Today we shuttled with bicycles and gear from St. George to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Five hours in a cramped passenger van with strangers, but pleasant enough. As always with these things, there's a lot of waiting around as the tour staff collect guests from hotels, airports, other cities... I stood around with quite a lot of others in the Albertson's parking lot, wondering why we were driven roughly three blocks and made to wait rather than be allowed to snooze in my motel room, but these tour companies always have this amusing need to gather the low-hanging fruit first: the guests who are at a designated pick-up point on time. Then they schlep around looking for the exceptions, rather than vice versa!

The thing is, my vacation mind-set is in full effect and because the day is given to schlepping (it says so in the brochure), I am completely at ease with the delays and the waits. Ah... I love travel...