Grand Canyon Rafting Trip - Final Comments

I can't believe I didn't want to go on this trip.  Even the first night I was wondering why I had come; I was hot, tired and uncomfortable sleeping on my cot.  But during the second day things began to change and from then on it just kept getting better and better and I started to understand why this trip was so special.  The overall experience of taking a 200 mile rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon overwhelms all the negatives.  To spend your days going down the river with the canyon walls towering above, the sheer beauty all around you, the excitement and thrills of running the rapids and even the camping on the canyon floor is just awe inspiring.  It became more than just a trip down the river, it was an immersion into a new world that you were sharing with your spouse, friends and a group of strangers who would become friends by the end of the trip.  What an experience!

It was great to share the trip with our friends Dave and Patrice.  We were inspired watching Patrice "live life" to the fullest and to be entertained by Dave's humor, zest for the trip and his nightly flute music as we lay on our cots drifting off to sleep.  Thank you Dave and Patrice.

Most of all though, I am thankful I got to share this experience with Val.  If I would have missed it, it would have been a great loss for me.  A couple of weeks before the trip we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and after 30 years of marriage, I think there is a tendency to get too comfortable and maybe take each other for granted a little bit after so many years, but this trip changed that.  I can't really explain it very well, but this trip reminded us of how much we love and need each other.  Being in the canyon with all the distractions of everyday living missing, we fell in love all over again.

I've often heard people describe their experience in the Grand Canyon as the trip of a lifetime and now I know what they mean.  For me, for many reasons, this truly was the trip of a lifetime.