grace.kindness.peace.disruption.pain.processing.rinse.repeat.have a nice day.

I apologize for the silence over this past week. I forgot my laptop power adapter in Santa Fe, rendering my web presence silent. This was probably for the best, as the situation kept me out of the digital world, and firmly in the physical world. And the physical world required my full attention this past week.

Over the past week (or so) I've travelled through Colorado Springs, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Phoenix. I wasn't planning to stay in Colorado Springs, but after spending 4-5 hours on top of Pikes Peak reading, journaling, playing guitar, and praying. I enjoyed the amazing views as the temperature dropped 20 degrees.

The next stop was Santa Fe, a town that I just didn't get. Perhaps it's because I'm not all that into viewing art alone, perhaps it's because I'm under 40 (the over-40 population was well represented with smiles on their faces). In any regards, I wasn't so impressed, despite some cool buildings and a nifty downtown arena of shops. I'd give it another chance some day.

The visit to Albuquerque is a technicality. I stopped off to pick up some equipment at REI. The sales associate gave me some great ideas for the Sedona area, so I'm counting it as a stop.

On the way to Flagstaff I stopped off at the Painted Forest and Petrified Forest National Park. Beautiful stuff, and a great opportunity to make the most of my National Park Pass.

Once in Flagstaff I enjoyed the ski town ambiance of this little burg in the mountains. I took what turned out to be a 10+ mile practice hike in the Arizona snow bowl. Regrettably, I forgot to bring a frisbee and could not play the frisbee golf course at 9,000 feet. I contemplated using my shoe, thus making it the shoe golf course, but decided against it when the hail began to fall.

All previous sites were dwarfed when I took a short drive north of Flagstaff and fell into a large hole. Well, it wasn't so much as a fall, but a steady descent. Despite my previous reservations to hiking the Grand Canyon solo, I decided not to pass up this opportunity to enjoy some of God's beautiful creation. Packed with eight PB's (no J – it permeates the bread when stored for a long time), jerky and other salted snacks, and almost eight pounds of water in my 40 lb pack, I began my descent. The views were breathtaking. I took over 130 photos on the way down, though none can properly capture what I saw.

At the bottom I camped at the Bright Angel campground, though I frequented the Phantom Ranch cantina to escape the 102 degree heat and to enjoy a from scratch stew for dinner. I met several quality people there and was welcomed by a couple groups. Mark and Emma from Chicago, the entire Hall clan, and Liz and Jeremy were great travel companions. I am very grateful to the Hall clan for welcoming me during their ascent the following day during which I was made an honorary member of Team Hydration (pictured right, minus one member). If you don't take hydration seriously, you die … or at least become another story for park rangers to tell to others.

After a few days at the cayon, I travelled down to Sedona, stopping by Bun Huggers in Flagstaff for the best burger I've had in a long time. Sedona was beautiful, though there were a few too many tourists seeking spiritual experiences at the well-known, oft-experienced, though still strange earth energy vortexes. I took the advice of Kristin Nunery and hiked Cathedral Rock

one morning. I spent a few hours up in the saddle between the rocks to read and view the local wildlife (check the video of the spider in the gallery). I met up with a Pam Roberts (a former co-worker) and her husband for brunch at Tlaquepaque, a quaint grouping of art, shops, and restaurants. The night before I backed my car into a tree there resulting in minor damage. The trip will continue! I wasn't very upset … maybe the energy vortexes do work.

After enjoying Sedona I travelled down to Phoenix, a city that is redefining the word "hot" for me. I thought after living in Seville, Spain, and West Africa that I knew what "hot" was. Apparently not. The one and only Peter Von Tobel has been a wonderful host. It's been good to catch up with my former roommate and to see his town. He was also so kind as to let me have the Santa Fe hotel ship my misplaced power supply to his house. I hope it comes today so I can get back up and running on my laptop. However, I'm not exactly slumming it on Pete's Mac Mini.

Good times behind. Good times ahead. Stay tuned for more …