Travel/Bucket List - The Grand Canyon

 

This post is in the Travel category, but also tagged for Bucket List.

The Bucket List is a list of things I want to do/feel I should do before I die.  I've done some of them already, and I'm telling one of those stories here.  To see the whole list, click here.

Ah, the Grand Canyon.  One of the most amazing sights in the world and something everyone should see, in person, at least once in their lives.

I'd really like to go back there as an adult, and here's why...

I was 11 and my parents took me along on their grand tour of the US.  40 cities in 30 days - or, at least, that's what it felt like.

We were in Vegas, and we went to some small airport to take a flight over the Grand Canyon.  I had never been to a small airport before and I thought it was a bit weird.  I felt unsettled, and it didn't get any better when we got onto the plane.

It was a small plane.  

I started getting nervous.

They arranged us in the cabin to distribute the weight so, being the only child on the trip, I was alone at the back of the plane.  

The next thing that I remember about is that we were on the plane, flying over the Canyon, and it was raining.  My mother was a few row in front of me, and my father in the front row, so there was no comfort or reassurance. 

Status raised from nervous to scared. 

The plane was going up and down as we flew through air pressure changes.  Then the woman in front of me started to throw up.  It smelled and sounded awful.

Status raised from scared to terrified. 

I remember at one point my father looked back and gestured to me that I should look out of the window at the view.  I tried, but I was really too busy embracing my Catholic upbringing by that point and praying vociferously.  

I did look out of the little porthole window eventually, and I saw clouds, a rock thing sticking up and mist.  Even at 11 years old I knew that I could go home and look up pictures of the Grand Canyon in a book somewhere (the internet wasn't an option in South Africa back then - we actually went to the library) so I chose to just close my eyes and reassure myself with a self-made countdown to the whole thing being over.

"It must only be twenty minutes till we land.  I can handle twenty minutes."

"I'm sure we'll be on the ground in fifteen minutes.  That's a tiny amount of time.  Fifteen minutes..."

And so, although I have officially seen the Grand Canyon, and I've ticked it off on my Bucket List, I need to go again.

Preferably on a nice, sunny day.