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Escalante Hike
Author: Richard Tilton No corridor trails. No handrails. No mercy. Excellent scenery. Start: Lipan Point, Tanner Trail Trailhead (7,350 ft) End: Grandview Point (7,400 ft) Trails: Tanner Trail, Escalante Route, Tonto Trail, Grandview Trail Total distance: 31.3 miles Elevation gain: 7,425 ft Elevation loss: 7,608 ft Lowest point: Hance Rapids 2,536 ft Hiked: November 28-30,…
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2025
Year in Review Milestones Travel Daily’s Unusual Events Memories Forever Etched On Our Minds And so ends another Year. Was it good? Yes! Yes, it really was. We have so many good friends, so many reasons to be grateful. Merry Christmas to All! Our love, Heath & Jeanie
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Back to Home Base
This morning the great idea of leaving Chalki port at 4:30am maybe wasn’t such a great idea. Zach and Andrew were gonna ease us out of there while the rest of us slumbered till a reasonable hour like 6am or so. The engines rumbled to life right on time, but when it came time to…
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Swimming and Clinics
4:30 am has become a preferred starting hour. We debate between 4am and 5am and compromise in between. We just have so much we want to see and a week is not long in Greece. Quite a bit shorter than in the USA in fact. Our destination today is the little island of Alimia and…
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The Halcyon Days
The last two days have blurred into one in my head. They were filled with golden sunshine, blue seas, and cookies. The sails were filled with frisk breezes and we bowled along, sleeping when the feeling hit, snacking, drinking tea, or just sitting and doing absolutely nothing. I don’t think we’ve ever had such consistently…
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Fact Checking at Santorini
Santorini. Those surreal blue and white pics you see on calendars, guide books, travel agents and pretty much everywhere you see the word Greece. It’s a major cruise ship destination and apparently the crème de la crème of the Islands. It’s also a fair distance from major boat charter bases, so you need a decent…
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Astypalaia
The first thing I saw when I idled on deck were two goats silhouetted against the sky at the top of the cliff. One had curly horns and the other had none. It appeared they felt terrible smart. In the water Dalen was ripping around in the dinghy and eventually he and Zach went and…
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Embarked
It was nearly midnight and the sea around the boat was churning and splashing with the crew from the Beluga. It had been a fairly easy but long crossing from Kos to Astypalaia and we all felt sticky and stinky. All at once I heard Bonnie’s eager voice urging me to “Come here! The water…
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The Calling Sea
The Journey Greek Islands. Astonishingly clear water, rugged hills with the first few cyclamen popping up, goat bells tinkling, olive groves everywhere, some perfectly dressed while others have run amok. Given a chance, I will always say yes to a trip to the Mediterranean. Walking on the hills I feel all kinds of empty spots…
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Home
And then suddenly I’m back home, seasoning pork loin, scrubbing potatoes, watering plants, teaching Junior Sunday school, and it’s all normal. I’m all normal. But back in Israel our friends are still exhausted. Still worried. Still stuck on hold. Lena says she’s so tired and says she can’t even really pray. I have no trouble…
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Airport
Ok, remember what I said about Egypt’s charm disappearing? I totally take that back. We rested at the hotel till 11:30pm, then boarded the bus along with all our luggage, suit-coats (only 2), the immeasurably talented Abdul and headed off, horn tooting, lights flashing and attitude galore. If we’d had a tail it would have…
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Touring Egypt
We’ll just flex on all these peasants. -Avery Standing at Giza Main Entrance, our hectic security entourage around us, we felt a tiny bit conspicuous. While a few other groups have one or two suit-coats along, we seem to be the only one with suit-coats, police and plainclothes. Tapping our inner VIP, we tried to…
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Celebrity Status
Africa never disappoints. “Someone” has declared us a high security risk group and we have been gifted an entourage of gun toting, suit wearing security dudes. It started small, with just Hassan, but when we walked to supper at Abu Tourek, we suddenly triggered some policeman’s alarm system, and we were cautiously escorted out of…
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Cairo
It’s mid afternoon and most of us are sacked out in the hotel lobby doing things. The kids are playing, Jordan working on tickets and our personal bodyguard Hassan just finished skunking Avery and Bryce at arm wrestling before strapping on his gun and taking the three single boys on a walk. After a night…
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Arrived
We’re at our hotels in Cairo. Heath and Daidre went with Ray and Carol to the Hospital. We’re hoping they can really help him feel better. He’s miserable. So glad we’re finally here. Almost midnight. We’re tired and a little weird.
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Exodus
Eventually, like 4 hours eventually, we made it across the border to our waiting bus. It’s a nice, modern affair with cushy seats and blue curtains. We were given our mineral water and then our convoy headed out. We’re traveling with another tour bus and two police escorts. A tourist police rode in our bus…
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Waiting
Night was good. Now we’re slowly, slowly crossing the border into Egypt. It’s a typical overseas border experience. Four stations to exit Israel. Get this paper, get that paper, pay the exit fee…. Meanwhile Ray has been feeling really sick so he fainted on us. We continued to exit Israel with him in a wheelchair,…
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Eilat
We’re safely (we think) ensconced in our hotel rooms in Eilat. Well, the guys who dropped off our rental cars aren’t, as they were having some trouble finding exactly where to drop them. With the country all at half mast, nothing is as straight forward as it should be. We tried to visit Old City…
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Blissful Silence
No missiles in the night! Seriously! Well, apparently there were a few up North, but we didn’t see or hear one. Absolutely amazing. The pre-warning went off, but never advanced to “Take cover”. We slept well. I’m guessing most of Israel did. It also cooled down a little, and I had to wear a light…
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Good Day
We had a good day. In the morning some of us hiked up Mt Arbel and explored the fortress and caves. It was a little cooler, thank goodness, so that made it much more enjoyable. Israel heat is brutal in the summer. Our boat captain friend David decided last minute that we could risk going…
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