July 3 and 4th

July 3 - headed out of Phoenix about 8:30am. Of course in keeping with our new healthy lifestyle (who are we kidding) we took our morning bike ride. It is amazing how many people are up and about at 5:30am, including 3 hot air balloons viewed from our RV Park. During our ride we noticed a Curves in a strip mall so I couldn’t resist stopping in. It was just a little after 5:30 in the morning and there were people in there. Ii spoke with the trainer at the desk who looked a little sleepy but said “this is Phoenix” when I asked why so many people were up and about. Of course you get early morning sun so you don’t have a lot of choice but to get going, plus it’s so hot later in the day. Anyway that was fun. I didn’t have my camera, sorry Curvettes! Off we went to visit some friends in Sedona. What a nice place to visit and the views can’t be done justice with the photos. Peter and Jeanne have yet another awesome house and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them. We arrived to a homemade sign by Peter “Welcome Dorothy” - better keep that sign because we’d like to see it on our next visit. Next we were off to the Grand Canyon. Peter has cautioned us about the ‘switchbacks” on 89-A. Although they were not horrible, being the Holiday weekend the roads were very crowded and people were parked on both sides of the mountain so we did have a couple of squeeze plays. We stopped somewhere at the top of have a little lunch but Shirley could hardly eat because we were so close to the edge. We arrived at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park early in the afternoon. What a nice place. As the evening progressed and the Red Sox lost the 3 of us went to the gift shop to poke around. With our package we received 3 $20 gift cards so of course Les and Shirley wanted to use them up. It was chilly but refreshing after almost a week of solid heat.

July 4th - This morning the temperature was hovering somewhere around 50ish so our morning bike ride was really refreshing. The town has a tractor exhibit that Les took photos of for his brother to see. Fred is a tractor aficionado and I’m sure will enjoy the shots. The shot we are displaying is the same model tractor that Les and Fred’s grandfather farmed with. Today is our train ride to the Canyon. We are excited to board the train and begin the adventure. First we stop for a Wild West Shootout at the local “town”. Then we board and take the train to the Canyon. Very nice ride with continental buffet breakfast. We arrive at the Canyon and have a buffet lunch (do you sense a theme?) and then back on the tour bus to take the grand tour. I can’t explain the sight to you and the pictures do not tell the truth as it is much more beautiful than I could possibly capture (wish I had paid a little more attention to Tress when she gave me photo tips) on film. It was very sunny and warm so we lucked out with a good day. Train departed at 3:30 and arrived back at the RV Park at about 5:45pm. We skipped the parade and ordered a pizza and were in bed by 8:00pm. It was an emotionally exhausting day for all of us. Tomorrow morning we head to Zion. Happy Sunday to all.