Some thoughts from the Cleveland airport

Some thoughts, live from the Cleveland airport as I try to figure out when my flight is leaving... it was supposed to be at 8:30, it's looking closer to 11:30 now.

- I'm glad this airport has free wi-fi.  The Atlanta one only let you go to Atlanta tourism sites, which was kind of annoying.  And I wasn't going to pay for internet.  I feel like for the amount of time you could potentially spend in an airport, they should have free wireless.

- I saw someone calmly walk through one of the new airport scanners in Atlanta, and no one threw a fit or got molested.  Just for the record.

- I grabbed dinner a few minutes ago in a sports bar and watched Ben Roethlisberger shove someone after a play and then get knocked flat by the other guy.  I might be a bad person for laughing at this.  However, he's not exactly been campaigning for ideal citizen lately, so maybe I'm not a totally bad person.  Don't question my sleep deprived logic there please.

- It's weird to be flying home for Thanksgiving.  I think this is the first time my destination is home, versus flying home after flying somewhere else. 

- I have learned today that Cleveland is in the very northern part of Ohio, on lake Erie.  I did not know this.

- I watched a guy in his 30s stand up from a table and his chair launched backwards with the weight of his backpack hung on the back. My generation, we're going to have some serious spinal cord issues in a few decades.

- Continental gets some points for giving us food vouchers to compensate for being stuck in the airport several extra hours.  Granted, it would have been better if they did this earlier before I ate dinner, when there were actual restaurants still open, but I got $11.50 worth of dunkin' donuts for free, so its not all bad.  The grad student in me is perfectly okay with being compensated for my time in donuts.

- In the future, I'm going to educate myself on the kinds of planes available to fly on so I choose something slightly bigger than today's 'bird', as the stewardess said, than 1 seat on the left and 2 on the right.  I should at least be able to pick out something with overhead luggage compartments on both sides.

- I also feel like it would be useful to know where the plane I choose to fly on is coming from.  But then, I suppose no one would choose to fly on a plane coming from Chicago or a bunch of other places, which is my current problem.

- I looked at a airline brochure and it looked like this airport is huge.  Um, it's not.  Everything shut down at 10pm and I think the only reason people are still here is because we are waiting on our late plane and like one other late plane.  Nightflights, apparently not big here.

- I'm going back in forth between listening to bad Mariah Carey Christmas songs on the loudspeaker radio, and getting the theme song from the Drew Carey show, 'Cleveland rocks, Cleveland rock!' lodged and dislodged in my head.

- It's too bad I'm so exhausted from keeping a messed up sleep schedule the past few days, I probably could have gotten a lot of work done :P

7 Quick Takes

1. I’ve found a church that’s pretty awesome, and one reason is because it has a lot of young adults.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all ages, but it’s important to have friends that are in my stage of life as well.  I’m in a small group that meets once a week, and we have really good discussions.  We also laugh hysterically about a LOT of things, biblical and non, as well as carve pumpkins, snack on chocolate, and pack Operation Christmas child shoeboxes.  This group is a huge blessing in my life J

2. My mom is currently on a mission trip with my home-church to Tennessee to help with the areas that flooded so badly in Nashville.  She’s been on about 10 of these trips to New Orleans.  My mother is awesome!

3. The weather here is really nice.  It’s mild during the day and cold at night, which means that aside from needing lots of covers on my bed, it’s wonderful.  I think I also don’t realize that Thanksgiving is in two weeks because I associate it with much colder weather.

4. I’m going home for Thanksgiving!  If you will be in Maryland the week of thanksgiving, facebook or call me, we should hang out!

5. I still like my classes, but they are coming to that end of the semester crunch time where they take over my life.  I’m really only worried about our project for my global health class, but theres lots of work in others as well.  Less than a month of class left :O

6. I went to trivia sponsored by a student group at Rollins, the Emory Global Health Organization (EGHO), and it was really fun.  One of the groups was named ‘we are not global health’ and another was ‘proc freq all night long’.  Did you know that cholera is in its seventh pandemic?

7. I’m volunteering with Refugee Family Services in their afterschool program, and the kids are a blast.  We tutur, assist the teachers, and play with the kids.  On Monday a group from Georgia Tech came and donated several new soccer balls and goals, which led to utter pandemonium as about 14 different games happened at once on the blacktop- multiple games of soccer, catch, basketball, tag, Frisbee.   It was awesome to watch, and I’m surprised no one got a ball in the face.  Helping kids be happy is the best feeling ever. 

