Grand Canyon Travelogue, July 2017

My family is conducting a long, 23-day vacation, to include my nephew's wedding in Georgia (he was ring-bearer in our wedding in 1999), a visit with friends in Tennessee (I participated in their church's Easter play about 7-8 times back when they lived in Maryland), and a trip to the Southwestern United States. Herein lie some of the more interesting reflections from the journey.

We began the trip on Thursday, July 13, but we pick up the action on Monday after my nephew's wedding on the 15th...

Monday, July 17
We left Lucy's this morning, driving to Sparta, TN to spend the night with old friends Liz and Allen. Allen retired from federal work about ten years ago, after which they moved from Maryland to a 3.5-acre property in Sparta about a year later. We loved seeing their home and yard, and we enjoyed a great evening with them (food and "Second Hand Lions"). (Hannah and John also enjoyed a free piano lesson from Liz!) Their daughter Christine and her children showed up that evening after a long drive from their home in Virginia, so we enjoyed reuniting with Chris and meeting her sons. Liz and Allen's home reminded me very much of L'Abri -- Francis Schaeffer's "Meeting Place" in Switzerland where he would host seekers and help them think through answers to deep questions about life. My friends regularly host large breakfasts, followed by Bible studies and work parties! They have many regular attenders, including many from other religions.

Although retired for several years now, they are truly very busy serving God with their lives and home.

Tuesday, July 18
 We left Liz and Allen's about 9:45, after Allen gave the kids a tractor ride around their property.

We traveled west through Nashville, then turned somewhat north to cross the Mississippi River a little south of St. Louis on route 412. After a brief journey through the "toe" of Missouri (it's only a "boot heel" if you wear your boots backwards), during which we saw workers picking watermelons and loading them into old school buses, we made our way to Davidsonville State Park in AR, arriving about 5:15. After dropping off the camper, we went up to Pocahontas, where my mother was born and raised. We spent a few minutes outside the courthouse where her father was a judge (he died at his desk of a heart attack in 1958 a few years before I was born), then made our way to my grandmother's old house on W.Black Street. Things have changed a good bit since we sold it in the early 1980's (after moving her into a retirement home due to her dementia), but I still was able to relate a lot of memories to Cindy and the kids.

Next, we located "Lee St" and "Lucybelle Cove", named for my mother and her sister, respectively. My wife got several pictures of the street signs, including "Bledsoe St," named after my relatives' surname. Next, we went to grab a quick bite to eat at KFC, wondering how we could find my relatives' graves. The cashier there, Dawn, directed us to "findagrave.com", which sent us to the Masonic Cemetery in town. As we started driving through the graveyard, I stopped and prayed aloud that God would grant us success in finding the graves we sought (grandfather's, grandmother's, and an aunt's). LITERALLY 2 seconds after I finished praying, Hannah called out "Bledsoe"! We had a fine time taking pictures and looking around before heading back to the state park.

Did I mention all the rice fields we saw? They are largely responsible for all the mosquitoes we battled that night at the park. The children's legs were evidence of the battles, and the next day the kids killed many inside the car as we drove further west.

Wednesday, July 19
We drove from Davidsonville State Park in AR, through the rest of the state, and through most of Oklahoma along I-40, stopping in Elk Creek RV near Elk City, OK. We were severely unimpressed with Elk Creek, but the journey was wonderful. We covered about 556 miles, greatly enhancing the chance that we'll be able to spend a good bit of time at the Petrified Forest for Hannah's 13th birthday on Friday.

Thursday, July 20
This is my wife's birthday! We traveled from Elk Creek Park near Elk City, OK to  USA RV Park in Gallup, NM, a drive of approximately 570 miles. We were struck by the variety of landscape as we journeyed through the Texas panhandle (seeing countless wind farms along the way, explaining our drop to 7.5 mpg) and most of New Mexico via I-40. NM displayed a wonderful collection of mesas/buttes/plateaus, prompting me to determine the difference! There was a beautiful variety of rock formations and a matching variety in color combinations. The RV park in Gallup maxed out in all the Good Sams' ratings, and it is justified. It is truly a wonderful RV park. The proprietors had a wonderful customer-oriented attitude and well deserve all the accolades their park has garnered.

Tomorrow we will drive the remaining approximately 90 miles to Holbrook, AZ, to drop off the camper before we backtrack to the Petrified Forest. We should have lots of time to hike and enjoy the sights.

