Havasu or Bust

This weekend started out as a romantic weekend to take Jacqueline on a secret trip. I was planning the whole thing. She would not know anything about it, which would make it ever so much more exciting. Well, Miss Curious had to ask a whole bunch of questions so that she basically knew before the trip even began. That was somewhat disappointing, but I still had a jam packed weekend planned. It was supposed to begin when we got off work, with a drive to Lake Mead to go camping. What truly happened was a drive to near the edge of Las Vegas and a flat tire. I was so mad and after cussing up a storm for a few minutes, I started to change the tire. It was rusted in place and I had to get some help from people nearby. They were somewhat nice, but told us to get the heck out of that neighborhood before it got too late. So once the spare was on, we drove down the street to the Motel 6 and paid an exorbitant amount of money for a cheap room in a bad neighborhood. The best we could do to salvage the night was bring everything we had in my truck inside, play cards, and order pizza. It actually turned into a very nice evening. The next day we were up with the sun and out the door to the tire place we saw the other day. We just played cards the entire time we were waiting and they got the job done so that we could get going by 10:30am. I was pleased with that because we had a heck of a long drive out to the start of the trail into Havasupai. I paid another large sum of money and we were off. We finally got to the trailhead in the afternoon and were able to start the hike. The trail
at the start of Havasupai is not very exciting. Of course, you are hiking through some pretty open canyon country, so we were not expecting much else. I knew the hike pretty well having done it twice before. It took until about the fifth mile of ten, before we heard that beautiful, aquamarine flowing water coming down the canyon. It was a beautiful site, which Jacqueline had seen once before on a river trip a couple years previously. We made it to the campground office, paid our next huge fee, and strolled on down to the campsite. We did not have too much choice as far as campsites goes, but we actually found a respectable site to stay the night in. We had a nice evening doing our usual card playing and then awoke to the sun beaming through the trees. It was a beautiful sight, but we knew that we had to get going if we wanted to see some fun stuff. Jacqueline was very impressed by the waterfalls. We first went to Mooney Falls.
It is the longest and most impressive. From there, the trail turns into ladders and chains. I did not properly prepare Jacqueline for what she was to encounter. When it got down to it, it was just too scary for her, which was definitely understandable. We had a full day anyway, so we headed on back. We continued up the canyon to see the one we had basically missed seeing the night before. Havasu Falls
came in at this point. Years ago, I swam behind the waterfall, so I thought that we could do that. When we got down to the water, there were a bunch of other people there. We decided to bail on that idea because they were a bit obnoxious. I was disappointed because I did not get to show Jacqueline some of the more interesting and exciting things about Havasupai, but she was cool with it and really enjoyed the weekend with me. From there we did the nine mile hike out. Jacqueline was a real trooper. I was concerned on how she was going to do considering this was our first backpack together. She did a great job. Only once did she say that she had to rest, but that was two minutes from the top. I was impressed that she could keep up with me. We made the drive back to Las Vegas. The original plan was to spend the last night there. Now it looked like we were going to spend two nights there. We arrived in the late evening. I took the wrong exit and we ended up driving through the entire strip, which slowed us down. I did not care and enjoyed driving on my new all-terrain tires. We checked in and trying to save money, I took Jacqueline to the nicest restaurant in the hotel, where she was treated to a $100 dinner. I was really in love with this girl, for sure, because nobody else could get me to spend that kind of money on them. She appreciated it and looked drop dead gorgeous in her red dress that she brought for the occasion. The next day we made sure to enjoy the swimming pool before beginning our journey back to Zion, so that Jacqueline could work. It was one of the best weekends of my life, spending it with the woman I was in love with and I knew that Havasu would not disappoint.