Day 18: This is my story and I'm sticking to it!

Well...I just don't know what to say. I was going to post this evening and defend myself, but really, I just can't! I tried to blame yesterday on the altitude, too much sun, heat, whatever, but hey...I'm a klutz! Hazel is laughing again, and I hope to hell she wets the bed. She's already gone through 3 pair of panties and I'm not doing the laundry!

Yesterday got off to a great start and I was looking forward to going to Sedona. Should have gone to the Grand Canyon. So, here's my side of the story, and unfortunately, it's not a whole lot different from Hazel's. I'm just not going to add pictures...she was laughing so hard that fortunately, she didn't get many.

Slide Rock was full of happy people wading and swimming and walking. So, in we go to cool our tired feet. WHAM! On my ass with a "what just happened" look. This old couple was very sympathetic and after watching me slip and slide around, offered this advice. "Honey, do what the little kids do, crawl to the edge on your hands and knees." Good advice, and the old guy offered me a hand to get on dry ground. Time to put on shoes and take a walk. Hazel, who has been walking 30 minutes a day, made it clear that I needed the practice. So off we go, over red rocks, dodging jumping, splashing people. We took the high ground and I was feeling pretty good.

Time for another stop to watch the kids fling themselves off the ledges into the deep water. It was very nice sitting on the warm, red, FLAT rocks and just dangle my feet in the water. Refreshed, we moved up stream. Hazel the pathfinder was way up ahead of me, so I took the low ground to catch up, stepped in a puddle, and SPLASH, up to my knees in red water! Just like the poor coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons, everyone else steps in the same place and walks across water....I sink in up to my woo hoo.

OK, we move a little farther up the slope to get away from the water...and to keep me safe...and I'm feeling good. Got my feet under me, and navigating the rocks and sand like a pro. We have to move down hill a bit, and WHAM! I'm spitting out sand and trying to figure out how I ended up face down on the rocks (dry rocks by the way). My toe is throbbing, my hand is bleeding, my knee is bleeding, my elbow is bleeding, my pride is bleeding....ouch! Hazel is laughing so hard she has to cling to the rocks to keep from falling! Did she offer to help me up? Oh no! Not MY best friend. She's peeing her pants!

Close to the water again, so she suggested that I just go ahead and sit in the cold water to keep from swelling. I've got to admit, my toe, knee and elbow did not bruise (too much anyway), and it was only my right hand that made contact with the rocks. Had to scoot on my butt to get up and out.

We needed to get back to the car before I became the first person to die at Slide Rock. She did help by handing me my shoes. Right shoe on while using Hazel for balance, turn to sit on a rock to put left shoe on. Reached down to sit on the rock, and I'll be damned if a prehistoric thorn bush didn't just grow out of the crevices of the rocks. Pierced my finger...left hand. OUCH (again)!

After much laughter and more wetting of the pants. We started making our way back to the car. We're just about there now, and at the shallow end of the creek. Mother's and their babies are sitting in the warm sand in the shade of the big rocks, so Hazel figures this is a good time to take a break and enjoy a nice warm rock of our own, and cool down. I turn to sit on a really big rock, and the next thing I know, I'm looking up at my knees and flailing my arms! My head is embedded in the sand, and Hazel is peering down at me with tears (of laughter) in her eyes. The young mothers AND THEIR BABIES, are hysterical! One woman did catch her breath long enough to ask if I was all right. Am I alright?!?!? Hell, I didn't even know what happened! WHY was I on my back, and where was that damn rock!!?!?!?! Thanks lady.

We dragged my wet, red, sandy butt back to the car. Wet denim full of sand is a great exfoliant and I have the smoothest thighs in Arizona.

Couldn't get in the car with those clothes on, so I had to find clean clothes and change in the Porta Potty! Some little kid started knocking on the door and asked when I thought I would be done. I gathered my dignity...and wet, gritty clothes...and flung open the door. Evidently his mom saw something in my face because she gathered the little guy behind her and backed away.

Guess we should have put on those bathing suites.

Resting and recouperating in Sedona,
Penny S (slippery when wet) Head