Conversation overheard in a restaurant

Sitting in a cafe-type restaurant on campus at lunch, I overheard snatches of a conversation behind me.

Girl: We think we might be going to Peru next spring because (couple that I don't remember names) is getting married there.  Except that she can't make-up her mind about it and has had several break-downs and blow-out fights about it with him and threatens to call it off and yeah... its not a great situation.

Guy: Are they from Peru?

Girl: She is, he's not.  We don't think this is the best idea for him (to marry her) but... what can you do?

Guy: Yeah, that's hard.

Girl:  We've already made up a schedule of whose house he'll go to when she kicks him out.  I'm first because I'll be the most sympathetic apparently.

Guy: Wow.... that's... not a good sign.

--------------
Maybe you had to be there, but I had to restrain from laughing at his statement, which might be the understatement of the year.  When your friends are already making contingency plans for your marriage -that hasn't taken place yet- to fall apart... that's not a good sign :P

7 Quick Takes

7 quick takes: 
1. I think I need a tape-recorder for my brain.  I think of all of these good ideas for posts, and then I forget to actually write them.  Could someone please invent that for me? Thanks :) 
2. I survived my first round of mid-terms in Grad school, huzzah.  Of three tests, I did great on one and so-so on another, with another not returned.   For my 4^th class, I actually have received no grades yet even though I’ve turned in two papers.  So really no idea how I’m doing in that class.  But I still really like my classes, so all is well. 
3. I need to get on the ball in finding a job.  I’ve sort of neglected that, but I really should try to obtain some income :P 
4.I have to pick classes for next semester soon, and so I’ve chosen a concentration (infectious diseases) and have an appointment with my recently assigned advisor.  Here’s hoping I can figure out what I’m doing soon.
5. Mom came and visited me two weeks ago and it was a lot of fun!  We talked and ate a lot, went to the Greek festival, and hung out a lot between me trying to study for midterms.  There will be some pictures of the Greek festival at some point. 
6.  Over fall break I went and visited my aunt and uncle and cousin and sweet dog in Columbia for a long weekend.  It was nice and relaxing and fun to welcome my cousin home after he just completed the entire pacific crest trail.  I’m sure impressed!
7. Last weekend I went to my friend Katherine’s house Friday night and Saturday we hiked for several hours in the North Georgia mountains, on the approach trail to Springer mountain and the Appalachian trail (which said cousin also hiked all the way through in 2001).  Pictures coming soon of this as well.

I'm not a fan of tests...

Okay, I'm pretty sure no one is a fan of tests.  Mostly because of the grade-obsession I think my generation has, at least that's my theory. 

But I also feel like they aren't really practical.  Most of the stuff you have to learn for a test, you promptly forget.  And most of it you can look up if you need to know it.  Unless you are going on a quiz show or want to rock trivial pursuit, you life will be okay without being able to diagram the Krebs cycle or list all of the major baroque composers.  No one has ever stopped me on the street and demanded dates of World War II battles or a plot summary of The Odyssey.

That being said, I'm a huge proponent of education.  I feel like it can be the great equalizer.  I happen to love school and learning. ( I'm a nerd, its okay- I came to terms with that a long time ago.)  I think that education can be the solution, or at least indroduce you to possible solutions, to so many problems in the world.  But that's another post for another day.

I do however, enjoy things that I feel are useful learning tools.  This includes writing, and projects, and some test-like things.  For one of my mid-terms next week we can use a page of notes.  I really like this idea for several reasons.  One, it takes the pressure off of studying, so I feel like I will actually study better.  Two, making that sheet of notes is actually a great way to study.  Three, I feel like its more like the real world.  When I said above that you can look up information that you need, the caveat is that it's impractical to look up EVERYTHING.  That just becomes obnoxious.  But to have a reference sheet that you can quickly use means that you are familiar with the subject enough to reference it if you need it, especially where there are formulas involved, yet it's okay that you don't have the field memorized.  And I feel like that's like the real world.  I used wikipedia to look up a lot of structures and molecular weights at my old jobs, because memorizing all of that information for every chemical I worked with would be... well, impossible without a photographic memory.  But I could calculate what I needed to pretty easily, and that's a combination of access to formulas and experience with the material.  I think a lot of people feel like if you can use some notes during a test, anyone can ace the test.  That's not true with a well-designed test, and its not true in life either.  Sure, you can probably figure some things out on the fly, but mostly, a notes sheets helps the prepared student.

