1 RV 3 Teenagers

It has been a jam packed week here in the Grand Canyon.  The only person in our group with any cell service is Merrick and we have to go to General Store for Wi-Fi but who wants to stay in doors when you are at the Grand Canyon.

Tuesday we decided to take a walk down to the visitor center to start taking the bus system all over the park.  We took a short cut down the middle of the residential area of Trailer Village and ran right into this beauty.

By the way this photo was taken at the beginning of the walk…

 do I look like a tourist?

The walk was longer than Mom could almost handle so after lunch  I took her and Devon back to the camper for a rest and Mike and the girls stayed on the orange line and saw the sights.

On the way back to the camper Mike took this picture of the cutest little elk you ever did see.

When everyone was back at the camper the girls felt the need to decorate “the nest” while Mike and I tried to figure out how to cook since we are not allowed to cook with charcoal due to high fire danger.  BTW did I happen to mention that I brought 100 pounds of charcoal because that is the method we love to cook with while camping.  Wish I had known before we got here that there was a fire and charcoal ban and before anyone says did you ask… I called several times to check conditions before we left and no one mentioned a fire or charcoal ban. 

Wednesday:  I was ready to tackle the Trail of Time.  The South Rim trail from start to finish I think is 13 miles but Mike found the Trail of Time that was only 2 miles from bus stop to bus stop (does he know me or what). 

 What a beautiful walk! 

 For this hike we packed plenty of water and I made sandwiches and snacks to take breaks along the way.   This is when we found out the wildlife can speak English.  Mike wanted to take a water and snack break and said the word “ granola bar” and this guy popped out of the bushes.

This little guy almost crawled in my lap asking for food but he also appeared to be snap trained and backed off when I snapped.  Kaela thought that was cool.

I DID IT!

Now I am going to go to the camp store and buy that sticker that says “ I hiked the Grand Canyon”  I know it is supposed to be for the people that go below the rim but hey I hiked 2 miles on a Grand Canyon trail and that is a big deal for me.  That sticker is going on the back of the RV! 

Thursday: Laundry day! 

 You can not travel with 6 people and not have laundry at some point.  I was uber organized about this venture.  Each kid has their own laundry bag, I have a cart that stays on the camper and about $60 in quarters.  Thank goodness I packed my own laundry supplies because there were about 30 teenagers in the laundry / shower mat trying to get their laundry done and get showers too and  no ADULT in the place to corral these kids.  

Why do I mention this?  Because they were on a 23 day road trip and did NOT know how to do laundry!  I was finally able to snag a couple of washing machines and after finally getting one dryer  I was able to get my 7 loads of laundry done.  But I had to guard that dryer with my mothers life.

It took longer than it should have at a large laundry mat to get our laundry done but afterwards we decided that since it looked like weather was coming in it was a good stay in the camper and do nothing.

The rest of the day was just a rest and watch movies kind of day.

We are loving this vacation so far.