’,
Whew, what a day! I set my alarm fro about 4:30, since I wasn’t sure how long it would take to do the double shuttle trip to the airport, was happy the drop-off was much easier than the acquisition of the car, so I actually ended up getting to the airport by 6:30, which gave me two hours of waiting. Guess I should have slept in a bit! Once again it was announced there would be no food or beverage service, but in first class they did offer us something. I took the cheese and fruit plate, but it was nowhere near as good as the one I got on the trip in. Anyway, the flights were otherwise uneventful, though it was a struggle with all my luggage to get to the truck, and it was raining pretty good. There was a hurricane in the Gulf recently and the remnants were just arriving, so lots of rain yesterday, today and forecast for tomorrow. I piled everything in and headed down to the ag center across from the trailer place again. They didn’t park the trailer in the same place I left it, so it was on a bad slope, away from the slide, unfortunately, and I was afraid if I put the slide out all the way I’d never get it back in without some serious finagling, so I only pulled the slide about halfway out so I wouldn’t have to face that problem. I also noticed one of the compartment doors underneath was hanging down, but it was too late to do anything about it, and it was still raining, so I just settled in for the evening, extremely tired from all the activity of the last few days. Fortunately I have enough water for a shower, so I’m off for that and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Another successful workshop done! Another great group from this company, everyone made loads of progress, even my most stubborn students came a long way! After I finished up and headed back to the hotel, I did some preliminary packing. Because I made the mistake of renting a car from Fox, whose return lot IS NOT the same as everyone else’s, I’m going to have to build in an extra half hour (at least) to my morning to get to the airport on time, so I’m looking at a 4:30 wake up call! It’s going to be a long day tomorrow! I’m disappointed in the trailer place, I only just got an email from earlier in the day that said the ONE THING that was my top priority didn’t get done, and neither was my second priority. Instead they did stuff I probably could have done myself and charged me over $600 for it, mostly labor. Grrrr… Not happy about that. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they had at least sealed the dent in the gooseneck, since I’m trying to avoid leaking (and it’s supposed to rain there all weekend!), but to do all the peripheral stuff without doing the priority stuff has really disappointed me (read, I’m P.O!!!). It would have been nice if they had let me know that 10 days ago! Anyway, I’m going to be up really early and hoping I can get to sleep early for my long day tomorrow, so I’m going to try to start now. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Had a fantastic night sleep! Was worried that with all the resting and napping during the day I wouldn’t be able to sleep, so I had my sleepytime tea and a couple of ibuprofen before I went to bed, and slept magnificently! Woke up super refreshed, had cereal in my room after my shower, arrived at the client’s ten minutes ahead of schedule, got the room set up, met all the participants, and had a great day! Another great group from this company. Very enthusiastic and attentive, I think it’s going to be a terrific day tomorrow as well. I have enough leftovers from lunch for a nice dinner, so I’m staying in the room and having another relaxing evening. They didn’t make up the room today, but that’s apparently their new protocol, service every three days is the new norm, which is fine, just didn’t expect the find the room the way I left it. Anyway, time for bed shortly, looking forward a typically easier second day! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie.
Had a decent night sleep but still felt pretty tired for some reason this morning. Stayed in and read most of the day, reviewed my material for tomorrow, took one sort trip out to buy a headset for my computer, my old one only had one ear working and I wanted something for the plane. Other than that, a very quiet day, evidently just what I need to finish my recovery from all the activity last week. Off to bed now, nice and early! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Though I woke up early, I had a very relaxing day today. Finished getting caught up on my diary entries, then went down to the pool for about ninety minutes, having requested they do my room up while I’m gone, but unfortunately when I got back to the room, it hadn’t been done. The maid showed up a few minutes later, so I just got new towels and left the rest. Watched a few movies, read a bit, found the Facebook group for our rafting trip, and generally had a very relaxing day, never leaving the hotel. Just what I needed, I feel much more rested this evening! About time to turn off the light, read a bit and go to bed, so good night, my love!

Hey Darlin’!