I'll muse on papers and projects another time. Ta!

Wordless Wednesday

 These are some pictures of a mural I helped paint at a professor's lakehouse about a week and a half ago :)

 The theme was mother and child since he focuses on maternal and child reproductive health.

Indigo Girls

This past weekend was homecoming at Emory, something I never would have known except that someone mentioned it to me in passing. Not only am I not an Emory alum (yet) but being a grad student, I really have no idea what goes on in the main part of campus- I pretty much stay in the health quad.

So last week my friend Meghan mentioned that the Indigo Girls were playing a free concert for part of the homecoming festivities, and was I interested in going? I was like, heck yes! Free concert for a band I like but don't actually know too well, yes please.

So we heard the concert was starting at 3, and got there a few minutes before after grabbing lunch at a Greek place in town. There was a huge carnival like atmosphere with free food, beer, random stuff (squishy balls, key chains, pens, etc), lots of tables from the different schools and alumni groups, giant trampoline with harness, etc. An Emory band opened for the Indigo girls until a little after 4. They were pretty good, but it was HOT outside. I was like, would it disrespectful to pray for rain? But around when Indigo Girls started playing it clouded over a bit and there was a breeze, which was fantastic.

The concert was awesome. They played a lot of their newer stuff which I really liked, and several of their classics that were basically a sing-a-long with the audience. I like how comfortable they are with themselves. They weren't super dressed up on stage, didn't make a whole lot of nonsense smalltalk between songs when they were switching guitars.

I really enjoy their music as well. They have a rare harmony blend that is simple in some ways, but beautiful and sometimes haunting in unexpected ways. I also really like the lyrics to a lot of their songs- its one thing to write a catchy tune, and another to write poetic lyrics, but its much harder to make them work together. 'Power of Two' is a great song.

After they finished they did an encore of a song I didn't know and then 'Galileo'.

Part of the cool experience of the concert was listening to everyone around me sing a lot of the lyrics, sometimes even harmonies. There were times when the Indigo Girls were like, you guys sing this verse, and everyone did. It's cool to see such a loyal fanbase.

So in conclusion, an awesome concert, and I think I might get some of their newer music on itunes :)

I can't write things down

All of these interesting thoughts that could be posts float through my head and then I forget to write them down. I'm attempting an experiment this week to see if I can blog everyday, even if it's short. Joanna inspired me, what can I say? =)

I had a good conversation with my uncle Art tonight. Granted, I should have been doing homework, but this actually turned into a better than normal conversation that I'm glad I took the time for. Sometimes I can't wrap my brain around how much the world has changed in the last 75 years (arbitrary number, slightly younger than my uncle). To hear his stories of growing up in the rural south as the son of a minister and a teacher, moving a lot, not having a lot of money but making ends meet, milking cows and feeding chickens. It seems eons removed from my life today, growing up in suburbia. Yet I feel like it's part of my past too, and I want to learn more about it. I was intrigued a few weeks ago studying polio briefly in one of my classes, because my grandfather had polio, or a polio-like illness, in 1946. The doctors were baffled as to what it was, which makes me think that it wasn't polio (I'm pretty sure they could recognize it at that time). I tried looking up some of the generic symptoms my uncle was telling me about, but there's really no way I can figure out what it was without a medical record or interviewing someone that was there. But I know they had recently got sulfa drugs at that point, and then penicillin, which was life changing.

Maybe the fact that there are such drastic changes in the last several decades is one reason I love biographies and learning about people's lives- so many of them are so different from my own, simply because of when and where they lived. Sure, reading the biography of a president is informative, but I think reading Laura Ingalls Wilder is just as informative, because it tells how a whole generation of people lived, even if they weren't famous. I wish I could persuade lots of my relatives to write their memoirs simply to record how things were, how they grew up, what life was like in a different time. Famous is relative anyway. One reason I like to write things down is I wonder if in 60 years, my notes and commentary of how I am living today will shed light on now, whereas the future could be vastly different. I don't really thing I'm going to be famous and that people will what to know every detail of my childhood; rather I want to preserve this moment in time for the future.

Why do you blog?

