Day 11 - Page AZ

Day 11: Page, AZ

All their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato; alas good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant.
Jane Grey

Book Review: Blame, novel, Michelle Huneven, Kindle edition. Chic lit, and yet appealing to the masculine side (well, my masculine side) as the protagonist spends two years in the slammer on a drunk driving with fatalities charge, enters AA and tries to get on with her life after discharge. Takes place in Altadena and Pasadena for the living in the LA area. Tries to stay near that line between guilt and redemption, and temptation and doing the right thing (see, my feminine side, though without the guilt thing), and succeeds for the length of the book. Recommended.

Music Review: Well, not really…the first annual Lake Powellapalooza is starting today. Number two on the bill of 50-60 bands is Del tha Funkee Homosapien. Sing along: Mistadobalina, Mr Bob Dobalina…he’s on my i-Touch (squeezed in there between 7,327 Dylan covers, so he comes up every two years on shuffle). A lot of the advance crew showed up at the Blue Buddha (sponsor) last night while we were eating. An odd lot, to be sure, and out of place here in the land of tourists and house boaters.

Pics: The best features of the Courtyard (note the cordless pay phones!), THB’s new coiffure (note the colors, sort of a NP cliff differentiation), and one of the slot canyons.

Today is a slow day. THB works out in the fitness center, the elliptical machine won today. Breakfast in the room and then we share taking care of the laundry (it’s amazing how fast dirty clothes pile up when you spend your days hiking in red dirt). Without four wheel drive, it is not easy to access additional canyons, so we decide to take the Glen Canyon Dam tour. We’re in luck, two spaces left on the 10:30 tour. During the tour, THB starts to run down: take these two aspirins and see if you wake up for lunch.

Lunch at Slackers where grilled burgers are for sale and bad jokes are free. We each have grilled chicken sandwiches and iced tea; we appear to be the only people that are on the no French fries trip diet. Total $14.

THB needs a haircut, and the guy running Slackers recommends the barbershop around the corner (btw, just about everything is around the corner in Page, because the bulk of the town is 4 blocks in total). The woman cutting my hair also runs a hiking business and has two very good tips for us over the next two days; so, a good haircut (see pic) and hiking tips, a twofer!!

We decide, a third of the way through the trip and now really experienced NP travelers, to review the itinerary for the next ten days in some detail. We reassure ourselves that we should be okay until Denver. True? Hmmmmmm….

Hang out the rest of the afternoon, THB reads by the pool. In the shade. Then we go for a short hike to Horseshoe Point to see the big bend in the Colorado south of Page, mostly walking in red sand, then to dinner at Fiesta Mexicana again. Not quite as good as last time, not sure if the fact that I wasn’t drinking margaritas made it seem a bit off. Similar to two nights ago in food, total is $50.