Couldn’t wait to get out of this place, there’s no charm to it whatsoever. The only thing I can say for it is that it had thick new towels. That’s about it. I had another bowl of cereal which I ate with my fingers, then packed up and headed out. The office was open when I left, and I asked for a refund, and she couldn’t even find the prepaid reservation I had made, so I’ll have to keep an eye on that to make sure it comes through my account. Headed out on another cloudless day. I stopped once to get gas in Kingman (gas was a lot cheaper there than in Vegas), stopped again to pick up some fried chicken at a truck stop (it was surprisingly good!), the stopped once more because I wanted to take the rest of the tour at the Hoover Dam. You remember when we came here together a few years ago, you couldn’t go on the guided tour because all the magnets would screw up your heart defibrillator, so I decided I had plenty of time to do it today, but unfortunately, the dam was closed, so the closest I got was to an overlook of Lake Mead. Will have to try that another day! Made a detour to the outlet mall to get some more underwear at the Jockey store, plus found some more thigh slimmers, the kind I like to use for riding that don’t have a middle seam, at Vanity Fair. I was amused at the number of kiosks down the middle aisle that are selling face masks. A lot were for football teams, which is hysterical considering most teams are playing without anyone in the stadiums! I would love to hear your take on all this pandemic stuff! Then headed to the hotel and checked in, unpacked, then ran out again to the grocery store for a few things. I ended up spending the rest of the day just reading, watching TV and napping, which was just fine with me, I need to recover from all the activity! Got a little caught up with my writing, but that’s about all I had the energy for. Heading for bed, not even taking a shower tonight! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Baby,
Woke up a couple of times during the night, once because the nearly full moon came up over the edge of the canyon and lit it up like daylight. Seriously, it was like having a sodium parking lot light right overhead! I got a bit cold during the night, and for some unknown reason I didn’t pack my long underwear, which I had planned to do but guess considering the daytime heat I didn’t figure I needed it, wrong! But I did have a pair of stretch pants I put on and that helped. I DID pack a wool cap, but wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t find it until this morning, it was about the only thing I didn’t move from my dry bag outside the tent into my tent! Oh, well, I still managed to get quite a bit of sleep. Didn’t wake up until almost 6:15, the coffee was done and breakfast was well on it’s way to being prepared, so I got, did my ablutions and started to pack up my stuff. Was almost done by the time breakfast was ready, and I was way ahead of the rest of the gang, they all got up much later than me. Another delicious meal, scrambled eggs, big fat sausages and bacon, two kinds of potatoes, they even had fruit and yogurt, too. Quite the buffet! After breakfast we got all packed up, this time on the motorized launch, which we then rode all the rest of the way. We stopped once so folks could jump into the water a float down the river for a bit, but I hadn’t put on my bathing suit this morning, and frankly, the river was still too darn cold for me, so I passed, but I got some good pix. We stopped again later for a hike up to Columbine Falls, another beautiful spring that pops out into a side canyon, and passed by the Skywalk way above us, a ring that reaches out over the canyon, then finally to the take out point just east of the current Lake Mead. Apparently the lake has evaporated so much that the shoreline is ever-changing. The exit point was Pearce Ferry in any event, a much better and shorter gravel road before we hit the tarmac. I had originally thought we would get back early enough for me to catch dinner at the Grotto near the hotel, then a cave tour, then another cave tour in the dark known as “The Ghost Walk,” since the cave is apparently supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of Indians buried there in the past. My driver worked very hard to get me there in time for the Ghost Walk, and we pulled into the parking lot at the Lodge at 5:45, just about two hours from the river’s edge, which gave me just enough time to get back to caverns for it. Unfortunately, THAT turned out to be a big waste of time and money. I was hoping for an experience that was at least fun, or entertaining, or educational or informative, but I got none of those. Maybe I was just too tired, or maybe the others on the tour were just too annoying for me. There were two young couples, teenagers, who did nothing but giggle and be stupid girlie, with one girl declaring she was afraid of the dark. I asked her why she would go on a cave tour that was in the dark if she was afraid of the dark, but all she did was giggle. Sorry, giggly girls like that annoy me. The other member of the group was older, maybe in his late 20’s, and he was a clown, hanging way back behind the group and making moaning sounds and fake Indian chants, one time a scream. The leader of the