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.