Up at 5:00 AM to see the sunrise at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon--a 45 minute drive from the motel we were at for the night. Arizona is all fucked up with its time change so we missed it but the good thing was to be in the park early.
I realized when we arrived that I had left my National Parks Passport book somewhere in Zion. I called all the restaurants, the hotel, anywhere I might have left it but no luck. I was really upset because this book had been my dream book. The parks I had gone to this year, the things that I had seen--it was physical evidence that I had been there and really done that adventure. I had to walk off the horrible emotional sinking that ensued, along with about six tears. My brain went into the survivor mode of not letting that ruin the magnificence of where I was and what I was seeing. So, I distracted myself by taking about 300 photos on manual, walking and then -- bucket list time--going for a mule ride.
I didn't even know that a mule ride was on the bucket list but there it was without a doubt. My mule was a nice girl and we were riding drag so I could look at everything. Riding is something I did a ton of as a kid so all that muscle memory came back, even when she stumbled hard and we went in a couple of different directions. Loved it and stayed right with her.
Through the ride I was able to sort my sorrow over the lost book, decided to buy a new one and get the North Rim stamp because dreams are yet to be dreamed. Onward.
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