After a great nights sleep, we woke up late this morning
(for us anyway). We had an amazing breakfast in the Sweetwater Kitchen in the
lodge. At least I imagined the kids pancakes were as good as the poblano chili
and cheese grits and fresh garden vegetable omelette that Marisa and I split.
We lounged around for a bit after breakfast, then loaded up to hit a couple of
hikes that were pretty close to the guest house.
As soon as we got in the truck and started down the road, I
heard a clanging sound every time we hit a bump in the road (of which there
were a lot). As the fear of car trouble out
n the middle of the desert…..on vacation….in a brand new car, settled
in, we drove into town to try to score a bag of ice for the cooler. We pulled over
a couple of times so I could try to climb under the car and see if I could
figure out what sounded like it was coming loose. I popped the hood and climbed
up into the engine compartment….no luck there either. Every time we would start
off again it would be silent and I would think, “Okay it’s fixed, whatever it
was” then it would start up again. If I
put it into 4WD then it would stop also. So not knowing anything about cars, I
started to worse case scenario it….”There’s something wrong with the transmission
linkage” etc.. Anyway, we got ice and got to the first hiking spot and were
getting ready to head up into the canyon when Jake stood up from by the front
wheel, with a rock that he found inside the brake housing of the drivers side
tire. He said, “Dad I bet the noise was this rock”. I, imagining the dollars
flying out of my checking account and the loud and drawn out fight I was going
to have to have with the Ford dealership, just kind of humored him about it.
After our hike up to see the petroglyphs (which we NEVER found), we got back
into the car and dammed if the noise was gone and never showed back up. The kid
fixed the car! At least he did for me mentally anyway.
The second hike was much tougher, but more rewarding than the
first. It was down into a pretty steep canyon. The elevation drop was over 600
feet according to the map. It was breezy and not too hot, but hiking down, both
Marisa and I knew that hiking back OUT with the kids was going to be a
challenge. The destination of the hike was a 88’ waterfall that dropped into
the canyon. We were headed for the top of the waterfall where there were
supposed to be a couple of pools to swim in. We had dressed in swimsuits and
packed towels in. Once we reached the creek, there were a couple of pools right
before the falls fell over the cliff, with a couple of deep pools cut into the
rock by the river over time. Up a little bit, there was a smaller falls that
dropped probably 12-15’ into a deep pool. People were jumping off the falls
into the pools below, so of course I was going to. Everyone but Faith ended up
making the jump into the COLD river. Tanner jumped with me a couple of times,
Jake went by himself and even Marisa went. After jumping and swimming for
awhile, we packed up and started the climb back out. The trail was marked by
volcanic rock cairns and Tanner and Jake lead the way, yelling, “stacked rocks”
every time they spotted a new marker.
Both Marisa and I are going to be sore tomorrow and we’re in
pretty good shape, I don’t know how the kids made it. It was pretty straight up
in a few spots and it was hot later in the afternoon. With some encouragement
from us and the lure of PB & Nutella sandwiches and juice boxes in the
truck they made it back out of the canyon and we headed back to the lodge.
One of the nice things about having the new truck along on
this trip is that we’re still burning through the included Sirius Satellite
Radio trial subscription. I have able to listen to the Super Regionals of NCAA
baseball as the field for the College World Series gets set (along with the
Sinatra station – which the rest of the car LOVES – sarcasm). We have also
brought a couple of the Series of Unfortunate Events books on CD. We just
finished Book 1 which all the kids thought was great. I’m looking forward to
the drive tomorrow to get into book number 2.
The kids are having dinner in the room tonight and Marisa
and I are heading back to the lodge restaurant tonight to have a good (and
quiet) dinner. Wish us luck.
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