Home Alone Two, But Not Yet Lonely

Our last two known guests have left.

Three days after arriving in The Valley of the Sun, downtown AZ, friends and golfing soulmate Ted and Syl arrived from N O T L, ON, CA.

Two days later Paul and Jo showed up at the door.

A, way to quick two weeks later, the last of these four had gone and it's "back to the airport time", to pick up BIL Terry. (painter extrodinaire). You'll never guess the color of the kitchen and eating area!

While he was here, the house was transformed into a crayola kaleidescope between rounds of golf and and visiting with a variety of friends of Bill Wilson.

As we said our goodbyes to BIL Terry, we also had a final farewell for Papilio Cresphontes, or Pap for short.

Actually, one could say that he exited his caterpillar existence as a form of Pap smear on the sidewalk below the Orange tree that was his home while he was with us here in the Valley of the Sun. (Elsie has never seen a bug that she deems worthy of life).

So now it's the two of us. We have reveled in the past month of activity and are now basking in the serenity of solitude, golf, reading, putting up shelving, planting and blogging. Well, maybe not solitude, but . . . you get the picture I'm sure!

Paul, Jo, Ted, Syl, Terry and even Pap, you're all what fond memories are made of. And may more of you friends show up at our door. But wait for a week or two.

Love to all of you, and as my dear friend Santa says each Christmas Eve, . . . "and to all a good night!"

Oh yes, and thank you much, Terry for the wonderful work that was accomplished amidst the other activities that distracted us.

And to you all, Terry is the same Terry who for very good reason is listed at the end of this blog as one of my true heros. A great guy with a wonderful wife, Dorothy and way to charming two daughters, Emily and Jaimie Lee.

The Grand Canyon Hike with SILH, (son-in-law Harry)

Well, there she is folks. Our descent is the South Kaibab trailhead. Very close to where I was standing to shoot this image.

The dates for the adventure are Feb. 22 - 27, 2010. Each season has it's advantages and disadvantages. We'll likely begin the descent on a snowy trail. Within two hours we should be down far enough that we'll be in mid 40'sF. By the time we get to our first camping area, we'll be in (daytime, mid 50's to mid 60'sF temps). Unfortunately for us, by then the shadows will have lengthened for the day and we'll be setting up camp and making dinner in somewhat cooler temps. We won't be tossing off the covers at night because of the heat!

A negative is that except for the main corridor there are no water supplies during the winter months. So that means carrying quite a bit and likely doing some caching and retrieving. But that's cool, we'll be relying more on the creeks and using our little purifier pumps to filter what we use.

I'm so looking forward to this trip. I have wanted to do the photography thing down there from the day that I saw my first picture taken along Monument Creek. Guess what, we're spending two days trekking that area.

And believe it or not, I look forward to the physical prep stuff to insure that I'm reasonably fit for this venture. Now each day I look forward to the walk. I wear a backpack. Started it at 25 pounds and am working it up to 50 pounds. Alternate days I'm cycling and doing stretches and exercises that my fitness trainer from last summer taught me.

I figure that we'll each be carrying about 50 pounds. My camera equipment is 1/5th of that. Harry thinks I'm nuts. Because of the equipment, at least that's my excuse, we're going to send a thirty pound pack down on the daily mule train trip. That'll also allow us to have access to better quality grub than if we had to rely solely on dehydrated , packaged food. This will give us the fixin's for bacon and eggs and my all time favorite, bannock which is better than good any time of the day, right Mitch and Trav!

Well enough for now. I'll be back to you very shortly updating the progress. Good day to you all. And may your dreams come true, as has mine. Thanks SILH for helping me to take a big drink from the bucket list.