Seven Quick Takes

Someday, there will be an actual post that's not in bullets. Someday. but until then... bullets! :D

- The shuttle system here and I are sort of fighting. On Tuesday, it just didn't show up for almost a 1/2 hour. So I wound up driving to class, being slightly late, and very angry. I called them later in the day and they are supposed to get back to me about what the heck happened. Yesterday I decided to walk home from campus and it took about 45 minutes... in the Georgia heat so I almost died :P

- I'm still trying to wrap my brain around epidemiology, but I love it. I'm still learning my way around case design and interpreting data, but its SO cool. And even though my case study class can be hard, I really really like it.

- I learned how to bake fish! And it only caught fire once. What actually caught fire was the butter that melted off of the fish, and that's because I was trying to broil it and it was a little close to the broiler. All I had to do was take it out of the oven and blow it out, and the fish was fine, the aluminum foil was black. Smoke detector didn't go off though, which makes me wonder what it will take to make it go off :P Also made me think I should get a fire extinguisher if I continue to experiment while cooking.

- Georgia might actually have seasons... shocking I know!! But it's getting cool at night which makes walking to the bus stop nice, and then we can prop the door open at night for a breeze.

- It might be a good idea if I let the rest of the world know where I lived. I keep meaning to e-mail my friends and family with an address update, and I need to get my drivers license switched too. Oops.

- The hardest thing about my degree right now is choosing between all of the different cool things I could do. There are like 400 different things that interest me and I need to narrow down experiences I want to get and classes to take. But EVERYTHING here is so freaking cool and interesting... what a great problem to have :D

- I own a suit now. I don't know if this means I've arrived or sold out. But I needed it for a job fair last week, so I officially own a suit.

Seven Quick Takes

1. Classes have started and they are fun so far! I have awesome professors (more on that below) and they seem really interesting. Most excited about a case study class I'm taking in infectious diseases, we basically focus on a case a week and figure out how to work up out-breaks :D

2. My roommate is pretty awesome. She's invited me to things, helped me figure out where to park on campus, texted me today about a really bad traffic back-up near campus so I could avoid it, etc. We've had some fun conversations around the condo too. Good times.

3. Not only am I in a world of fellow students that went to top schools as undergrads, I'm in a world of professors that are experts in their field. As in, been working in AIDS since it was discovered, or worked on AIDS in Africa for 20 years, or worked in Asia eradicating smallpox for 15 years, or head of the Emory-wide center for global safe water, or former head of the entire country of Mexico's program on AIDS. It's awesome and intimidating at the same time. Makes it harder to work up the nerve to talk to them after class as I try to find a part-time job and/or research opportunities.

4. My Garmin has been doing great helping me get around Atlanta. Until tonight. When I asked it to find a Target, it dropped me in a residential neighborhood in the woods. Wtf Garmin?! It was so random. And it was like 8:30pm so it was dark. Luckily I found my way out and was mostly laughing to myself, but seriously? I think this is the 2nd time my Garmin has tried to kill me. Last fall on the way back from Amy's wedding it told me to turn left at a light... into oblivion. There was no road there! Dark and in the rain didn't help. So although I like my Garmin, I'm not sure the word describing our relationship is trust.

5. I've attended Clairemont Presbyterian Church twice and I think I might join a small group. The people there seem really nice and down to earth, and I like how the service is very scripturally based and worshipful. And when the pastor says in her sermon, "And at this point we are wondering what David was smoking..." its a good church =)

6. I'm trying to figure out what to do over the long weekend. I want to go to Six Flags but obviously not by myself. Other ideas include finding places to hike, exploring bike trails, and scrap-booking. Oh, and of course watching the Hokies play on Monday =)

7. I met some cool people, including a lot of returned peace corps volenteers (RPCV)s and other masters international (MI) students like me, on Friday night. I went to cocktails at the Fernbank, or whatever the event is called. Basically for about $7 you get into the museum from 5-? with a cash bar and you can buy IMAX tickets too. There's something cool about sipping a cosmo under a dinosaur skeleton. Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant because the food at the museum was very expensive. But it was an interesting experience =)

Seven Quick Takes

Seven Quick Takes:

- I am moved. Last week my move went fantastically well, due a lot to Evan and Stuart and my mom who helped a LOT. Everything made it in one piece including me J

- I drove a 16 ft truck without hitting anything- for about 8 hours! The weekend before the move I went home, saw family and friends, and mom rode back with me. Then she drove my car while I drove the truck; driving a truck was enough out of my comfort-zone as it was, without adding a tow-hitch to the equation.

