Day 2

Breakfast this morning was bacon, eggs, hash browns, and english muffins. Coffee was on early and most of us (except for DeAnna who just kept sleeping and sleeping and oh never mind) were up early with the sun or soon after.

The second day of the rafting held only one big hole just below the beach where we stayed for the night.

This was a nice little bounce to wake us up in the morning and then we headed into a more casual float even than the previous day.

Part way down, Mary Ann and Marsha ventured out in the inflatable kayaks to search for rocks for a grandson and just to try it out.

When we had gone for a couple of hours, we stopped to lash the boats together and enter into what some of us would refer to as the "Water World" phase for the next couple of days. While we were stopped there, Brady and a friend roared up in a motorized raft with our cooking stove which we had left sitting on the beach when we packed up the boats the day before!

Once the boats were lashed together and a slow outboard engine (running us 5 to 10 MPH) was strapped on, we shoved off in our new configuration. We had two boats up front with the third one strapped behind, and between the two so we were like a triangle with one short flat side facing the front and the two long sides on either side.

One of the inflatable kayaks was deflated and the other was layed lengthwise across the bow to serve as both a shield for when we made it to the lake as well as a providing two seats or one laying surface.

Three beach umbrellas were set up in the forward boats and most of the people piled in under neath those as the Arizona summer sun beat down upon us. Rick kept watch on the front half of the boat entertaining rafters with stories while Josh and DeAnna drove the boat and kept watch on the couple of stragglers who prefered to sit out in the sun.

Nick tried to sleep through it all while the rest of us reveled in stories or just took it all in.

Lunch was served on the boat with fresh Chicken salad sandwiches topped with fresh lettuce, tomatos, and peppers passed around along with chips and such.

As we got close to our sleeping point, we pulled in and moored to the shore for an hour or so to let the worse of the heat pass while sat in a shaded location. We had two bits of entertainment during this time, aside from the matchless beauty around us.

The first was the two teenagers who acquired the guides giant squirt guns and proceeded to dodge around the boat in the shallow water and on shore. They occassionally hit adults despite calls of "Dry Zone" (especially from Josh). After a while, they forgot that they were trying to keep dry and invented new ways of hiding from each other like swimming UNDER the boat (not the dryest area of all).

The second part of the entertainment will likely sound pitiful without having been there but I'll share it as well. We sat and watched dirt cave into the river. No, really. The reason that it was so cool is that we were seeing the canyon change right in front of us. After a while, the big bet was whether or not some of the small tree/large bushes would cave into the water as well. In the end, the roots were holding them to higher ground, but many did tip over and dip into the river.

Just after this, I had what was probably the best experience of the entire trip for me. Our camp was going to be set up about 1000 yards down river and around a big bend from our mooring spot so I asked if I could just float down the river. Of course, Nick and Ryan joined me.

Just a life jacket and a helmet and a float in the Grand Canyon.

The three of us spread out fairly quickly as Ryan got out into the current and quickly caught up with the boats. I stayed to the left for a while then strayed out into the current and began to push down pretty quickly. Nick took the longest and probably took great joy in the concern that the adults from the boats showed when he finally made his way onto shore.

It's hard to explain the freedom of a float like this. Knowing that safety was around the corner, but at the same time feeling for all the world like you were alone in the world. I'd left my goggles on the boat so I couldn't even see Nick after a few minutes. We would let out a whistle every few minutes just to make sure that each other was still doing okay and I gave him a holler when I disappeared around the corner.

The first boat that I saw around the corner was not our raft but a nice little boat that had two couple camped nearby. They yelled a hey and offered me my choice of beer or water (no telling what took sixteen year old Nick so long to catch up with us :-) ), but I declined.

An extra benefit of the float was that the boat was completely unpacked when I got there and I got to jump right into sitting down and working on some short stories.

This night was Hawaiian shirt night except for the person who DIDN'T read the instructions on what to bring (that would be me).

Dinner was fatitas with homemade guacamole and another sauce which I mentioned earlier in DeAnna's profile.

This night, more people sat around the tiki torches although Josh, Ryan, and Nick disappeared and visited the couples I mentioned earlier, with Ryan and Nick getting the guy to tell crazy fishing stories. However, once it was time to go to bed, the place emptied out.

By the way, did I mention that the guides

a) slept on the boats (suppossedly so that if one floated away, they'd be able to come back for us)
and
b) that they neglected to mention that the name of our camping spot that night was "Scorpian Beach" ?

That night we didn't see any Scorpians although I did have a lot of critter tracks around my sleeping area which was sort of off to one side by itself. I slept pretty well all night with the exception of a bathroom break somewhere along the line.

Which leads us, of course, to ... the final day