In the words of Clark W. Griswold: Jesus, it's only the biggest God-damn hole in the world.

Driving from New Mexico to Arizona there continued to be lots of Navajo arts and craft stands and more and more radio stations began to stream. According to scientists, the Navajo are believed to be descendants of Athapascans who migrated down from Western Canada some hundreds and hundreds of years ago to the Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Maybe that's the reason this Alaskan girl felt the need to get rhythm when this tribal music came on public radio???

We drove quickly through Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, a sort of mini excursion to tide us over until we reached the grand daddy of all parks, the Grand Canyon. The petrified forest looked an awful lot like South Dakota's Badlands but with trees that turned to stone and some cool native ruins. It was a short drive and then we were back on the interstate heading west toward Flagstaff.

According to the guide books the eastern and northern rim of the Grand Canyon are pretty damn impressive. We pulled into the park just in the nick of time to see the sun setting over the beautiful landscape. We quickly snapped photos and set out to grab a camp site. The next morning we awoke to find we were the last ones left in the campground at 9:00 am as we usually tend to be. Other campers must not have as comfortable of beds as we do with our midget mattress.

Look kids, Grand Canyon- Ok let's go, get in the car

Controlled forest fires in the park

We toured the southeastern rim by car, pulling over to take photos with the busloads of Germans, French, Japanese, and Italian tourons. There's something about the European tourists with their matching safari khakis, their scarfed necks, large brimmed sun hats, and completely un-scuffed new hiking boots that just scream FOREIGNER. The chain smoking while photographing America's national parks is also a dead giveaway. So we try to be tolerant and share the road and scenic view points with these people while marveling in their nimnardery (you won't find that word in Merriam-Webster, I just made it up). After seeing as much canyon as we could take, we headed to Page, AZ and Lake Powell to visit with old family friends Paul and Nancy. 

We met them and their family in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter as they loaded their vehicles with 4 carts worth of ice and "provisions" for the week they were about to spend out on Paul's nephew's houseboat. JR and his wife Cheryl live in Denver but come out once or twice a year to use their badass ski boat and their co-op owned houseboat. We just happen to be in the right Walmart parking lot at the right time because we were soon invited to join them for a cocktail on the boat which soon turned into an overnight stay on the boat, which, if it weren't for that mangy mutt of ours, probably could've been worked out to spend the whole week with this crew. KK did just fine and all the folks aboard spoiled her rotten with treats and scraps, but we had the rest of our road trip to do and these guys were heading out of the harbor up into the 130 mile long lake to spend the week skiing, wake-boarding, jet-skiing, and generalized relaxing in style. We had a great night getting caught up with Paul and Nancy who left Alaska back in 2004 for warmer climates and new adventures. Paul and Nancy and Paul's brother, George, each took a stateroom below as we ventured up to the top deck with JR and Cheryl to sleep beneath the stars. On the open-air top deck of the boat we laid out giant pads and our sleeping bags and watched the stars until we fell asleep. All rested up the next morning our generous hosts offered to take us out for a spin on the boat but we opted to get a head start to the National Parks of Utah instead. Plus it was about a mile walk back to land from the slip to get the dog to do her business and it's always good to leave while the hosts still like you. Now that we're Americans, we hope to join these guys again on a similar trip soon. Because kickin' it on a houseboat with good beer and good people certainly doesn't suck.