The best way to deal with shuttle bus crowds is to remember these other saps are on vacation. You can indulge their impatience.
There are three ways to get to Hermit's Rest, and the stops in-between:
- your feet
- your bike
- a shuttle bus
There are no private cars allowed on the Rim Road, unless you have a permit. Buses get very full, and are usually SRO. When a storm hits the rim, people want to get on the bus. It's logical. Dispatch scrambles and redirects and suspends traffic heading out to the end. There is no shelter until you get all the way to Hermit's Rest, so the emphasis is on getting people off the high and exposed rim trail.
We intended to do a short stretch of trail we haven't covered yet. It's only 1.7 miles, but it turned so hot today we bailed and did a teeny weeny trail.
This will be a hard place to leave. The tourists, those poor saps, they won't be so hard to leave. Really, everyone is well-mannered. They're well-mannered in more languages than I've ever heard in one place. Including Cornell.
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| If they saw it from this postion first, would they still go out there? |
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| I doubt it. |
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| "Man" on left is spoofing a dive. I'm so amused I vomit. |
I'm not feeling like myself today. I blame Facebook. What a weird dinner party it would be if Facebook were in real time. And, we all say things Face-to-Book that we wouldn't ever bring up face-to-face. I'm thinking of a FB holiday. You're all invited.
I woke up thinking about irony. When we were both employed full-time, we could never afford to spend two weeks at the South Rim, and then sashay up to the North Rim. Or spend a month in Sedona. Or three months in Flagstaff.
I'm reading Red: passion and patience in the desert, by Terry Tempest Williams. Her partner asks her "What if we are living half-lives? What if there's more?" They decide they want more. They want less. It finally occurs to me how literally that can happen.
30 comments:
We have not been able to take the leap to a more mobile lifestyle just yet, but we are working towards it. I have so enjoyed reading your post and seeing your pictures from the Grand Canyon. Two years ago we took a road trip from Oklahoma City to San Diego, south rout there and I-40 home. We set a side the time to spend the night there and wake up early enough to watch the sun rise. It was the most breath taking experience for me. Seeing your pics, causes me to go back to that morning, in my mind, when time seemed to stand still.
Thank you for sharing your life with those of us who can only travel via internet,and who are preparing to drastically change their life!
Thank you for this great comment, Jennifer. I say it's my pleasure, because it really is. I'd love it if everyone who wanted this life had this life, and I look forward to hearing that you have it, too. Do you blog?
Amazing photos. I would have vomited seeing the jerk fake jumping too.
deep thoughts...
beautiful photography!!!!
Unfortunately "fake" jumps sometimes become "real" falls. Idiots. That's tourons for you.
So when are you headed this way?
Wow! Fantastic shots of the Grand Canyon. It's the photographer that makes them so terrific, but I just have to ask what kind of camera did you use for these amazing shots?
I envy those who come to mobile living when they're young, throwing caution to the wind and just doing it because... well because they haven't learned about being cautious yet.
I'll be out there with you soon.... just have to get a few more ducks in a row first :^)
These are such fabulous photographs of the Grand Canyon I'm just blown away. We were there at this time last year or nearly and my photographs are just not this powerful. I don't know how you do it but they are really compelling and very moving.
I always love to read Environmental writers when I am in the natural world. Ed Abbey is great for the desert. John Muir was great for the trip to Florida and you couldn't pick a better one for anywhere near the Red Rock Country than Terry Tempest Williams. Good taste in literature you two!
I don't really do FB. I mean I have a "profile" and I skim my "wall" every week or so. But I find that I want a more intimate relationship with my "friends" not a more distant one. We've gone from the beautiful letters we used to send each other (what would we really know about the civil war without them), to telephone which was at least the person's voice, to email - less personal and shorter, to twitters and tweets and face book. Didn't I read that loneliness is at an all time high? Gee......at the speed with which we are keeping ourselves at a distance....well anyway. Thanks for the deep thoughts. I like those in a blog. Don't do them often myself. Since based on comments, I seem to be the only one who likes them.
And what Maria said about envy.
Why leave? Why not stay another week or two. You can if you want to.
Merikay, I guess we could, couldn't we? We would need to find another site, probably, before NFS kicks us out. Then, there's the other part of me that's getting itchy.
Maria and Sherry, I envy them, too. I think we're taught to be cautious very early, so either they don't learn it, or they reject it. Maria, you're pretty young yourself, certainly pre-retirement (whatever that is).
Gaelyn, we're not sure yet, and haven't set a day, but we'll let you know as our plans are clearer. Don't do anything different while expecting us; we promise to leave your life relatively unruffled.
Sherry, I wouldn't think of Muir for Florida, but he really got around! As for the photos, it's truly the camera doing the heavy lifting. Facebook makes me feel alienated.
Jeannie, it's a Pentax Optio RX18 - a very basic point-and-shoot. And, thank you!
Thank you, MM and LD2!
