Yep, we really didn’t leave Prescott on the last page, but life really isn’t chronological, nor logical, or sometimes even legitimate or contrived. But one thing for sure, life is.

These southwest pictures were taken from our excursions around Prescott during our time there ~ if you were paying attention, you’d remember that we mentioned having ‘friends’ up when we were staying at the apt in Prescott. This page has some random wanderings while we were there and may or may not be accurate or honest, after all it is our site and your mother dresses you funny.

But that’s okay because Greg’s mother really likes four legged hoofed animals so much that she was excited to see this sign!?!

Being on the edge of the Grand Canyon seeing the world famous mules that risk their lives everyday to take unsuspecting tourists into Dr. Evils lair had something to do with the excitement behind seeing the sign. That’s a crazy trail where you ride the mules into the canyon and sometimes they fall.

Not really ~ apparently there’s never been a mule accident. But that’s not true either and we have a pair of shoes to prove it. And here’s some more of those pictures everyone loves to take ~ including us. And you have to live with it because, well, you’re here and don’t wanna miss what’s on the bottom of this page ~ AND DON’T SKIP AHEAD ~ stop right there.

You have to look at the lovely Family pictures with the Grand Canyon background ~ everyone now ~ oooohhhhh!!! aaaahhhhhh!!!

Who’s that creepy guy looking at Greg’s Mom? I’d be scared if I met him in a dark alley ~ but he’s really a sweet kid…

Now this is an important picture, so pay attention or just leave us alone because you don’t care anyway…

That’s Greg and Jenn under the bell at Hermits Rest.

Oh, and the story goes something like this ~ our first trip together in April ’92 was flying from San Antonio to Los Angeles to drive a friends truck back to San Antonio. We were very broke so we camped along the way but still took time to see the sites we could. When we got to the Grand Canyon expecting to tent camp, we were told we could not. So we drove to the end of the tourist road and setup our tent at night anyway. When we were woken early the next morning by hikers, we realized we were too close to the edge of the canyon (illegally) and also at the head of this popular hiking trail ~ originating at Hermits Rest. So here we are almost ten years later. Awwwwwww. Now get in the car, woman.

We also took Mom around the Prescott area where there exists strange rows of mailboxes without a house in sight. It was such an eyesore we removed all the mail, ran over the boxes, and used the sticks for firewood. And that’s why you should never mail cash.

We sure enjoyed having Mom visit Arizona with us but we never quite figured out why we put her next to a Saguaro (suh-wah-row) Cactus alone for a picture (pik-ch-rrrr).

Mandy is Jenn’s cousin that lives in Texas ~ at the time she was living with Jenn’s parents and we were blessed enough to be able to bring her up to Arizona to visit with us (never mail cash).

Since we had all this cash, we couldn’t think of a better place to take a teenager that had never been out of Texas. Our RV had been sitting in Debbie and Miguels backyard while we were chilling in the Prescott apt, so we took it for a little road trip…

and the kids found some new Mommy’s (that might be a Daddy on the left though). Maybe they’re both Daddies…

boo ya. Everyone shoot the transvestites…

Vegas is really a cool place to visit with Family ~ it’s also a cool place to leave as in enough is enough. They (we still don’t know who ‘they’ are), but they have taken an empty desert valley and man made anything interesting ~ although we think the natural desert is interesting, but ‘they’ don’t seem to care, ‘they’ decided flattening and clearing the desert and putting buildings up was better. Then ‘they’ power it all by Hoover Dam and allow many guilty pleasures to happen relatively legally but get Families there by creating interesting things and activities for the kids. So… be careful in Vegas, because ‘they’ say whatever happens here stays here ~ but it’s not true at all. The conscience is an amazing thing.

We took Mandy with us to our next adventure anyway…

Zion is in the bottom corner of Utah and is really, really, really cool.

Actually, the whole area is way cool ~ I-15 through this area is easily one of the most scenic drives we’ve ever been on. But we’re not on I-15 here, we are in Zion wandering around.

