I was the recipient of a very special Christmas gift via U. S. Airways this year. The package arrived a couple of months ahead of time but that was OK. This special 5-foot, 9 1/2-inch present was gaily wrapped in blue jeans, colorful shirt and many bracelets. It was called granddaughter and she was mine for two whole weeks. Becca discovered America in 1988 so I didn’t have to prepare baby food or change diapers this time around. I just listened to her accounts of recent adventures and all about her dreams for the future.

She told me tales of college days at Western Washington University, which mostly I didn’t comment on, but I’m sure she occasionally noticed my grandmother’s eyes widen and my lips seal before anything slipped between them. After all, she managed to survive nicely without my input, why start now! 

This last year she worked with AmeriCorps, teaching school at Silverdale, Washington.  She loved the children and learned a great deal from them and the teachers with whom she worked. We exchanged many stories of overseas travel and her hopes for more as she survives the necessary medical/dental tests and shots and sends in all the paperwork for a possible two-year adventure in the Peace Corps. She’d love to go to Africa or South America, but she knows that decision is not hers.

RV Camping
In my travels, I have often listened to grandparenting RVers tell stories of taking their grand offspring for varying periods of time and showing them a little of the RVers’ wonderful world but I have never had that privilege beyond our short RV camping trips. We did fun things like explore, hike, bake cookies, and eat s’mores by the campfire until she was about 10, then she discovered life beyond grandma.

Though her folks have brought her to Arizona several times, amazingly she had never seen Grand Canyon National Park. During her October visit, that was our major destination. I think she was impressed first of all with my getting us into the canyon via my Golden Age Pass without having to pay that $25 entrance fee! It was my unique pleasure to watch this grandchild’s eyes light up with her first glance at our Grand Canyon from the Mather Point Vista. 

She did a fair amount of hiking on the Rim Trail and I did a fair amount of meeting her via the free shuttle or my Astrobump van with only a smidgeon of hiking involved.  While she was hiking, I took pictures for people whose language I did not know and some that I did and it didn’t matter which.  It is truly amazing how much information you can pass along with a gesture and a smile.

Enjoying those perfect moments of togetherness that you can always bring to mind at later times, we sat on the rock wall edge of the canyon in front of the Bright Angel Lodge licking ice cream cones. We licked slowly. The cost of each scoop suggested that somehow the ice cream was folded in a gold wrap of some kind.

Sun Sets, Moon Rises
We spent one morning at the IMAX theater in Tusayan to view, “Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets.” This super depiction shows the canyon’s magnificence via boat, raft, helicopter, foot power and ultralight into areas you would not be able to reach or experience on your own unless you were extremely fit for hiking and climbing.

Our last evening, we watched the sunset at Mohave Point. We had planned to go out to Hermit’s Rest but it was closed.  Just as we were about to board the bus, Becca said, “Grandma, the moon is coming up,” and sure enough, this big white disc was making its way over Hopi Point in all of its glory.  I’m sure that whoever was standing there will remember that vision forever.

The bus was overloaded with a really lively group of people who were just a little silly and very tired at the end of a long day of sightseeing. I was glad Becca was 23 and wouldn’t need to be consoled into going to sleep when we got back!

The Grand Canyon parking lots are sans lights so remember to take a flashlight. We didn’t, but a kind fellow, who was backing out of his space, paused and let his headlights light the unlocking of my door. It’s so nice when someone takes the time to be kind.

Scenic Sedona
We started slowly the next morning. Getting Becca out of bed was so reminiscent of prying her mother out of bed when she was a youngster, but then again, why should we hurry when the weather was cooperating and we had so much to talk about?  Besides, we had to take the time to admire all the fresh snow on the San Francisco Peaks at Flagstaff.

On many past RV trips to Sedona, I learned that the best photo ops were from the Airport Road rest stop. (Now they require a $1 donation to look at that view!)  When I saw the Sky Ranch Lodge’s Airport Road address as I was looking for a place for Becca and me to stay, I knew we’d have great views and we did, from their charming new overlook garden. I love it when a plan comes together.

We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross that is so picturesque tucked high into the rocks. Inspired by what looked like a cross superimposed on New York’s Empire State Building, Marguerite Brunswig Staude from Oak Creek Canyon sketched a church and had it built into Sedona’s red rocks. It was completed in 1956. The chapel’s designer described it this way:  “Although Catholic in faith, as a work of art it has universal appeal. Its doors will ever be open to one and all, regardless of creed.”

After cruising Sedona’s unique arts and crafts village of Tlaquepaque with its mammoth shady sycamore trees wound around the stucco buildings, I took Becca part way up Oak Creek Canyon to get that feeling I always get of driving through the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  On the way back, we stopped at the Junipine Resort Café & Grill, a half-mile north of Slide Rock State Park, for lunch under its front-deck umbrellas. We loved the coolness of the 5,250-foot mountain elevation and surrounding forest, and it was a nice ending to our trip. 

Take your grandkids on an adventure. It’s a blast! God Bless.

Autographed copies of 2009 fourth edition RVing Alaska and Canada  ($19.95) and Adventures with the Silver Gypsy ($14.95) are available through author Sharlene Minshall, Box 1040, Congress, AZ 85332-1040, or at Amazon.com. Follow Sharlene Minshall’s blog, “The Silver Gypsy,” at rvlife.com

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