We barely woke up after a long and sleepless night. The girls took turns driving us crazy. So we decided to take it easy in the morning.
Our first mission was to fix the flat tire on the stroller. Luckily we found a repair kit in the general store near our campground. We drove to a hotel staff parking lot / garage that had an air pump as well. Although 25 years have passed since the last time I fixed a bicycle flat, I managed to get it right an after about 30 minutes we were good to go.
We drove to a parking lot near Bright Angel view point and walked to the rim for another stroll along the magnificent views. But the kids seemed very tired, after all they were awake part of the night as well. So we returned to the RV at around 11am, and put them in their bed. And the party began. After an hour of trying to get them to sleep, they only got more and more excited and played (very nicely I might add) with each other.
So at noon we decided to have lunch instead and maybe the kids will sleep after that. It worked, and I also took a nap.
I awoke at 2:30pm to a harrowing scream from Orr followed by 10 minutes of her crying without any obvious reason. We thought she had a bad dream during her nap, but she was already wide awake after the first minute. Shir heard the crying and woke up screaming as well. We managed to calm Shir down, but then Ron started to nag and cry about something as well. For the next hour more or less, we had a symphony of tears in the RV, which kind of took us by surprise, because the kids seemed to be having so much fun so far.
After things quieted down some, and a snack of yogurt, strawberries and oranges, we went to catch a free shuttle that takes you on a loop to various lookout points on the rim. We got off at the first stop because Shir was crying. She wanted badly to walk around. Unfortunately for Shir, this magnificent lookout is also a deathtrap for wobbly little kids. The ledge was very close to the trail so we had to hold Shir and Orr’s hands at all times. Shir did not like this and each time I took her hand she immediately sat down and refused to get up. She is stubborn too. So we took her hoopa on my hands back to the shuttle hoping the next stop would provider a safer roaming habitat for her.
We got off at Hopi point, again a beautiful lookout, but it also had a scrap of dirt farther away from the ledge where we could let the kids play freely. Ron found a stick and began digging away, the basement of a house he was building. Shir happily walked along picking up various pebbles and rocks and handing them over to us for inspection. Orr supervised all the activities by walking around in circles and checking up on everyone, including mommy and daddy. After close to an hour, we got back on the bus that took us to our original departure point.
We drove back to our campsite, but on the way Paola put the laundry in a coin operated Laundromat in the neighboring campground. At the campsite we hooked up and began to prepare supper. I volunteered to run over to the Laundromat and put the clothes in the dryer. I made the best of the wash cycle by then jogging to and along the rim trail before returning to pick up the clean and semi-dry clothes. The rim trail as the sun sets is spectacular, too bad I did not have my camera with me.
Back in the RV we again washed up the kids and tonight chose a different goin-to-sleep strategy. We first laid the girls to sleep, while I entertained Ron with the story of Pesach. Only after Shir and Orr fell asleep did we add Ron to the bed. He fell asleep within 5 minutes.
Tomorrow is Pesach and we want to call our families in Israel to wish them Hag Sameach. Unfortunately there is no cell phone coverage here. I guess we’ll have to find a pay phone in the market center nearby.
Good Night.
Hemi