GRAND CANYON!!!! I BIKED TO THE GRAND CANYON! It may be a month later, but holy crap, that's still amazing!
Most people went to get coffee, but Casey, Sarah, and I decided to forgo that. We went to visit Ellie in the hospital since some of us didn't have time to go last night. She was waiting to talk to the doctor to see what would need to be done. I think at this point she knew she fractured a vertebrae, and was waiting to see what needed to be done. We left when the doctor came in, but turns out she would have to have surgery and get some screws in her back, but she was able to walk and everything and rejoined us a couple days later.
We rode the day pretty anxious to get to the canyon. It's always fun to stop somewhere different than everyone else in the morning because you have no idea who's ahead or behind you. Turns out we were pretty much the front of the pack. Sweepstakes for the day was best practical joke. The ride was pretty boring, so we were stumped on something good to do. Eventually we checked our phones to see if anything was going on, and we got a message from van driver Chris there was a surprise up ahead. I had figured it to be a downhill, or maybe an ice cream shop, or someone meeting us with water and snacks, so we rode several more miles and found nothing. Sarah then had the brilliant idea to chalk "SURPRISE"randomly on the road even though there was nothing there. At lunch we heard that some people stopped and searched forever looking for anything unusual. One person even called Chris because they couldn't figure it out, and apparently we caused a collision between two riders(it was low speed, no one was hurt). I'd say mission accomplished.
We got to lunch at a gas station. Nothing terrible exciting, however, when I was inside, someone came up and started talking to me as if he knew me. It took me a second to process, but it actually turned out to be someone I was talking to yesterday at the top of the switchbacks going into Flagstaff. He said he knew we would meet again, and this time had a mini Bible ready to hand to me. It was a totally bizarre experience, even if I may not believe God works in the same way as he does, it was really neat. I had a gas station roller dog for lunch as nothing seemed terribly appetizing in the cooler today.
We took off after lunch for the last stretch into the canyon. Casey had a flat or two, which was unfortunate because there was no shade to be found and there were a lot of tourists and tourists whizzing by on their way to the canyon. We made it to our meeting point outside the park. Unfortunately, we were unable to bike in due to how the park charges entrance fees. We waited at the IMAX theatre, grabbed some food at the Wendy's next door, and just hung out waiting for the first shuttle into the park. Chris took us in and drove past the canyon so we could catch the tiniest of glimpses of the big hole before heading for the campground. This was our first time camping, so it was an experience figuring out which tent parts went together and sorting all of supplies so we could cook dinner and all that good stuff later. I was a little bummed we were unable to bike all the way to the rim, and most people never ended up seeing the canyon that day, but we had a day off the next day. We had a good time around the fire tonight trying to figure out just how much hiking we would want to do on our day off.
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