I must certainly apologize for my sluggishness in generating
blog posts. In my defense I have been experiencing extreme lethargy
(attributable to my diabetes) and much of the time we have been staying in
locations with poor phone and Wi-Fi signal often making it difficult to
impossible to upload photos and text.
On September 27th we gathered friend Larry
Sanborn from the airport and he joined our travels for eleven days, from Vegas
to Phoenix. Thursday night we all went to the America’s Got Talent Live Show
and really enjoyed opening night. Joe Castillo, my college classmate from many
years ago performed his Sand Stories and we were thrilled to see the audience
react to his artistry.
From Vegas we did a day trip to the Hoover Dam and the
Valley of Fire. I always wanted to see the Dam and it was as impressive as
expected. What an engineering marvel, especially considering when and how it
was erected. Untold numbers lost their lives in the cement during construction
but men came from all over the country to work here because of the Great
Depression and the risk did little to deter them. The Valley of Fire revealed
more red cliffs and rock features which seem to be the trademark scenery for
the Western USA. Beautiful!
From Vegas we traveled to Williams, AZ which was as close as
we could find a camping site near the Grand Canyon. As it turns out, though
fifty miles from the South Rim, this turned out to be a great point from which
to explore the region. Williams was the last city on Route 66 to be bypassed by
I-10 but has fought mightily to retain the ambiance of that era. Also, our
campground was adjacent to the rail depot for the Grand Canyon railway. We boarded
our Pullman Coach early one morning and enjoyed a scenic 2½ hour ride to the GC
Rim. This trip was one of the highlights of our journey.
The next day we drove back to spend more time at the Biggest
Canyon ever and Kathy and I actually dared a helicopter flight over the canyon.
The scale is almost unfathomable but the bird’s eye view helped us get a good
lay of the land. Very dramatic perspective!
The next day we broke camp and headed toward Phoenix making
it as far as Camp Verde, AZ. We wanted to stay in Sedona but there were no
sites available to handle our big rig so Camp Verde became our new base. Being
about 25 miles from Sedona we headed that way for an early supper. All of us
were surprised at the beauty of the area. Sedona is definitely drop-dead
gorgeous. Locating a delightful sidewalk café we sampled the regional hospitality
and cuisine. It was beastly hot but with the low humidity, umbrellas, and swamp
cooler misters it was very pleasant. The food and drinks were tasty and the
setting of towering red cliffs all around the town made for a memorable moment.
It was our plan to take a sunset jeep tour the next day but Kathy came down
with a migraine and we thought it best to cancel. We never made it back to
Sedona but it makes our short list for a place to return and spend some time.
Early the next morning I located a barber while Larry basked
in the sun at the pool and hot tub. When Kathy felt better we explored
Montezuma Wells National Monument and Montezuma Castle National Monument.
Neither was a real eye-catcher but they were both interesting to see. The well
is nothing more than a hole in the ground from which millions of gallons of water
flow. It is unique because scientists have yet to determine the source of the
water and because of the people who once inhabited the area. The Hohokam and
Sinagua Indians (both Puebloan cultures) inhabited these sites for hundreds of
years and then mysteriously disappeared. The Castle site gave us a chance to
see what cliff dwellings looked like and made us wonder how they accessed their
lofty abodes on a day to day basis. They certainly were secure once ensconced
in their homes.
The next day we set our sights on Phoenix.
No comments:
Post a Comment