We camped in Zion and the kids were ‘excited’ to find other kids their age. Excited can sometimes mean retarded if you know what we mean…

This was our front yard view out the door during this stay. The coyotes would echo off the canyon walls at night. mmmmmm.

After Zion, we cruised to Page, AZ where there’s a really big lake and Navajo’s. Those rocks are a trail to a slot in the ground ~ The Slot Canyons! $20/person cash to a Navajo sitting on a lawn chair in the desert with absolutely nothing else around. Weird.

Even weirder ~ we were told an interesting story right before we dropped into the canyon and it’s why the sign above exists. A group of German tourists showed up at this Slot Canyon one sunny afternoon and right before going in were told to wait because there was a call about a storm in the area. The Navajo attendant went to the slot canyon nearby that was higher than this one to figure out if there was any water or flooding. When he got there it was taking water from the storm off in the distance ~ the storm that couldn’t even be seen from where they were. He went back to the above canyon to tell the German tourists not to go in because of the risk of flooding and they were nowhere to be found. Just after his return, a wall of water came over the horizon towards the canyon and there was nothing he could do but watch the wall of water disappear into the Slot above. twenty some odd people lost their lives that day and it took weeks to find and recover all the bodies downstream. The few that survived told how the group decided to go into the canyon despite their warning because there were no signs of a storm or water.

So we decided to go in. The canyon itself is somewhat inverted in that it drops down from the desert floor and is only visible above through a slot just a couple of feet wide at most. From the rim, it drops up to 120 feet deep and widens at the bottom up to 15-20 feet in places. This canyon was created by the sandstone being carved out by flash floods just like the one described above. The tourists described is why they put the sign in the middle of the desert near the lawn chair that the Navajo sits on charging $20/person. Wonder what happens if he’s not there?

They also had these stairs installed after this incident. Before, it was much more difficult of a climb and even still there is only this way in and an exit about a quarter mile on the other side. Otherwise, you’re in the slot. Going down these stairs into the slot at the top is so narrow that you have to go in sideways. It’s a pretty tight squeeze, long climb, and long hike. If you go make sure you’re in decent shape and okay with paying cash to a Navajo sitting in a lawn chair in the desert. Check the weather too.

These canyons are photogenically famous and have been featured in Valtrex commercials (genital herpes) and Britney’s video. Coincidence?

I think not.

How ’bout we just talk about Britney’s video and forget about the other thing…

Mandy thinks that idea is hot. Wait. That’s Paris.

And here’s the release on the other side. The canyon floor is covered in a deep layer of sand and is a relatively flat walk. The sides of the canyon are easy to whittle away from just rubbing with your fingers so we tagged it and our junior ranger kids arrested us. This is one of the most awe inspiring sites we’ve seen and we highly recommend visiting the slot canyons if you can. Page, AZ is a pretty cool little town too.

Coming out the other side opens up into more of a hillside with a great view.

We chilled here for quite a while and enjoyed the view and beautiful weather and clean air.

Back on the road we found a little place on a map somewhere that talked about a cool overlook. We had to park and hike in…

But we know we’ve seen this view before somewhere on TV or a publication ~ it’s a bend in the river that you look down on from probably 500+ feet up. It’s really hard to capture on film and we can’t find the video capture from our wide lens ~ so you’ll just have to use your imagination and recreate the above picture with the same to the left and a really cool horizon. Now aren’t you glad you made it to the bottom of the page to use your imagination?

This was a fantastic time in our life ~ we were financially able to get Mandy there and show her the Southwest and even left her with a great video of the entire experience. We also got to host Greg’s Mom and take her to the Grand Canyon and touring around Prescott. We had the ability to help Debbie and Miguel make some Salsa and we rented an apt learning that space (out of the RV) was a perceived luxury and really didn’t do us all that good. We really like the Southwest but missed being around an ocean.

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