- Truck weigh stations really need better directions. I just followed what the trucks in front of me did, and assumed that since no one came running out of a building chasing me down, that I did it okay. But there were really no instructions other than don’t brake hard and go 30mph… no human beings even.

- I like my new place. I’m in a condo in Decatur (e-mail if you want my address) with a roommate, who is really nice and helpful. I have my own room which is bigger than my last room, and my own bathroom, which is nice. And, it has a walk-in closet that holds a –lot- of my stuff. This makes my room much less crowded and cluttered than in previous years :D

- It is ridiculously hot here. I’m walking about 10 minutes to a shuttle stop to get to campus, since I don’t want to pay $650 for a parking pass. When I got home this afternoon, I literally jumped into a cold shower to cool off. I might start a countdown to Christmas simply because I hope by then I can go outside without breaking a sweat. Que molleja de calor!!!

- I feel like I live in the city, but it’s actually suburbia I think. It’s so much more crowded and urban-ish than obviously Blacksburg, but Gaithersburg too.

- I sort of feel like I’m in the twilight zone. New state, city, home, school, field... and I know almost no one. I feel like I might wake up tomorrow back on Mountain Breeze Drive in Blacksburg, go to work in the chemistry department, and have dinner with Becca. I’m missing all of the above. Add to that a completely new field that I know almost nothing about, filled with fellow students that went to Harvard and Berkeley and well… its very very different. Nothing bad, just getting hit by a lot of water balloons from change.

Grand Canyon, Part 7

Day 6 started a little earlier than normal as we were trying to get on the river by 7- I think we only missed it by like 10-15 minutes. This is a good picture of a duffel line, how we loaded and unloaded the boats each day.
An hour or so later (moving fast we were) we stopped at Matkatimiba to hike the canyon. Karma 4 took the upper route and I went the lower climbing route, our lols (little old ladys, they called themselves that!) decided to stay behind. I was proud of myself for getting through the lower route without needing any assistance except a final pull at the end (which Mark gave to everyone. Last time 6 years ago I had Christian pulling me up in a spot and Bruce shoving me from behind at the same time. Apparently although I’m heavier, I’m a little better at climbing).


At the top we walked around a little and then made a butt dam. This requires sitting cheek to cheek with hands stuffed between you, damming up the water behind us (small stream) for about 10-15 minutes. It was kind of hilarious. I commented to the guides that they weren’t joining us in the dam, and they were like, uh, we’re supervising. We all stood up at once and the water went Whoosh! And it was cool.
A few minutes later we headed back along the upper route.

Around 10:30am we got to Havasu and actually got to park at the mouth instead of in the rapid, so we didn’t have to disembark with our life jackets on.
We grabbed our sandwiches and hiked to the pools, maybe a ½ mile? (So says the guides. We learned to believe everything they said unless it involved hiking.) It took about a half an hour.
We plunked our stuff down at the pools and ate lunch, and then swam, napped, and frolicked. We had a good long time there, so after I ate I went through this passageway to farther up the canyon and talked with Art a little bit and took some pictures.

I found the rock we jumped off of last time and almost pulled a Randy trying to figure out how deep it was underneath, if I could still jump. Being that one of the boatmen knew what I was talking about and didn’t say not to, I figured it was ok, and eventually jumped- the current at Havasu is very strong. Another lizard! (There were LOTS)
We eventually went back to the pools where our group was and took some pictures and waded around.
The guides passed out in their favorite place up on a ledge as always.

We made our way back and then rafted for several hours, a good 25 miles with not much white water, through the Muav gorge. We saw a lot of sheep!
One of the reasons that the last day is so long, almost a fourth of the trip’s miles, is that there are almost no campsites in the gorge, so once you are in it, you have to keep going. Karma 4 and I were nodding off on the side boards sometimes, it was so warm and with the hum of the motor, it just makes you want to nap.

We hit lava falls mid-afternoon. It was a better ride than I remembered, and I got a few pictures of the other raft going through as well.
We got to ride the sidetubes backwards on the last rapid which is always fun :)

We camped below mile 185 rapid, very close to the helopad we were going to in the morning. The beach was very wide and shallow, you could walk out halfway into the river and the water wasn't even up to my knees. Before dinner, which was porkchops, the boatmen took the sidetubes off the rafts so they would go faster in the morning.
I watched Scott do it with the help of Frank Philpot and Brett, and so I kept offering to help Mark, who was trying to do it by himself (while Park cooked almost everything I think). He kept saying it was easier to do it by himself, but he did let me deflate the tubes, and then Mike helped him roll them while mom and Jan and I stood on them- this was a precarious situation with both of them leaning on me and me afraid we were all going to fall in the river and get hurt. But it worked out and Mark gave all of us beers for helping.

