A Vacation Package Chapter 10

Our journey picked up after we dried off. We drove until dark. He apparently knew exactly where we were headed, though this was new territory for me. I just remember a lot of trees and winding roads. We eventually made it to a parking area that was only lit by the car’s headlights. There was a sign posted, “north ridge 9100 ft.” We shined the car lights over to an area around 150 feet from where we parked. There was a split-rail fence and a ledge that appeared wide enough to camp on.

My driver grabbed his stuff from the trunk including a small flashlight and we began to walk. The ledge overlooked nothing that could be seen from our vantage point but pitch black on a moonless night. There was an eerie cavernous dirge of a wind blowing through what seemed to be pine trees located near the precipice of the abyss. The ledge that we laid our sleeping bags on was slanted oh so slightly but comfortable enough. This was a ghostly feeling. The wind and the dark and the cold and also the unknown…what was out there? Why was there such a deep howling like I had never heard? The stars were bright but not enough to light anything more than the bit of black around them.

The wind was continuous, but we eventually drifted off to sleep. I slept well, considering the conditions, a light sleep though. The events that followed were normal at first but eventually became most incredible. My eyes peaked from behind my lids as the sun began to rise. The wind was still whistling through the pines, though not with as much a lamentation as the night before. The ever so faint sign of the dawn reflecting against what seemed to be something faintly orange got my keen attention. I couldn’t quite make out what I was beginning to see; but it became ever so clear in an instant. As the sun continued to rise behind me the reflection of a vast chasm wall continued to grow wider and deeper every second. Oranges, yellows and reds of every shade were being unveiled, thousands of feet above the canyon floor. I was totally mesmerized, my eyes glued to its magnificence, astounded beyond any wonder I had ever, ever experienced. The Grand Canyon was indeed grand, grander than I could have ever imagined. I was awestruck. I can only strain for the words to paint such an incredible scene. It was bigger than life itself.

This is an excerpt from my new book Seeking God, Searching for a Daughter

The  true story or my 20,000 mile trek by  faith and thumb across America in search of my girlfriend who I believed was carrying my yet to be born daughter Trinity.