Well if Sedona was the spiritual awakening, the Grand Canyon is heaven. It is just amazing. I, personally had been here before when i was a little girl. It was when my mom and step dad took my brother and i on a road trip and one of the stops was the grand canyon. I was eight on that trip and the place had an impact on me than and stayed with me my entire life. Being here at 37 was just as moving. Being able to be here with my family was precious. We settled on a campsite about a 15-20 minutes outside the Grand Canyon, and this truely was camping as us B.Cers knew. It was chilly and campfires were something you had to work for. Rryla and Mark set out to find wood for the fire as the rest of us settled in. We set to finding the perfect hot dog stick and than to widdle it away to a point. We gathered our chairs around the flame that would become the means to our dinner and the means to our warmth for the evening. We discussed our day, relaxed and watched the stars tell their story in the night sky. We planned for the following day and watched the embers of the fire lull into the darkness of the night. We calapsed heavily apon feathered pillows to dream far into the night. Apon waking, we set out to discover the secrets of the vast Grand Canyon. The trails were abundant. We walked to several view sights, took photos, imprinted images on our souls and continued. It was inspiring, it was captivating and down right unbelievable. To stare out at this montrous crevass, that was miles deep, miles long and that held stories and fates of many travellers was not only a privallege, but an honour. Would my children remember its folds and its layers as i had as a child?. I wondered at i stared at its history.
We found a guide and learned of a program that the kids could do to earn a badge and a crest. We needed to hike a trail into the belly of the canyon and attend a seminar. We chose a trail and a seminar. The Trail was a switchback that meandered down until it reached a river. We did not go all the way down, however the distance that we covered was enough to appreciate the offerings that this canyon had. It was enough to make one feel small and vulnerable. Our children did an amazing job navigating the trail and enjoying the natural beauty that they were lucky enough to be apart of. After our hike we attended a seminar on the California Condor. We learned of it's threat of extinction, of it's importance and of the efforts to regain it's numbers. Our children learned alot that day, so did we. They got their badges and their crests, we got tattoos on our souls of this miraculous place. Will our children grow up to take their children on such a journey? We hope so.
The moon is magic and history repeats itself . We aim to teach and be taught. Lifes journey is a discovery of amazing things.
Another day unfolds
And we sleep.
xoUs
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Road Home is a Long and Winding Road
On our way to Sedona AZ we ran into a road block, or a windstorm, to be more correct. It wasn't like the windstorms we're used to in Squamish, more like the tornado type that perhaps they are used to in dessert areas in the U.S. So their we were, barreling down the highway and being tossed around like a paper bag caught in the wind. Personally, i felt in danger, which didn't normally register, at first, to others in my family because im known to be hyper sensitive to pretty much everything, but i had abit of help from the powers that-be in the form of a sign high up over head that read " highway closed 50miles ahead due to extreme wind storm." I had to breathe a sigh of relief because in my mind i believed that this would mean surely we would stop and wait it out....It didn't! I was able, however to get Mark to stop at a visitors centre to ask about the degree of the storm and the estimated time of interference the storm would cause. The gentlemen at the front desk was very helpful, and definatley on my side in terms of not continuing our journey down the highway. He let us know that these "windstorms" can turn into 100mile high "dirt devils", which really is a down play on a tornado as far as i could tell. He said that high profile vehicles like our motorhome were known to "tumble" in storms such as this and that winds were up to 60miles an hour which was the worst yet out of the previous days. Apparently the winds had even blew out some windows in the building that he occupied the previous day ! As much anxiety as i was feeling at the time, i felt reassured that after all this information we were staying put until things calmed down outside with the winds. We walked out, and as we were getting tossled around by the wind on the way to the motorhome, i had a smile on my face and was just about to breathe a little easier when Mark piped up and said "I think we can make it the next 50miles til where the road closes.'' My heart rate instantly spiked, "come on Mark, are you serious?" I said, "Ya, it will be fine Bran, you'll see, it's only 50miles away, it's still early in the day, we'll be fine". So off we went, reluctantly on my behalf, down the windy road. We did make it. we went until we couldn't make it any more, and their we were with about 150 other big rigs waiting until the storm passed and we could push on to our destination....Sedona. We walked Keesha, talked to some rig drivers that added little comfort to us, informing us that, they too, felt very vulnerable on the road in times like this. We had some lunch and decided on our options. At this point the highway was not scheduled to open until later on that night, or possibly early the next morning. Their was an alternate route that would ad about 2 hours on our trip, or we could wait to hit the highway with the other 150 other big rigs to fight out the battle to Sedona, without any headlights on our motorhome, we decided to take the alternate route. Originally this was not a great option only because nobody else was taking it and we were wondering why? Was their something about this route that we didn't know about? In our typical adventurous Willmot fashion, we decided to take the alternate route. Things were abit better considering the first hour of our journey we were in a head wind, which didn't make us feel like we were inside a washing machine. This was good. We eventually wound our way into a mountain and began to descend off the high dessert plateau. We didn't encounter any precarious roadblocks on our way, we saw a coyote and some deer and that was about it. We entered Sedona in the evening before the night fell, it was a sureal event. If you have never been to Sedona i encourage you to go. It is hard to describe, only because the beauty of it captivates you, stuns you almost, but does not let you take it with you. The color of the rock is like a sunset in Mexico, or of a bleeding heart that never heals, it stays with you, envelopes your soul, captivates your spirit. I know now why they call this place "spiritual". We took many pictures that evening as the sun cast it's glow on the rock just before it went to sleep. I think we all felt a little closer to god in those final moments of the day. As night was falling we knew we had to find a place to park for the night. It was a race against the moments before the moon lit the sky because our headlights were pretty close to nil. We settled on a parking lot next to a dairy queen. This proved to be a gem spot. Not only did we get wifi, but we also got cable and i was able to catch the season finale of Greys Anatomy.