After dinner we gathered our chairs in a circle and got some instructions about the next day.
Our awesome guides, Parke, Scott, and Mark.

Then we had a talent show/sharing time. Lots of people shared how much they loved the canyon and the trip, Matthew sang a song, and Ross told his poem, the Philpotts both mentioned how much they missed Randy, and Jeffrey did some backvflips. Then another group camped about 1/2 mile from us came over (we had dropped ice to them in the morning) and did 2 funny skits/songs for us to say thanks for the ice- the guys were in hula skirts and wigs, it was really funny. The best part was the guides did a skit for us called Little Big Man, involving Parke pounding about 7 beers and getting splashed with 'rapids' (buckets of water from Scott and Brett) and cracking eggs on his head, with Mark as his arms. Parke said he just jumped in the river when he was done, and that the worst part was that the last beer was actually a root beer, which was gross to chug.

I hung out with Monica, Elizabeth, Brett, and a few others for a little while on the beach, not wanting the night to end. I eventually moved my sleeping bag to about three feet from the water's edge and stared at the stars for a while before drifting off. Around 3am I realized the water was closer (it went down as the sun went down, due to less water being let out of glen canyon dam, and then back up overnight) to my sleeping bag and had to move so I wouldn't be wet in the morning.

Morning came at about 4- we packed everything up, had a continental breakfast, and loaded the rafts to the helopad. It was less than a mile downstream. We were the first group there, before 7am. The guides watered down the helopad so we wouldn't get sand blasted, and then we waited for choppers. They took our weight and weighed the bags and assigned up helicopters, and our whole group was out in an hour-ish.
We flew to the Bar-T ranch and had about 2 hours to kill before our little plane would fly us back to Vegas. Showers! Flush Toilets! Clean Clothes! Air Conditioning! As much as I didn't want to leave the canyon, it was nice having these things back. After a hard goodbye to most of our group who flew back to Marble Canyon Lodge, Mom and I and the Karmas and Jan flew to Vegas, and then eventually back home at like 8am the next day.

The Grand Canyon is my favorite place in the entire world.

Here is my 2010 River Family.

Grand Canyon, Part 6

Day 5 we were a little hung over, especially the other raft. I nick-named them the barf boat to which they responded, no, we are the beer boat!! And I was like yes, but 2 people got sick off the back of your raft this morning, so currently you're the barf boat :P

We went very briefly downstream and hiked to Elves Chasm.
Mom and Jan opted not to, Mom remembering better than me that there was a lot of bouldering involved. It will always be one of my favorite places. I climbed around the back and jumped off, but only once because the water was cold! First thing in the morning. And it remains very precarious to get up the back. Like I’ve done it the past 2 trips and Beth Purdy was still having to instruct me how to maneuver myself up. Jumping is not nearly as scary as climbing up the back :P

We hiked back to the boat and rafted another hour or two, and stopped at the Doll’s House. We climbed around and looked at dubendorf(?) rapid that was right ahead. I somehow remember it being more fun and easier to climb- possibly because I was chasing Randy and Bo around last time. Also I chose poorly in a climb and had to have Bruce coach me down a bit from a rock. Then I finally climbed through to the beach to pee and look at the rapid, and was trying to take pictures of lizards when I heard Mark and other calling me back to the raft. So I hightailed it back and we were on the river again.

A few minutes later we stopped at Stone creek and took the very short hike while the boatmen set up lunch on the beach.
This was probably the easiest hike, completely flat through a shallow creek to a pretty and slightly larger than we’d yet seen waterfall. It was warmer water and great to stand in and get group pictures J


I will say that the pictures of people look more recognizable when they are slightly in front of the waterfall instead of actually in it, but in it is way more fun :)

