The Grand Canyon

Hello all! My second trip to the Grand Canyon was a success. Before leaving my team had a game Friday night. I've had a few girls quit, and for this particular game we only have five girls. You have to have five players minimum to not forfeit, so we played with no subs for over an hour. It was exhausting, but my team won (9-5) and my girls played awesome!

In my preparation for my trip I went to D.I. to look for some cargo pants. Last year our teacher said, "Do NOT wear pants!" because it would be so hot, but this year the teacher said, "No shorts except for the hike day" and there was NO WAY I was wearing jeans...they are much too hot. I found some pants that fit perfect for $4 and a blue shirt made of really nice material at walmart for $5. I basically wore these the whole four days. I armed myself with fruit snacks and granola bars to munch on for the long trip to Arizona.

Saturday morning we gathered at the Romney at 6:30. The teacher invited me to attend to help the other two T.A.'s and part of my contribution was to be a driver. Well I got there with my driver's license, but I wasn't certified to drive BYU-Idaho equipment so I couldn't drive the vans. Luckily another student had his "BYU-Idaho license" with him so he drove and I rode shotgun. Our van was pretty fun. It's interesting to see how I've changed since being married. Last year I was making all sorts of friends and being so outgoing, and now that I'm married I'm like, "meh..." It's just different. Our driver's name was Gene (Eugene but he likes to be called Gene) from Ghana. He is on Justin's ultimate team, so we knew each other a little and became friends. He was a scary driver at the beginning but got better. We had several incidents that came close to an accident but the Lord was with us! I called Mom after our first stop and told her to pray for our safety. Her prayers can make anything happen!

We drove through Spanish Fork and in the canyon we stopped at a landslide and several stops along the way where the road cuts showed changes in energy manifested in the rock. I learned a lot more on this trip compared with last year because our teacher last year just wanted to party (it was his last semester before moving to Hawaii so he had clocked out). We didn't have to take notes or anything but this teacher meant business so the class took notes the whole time. I didn't have to, but I took notes too because it was all very interesting. We made our way to Canyonlands where we got a taste of what the Grand Canyon would look like. Our teacher talked a bit about geologic time, and the time it took to carve the canyon...but he also brought up the amount of time to deposit the sediment before carving the canyon...I love learning about these processes and it's testimony to me how much God loves us. He took a long time to get things just right for us. We're a big investment! We are His work and His glory. We drove from 6:30 to 9:00 that night where we finally rolled into our stop near Moab. We camped along the Colorado river and I slept on top of my sleeping bag because it was so nice.

Sunday morning we had a little sacrament meeting. It was really special because our teacher called on Gene to bear his testimony. He spoke about following the Holy Ghost. He said that Brother Lovell (teacher) asked the class to get certified through the school to drive the vans and he felt a strong impression to get certified. He said he didn't know why he felt he should do it, he just did it and trusted. Well it turned out that we needed a third driver and because he was in tune with the spirit he was able to fill that role. It really humbled me because I was supposed to drive but I was the one who wasn't certified...the Lord works in mysterious ways to learn lessons and I was taught a lot by his great example.

We made our way to Arches National Park and spent an hour and a half there. I love the red rock there and I love climbing all over the place. On our drive we were able to collect some petrified wood samples. It took until about 8-9 to get to our camping spot in the Grand Canyon. After dinner, Brother Lovell, the two T.A.'s and myself made preparations for the hike the next morning. The hike is six miles down with two rest stops along the way where you can refill water and use the restroom. At the bottom people can camp but our group planned to rest there and hike six miles back up. That's the tricky thing about the Grand Canyon...you do the easy part first and do the hardest part when you're already tired...when the heat goes from 80 degrees in the morning to 110 degrees in the late afternoon. There's always a breeze in the area but you can only feel it toward the top. You don't feel any breeze in the canyon.

