Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 5, Sunday, October 18

After grabbing breakfast and a not-too-quick visit to the Goodwill store, Mom and I picked up Aunt Evelyn and Ted for a drive on the Apache Trail.

The trail is a drive through the desert, starting in Apache Junction (a suburb of Phoenix on the east side of town). It winds up and down mountains, past a beautiful lake, through Tortilla Flat and on to the Roosevelt Dam (though we didn't go that far). It was an absolutely beautiful drive. Around every curve was another vista to ooh and ahh over. I stopped so many times to take pictures! Canyon Lake was an absolute surprise. Even knowing it was there was no preparation for the amazing site it is! Perfectly blue, with boaters and skiers, and an overlook to take pictures from. Perfect! Ted seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself - he was snapping pictures himself quite a bit. Poor Aunt Evelyn, I hope she enjoyed it - she said she did, but she couldn't get out of the car at every stop. We drove to about 3 miles past Tortilla Flat and turned around. We wanted to return them home before dark. We stopped briefly in Tortilla Flat and bought some magnets and postcards. The town is really just 2-3 buildings in the old West style. A restaurant/gift shop and an ice cream/gift shop. It was amazingly busy this Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day so people were out enjoying it, including us.

I took pictures of highway signs, the scenery, cactus, flowers, houses, you name it!

We ate lunch at Chili's before we hit the trail. Aunt Evelyn was very confused, thinking that the name "Chili's" and the commercials they have meant all they served was spicy food. But we reassured her, and she and Ted really seemed to enjoy their lunch. Ted can clean a plate! You would think he had not eating in weeks! Bless their hearts, they have been cooped up in the house for a year... since neither one can drive right now. Ted had Valley Fever earlier this year and it has a long recovery period. He is hoping to be cleared to drive again in the next couple of months. They have limited transportation to the doctor, pharmacy, and grocery store. Other than that, they are pretty much housebound. We did take them to the bank and the Sprint store when we got into town on Wednesday. And I can tell they are really enjoying these outings we are taking them on.

They insisted on stopping at their favorite restaurant, Coco's, for dinner. It seemed they knew everyone there and had missed them for the past year. After dropping them back home, Mom and I went straight to our motel, and I was too tired to even type this update! I fell asleep before 10pm and had to rouse myself enough about 10:30 to get up and take my contacts out!