MEETING BABY MAX @ GRAND CANYON October 16-24, 2017

Leaving Santa Fe we had a pretty drive on I-40 to Winslow, AZ and a one night stay at Homolovi State Park.  We used the afternoon for basic things, laundry and groceries with a beautiful desert sunset ending our day. 

 From Winslow it's a straight drive into Flagstaff where we picked up a few more things at Safeway before the last drive up the the Canyon and our first time meeting little Max Coyote Campbell! This beautiful, little six week old great nephew belongs to our niece, Mandy, and her husband, Mike. We were so excited to see her and baby Max.

I couldn't have been happier holding him for the first time. Such a joy!

After feeding Max, she wrapped him all up and we took a walk to the rim before the sunset, with Max sleeping all the way over and back. I had fun cooking dinners while we were there and tried some new vegetarian recipes for M and M. Really pretty tasty and once they'd get Max to sleep we'd have dinner and then say good night. Both Mike and Mandy were still in the early days of little sleep and frequents feedings so they were both exhausted!

For me, the most favorite time of day at the GC is to be up early enough to watch the sun rise over the east ridges of the canyon.  It was pretty chilly at 6 am but there's something inspiring seeing a new day begin with the silence of early morning. I wasn't alone on the rim, but there is a quietness that everyone seems to keep as the sun brightens the crevices of the canyon walls and the beauty wakens.

We are also very fortunate that we can park the RV at a friend's home just a block away from Mandy and Mike. Dave and Judi Beckerleg have just the perfect space for us to stay, and we are so grateful to hook up our water and electric lines to their home and set up our house. Judi was taking an online class so we didn't get to see her much, but it's always a gift to stay there and be able to just walk down to see the baby. 

The second morning we played with Max at the house then went to sit out at the El Tovar porch for a little lunch. Max just ate and slept, ate and slept...as he's supposed to do. Such a wonderful hour or so looking out at the expanse of the canyon while visiting and catching up with Mandy on life as a new mom. Max even had a visit with us in the RV, though I don't think he noticed. 

Something we hadn't planned, was spending Thursday morning at the Grand Canyon Clinic trying to find out why Paul was having such severe pain in his upper legs. After a test or two with nothing unusual showing up, the doctor diagnosed it as dehydration; I never realized it could so affect this part of his body.  We stopped at the market on our way back and he began a steady intake of Gatorade to try to restore his body's fluids. Though the doctor said it would take 3-4 days before he'd feel better, it actually took almost two weeks before the pain was gone. So, instead of leaving on Friday we stayed one more day to be sure he was strong enough to drive the RV to Sedona. Trying to keep Paul inactive isn't easy but the pain was enough to make him slow down and rest, and the best thing was we had one more day with Mandy and Max!

Saturday morning was beautiful, sadly we said good by to MMM and packed up the RV,  getting a goodbye from some of the local elk.

It was a lovely drive from the canyon to Sedona, and all went well, though that descent through the mountains always makes me nervous. Plus I was pretty worried about Paul. We did fine, and camped at our favorite little campground, Page Springs RV Resort.  I wouldn't really call this much of a "resort" but it's  a small private campground right along Oak Creek 10 miles south of Sedona near Cornville. We had a perfect spot again with a beautiful view.  

This time we couldn't do much hiking at all, Paul's legs just weren't strong enough so we put the top down on the car and took some beautiful rides and I did the driving; no matter how you view them the red rocks are beyond beautiful!
Mandy had told us we should have a sunset drink at the lovely Enchantment Resort, and we did! Amazing views, but the sunset came so quickly. Next time we'll go before 4:00 and enjoy it all once more.

Loved the reflection in this photo of Paul.

A couple more days at our campsite and it was time to move down to Phoenix.  The hard part was that the temps in Phoenix were close to 100 degrees while we and a perfect 80, we delayed that last drive as long as we could.

We had a big adventure ahead of us, with plans to be out of the RV for two months as we did house/pet sitting on the east coast and Mexico. So, our days were absorbed with packing and closing up the RV; cleaning out the frig and being sure everything was ready to store it until the first of the year. So happy we did all that work in Sedona, by the time we got to Phoenix mid day Wednesday, it was definitely too hot to do much of anything but check in with the storage area, get an Uber ride to the airport and step onto a plane bound for Boston and step into some new experiences.