group wasn’t very good, either. He spoke so fast you couldn’t understand anything he said, and he used this really cheesy radio voice that demonstrated how bored he was with the whole thing. We were each carrying little flashlights and a “Ghost Meter” that was supposed to indicate when ghosts were present, and after the clown in back screamed, the group leader claimed that it upset the ghosts and they were flying everywhere out of “Mystery Cave” where they apparently lived. I asked if there was so much activity, why no one’s Ghost Meter was blinking or moving, and all he said was he didn’t know. He kept trying to have conversations with the ghosts and getting no answer, but he’d take pictures on his phone camera with flashing lights moving that he claimed were ghosts, but I had my video camera going all the time, and never got the same result. It just looked like the lights from the flashlights moving around. Same with a voice recorder, he would play back something he claimed was just recorded and tried to figure out what they were saying, and claiming they were touching him all the time. First he said the ghosts loved him, then he said he’d never come down alone because they would kill him, the whole thing was ridiculous. I was really hoping for a serious foray into the supernatural, but never even got a decent story of who the ghosts supposedly were and why they were there. It wasn’t even decent theatre, which I would have at least appreciated. Definitely not worth the money. Afterward I sent back to the hotel to get checked in, and the office was already locked. The sign on the door said to ring for service, so I did, repeatedly. Nothing. Then I started honking my horn for ten minutes, nothing. Then I saw a sign saying check for keys at the back door, so I went back there and found several envelopes with keys on them, but my name wasn’t on any of them. I had prepaid for two nights, and it seemed I had no way to get into my room. There wasn’t enough cell phone signal to make a call, so I drove back to the caverns to ask about it, and 15 minutes later the “manager” called the caverns to tell me to meet me back at the room. I drove the mile back and found her smoking outside the door of the room, wide open, so now my room smelled like cigarette smoke. I got my key from her, then after she left I checked the refrigerator for the milk I had left behind (I had discussed this with her numerous times, and she promised to keep it for me, since they weren’t offering breakfast anymore), so I had to go searching for her in the campground. She didn’t want to go to the office, which is apparently where my milk ended up, so she arranged with the kitchen to give me a cupful of milk. All in all, it took me nearly an hour and a half after the Ghost Walk ended to get into my room, so needless to say, by that point, I was NOT a happy camper! I had booked the room for Monday night as well, but decided I would leave the next morning. The Fairfield in Vegas was new, had much better amenities, including a free breakfast, a TV with many channels (the TV here gets almost none), a pool and lots of restaurants nearby, whereas this place doesn’t even serve breakfast because of the pandemic, and the nearest town with a restaurant or grocery store was 30 miles away. No contest! I had a bowl of cereal which I had to eat with my fingers because my spoon disappeared and I wasn’t about to waste any more time trying to track one down, and it wasn’t long before I was in bed, exhausted! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Up with the alarm, bright and early! Ate a quick bowl of cereal, finished packing, but couldn’t turn in my key because the office doesn’t open until 9:00. The woman at the hotel told me the group met in their parking lot, but the information the rafting people gave me was across the street from the Hualapai Lodge eight miles away, so I’m glad I didn’t listen to her! Arrived at 6:30 as requested, signed in, then froze in a very cold wind that was whipping through the parking lot. Glad I had put my rain suit on, it was the only thing heavy enough to keep me warm! I sat in the car until it was time to get the big dry bag, then put all my stuff in there. We headed out late because one couple was missing, but we finally left without them, and drove about an hour down a mostly rough gravel road to the “put in” point. There were several other boat groups there, including the one day rafting group, which was essentially just a large inflatable with a motor on it, and they ran the same trip, but with no paddling, just riding. I had spoken to a group at my hotel last night that were taking that trip, and I ended up seeing them there when their bus arrived long after ours. Their bus also brought the couple that had missed the first bus, so they had missed all the safety instructions and had to be taken through it again, further delaying our departure. Anyway, eventually our two boats were set and we shoved off. What a ride! Almost immediately after we headed out we hit rapids, with just enough time to get settled in to a rhythm. I was front right, while Jerome was front left, and we quickly got in sync. We went through a whole bunch of rapids, very thrilling! We came out fine, but we certainly did get wet! It had gotten