Rimworld? That's what the Grand Canyon river runners call the Earth above the rim of the Grand Canyon.

As you may know, Belinda and I, along with our spouses and ten friends, spent the last week rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Last Monday morning we hiked from the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, down Bright Angel Trail to the Pipe Creek beach on the Colorado. We then spent the next five days with an amazing crew from Wilderness River Adventures rafting world-renowned rapids such as Granite, Crystal, Hermit, Upset and Lava Falls. The sixth trip for me! A trip like this can be a real culture shock. For five days there is no contact whatsoever with Rimworld. It wasn't until late Friday evening that I heard the first word of Obama's Supreme Court appointment. For someone who is used to keeping up with the news from minute to minute during the entire waking day ... this is quite a shock.

Over the next days I'll share some Canyon stories with you, and I'll post a few pictures and videos. You'll want to hear about the rattlesnake in the camp latrine one evening. Then there's the time Belinda smelled hay .. and former Georgia Head Coach Ray Goff's reaction to a little itty bitty rattlesnake.

Here's one quick story .. one that amazed me. On the second morning of the rafting trip we were tied up at a side canyon so we could all take a hike to see a waterfall and take a dip in a cold, clear pool. When we finished and were heading back into the river I was re-applying my Bullfrog sunscreen. Oops! Sunscreen overboard! So ... the very next afternoon and several miles down river we see a green bottle floating by. Yup - my sunscreen. Now how in the world do you drop a bottle of sunscreen into a Colorado River rapid on one morning, only to see it go floating by the next afternoon. Maybe that was God telling me to wear sunscreen. So I did.

Oh ... and you folks ought to see me with eight days of beard. George Clooney, even if I do say so myself. The bruises? No public showings scheduled.

Weight gain ... three pounds. Most of it muscle.

Boortz & Belinda take a shift piloting the "S-Rig" Grand Canyon river runner somewhere on the Colorado. They could only differentiate between upriver and downriver.