Inside a Movie

I was actually an actor in an action movie today. Not in a major role, just a statistics, except it wasn’t a movie, it was real this time. And if that is not enough we also were the actual players in a balance game where you need to cross rivers on a log of wood and if you fall you get wet. how is it called? Avatar?

Scary day at the Park

Thursday, March 10th, 2011 – I know – just yesterday I posted and here I post again just didn’t want to forget all the happening today. so here we go:
I worked very late last night. Stayed until 4:30am, so I woke up a little later this morning, maybe around 10:30. Patti was already up and a fresh coffee was brewed. Patti was outside smoking (yeah, I know, try to tell her that). When she stepped in she said – You wouldn’t believe – there are police officers running all around with their guns drawn in the park, look out! Sure there were. Maybe 15 of them all over. WE wre debating if we should go or stay. Patti was sore from the hike on Tuesday and we were not sure yet if we are going out or not, so we sat down and went through emails and tasks.
It didn’t take even five minutes before an officer knocked on our door. We opened and said Hi! “You got to get out of your RV Now” he said. Well, I thought – we will go hiking… Grabbed the cameras pair of socks and shoes and stepped outside. “You can’t use your car” said the officer – “stay out there by the fence”. Here goes my day.
So we step out, I was told to put the cameras at the bed of my truck (yes my brand new shiny camera) and joined the rest of the park residents who were already there. The conversation was going, and from what I gathered, there is a bad guy that does some bad things on the Internet and now he is closing himself in his airstream RV with two kids. As we were standing there, a SWAT team arrived, and an ambulance and a fire truck shortly after. Started to look like a war. To the war party joined some journalists that started to interview anyone who was willing to say hi to them. I just wanted to go. My truck was the closest to the exit, I had to sneak jump and go, but not with so many black shirt guys running with M-16 all around. God knows how bad should this guy be to get here half the army. Waited to the right moment to try and get permission to get out. When an officer came close I was going to ask him but I was so lucky – he asked – “who owns that truck?” and pointed to my truck. “I do” – I said immediately – “Can I get it out of here?” “yes, but fast”, he said. I am free!! Jumped on the truck and before you could say archisuperdispanpanante I was gone. (It took you some time, didn’t it?) I just hope we won’t have any bullet holes when we come back..

The Balance Game at the Canyon

We started heading east towards Sedona, happy we could escape from the fire zone, but now we need to decide where. The hikes books, the map, everything was left in the RV. Patti also realized that she doesn’t have socks. Grabbed the wrong item in a hurry.
As we drove through town, we saw Walgreens and decide to stop, and get some socks and a map. Now that we have everything we need, we voted on a romantic easy trail north of town called West Fork. It is a trail that goes along a stream in a canyon. The full length of the trail is about 3 miles each way, and you have to cross from side to side 15 times along that way. At the beginning of the trail we found some ruins of some old farm house that had the most romantic spot. The fireplace remained whole in the middle of the field that once was a house. Now – isn’t it romantic? A fireplace on the trail?
The mountains around were part white and part red, and with the green trees and white snow (yes I said the S word) it just created perfect composition. Add to that the water stream the river round rocks and you got the most romantic trail ever. Although you could find snow on the ground, the temperature was not cold at all. I would say 60-65.
The first cross came shortly after we started our walk along the stream. Two big trees side by side created a comfortable easy pass. That was a perfect sport for some reflection pictures too. A little later upstream came the second crossing. This was a little trickier, as the logs were not that big and had some stems and branches in the middle, but we crossed it without too much trouble. When we reached the third cross I got it – It is just like a video game. You passed level 2 and now its level 3. it gets harder each time.
When we reached the fourth cross we did not see people around us anymore.  As a matter of fact we did not see even the crossing. We thought that the trail continues on the same bank but any path we took ended in some huge rock or water. It was obvious that there is no more trail in this side, but where is the crossing? we could not identify any clear place you could cross… It took us some time but we figured it out. Going to some island then jumping to some rock in the middle and from there through another log to the other bank. Did that.
The fifth cross was actually over a small waterfall, and was pretty narrow (See the top picture). After that one, we decided that this is the end of our trail for the day. Patti was sore, the sun started to set (it was already around 5:00pm) and it got colder. We stayed a little bit, watched the great mountains and rocks around us and started our way back. Did it to level 5!
Drove back home to our RV. The police was gone, and there were no bullet holes, it was all quiet and peaceful. End of an eventful day. So tomorrow we will start our journey west to CA, and will probably get there by Saturday afternoon.
Well, hope you liked this post, and thanks for following us along!
Until next time…