The Journey | Teen Ink

The Journey

March 12, 2009
By Tiffany Carlson BRONZE, Rockford, Michigan
Tiffany Carlson BRONZE, Rockford, Michigan
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

It was a cold winter December night in Bristlecone Hills. Under the roof of one of those houses was a family talking and deciding what to do for Christmas break. We have always gone places for Christmas's break. It was almost like a tradition. There were two places being mentioned, Florida or Arizona, and hike the Grand Canyon. I call that trip the Journey trip. Well there were two girls and three boys so of course the journey trip won.
The day before Christmas Eve, we all piled into the car and let our journey begin.
It was one of the longest couple of days of our lives. Hours and hours past and Christmas Eve came. We still weren't at the Grand Canyon. After about forever we finally arrived. We piled into the disgusting hotel. It had a clogged sink, and there were bugs hiding under the beds. UGH!!! The boys thought that it was an amazing hotel room. The girls would much rather sleep outside. Soooooo'. of course the girls won and found a new hotel room at a different hotel.
The next day when we woke up it was Christmas Day! We saw a bunch of presents huddled around a foot tall Christmas tree. As we rushed towards the tree, taking turns opening presents, we knew we couldn't play anything because we mostly got video games, and there wasn't a TV. As that fun half hour was quickly over we packed up for the long day ahead of us. We were hiking down the Grand Canyon.
As we headed out to the Canyon it was a very cold day. We headed down slipping and sliding, luckily not falling. As we reached the half way stop my mom's knee was hurt very bad. She could barely walk, so my dad had to give her a piggy back ride the rest of the way down. As my family reached the bottom we quickly went in our cabin we rented. My mom had to stay in a women dormitory because there was not enough room for her into the cabin. When we got done settling into our rest place for the night went over to the dining hall and ate their steak dinner. It was GOOD! Right after we were done with our dinner we all went to bed.
The next day when we woke up, instead of hiking the canyon at six AM like our usual plan, we slept in and never left the Canyon. My mom's knee was still horribly hurting her so we rented another cabin that could fit about ten people instead of four.
Later that day we headed down to the Colorado River and played there for awhile. As we were playing we saw some Amish people crossing the bridge. They were carrying almost nothing and very cheap sleeping bags; there were about 15 of them. So as we went to our other steak dinner later that day we saw the Amish people. My mom went over to talk to them. One of ladies said that they had no place to stay. My mom asked them if they wanted some of their family members to stay with us in the cabin. As we were getting ready for bed four teenagers came in our cabin. They looked familiar. We had no idea what was going on, then my mom told us that these people were staying with us. It felt okward, but I knew that it was the right thing to do.
We woke up that next day and the Amish were gone, already up the canyon. We left around six and reached the top around eight. When I put my feet on the top of that canyon I felt a feeling of accomplishment and achievement I will never forget. I was tired but proud. It was a time for my family and I to start a whole new bonding system together.


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