Loosen Up While You Still Can

i have spent much of my summer study breaks staring intensely at a map and scouring my arizona tourism department propoganda in anticipation of my post-bar "vacation"... and have decided on the following tentative itinerary.

• wed. july 25. have a cold one in tucson to recover from the monotony of the previous 10 weeks & prepare for next-day departure
• thurs. july 26. head south for visits to the OK corral in tombstone and an old copper mine in bisbee, AZ. staying the night in the luxurious crown at the shady dell trailer park. hilarious.
• fri. july 27. tour kartchner caverns in sierra vista, AZ. head back to tucson.
• sat. july 28. visit arizona-sonora desert museum/zoo for my fill of saguaro cacti; visit "big nasty"the desert tortoise at colossal cave mountain park; possible moonlit bike ride up mt. lemmon.
• sun. july 29. take a tram ride around sabino canyon and hike the seven-falls trail (i am curious about this because my mental picture of AZ is devoid of water) and the juan batista national historic trail.
• mon. july 30. depart along the scenic salt river canyon highway for overgaard, AZ to visit with shirley & richard in the apache sitgreaves national forest.
• tues. july 31. hike in the painted desert & petrified forest (with one of the best geologic & fossil records of the late triassic! yay geology).
• wed. aug 1. depart for williams, AZ and the historic grand canyon hotel (aka OLD) on route 66. visit the world's largest travertine (aka limestone) bridge in tonto natural bridge state park on the way.
• thurs. aug 2. grand canyon things !! i have to at least go and check in so that they can verify i am not under 4 feet tall or > 200 lbs soaking wet and speak fluent english for the next day's adventure ...
• fri. aug 3. ride a mule into the grand canyon for a picnic lunch. this is the planned highlight of my trip. (my parents, however, are familiar with mule-riding and anxious to hear how i fair after 7 hours on this majestic beast.) depart for the grand canyone international hostel in flagstaff, AZ which will serve as my hub for the rest of the trip.
• sat. aug 4. hike humphrey's peak & the red mountain ruins in flagstaff.
• sun. aug 5. visit the ghost town of jerome, AZ; take the verde canyon railroad scenic train tour
• mon. aug 6. hike the red rocks of sedona, AZ where i will experience spiritual adventure, healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation and hopefully cool off on a natural sandstone slide at slide rock state park. be sure to check back for my take on this sure-to-be-mystical adventure.
• tues. aug 7. explore the kaibob national forest & meteor crater in winslow, AZ (where i fully intend to stand on the corner, for you eagles fans).
• wed. aug 8. enjoy a leisurely drive back south to phoenix, hopefully in time for a hike through the superstition mountains, before jumping on my 11PM flight home.
• thurs. aug 9. arrive in richmond, VA smelly, sunburnt, and exhausted :) ... possibly ready to face the rest of my uncertain life.

i will need a lot of water and a lot of caffeine, but am super-excited about all the sunshine & geology. the time difference is on my side at least. on a side note, the time difference in itself is a mental exercise because although the state does not participate in daylight savings time as a whole, some places do -- like the navajo nation and don't they just get up with the sun? why the heck do they care what time it is? -- and then you have to figure out whether we save daylight in the winter or whether we save it in the summer. i'm still not sure, but the time difference is 3 hours. anyway, hopefully i'll be able to get up at my normal crack-of-dawn east coast time and be outside prior to the peak of 100+ temperatures. even though it is, allegedly, a dry heat.