A moment of Grandeur

The day at Grand Canyon was NOT what we expected. Rain, sleet, snow
and finally - FOG!

We were in really good spirits having a terrible "National Park" lunch
and going to two Ranger talks on Rocks (how the Canyon was made) and
Condors.

The clouds parted off and on and we saw the canyon in a "new" way. I
actually liked it better. Each of my other experiences of Grand
Canyon left me feeling it was just "too much". It's vastness, opened
and countless details actually left me feeling I couldn't really "see
it".

Peeks of the canyon - like the one in the photo - along with the
wonderful diffused light made this my favorite Grand Canyon
experience... So far.

Grand Canyon - North Rim

If you were ever curious what the Grand Canyon looks like in the fog...

This is it:

Snow!! (on Oct 12th...?

After the rain, and the rainbow then came the snow!!

The boys went wild and we stopped to play a bit.

Evan and an Arizona rainbow

We saw this on the way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

Colorado River

We took a "Mike trip" off the highway for a little while. Just goofing off a little and enjoying the moment.

I like the contrast of the leaves in the foreground and river and various mountain colors in the background.

Matthew

*My wonderful cousin Mike always is getting us to stop and smell the roses in our busy lives. My favorite Mike moment was some random evening when he stopped me quite suddenly with "SHHHH ... Listen .... Do you hear it?" A good minute went by a I listened for ... What? Then he said "crickets" and started walking again.

When is the last time you heard a cricket?

:)

KC to Denver

Got up and had an awesome KC breakfast. Interesting detail: I asked for hot sauce and they had three or four different hot "seasonings" (dry). How very KC!!

Larry and Julie have a mobile veterinary clinic and showed us their horses, animals and how they can get STEM CELLS from animals in the closet of their mobile clinic. Truly amazing. We had a great visit and will be coming back in Lent! Larry is going to take the boys with him on his rounds treating animals as part of their science course :)

Tech update: mileage still dropping. 14 mpg at last fill up. Carefully looked under Sprinter - totally dry. What is happening? Also: left drivers side wheel is out of alignment. Van pulling to the right and tire wearing funny. Need to fix ASAP or it'll cost me a tire.

Matthew Cameron

Home for a few days...

Packing for a 5,000 mile, 19 concert, seven week tour isn't simple - ESP when you have only been home for six days after being away from home for 76 days).

After a very fast intense week we left at 12:30pm on Tuesday.  Lauren joined us on tour for the first time as tutor (possibly violin/vocals as well).

We made it to the Kovac's home (Kansas City) around 10pm local time.  After introductions were made and friendships born (over lovely Slivovica) we had a snack, chatted and went to bed.

Technical note:  normally we get around 22-25 mph.  First fill up we got 18, 2nd fill up was 16.

Matthew Cameron