Home again.

We stayed the night at the Best Western in Tuscayan AZ. One of the nicer hotels I've been to and a good night's sleep. And then it's off to home. Stopped for gas in historic Williams AZ, where route 66 came close to the Grand Canyon. Still has a lot of that old time feel to it.








Then we drove south through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, AZ.











And one last stop at Montezuma's Castle before driving on to San Diego. A long drive, but we made it.

Now it's a matter of settling in here at home. Unpacked, then Holly's off to her brother's to help him out this week while he goes into surgery for his leg. I went out and got some exercise balls, mats and weights to start working out with. I think I'll pick up the elliptical machine from Costco if I can get someone with a pickup to help me get it.

Road Trip!

So it's been some serious road tripping! We did both the North and South Rim road trips of Canyon de Chelly and did the White House Ruins hike. Holly swore that the hike was going going to kill her. All the way down the 600 to 700 foot switchback path she was swearing that she would never make it up. But she did! Thanks Sharon for making everything "funner". A great hike. Boaught a great piece of rock art down at the ruins. There were about six Navajos set up down at the bottom with displays of native American art (both hikers and all the vehicle tours come by there). One of the guys had some acrylic paint on sandstone art done by a friend and his own carved into sandstone art. The cool thing (besides the great art) was that his spot in front of the ruins was his gallery. He carved his art there while trying to sell his and his friend's art. I wish I'd recoded his explanation of all the details of the piece of art I bought. Great day.







Then on Wednesday we started of with a quick visit to the Hubbell Trading Post National Monument. Didn't buy anything, the native American art was way overpriced.










Then it was off to the Painted Desert / Petrified Forest. Beautiful but cold. A cold front entered Arizona and dropped th temperature down to around freezing. Hiking was just out, except for a trip around the Crystal Forest. I did a few more hikes while Holly stayed in the car.







That evening we stayed at the La Poloma Hotel in Winslow Arizona. The coolest hotel EVER! This was one of those artistic hotels designed for the Santa Fe railroad by Mary Colter. It's being restored, complete with awesome art and a great restaurant. This hotel is reason to come to Winslow Arizona. Maybe the only reason to stop in Winslow besides getting gas. I would come back just to stay here.





Then On Thursday, we did some serious travel. We started with Meteor Crater. The plan was to hike the crater rim, but the near freezing temperatures stopped that. Wandered around the museum, saw all the movies and looked out over the overlooks.






From Meteor Crater, we went to Walnut Canyon. unfortunately the Indian Trail was closed due to rock falls.










Next was Sunrise Crater. This volcano exploded between 1040 and 1090 AD. Very cool looking, and the most recent of the many volcanoes in the San Fransisco Mountain range.










From there it was off to the Wukoki National Monument to check out some more Native American ruins.











Then finally the Grand Canyon. Beautiful scenery with a beautiful woman.

Navajo Country

Started yesterday off with a short hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to the north rim and then back. At least a couple hundred yards hike. Of course this was over the old Navajo Bridge, not up and down the canyon.








Then we drove across northern Arizona to the Navajo National Monument. Beautiful. Only one hike was open, even if it was a little icy. (Only one of us managed to slip on the ice, and it wasn't Holly.)

This took us to an overlook that looked down on the Anasazi ruin of Bukataki. Can you tell that Holly is getting sick of having her photo taken?


Then it was off to Monument Valley. Their Visitor Information Center was closed, but we went to a small local museum that was pretty cool. Then it was a drive down to Canyon de Chelly where we plan to spend the day hiking.

Strange Day.

Today was a strange day. First, checking out of Fitness Ridge and saying goodbye to everyone there. Great results but sad to leave. I'm looking forward to going back in th fall. Then we road tripped through Zion to Lake Powell. The photo on the left is of Checkerboard Mesa and my Pius with Holly staying warm inside, while I froze my but running around taking photos in shorts and flip-flops. Stopped at the Subway in Kanab, UT for lunch. Then on to Arizona...