The next day we set out to find a good hiking trail. We wanted to envelope ourselves in the crevases of the rock that surrounded this natural wonder of a community. First we grabbed a coffee and hit the whole foods store for lunch supplies. In whole foods we met an amazing women that awackened me, that made me ache for my girlfriends and want to ad her to my facebook list just the same. She told us of a favorite hicking spot and that is the one we chose. We packed some snacks and headed out. Keesha was in her glory, and so were we. The hike started out with us having to hop scotch across river beds and streams until we came to a path that wound through lush woods and rock faces. It was beautiful, the air was fresh and the path was alive with beauty and other hikers. The land whispered its past to us as we meandered along in awe. We hiked for about an hour and a half in and than turned around to head back, feeling the hunger in our bellies for lunch. We ate, and than wondered what the evening had in store for us. We had previously booked a camp site out of town. A place to park really. At a cost of 20$ we had a nice place to park for the night without hookup or any other amentety, but it was a sure thing for the night. We decided to check out a few other things in town for the tourist mind. One was an amazing museum, full of creativity and divine passion of a collection of artists. It made one think outside the box and wish that we possesed the amount of talent that was captivated in that one space. It filled your mind with ideas and of creation, i was so blessed to of just walked through that moment in time. The other site we felt we needed to experience in this spiritual land was a church that was perched high on a hill with the layers of red rock as a back drop. We parked at the bottom of a winding road that led to the entrance of the church. We walked the distance enjoying the surroundings. We saw lush flowers and cactus, we saw carvings in the rock and felt the power of the spirit all around us. Apon entering the little church their were many people around. Some lighting candles, others sitting in the pews thinking of lost loved ones and taking in the serenity of the views that were cast in front of them. Others shopped downstairs in the giftshop, still others took pictures trying to captivate the feelings that this place instilled in your soul. We walked foreward as a whole, Teaghen, Rryla, Brooklyn and Myself, to light some candles for the ones that left footsteps on our souls, namely Lindsay, K'yoosh, Angela, Sadie and Chris. We knew in our hearts that this place, with its beauty and its spirituality would be that much closer to god. A place that we knew those loved ones would love to stare out the window and feel free. With some tears being shed, we left our mark and headed to the comfort of our home on wheels. It was getting close to nightfall so we decided to head to the parking lot of Dairy Queen, check our emails and head to our campsite for the night. Apon arriving at the parking lot Mark was confronted by a man who talked him into spending the night in luxery, the catch was that it was an intorduction to a timeshare so we'd have to endure a 90 minute speel by a rep to encourage us to buy a timeshare. Their was, however, no obligation to buy, also their was free laundry an exercise room, pool, hot tub, adult whirlpool, free wifi, 2 nights comped and a 75$ diesel coupon for fuel. Personally, this was a no brainer! We had nothing to lose, other than a 20$ spot in a campsite out of town. We headed for luxery and thats what we got. We spent the night in style, first tackling all our laundry, which by the way was alot!!, having an adult hottub and watching tv. In the morning we headed for our 90minute speel. With our lines of exited wife/ reasonable husband, freshly rehersed we were ready to tackle the most money hungery rep they could throw at us. She was lovely, and experienced. Our rep had us wrapped around her finger, we wanted to instantly be her friend, get her address, her email and keep in touch. We were being led along on a money train that we were intended to give up at the end. However we hit a snag, we started spilling the beans, we forgot our lines and told of our incredible journey, our desires to re-invent ourselves, our quest to find our true purpose, to be a close family unit and to reconnect. This proved to be our demise, for we were kicked out of the time share world, apparently you need to be currently employed and to be making at least 40grand per year, we failed to mention that our jobs were waiting for us apon our return, but our quest was real. It was like a deck of cards that fell all around us, we had to do the walk of shame to leave and not collect our gas money, the second night would not be comped. So we did our last 2 loads of free laundry, the kids had their last swim in the pool, we exercised in the weight room and hit the road. Next destination........The Grand Canyon!!!!!!!
