We boarded the oar boats and headed downriver to a series of sandy beaches where we stopped for lunches, hikes and camping without a tent, waking up sometimes to clear skies and stars or the full moon. Every morning we rose around 5:30 as the sun lightened the sky and the swamper sang out a melodious"cooofffffeeeee." Delicious meals with a pinch of sand thrown in. After pitching in on clean-up in the evenings, we danced in the sand, shared stories and jokes or just visited as the sky turned dark.
The trip was absolutely amazing. If you have not taken an oar boat trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon you truly have not experienced one of the wonders of the world. The guides were of course terrific and each one had something special to offer, whether hilarious stories and jokes or geological lectures and environmental insights. The scenery was spectacular. The weather made it even more thrilling. Ferocious dark clouds with thunder and lightning threatened flash flooding in the canyons we hiked, but only resulted in minimal rain showers in the afternoon that cooled us down. Some days were actually quite comfortable, while others cooked. Every day we hiked the canyons and up the small streams and waterfalls that fed the Colorado. The water shockingly cold, the rapids exciting. Lava Falls upset the paddle boat, and threw one oar boat guide into the river, turning the last day on the river into an epic!
But what really made the trip truly special was the other travelers. Teenagers and adults alike. Mostly families, single parents and a woman who made me giggle so hard one night I felt like a seventh grader again. A grandma of 78. The kids all bonded: playing, laughing and hanging out together. Nick started out off on his own reading a book. By the second night he was dancing along to Michael Jackson and teaching the other boys the joys of being buried in the sand. The girls created a chanting tribe AND a girl band, entertaining us with songs featuring a medley of pop, rock, Disney and Broadway musicals. Then one afternoon all the kids huddled and picked nicknames for themselves as well as the adults. Nick was "Sandman" and Maggie got stuck with "Marge" annunciated in a whiney tone. I was "sass master" and all the kids loved teasing me. The girls performed their musical renditions, sometimes including an "interpretive dance," while perched on the raft oared by one of the two women guides. Chongo, the male paddleboat guide with the wild hair and the plastic bread tag for an earring, repeatedly declared, "It's Grand Canyon magic." My words and photos hardly do justice. I was crying when we all said goodbye.
I cried again as I kissed the kids goodbye at the Las Vegas airport, dropping them off to catch their flight back to Missouri and to prepare for college; Maggie heading to life in a sorority house, Nick to the dorms and his first year at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I repacked and boarded a plane for Harlingen, Texas, to see my sweetie and meet his family.