Above: a tiny faux-panorama of a bend in the river on the first day, getting out of the Blythe area. Below (in order): the moon on the first night! So beautiful, and it was a huge "supermoon" to boot.  

The canoes at the end of the first day and the morning of the second day - a storm that night sent them tumbling down the beach in a row like that.

Sunset at the end of a very long (28 miles) second day. Not off the water yet. This would be about mile 25.

The same sunset, with the addition of these loudly singing canoe buddies.

Hiking on the layover day (day 4; day 3 was relatively uneventful) in Picacho, California State Recreation Area.

A mining ghost town, and these the ruins of the ore-stamping mill.

More ruins.

View 2, leaning over the inevitable "Do Not Cross" line.

More of the moon from that first night.

Then, to finish with some sunshine rippling on the water of a tiny inlet next to one of the campgrounds.

There's just not a better place to worship and appreciate God than in a place like that. Sure, He's an everpresent part of my life in this dusty ingrown city, but it seems easier to recognize Him out there. He blessed me with this escape that I needed more than I'd thought - somehow, I never seem to realize how badly I need to take a break until the break is over. Then the restlessness sets in, and troubles about the future, and I have to pay attention in order to catch all of His reminders of LOVE ... in the middle of that pristine nowhere, the LOVE is louder than if I were standing front-and-center at a symphony, but I get back to routine and I have to listen for that same symphony at a volume thinner than listening to somebody else's too-loud headphones from across the room.

I'm grateful for it, anyways. In all, it was a beautiful trip that ended up feeling like an actual vacation. I wasn't expecting it to, as it was relatively short and involved the Boy Scouts, but - discounting the presence of my brother as a reminder - being in a canoe for 85 miles on the lower Colorado turned out to be a lovely way to forget about my actual life. You know the feeling - coming home, being thankful for a mattress, then waking up the next day to heaps of laundry and an itch for more adventure. Not a good combination, that.

The scoop on the Dr. Bronner's: it works for cleaning mugs, bowls, and skin. Best of all, not only does it clean one's skin, it leaves the previously grimy subject feeling minty and scrubbed. Did I mention that it smells (and feels) teriffic? And that evidently the mosquitoes don't think so, because they left me (mostly) alone?