Grand Canyon White Water Rafting

Flying from Las Vegas, the charter plane dropped us off on a lonely landing strip, not a building or person in site, and a sign that read "Welcome to Milton Int'l. Airport, North Terminal, Gate A, 400 yards ahead." Soon, a van appeared that took us to a ranch at the Canyon rim. We held on to our hats and ducked our bodies under the rotating blades as we climbed into the helicopter that carried us down the Canyon. We landed on a sandy outcrop next to the Colorado River, grabbed our bags and headed to the sugar sand beach where our two rafts and the other guests were waiting.

The rafts were 15 ft. wide x 37 ft. long, looked like 5 giant blue bananas strapped together with ropes, and seated 17 guests & 3 crew members on each raft. The daredevil group, which always included Karen Kitowski and Sandi Rhoden - and other members of our group off and on - sat straddled on the front of the "bananas" for an exciting but scary view of the big dips in the rapids while getting drenched by the icy cold waves. We had to hang on for dear life to a rope in front and a rope in back. It was like riding a bucking bronco in the rodeo. At least a couple of the rapids were a Class 7. For a drier ride, other members of our party sat in the center atop steel boxes that held our gear. There was whooping, laughing, and joking as we rocked and rolled through the churning water. Jan Kirk kept singing "Ride a cowboy, save a horse."

Our first dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, salad, and cheesecake. Our breakfasts included melon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, coffee cake, coffee & tea the first morning; grapefruit, blueberry pancakes, & sausage the second. The last night's appetizer of shrimp cocktail was served by our crew dressed in tuxedo shirts & bow ties - quite unexpected on the sandy beach. Dinner was New York steak, salmon in cream sauce, rice, green beans, and cake.

We slept on the beach on cots, inside tents or outside under a gazillion blinking stars. Many stars shot across the sky like rockets - playing tennis over the canyon walls. Terri Miller and Thetis Hilliard kept us up all through the night with their giggling. In the morning we could see our guides working in the dark fixing our breakfast, with their head-mounted flashlights making them look like giant fire flies darting back and forth.

Our last morning was a relaxing, cruising ride on the raft. Then we moved to a jet boat which took us to Lake Mead to meet a bus for our ride back to Las Vegas. Seeing shows, gambling, fine dining, and, of course, shopping caused late hours and little sleep our last night in Las Vegas.