We hiked back and ate lunch, and I missed getting a picture of Karma 4 swimming out to the drag bag to retrieve a diet coke. A few more miles and we were at Deer Creek. Mom and the Karmas and Jan stayed at the bottom and hung out at the enormous waterfall, and about half of our group including myself hiked up to the patio. This is a steep hike that is a lot of fun, requiring hands a lot for balance. It’s a lot of hiking up, but there is a great view at the top of the river, and that’s not the end. Then you walk above a slot canyon that gets shallower as you go, until you can wade in it and sit in the shade at the patio.
It had changed a lot since last trip; a rockslide had taken out a bunch of trees that were nice to sit under. Mark, Elizabeth, and Brett or Ben took a nap and I walked over to where I knew Randy had his special piece of wood under a rock… in a boulder field. I should explain. Randy Brown was a friend from the previous two trips (I think he had been on seven total) that passed away from cancer about a year and a half ago. He had this piece of wood that he would engrave his trip dates on every time he went to deer creek. Elizabeth and I had talked about it at the beginning of the trip and thought about trying to find it. Since neither Elizabeth or I knew at all where it was, it was immediately obvious when I got to Deer creek that we would never find it. Which was okay. It was good being there just the same, and Randy would have wanted the wood to stay in it’s spot.

Purdy and Parke and a few others kept hiking to the throne room, which I had no desire to do – too hot, and I wanted to spend some time at the bottom too. So after a while I headed back with Bruce and Art, although I actually wound up going back with Kathy. On the way down we were passed by a 12 year old and his dad from another group, and the kid was like DAD! We should look for the chuck wallow, this is where we saw it on the way up! The dad tactfully tried to explain that the lizard had probably moved in the last 2 hours, bu we hadn’t gone far when low and behold, we startled probably the same chuck wallow who darted around the path as we stopped and stared, and he almost ran across my feet as he dashed for safety. You could almost see him sigh we relief when he decided he was far enough away from us, which actually wasn’t that far because I still managed to get a good picture of him without giving the poor guy another heart attack.

At the bottom I took some pictures of the waterfall and got Art to take one of me. If you stand in the spray, you can see a full circle rainbow around you in the powerful mist. This is one waterfall I had no desire to swim under- waaay too big.

>After enjoying the giant falls I headed back to the raft and found our group, and within 10-15 minutes we were on our way to a campsite literally a mile downstream.

This campsite, our fifth, was a large beach that was half covered by an overhanging cliff- Now you think this would have given us shelter from the sun, but no such luck.
It was called Pancho’s kitchen. I think it took like 2 hours for the sun to go down and our campsite to be in the shade. I forget if I washed my hair that night, having bathed the night before, but I did some laundry in the river and hung it nicely on sticks in the rocks in the ledge. We had Italian I think, (this is the guides cooking dinner)
and birthday cake since it was Pat’s birthday.

We were also told that the boatmen really liked our group and were going to try to get us to Matkatimiba the next day although it would be pushing it; we'd pack our lunches in the morning to save time. So it was a nice evening in camp, (I don't remember who ducktaped Matthew, but it was bound to happen at some point)- I slept on a little bit of an incline to get away from the snoring in our group, but it was so nice to see the stars and the bats as I went to sleep.

Grand Canyon, Part 5

Day 4 dawned without rain, huzzah! Karma 4 and I discovered that whoever sleeps on the side of the tent away from the door will invariably have to pee in the middle of the night and climb over the other person. I purposefully chose the spot near the door, having had to pee the second night and climb over Karma, and then I had literally a liter of water before going to bed the third night so I knew that nature would call. But that night she had to climb over me, so we decided the far side of the tent made you have to pee. It wound up being our last night using the tent anyway, so it was a mute point after that.

We launched day 4 zipped into raingear and immediately ran hance rapid, the first of the really big ones of the day, and the trip. In the morning we stopped to hike clear creek, with a mid river transfer of passengers right before we stopped.

This is Parke tying up the boat- it was kind of ridiculous. This is the hike that you literally have to climb out of the boat unless you park at the mouth, and there is only room for one raft at the mouth, so those that didn’t want to climb moved onto Scott’s boat and the rest stayed/moved onto Mark’s boat. Clear creek has 2 waterfalls, one of which is sideways, and it’s a great place to take pictures. All of our group made the hike, which wasn’t steep, but it was through a stream the entire way, which made it slippery. I think Karma 3 fell and skinned her elbow pretty good on the way out. I held mom’s hand a lot, more for moral support than actual hiking support. The water was once again colder than I remembered- apparently everything was colder than I remembered except for the Colorado itself. I got some good pictures of other groups of people on our trip too.

We made it back to the boat and rafted on.
At some point before lunch we passed Phantom Ranch and it's bridge.