Brother Lovell would take one-third of the class down at 7 AM and a second third would follow an hour later. The third-third would leave an hour after the second-third. This was to split up our large group because the hike is pretty busy and we didn't want to block it up. One of the T.A.'s and myself were put in the last group and we hit the trail by 9 AM. I was feeling a bit strange in the morning but I thought it was just nerves. A mile and a half in I had already consumed Two liters of water and my muscles were shaking. It was only 80 degrees but I was sweating like crazy. My stomach was feeling worse so I radioed Brother Lovell (his group was almost to the bottom) and told him I needed to turn around. Gene came with me and our group pushed ahead.

My health was an interesting situation. I don't know what the deal was because after I made the decision to turn around I felt a lot better. Maybe I was just nervous but maybe there's a reason I needed to turn around that I just don't know. I probably could've done the hike...but I started thinking about my hubby at home waiting for me to get back safely and all it just wasn't worth it to me to risk anything stupid. I ended up having an awesome day touring the rim of the canyon via shuttle bus. Similar to the Grayline in N.Y.C. the Grand Canyon has a shuttle bus that stops along the canyon every 10 minutes and you can get on and off anytime you want. There are restrooms and water filling stations along the way so you are taken well care of as long as you bring sun screen. There are spots where the stops are just short of a mile between each other, so on those stops we decided to hike along the canyon rather than take the bus. We took some awesome pictures and I enjoyed the day much better than hiking 12 miles in 100 degree heat while feeling ill. We had a nice breeze and I put 50 SPF sunscreen on religiously every hour on the hour. No sunburns for me!

We made our way back to camp and saw an elk right by our campsite which was fun. We helped make dinner and there was a place you could take an eight-minute shower so we cleaned up and then I went straight to bed (8PM). I felt better throughout the day, but I still felt weak and just really off so bed was the right choice. The last group hadn't even hiked into camp yet when I was in bed...Brother Lovell was out hiking from 7AM to 9PM...crazy!

Tuesday morning we broke camp and drove home. It was one of the longest days of my life! But it certainly wasn't boring...our last stop in Ogden we gassed up the vans one last time. As everyone was piling into the vans I heard a woman shouting and I started watching what was happening. A man had a 14 year-old-ish boy in a bear hug and he was not quite yelling but speaking very aggressively in his face. The woman saw me paying attention and said, "Call the police!" I looked over at my teacher who didn't see what was happening so I called him over so he could watch. There were a few strangers who were closer to the incident and they were telling the man to calm down and let the boy go. I made my way around them into the gas station to tell the cashier to call the police. On my way I heard the man saying something to the boy about, "Are you really going to leave me after all I've done to support you?" and stuff like that. I have no idea what the situation was, but the man was not happy. The cashier was already on the phone with the police, so I walked out of the store toward the vans. On my way past the sidewalk one of the strangers who was defending the boy said, "Hey c'mon man are you really gonna do this in public?" and the crazy guy said, "Hey man shut the F-- up!" and threw his keys at him right when I was walking by. When I was walking and heard the crazy man's voice like that I started running and the keys barely missed me. After that the crazy man shoved the good guy into the gas station and I almost got shoved with him! Because I had started running he barely missed me and I mean barely. The students in my van said it looked like the keys had hit me and they kept asking me if I was okay. The police arrived just in time and we had to stay because we were witnesses. We waited an extra half-hour to hit the road. My adrenaline was up and my heart rate didn't calm down until we were almost to Farmington. Crazy! The students were telling me if he had hit me and hurt me there would've been a law suit and I could've got a bunch of money...oh well, I'll take my health, thanks.

The final stretch was for sure the hardest. I stayed awake the whole time with the driver to keep him awake. He told me stories about Ghana and I basically interrogated him the whole time to keep him talking. The last hour was rough. I was saying things like, "Okay, stay between the yellow and white lines..." he was dead tired. I felt like I was partly driving because I would tell him when to pass and when to change lanes and when there were people in his mirror. He had zero experience driving at night...the Lord totally enabled him to drive from 8AM to 12AM...16 hours later we were in Rexburg safely.

Overall I really enjoyed the trip. I felt lame because I was supposed to help with driving and the hike, and I ended up not being able to do either of those things...oh well. =] I'm okay with it. I had a great time and I don't plan on going again unless it's with Justin. I missed him too much. Now it's time to play catch up.