Amazing pictures. I feel like I'm right there beside you looking at the Canyon. I know they're on vacation but do they need to be such idiots.
The guy faking the dive is just asking to live a 'half-life'. What an idiot!
Fantastic photos of the Grand Canyon, really beautiful.
Pensive, poignant, phenomenally picturesque post.
They guy doing the fake jump should read the book "Death in Grand Canyon". Fascinating read, sometimes funny in a morbid way if you enjoy hearing about idiots getting punished by gravity.
I was wondering if anyone had taken a tumble there from time to time. Wouldn't be so bad until that very last second, upon impact.
Nice pics. My butt clenched at least once. Is that too much information?
Sorry.
We're half a world away from just about everyone I'm "friends" with on the Book of Face, so whether intimate or not, I don't mind seeing what they post. Mostly.
My preference would be to meet them at the pub on a Friday afternoon, but that flight every week would be a killer.
There are a few in the mix that need to get a life, but it's just so many pixels on my screen that I can ultimately choose to ignore.
Your mileage may vary.
Enjoy your FB sabbatical.
Oh, and mind your step.
Ironic indeed.
Loved the blog today... well worded...
Thanks, Sandie! It would be fun if you were! I know. I wish amygdalas grew as fast as the boys do.
Ha, Rick! There are posters all around saying "250 people a year have to be rescued from the Canyon. Most of them look like this ---> [young, healthy male]" That may not include the ones who can no longer be rescued. "Half-live," for sure.
Oh, by the way, Rick - I found where those bright buttons were living and took them out. Refreshed a bit, but didn't see any difference in the comments layout. I was pretty careful not to put them where I would interrupt any code. I may get the courage to go see what Cherry did to her template.
Awesomely alliterative! Thanks, Suzanne.
Dean, that book is all over the place around here, but I can't bring myself to read it. My butt cheeks would be clenching worse than Bob's. Makes me think of the Darwin Awards.
Bob, there are entire stretches of the trail where I can't stop, nor slow down, for fear of losing forward momentum and wobbling right off the edge.
That's the same reason I usually go back to FB, because of the people I'm far from. The people from whom I'm far. Then there are the people who friended me out of politeness, and I reciprocated, then it turns out they're not really polite. Or else, they're just dumb. And I reciprocate.
Indeed!
Roxi - Muir's 1000 Mile Walk to the Gulf was his first "trip" and if you are coming down from say Ohio or Michigan or even Virginia, it's a GREAT read. Amazing what the country was like just over 100 years ago. And he walked the whole way. Half the AT before there even was one.
WAIT - I looked up this camera and you are doing these fabulous shots WITHOUT an viewfinder?? SIGH........I just don't believe it. There must be a trick? You aren't out before sun up are you? Nah that can't be.
Love Grand Canyon. Just can't get enough of the shots and sure makes it easier to enjoy through you ducks a-la-blog. I'm terribly scared of heights so when we were there I was in constant dilemma of wanting to get the perfect shot vs. shitting my pants from the height...it was a beautiful and stressful time.
Nina
Wow. I'll bet that guy had no weight problem. They keep talking about Powell around here, but at least he had a boat. Yeah, no viewfinder. I would call that this camera's biggest flaw. But everything else is great. 18X optical zoom, wide-angle default, compact, needs no skill ... I like it.
Heyduke, I know you're out there. I'd better go check the spam trap. And, thanks!
Beautiful pictures. Do you have my email in case you head this way?
blschaefer
I don't think I do, Betty. Could you email me at whotookmybucket at gmail dot com?
Oh wait, I do. But, email me again, if you've changed accounts recently.
That's my predicament exactly, Nina. Many of these pictures were taken while the non-camera arm was twined around a tree. I spend hours at a time clammy.
Facebook is an interesting animal for sure. I've gotten pretty good at removing "certain" friends from my feed so I don't have to see the virtual airing of their dirty laundry. And I've even gotten adept at removing/blocking those that were completely toxic (too many!).
But....when it works, it works beautifully. I can truly say that in many cases it has served to deepen relationships with long distance friends. And I would be lost without it when it comes to my far scattered kidlets. And I've hooked up with some really informative communities that I might not have located so easily otherwise.
I'm not so disciplined with blogging. I do better communicating in short but sweet little blurbs. So I guess it suits me. And many of my friends are not very disciplined blog readers either! So I think for us it provides the perfect way to not drift apart.
But some days....I do kind of want to pull my hair out at some of the stupidness. Keep scrolling Brenda, just keep scrolling. :)
You have some incredible pictures here. Seriously. Miss you two!
We miss you, too, L! I want to hear how things went. However it felt, you made something significant happen.
Brenda, if I could just KEEP SCROLLING I'd be okay, but then I think OMG, they don't really think that's true, do they?? and I feel obliged to stop and offer them a fact. But, "stupid" and "fact" are oil and water, and then I'm in the vinaigrette.
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