The next morning, we hopped on the tour boat and took a ride around Lake Powell. We went to the Glen Canyon Dam, through Navajo Canyon, and then in to the narrowing, slot canyons of Antelope Canyon. It was sunny and peaceful and beautiful. Rocks are even cooler when there is lots of water around them.
After the boat ride, we took a short drive, and then a mile long hike to see this thing they called Horseshoe Bend. Mary Lou had read about it, Nicole went along for the ride. At the end of the hike, we found ourselves at the very edge of a huge canyon, looking down 1,000 feet at one of the most incredible sights we have ever seen. At Horseshoe Bend, the glowing green Colorado River makes a 280 degree turn. It is awesome. What a world we live in!
There was no way we wanted to stay in that stupid RV park again, so, we just hit the road. We did decide that we had seen enough rock for a while, and needed some civilization. We headed South. We drove through Flagstaff and on to Sedona. Sedona was really very beautiful, lots of mesas and buttes, but covered in the tall, green pine trees of the Coconino Forest. We wanted to stop and walk around the galleries of Sedona, but, we didn't realize how mountainous and narrow the roads were there. It wasn't very RV friendly, so we pressed on South.
Driving with the windows down, feeling the hot sun on our arms, the scent of pine wafting in the windows was so overwhelming and delicious that we felt we needed to be outside. As soon as we voiced this desire to each other, there came a sign for Slide Rock Recreation Park. That sounded about right.
We pulled in, parked, changed into shorts and t-shirts and followed all the people walking into the forest. After a brief walk over some huge boulders, following the sound of screaming children, we came to the bottom of a swiftly flowing stream. All those kids, well, they were upstream, plunging themselves into the freezing cold mountain spring water, and riding and sliding down the smooth rocks. Slide Rock! We get it!
There were so many happy kids, sliding and jumping, and pulling their yuppie parents in with them. We had a blast watching them. Then, got back on the road, and headed South to Phoenix for a big night. It was the India vs Sri Lanka World Cup Cricket match! It just so happened that a dear friend of Nicole's from college, Souvir, lived in Phoenix. A perfect date to watch India fight for the cup, not having won for 28 years.
Nicole figured Vir would get off of work, sleep a little, and then wake up for the match, but, no, it was Friday night, and he was already at the local brew house when we reached town. Nicole left Mary Lou to hold down the fort while she met Vir and friends for drinks, live music, and lots of fun. She made it until the start of the match, which found Sri Lanka up to bat first. Nicole knew there was no way she would be able to stay up all night, especially if Sri Lanka was up. So, Vir took off to watch with the hard cores, and Nicole woke up early in the morning to catch India win the World Cup. Yay!! World Champions, baby! Really, too. . . WORLD champions. Because the world plays cricket (unlike, say, the World Series of baseball. . .), Kyle.
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