"Behind the South Rim," Ep.28

Julie and Lisa revisit their road trip to the South Rim in the Arizona Friendtrips book with stories not written there.

Mug: Grand Canyon

From Arizona FriendTrips: Stories from the Road

by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Everywhere we walk is lined with visions of trips past. Running along

the trail toward the Sunrise Service site in 1991 with Lar, I tripped and

didn’t sprawl, but miraculously recovered. I can also see an earlier self,

sitting on a bench as people have throughout time, staring at the panoply

of jewels across black velvet that is the star- strewn night sky over the

gorge. My sister- in- law, Nancy, took her first look at the panorama and

burst into tears of awe. Over there is where I saw now- husband Tom

park KTVK- TV’s behemoth satellite truck between the Hopi House and

the sidewalk, like putting a yacht into a one- car garage and making it

look easy.

Re-make

by Julie Morrison

I enter warily, popcorn optimism

artificial hoping

history wears off

in the gloaming of new perspectives.

My life is a new production

since the last time I was here.

As scenes open I am set

on a loop, the road I traveled

one way, threading, losing direction

with every forced turn.

Familiar sights re-run,

set for the usual action sequence:

junipers scraggle along paved paths,

squirrels scurry, kids spill,

parents push, hikers spike their sticks

into mule-trodden ground.

There are millennia in every second here

though too few differences to tell.

I can’t bear to stay

all the way to the end.

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