We came to Horn creek, another large rapid, and Mark said that we could ride the sidetubes but we really had to hold on. We hit a HUGE wave, but somehow I managed to stay on the tube. On the other raft, we found out later at lunch, the wave knocked Elizabeth off the sidetube into the boat where Jeffery grabbed her. This left mom with no one in front of her on the sideboard and she got another (or maybe the same?) huge wave which really shocked her. When we breaked for lunch above Granite falls (another place we have eaten before), she was still a bit in shock and wearing Scott’s huge raincoat. We got some pictures of Granite falls while the batmen set up lunch (and also some pictures of lizards mating), ate, and ran more rapids.

I didn’t ride the sidetube on Granite because I thought it was too big, but I think I could have. Then I rode the side tube on the very next rapid, Hermit, which is probably the best ride in the entire canyon, at least on the part that we raft, and I got washed off the sidetube into the boat 3 times before giving up and staying on the sideboard for the rest of the rapid. I think next time I’ll start on the sideboard for that and enjoy the ride more instead of just trying not to die/stay in the boat. Earlier in the morning we also ran Grapevine rapid, which is another good one, and as I am climbing onto the sidetube on the left side next to Art, he says, Oh I remember this rapid, this is the one that Brenda (Randy’s sister) fell off the side tube and was dragged under the boat twice. I was like, don’t tell me that!! After we made it through someone overheard Mark saying to someone in the tea room, Did you see how many rocks I had to avoid in that thing?!

The rest of the day was filled with really big rapids, some of which were bigger than I remember.


I didn’t remember the gems being so fun, and there were just more rapids in general than I remember. We ran crystal with no problems, although it was butts to the boards. As a sidenote, I think more people have died at Crystal rapid then any other rapid in the canyon. Crystal has never looked scary to me as a passenger- this is probably because I have never actually scouted it, had to run it, or seen it at high water. I was on Scott’s boat for the afternoon.

We hiked at Shimumo creek maybe around 2. I totally didn’t remember the hike, although I think we did it in 2004. Once again it wasn’t long or specifically steep, but it was through a stream, deeper this time, with fast moving water. As we were getting our gear together Scott said, make sure your camera is in a water-proof case, people tend to tip over in Shinumo. He wasn’t kidding. I fell at least 3 times, once of which gave me a good bruise and scrape on my left shin. The waterfall at the end was cool;
I managed to walk/swim around behind it following Beth Purdy, and she slid out underneath it into the pool of water. So I went out the way I came, handed my fanny pack to unsuspecting Ross, and did the same thing. It was very cool. :) This is Matthew behind the waterfall.

We got back on the raft for a short time and then camped at Mile 114 across from Garnet Canyon. It was Mexican night, and thus began the shinanagans :D

So the food for the trip remains relatively the same from trip to trip; certain menus move to different nights of the trip. I think for a while Hatch provided margaritas with Mexican night, but then stopped a few trips ago. I’m sure it’s because of some random company policy about not providing alcohol, although individuals (and boatmen) can certainly bring as much as the rafts can carry. This trip we not only had the various and numerous sixpacks of beer and bags of wine, but also hard liquor in waterbottles and drink mixes and stuff. Anyway, the Beans brought enough margarita for the whole group and brought it out on night 4 with Mexican night. They had bought the margarita at costco where you can buy them premade in bulk, with even the tequila mixed in already. This was put in one of the drink coolers and labeled DANGER. Now, soon after although I’m not exactly sure when, Scott tasted it and said, those are weak! And added more tequila. Now, I’m also not sure how MUCH tequila he added, but lets just say at least one decent sized bottle. All of the sudden the entire group was at least tipsy and some very trashed. We were sort of split up by raft at this campsite because it was so rocky and hilly, there wasn’t a lot of room for a large circle, and people had been breaking off into smaller groups for dinners anyway.
Karma 4 fell out of her chair before she even had any margarita because it was so steep in the loose sand. I later fell out of my chair because I reached down to pick up my camera. What happens in the canyon stays in the canyon, but it was pretty freakin hilarious to see some people a little toasted.
Mark caught a spiny lizard in our circle. I think Scott actually had to piggyback several people to their sleeping bags because they couldn't make it there due to the heavy loose sand, steep rocks, and margaritas. Someone the next day said they forgot to eat dinner and couldn't even tell you what we had. Good times were had by all :o)