The next day we set out to find a good hiking trail. We wanted to envelope ourselves in the crevases of the rock that surrounded this natural wonder of a community. First we grabbed a coffee and hit the whole foods store for lunch supplies. In whole foods we met an amazing women that awackened me, that made me ache for my girlfriends and want to ad her to my facebook list just the same. She told us of a favorite hicking spot and that is the one we chose. We packed some snacks and headed out. Keesha was in her glory, and so were we. The hike started out with us having to hop scotch across river beds and streams until we came to a path that wound through lush woods and rock faces. It was beautiful, the air was fresh and the path was alive with beauty and other hikers. The land whispered its past to us as we meandered along in awe. We hiked for about an hour and a half in and than turned around to head back, feeling the hunger in our bellies for lunch. We ate, and than wondered what the evening had in store for us. We had previously booked a camp site out of town. A place to park really. At a cost of 20$ we had a nice place to park for the night without hookup or any other amentety, but it was a sure thing for the night. We decided to check out a few other things in town for the tourist mind. One was an amazing museum, full of creativity and divine passion of a collection of artists. It made one think outside the box and wish that we possesed the amount of talent that was captivated in that one space. It filled your mind with ideas and of creation, i was so blessed to of just walked through that moment in time. The other site we felt we needed to experience in this spiritual land was a church that was perched high on a hill with the layers of red rock as a back drop. We parked at the bottom of a winding road that led to the entrance of the church. We walked the distance enjoying the surroundings. We saw lush flowers and cactus, we saw carvings in the rock and felt the power of the spirit all around us. Apon entering the little church their were many people around. Some lighting candles, others sitting in the pews thinking of lost loved ones and taking in the serenity of the views that were cast in front of them. Others shopped downstairs in the giftshop, still others took pictures trying to captivate the feelings that this place instilled in your soul. We walked foreward as a whole, Teaghen, Rryla, Brooklyn and Myself, to light some candles for the ones that left footsteps on our souls, namely Lindsay, K'yoosh, Angela, Sadie and Chris. We knew in our hearts that this place, with its beauty and its spirituality would be that much closer to god. A place that we knew those loved ones would love to stare out the window and feel free. With some tears being shed, we left our mark and headed to the comfort of our home on wheels. It was getting close to nightfall so we decided to head to the parking lot of Dairy Queen, check our emails and head to our campsite for the night. Apon arriving at the parking lot Mark was confronted by a man who talked him into spending the night in luxery, the catch was that it was an intorduction to a timeshare so we'd have to endure a 90 minute speel by a rep to encourage us to buy a timeshare. Their was, however, no obligation to buy, also their was free laundry an exercise room, pool, hot tub, adult whirlpool, free wifi, 2 nights comped and a 75$ diesel coupon for fuel. Personally, this was a no brainer! We had nothing to lose, other than a 20$ spot in a campsite out of town. We headed for luxery and thats what we got. We spent the night in style, first tackling all our laundry, which by the way was alot!!, having an adult hottub and watching tv. In the morning we headed for our 90minute speel. With our lines of exited wife/ reasonable husband, freshly rehersed we were ready to tackle the most money hungery rep they could throw at us. She was lovely, and experienced. Our rep had us wrapped around her finger, we wanted to instantly be her friend, get her address, her email and keep in touch. We were being led along on a money train that we were intended to give up at the end. However we hit a snag, we started spilling the beans, we forgot our lines and told of our incredible journey, our desires to re-invent ourselves, our quest to find our true purpose, to be a close family unit and to reconnect. This proved to be our demise, for we were kicked out of the time share world, apparently you need to be currently employed and to be making at least 40grand per year, we failed to mention that our jobs were waiting for us apon our return, but our quest was real. It was like a deck of cards that fell all around us, we had to do the walk of shame to leave and not collect our gas money, the second night would not be comped. So we did our last 2 loads of free laundry, the kids had their last swim in the pool, we exercised in the weight room and hit the road. Next destination........The Grand Canyon!!!!!!!
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