Landmark Journey 2015: The BIG Kahuna aka The grand Canyon

This was a date circled on our calendar since we started our trip back in March, a visit to the Grandest of them all, the Grand Canyon! We headed out about 9AM this morning, about one hours drive to GC. We had discussed whether to take the train, a 2.5 hour ride but felt the landscape wasn't worth the money, and as our drive out confirmed, it wasn't. A very flat boring drive and we could tell by the landscape for miles the train ride would be the same. It also gave us much more flexibility on what to do and see. And sure enough the flexibility was worth the train cost saving as we had also discussed since home on a helicopter flight, which Caroline has just simply fallen in love with (helicopters). Maybe all the years she had flown with her dad in Cessnas had her looking for something totally different, and helicopters certainly give that. We made our booking at Maverick Helicopters at the airport, and as we had an hour or so to kill we headed to the main parking lot in town and walked over for our first glimpse of one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. What an awesome first impression. Where we were, the South Rim its called, the distant ACROSS is approximately 13 miles, 17 at its widest!! We took a number of selfies and then made our way back to Maverick. The chopper we had booked was an 8 passenger, 4 up front (one for the pilot) and 4 in the back. The Eco-Star EC-130 is one of the newest and safest choppers in the air; its actually made by a company owned by Airbus. We were worried a bit on if either of us would get a front seat as we were told when we booked that 3 others had booked already. When we got into the reception area we saw 2 other ladies (not 3) and thought oh no, the 3 others will show up and now we had a full aircraft and the chances of one of us getting the front seat were getting slimmer. Well the roll call came and only 4 names were read off! Yippee, this guaranteed at least one of us up front. Needless to say this flight was a long time coming for Caroline; after getting our pre flight instructions, as soon as they opened up the side door I leaped into the back, there was no way Caroline was not getting a front row seat; AND she was on the outside right so she got the best seat in the aircraft! Score! There were concerns before we took off on the winds as they were forecast to be higher than normal. After a slow ascent we soon realized how strong they were as even this very sturdy chopper was thrown around a bit. After adjusting to the turbulence we headed East over the plains and made our way to the opening (cliff); and when we left safe ground and all of a sudden were a mile high over the canyon?? what a rush!!!!!!!!!!! (notice how many asterisks?) What an absolute thrill as we were now directly over the canyon, not standing on the sides with railings, no this was the ultimate experience, never before had we experienced this feeling. Caroline and I looked back at each a number of times, we both had huge grins from ear to ear. I'll say this, if anyone reading this visits the Grand Canyon, and does not take in this experience once in their lifetime? you are missing one thrill of a lifetime. The flight was 50 minutes in duration, the pilot was very skilled and very informative about the different landscapes and areas of the canyon. One time he was describing the different layers of rock, limestone etc and indicating that this layer was about 12 million years old, this layer 1.5 billion olds; I got my microphone close to my mouth and uttered the comment: "or maybe God made it in one day?" he actually answered, you're probably right. But i'm sure he's trained to say the right things. After a smooth landing we thanked him for the flight and drove to the West part of the main area where we took our bikes of the truck and hopped on a bus which does a long loop toward the end of the park called Hermits rest. The total length of the bike trail was 12.5 KM's but since time was of the essence we got on the bus and got off about 2/3 ways to the end. We biked along the last stretch and got some great views and pics. We got back on at the end and took the bus back to the parking lot. After moving to another lot, walked to get some sunset pictures, then headed back to Williams where we scouted a Mexican restaurant. After a one hour drive back we were just coming into Williams when I just about had my first real road kill. A medium size deer came out of the left hand side of the road. I braked and swerved a bit but he had turned back before I hit him. I have never hit a deer or any large animal in my life and im thankful so far I haven't. This is also one of the very few times we've driven at night and I can see numerous times as we head out with our 5th wheel usually mid morning where the road kills we see have been at night.
After a nice Mexican feast we made it home safely. I can only say "today was an awesome day" Thank you Lord :)

the road from Williams to GC, very boring