Welcome to the The Grand Canyon!

Ok, so it's a little more impressive than a big ditch. Actually, it's a lot more impressive. The sheer drop at the sides of the canyon catch you off-guard - as you step up to the edge, the earth falls away at your feet. I would not recommend this for anyone with a case of vertigo.

Now, somewhere in Oregon, I finished Executive Order, quickly listed to a little X-files novel I'd picked up at Walmart (I don't remember the title, but it wasn't very good), and decided to move onto my other book Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Now, first let me say this is a good book. Second let me say it is NOT recommended for long stretches of desert driving. Which is *exactly* what I did through Nevada and Utah to get to the Grand Canyon. About half-way through, I switched on the radio. For those of you who have not been out West, there are only 2 radio stations available when you are outside a major city. One is a 24 hour fire and brimstone sermon. The other is extremely fuzzy and might be country but then it might be oldies but then you really can't tell because the static flares up. So, here I am, in the middle of nowhere, no radio, bored with my book. I scout around the cab and discover I have exactly one audio tape - The Mummer's Dance. Now, normally I like Loreena McKennitt, but by the time I got to the Grand Canyon, I was ready to kill her. I went to the gift shop and bought what the clerk recommended as the "most popular american indian" tape they had. Apparently "most popular" means "most awful" because this tape sounded something like Hooked on American Indians. Yikes!

Here, we had our second adventure tour - the mule ride into the canyon. Once again, Cymoril bowed out, not being a big mule fan. By the end of the trip, I wasn't much of a mule-fan either - boy, was my backside sore! But it was definitely worth a few sore muscles - the view you get from plateau point was great!