While in the Glenn Canyon National Park at Wahweap overlooking Lake Powell, my phone got reception and I received a message. My good friend and co-worker Happy John had a heart attack Thursday and is unconscious in a coma in the hospital. Tried to call Teresa (Happy John's wife) back, both at the hospital and at home but was unable to get hold of her. Unfortunately, our itinerary puts us out of phone reception most of the time. It's strange to be so far away from a friend in trouble, I can't even go visit him or get news. Got to go on and hope for the best. We went down the road and stopped at the Glenn Canyon Dam visitors center then drove on to Lees Ferry.
Lees Ferry is this great little historic site, and also where the Grand Canyon / Colorado River rafting trips start. And a big trout fishing site. The only place along the Grand Canyon where you can drive down to the Colorado River. Very cool. The scenery is impressive. We got there a little too late in the day to take advantage of the great hiking. I'd like to do some hiking here, but in order to keep this roadtrip to less then a week and see all I want to see, I think we'll hit the road tomorrow instead of going back to Lees Ferry and hiking. Hike in Monument Valley or Canyon De Chelley instead.

We decided to spend the night at the Marble Canyon Lodge. A neat little place from the mid-1920s. The restaurant / gift shop was pretty nice with wood burning stoves in the middle of the room supplying heat. A small little hotel room at a great $48 per night rate. Though Holly and I will both swear that the "queen" sized bed is only a full size. A good place to start our grand tour of Northern Arizona's scenery.

Then to add another nasty little twist to the day, when I logged onto the internet I got an email from my Mom saying that my sister is very sick in the hospital. Patty's emails from the other day made it sound like things weren't to bad, just a case of the flu or at worse pneumonia. But things sound pretty bad. A very strange day full of bad news while full of great natural scenery and beauty.

End of week #3: Results

8:15AM: Checkout time. The results are in for the three weeks:

Dave	Before	After	Loss	Holly	Before	After	Loss
Weight	296	285	11	Weight	215	205	10
Chest	53	51	2	Chest	43.5	42.5	1
Belly	55.25	51.25	4	Belly	43	40.5	2.5
Hips	47	45.5	1.5	Hips	50	49	1
Thigh	23	22.5	0.5	Thigh	24	23.5	0.5
Calf	18	18.25	-0.25	Calf	17	16.5	0.5
Arm	14.75	15	-0.25	Arm	15	14.25	0.75
Body Fat%	34.6	28.3	6.3%	Body Fat%	41.0	35.6	5.4%
BMI	39.1	37.6	1.5	BMI	41.0	35.6	4.4

So that's it here at Fitness Ridge. I can't thank the folks here enough for all they've done. Everyone here, both guests and employees have been fantastic. I would heartily recommend this experience to anyone. We'll be back in the fall for two weeks to check up on our progress and jump start our progress.

Saturday Zioninsts

6:40AM: We are getting ready to leave for Zion National Park, and Holly ran into a little problem. Her jeans are all too loose! Oh the horror! Huge gaps around the waist. She dug up her old skinny jeans that she couldn't even button last week, and they fit! Someone is getting skinny....

9:ooPM: We went up to the Kolob section of Zion. Unfortunately all the trails there were still mud and snow covered. A beautiful short drive to the end of the road there. We'll have to go back when there isn't a bunch of snow.

Next we drove down to the main canyon area of Zion National Park and decided to hike the Emerald Pools. We started with the Middle Emerald Pool Trail up to the pools, then took the Upper Emerald Pool Trail to the top, then returned on the Lower Emerald Pool Trail. What a beautiful hike.

Back at Fitness Ridge, Denae showed us the week's video and had our goodbye talk. Then Emily took us to Chuck-Arama for our buffet test. After dinner it was back here to do laundry and soak in the hot tub while Holly did one last workout on the treadmill. Now it's time to get to sleep.