The Schweitzer’s Place

This was a very nice trip on a beautiful fall day. There were quite a few people out and about as it was Columbus Day.

Our trip down to Rhode Island was interesting as the road signs on the way were quite a mess. In our attempt to turn off and stop at a visitor’s center, we found ourselves on the way to Worcester, MA (that is the wrong direction for those not in New England). After 30 minutes we found a closed building so we retraced our path and got back on track. That was about 45 minutes wasted there. . .

We arrived around noon at the main visitor center in Newport, RI. Many of the tours were already booked so we decided to take a short walk and figure it out on our own. We headed toward the Cliff Walk and took several pictures along the way. Downtown Newport is very pretty.

When we arrived at the Cliff Walk which is even more amazing. By the way the Cliff Walk was repaired by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970’s. Along the walk you have the ocean on one side and some of the mansions on the other side.  The mansions are huge and the walk is very pleasant. The cool fall day made for perfect weather.

Two hours into our short walk we were just over two-thirds of the way down the path and pretty far from downtown. We found a place to exit and headed back toward downtown for a bite to eat. On our way toward downtown a lady asked us for some tips and directions. Her language led Deanna to correctly guess that she was from Canada. It must be her college training in speech or something.

Back in downtown Newport, we found a small grill with a wide range of food. Since we were so close to the ocean Deanna ordered a pulled pork sandwich and Brad order a blue cheese burger. I guess we weren’t in the mood for seafood….

Here is our list of places to go and things to do in New England. There are so many fun things to do and we want to accomplish as many as we can. So, this is the list setting our goals. If you think we are missing something important, please let us know! As we work through the list we will provide an update.

Our First Hike Together . . . . This trip was awesome! We jumped in our new Jeep o­n Wednesday night and started our drive. We stopped in Casa Grande for some Arby’s and then drove until we were around the Prescott, Arizona area. We stopped for a nap at o­ne of the rest stops. We snuggled-up in our sleeping bags in the back of the jeep. After sleeping like babies, we finished our drive to Havasu Canyon. We arrived around 11 AM, which was a little later than we wanted. Oh well, we are always a little later than we want when we go o­n our trips.

The hike down the canyon was beautiful. We made a lot of stops and took it nice and easy. Partly to enjoy the scenery and partly to rest. This was the first time we backpacked together and it was quite tiring. We finally made it to the campsite after wearing our new headlamps for about 2 minutes. It is a good thing that they are pretty bright. When the sun goes down in the canyon, it is pitch black!

We grabbed the very first campsite that was available. O­ne more step could have killed us. O­nce we had everything set up we went right to bed and again, slept like babies.

In the morning, we woke feeling a little sore. We fired up the camping stove and made some pancakes with blueberries. They were dried blueberries, but still good. Camping food just always seems to taste good.

We just walked around the falls and took it very easy all day. I think we ate three times and took three naps too. The water was chilly, but we still took a little swim. We had to-it was a beautiful turquoise color (this is from the high lime content). We also took a few minutes to relocate our camp to a more enjoyable spot. We picked o­ne right next to the river with the awesome sound of running water. The last two naps were even better and then we slept the entire night looking forward to hauling our packs back up out of the canyon.

The morning came and it was time to head out. We stopped in the small village(Supi) o­n our way out and met a couple from Canada. They mentioned that they were going to have a horse haul their packs out so they could enjoy the scenery much more o­n the way out. This sounded like a great idea and it was just a coincidence that a horse could hold four packs. So we gave in a dumped the packs. The hike out was very nice. The last mile is full of switchbacks. Of course there was a lot to stop and look at in the last mile. I think we stopped at nearly every corner. Of course it was o­nly to take in the sights. Yeah, Right…

We finally made it to the top and started our drive home. We didn’t make it too far and decided to stop in Flagstaff to sleep in a cushy hotel bed. We limped up to our room and we each enjoyed a very long hot shower. We ordered some food, ate all of it, and fell into a deep sleep. I can’t remember ever sleeping so GOOD!

The drive home the next day was uneventful. We were just glad to be off our feet and o­n our way home. When we got home, Bailey and Brandon were there wiggling and waiting for us. They missed us as much as we missed them.