hot, so I had taken off my rain jacket, so the cool water felt great! We stopped after a few hours at a place known as Travertine Falls, where we hiked and climbed on ladders up to a nice little falls. It’s amazing how dry it is in the desert above, then when you get down below there are all kinds of springs and green places. Not eastern forest green, but nice little oases that offer shelter from the heat in the greenery and falls. Anyway, we climbed that for a bit before getting back into the boats and going a bit further until we stopped for lunch along a little beach area. Then we headed out for the last two big whitewater rapids, which really got us wet as we sped through it. We stayed on track though, while the other boat spun around and ended up taking it backwards. What a rush! It was a blast! After that the river settled down, with just a few bits of fast water, until we stopped once again to check out a memorial tucked up on a rock about Separation Canyon. The first documented trip down the Colorado was in 1869, led by a guy named Powell, and at this point, three of his crewmates decided they didn’t want to risk the next set of rapids (they were supposed to be class XV!!), so they stayed behind. Supposedly if the Powell group made it to the other side, they would fire a gun to indicate they got through, but I can’t imagine even a gunshot would have been heard over those kinds of rapids. Anyway, the three didn’t follow, and apparently climbed out of the canyon at that point (too bad, they were only a couple of days from the end of the river!), and were never heard from again. There are various stories about their demise, the most popular being they were killed by Indians, though some believe the Mormons killed them, some think they never made it to the top at all, though I imagine their bodies would have been found by later searchers. Anyway, following that break we took to the water again until we landed on our beach for then night. We all pitched in and unloaded the boats, then headed out separate ways to set up our campsites, while our guides set up the kitchen that was soon to serve us a fantastic steak dinner, which even included a chocolate cake cooked in a cast iron pot! Before that, though, I got my tent set up above the kitchen, a bit away from the group, only because I found it to be more level than right on the beach. It didn’t take me too long to put up my little home away from home, and before long, I was joining the group in a card game known as Snap, which I don’t think I’d ever played before, but it was perfect because as many people could play as they wanted. Jerome had the foresight to bring a deck of cards, and though it was hard to play on the sand (no one thought to put down a blanket or tablecloth), but it was fun nonetheless. I actually won a couple of times! Dinner was served, and naturally, it tasted fantastic, like all camping meals in remote places, and after dinner I performed my poem, which everyone seemed to appreciate. Again, it felt great to do it in such an appropriate atmosphere, especially the part about the stockwhips waking the echoes, “and they fiercely answered back from the cliffs and crags that beetled overhead.” By then it was getting dark, and we did a little star-gazing, but we were too deep in the canyon to see the ISS flyover I was hoping to see. Headed to bed just after that, about 8:00, to read for a while. What an adventure! I hope you’re enjoying it with me, my love! Good night!

Hey Darlin’!
Who would have thunk that the ride up would have been so much easier than the ride down? Well, on us humans, anyway, though it didn’t seem to bother the mules much either! Got up before dawn, carried my day bag down to the corral in the dark, then got back to the canteen in time for breakfast, scrambled eggs, pancakes and some nice plump sausage, then we were back in the saddle before 7:00 and heading up the trail. Normally they would take a loop around the South Kaibab Trail, but because of complications with transportation due to the pandemic, we had to come back up Bright Angel again. Of course, any trail rider knows that it’s a completely different ride coming and going, and this was no different. Honestly, babe, of the thousands of miles I ridden on horseback, this ten miles was the most stunning, bar none. We made out way back easily, and even though it was the same time and distance, it just felt so much shorter. I was so sorry to see it end! I spent a bit of time with Wesley, gave him some apple and some more mints as we said good-bye, and he was quite loving toward me, which I appreciated. Absolutely unforgettable! Afterwards, I found the car, ate a few sweets I had accumulated from the meals, and headed out to Peach Springs to the Grand Canyon Caverns Inn, with a stop at Safeway for a salad for dinner and some cereal and milk for tomorrow morning, since I don’t think they’re serving their usual breakfast here. Checked into the motel, they were nice enough to bring me a small refrigerator for my milk, then I repacked everything again for the rafting trip before settling in for the night. Another early morning tomorrow, I have to be 10 minutes up the road by 6:30, so I’m off for my shower and early bed. Out of touch until Sunday again! Love you, babe! Good night!