Friday, July 21
At 7:54 this morning (9:54 Maryland time), our daughter turned 13.... Once we hit the road, we drove the 90 miles to Holbrook KOA quickly, arriving before 11:00am. After getting set up, we headed over to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, thoroughly enjoying several hours there. Once back in Holbrook, we hit the grocery store then prepared our first dinner in the RV. We had baked chicken, green beans, and stuffing, with an assortment of barbecue sauces to choose from.

Saturday, July 22
We traveled over to NM, then north to Sleeping Ute Mountain RV Park, five miles south of Cortez, CO. After setting up, we drove over to Four Corners. Upon arriving, we learned it's NOT a national park, as it's actually on land belonging to the Navajo and Ute tribes! The adjacent areas of NM, AZ, and UT are in Navajo territory, while the CO area is in Ute territory. We got several requisite pictures, looked at booths run by a number of local Indians, and watched a little bit of "native dancing" before heading back to the RV park.

The park was nice, a solid 8 of 10, but there were a couple negatives. Wifi coverage was horrible, and several of the services had limited timeframes (laundry, pool, and showers closed when the front office closed at 8pm). In my ratings, however, 8 is still a good, solid score.

One of our challenges was due to user ignorance. When we  set up, we put the jack on a nice big block that we found adjacent to our site. Upon returning from Four Corners, while Cindy was doing laundry, I realized that the jack had split the ASPHALT block in pieces, resulting in the RV no longer being level. We raised the jack all the way up, but the RV was still not level and the car hitch was too high too attach! After trying a few things, we finally put Samuel in the "trunk" of the SUV and had David stand on the draw bar of the hitch. This lowered the hitch ball enough to slide under the RVs hitch by scant millimeters, after which we could transfer weight to the car, raise the jack, clear asphalt out of the jack, and finally attach the wheel below the jack. What an ordeal! By God's grace, we learned a valuable lesson without any injuries or need for repairs.

Sunday, July 23
After a 6-person abbreviated worship service, we went over to Mesa Verde to learn about various Pueblo Indians (the "cliff-dwellers"). It was really fun and informative, although the tour we chose to take was challenging for some (climb a 32-foot ladder, climb a couple 15-foot ladders, walk within a few feet of a sheer drop of several hundred feet a few different times). Fauna observed included a mangy coyote and allegedly a brown black bear. (Cindy saw it and hopped out of the car to grab a photo or two, but it was pretty far away.)

Monday, July 24
Today we left Colorado and drove 275 miles to Kanab, where we'll stay at the Kanab (UT) RV Corral for the next five nights. On the way to Kanab we passed Lake Powell (the 2nd largest man-made fresh water reservoir in the US, behind Lake Mead) and crossed the Glen Canyon Bridge over the Colorado River. Soon thereafter we came within view of the Grand National Staircase, driving within view of it for the remainder of the day's journey.

We intend to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow, then spend three more days visiting Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.

Tuesday, July 25
A trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was on tap today. Unfortunately, the weather was cool (upper 50s) and the atmosphere was foggy/cloudy when we arrived. (Zion and Bryce were worse today, with more rain.) After the requisite visit to the Visitor Center, we started out for Bright Angel Point, weaving our way along the path along the cliff amidst wind and clouds. When we finally got to the point, the clouds cleared for a few seconds, long enough for a couple pictures. Of course, it was raining lightly this whole time, so several family members were getting chilly. On the way back a deluge let loose, so we were kind of damp! After waiting in the gift shop for a few minutes, the rain abated, and we went to the car to warm up while eating lunch.

After lunch we drove out to Point Royal, stopping at several scenic overlooks along the way. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day, collecting about a hundred pictures between our 3 cameras and 2 cell phones.

Wednesday, July 26
A fun day today at Zion National, filled with pictures of mountains and a few of buffalo, rocky mountain sheep, etc. Highlight today was when my daughter "lost her sole at Zion," necessitating the purchase of a new pair of hiking shoes for her at a nearby outfitter. More later, including the nighttime crash inside the RV and the attempted repairs!

Thursday, July 27
We visited Bryce Canyon, driving through Red Canyon on the way. (Cindy especially was enamoured with Red Canyon.) After lunch, Hannah spotted a herd of deer, which I immediately re-diagnosed as a herd of pronghorns. We began hiking down the Queen's Garden Path, but approaching lightning & thunder convinced us to re-ascend the path rather than be caught in a downpour with elevation yet to climb. We found the climb more tiring than anticipated, and I was glad Cindy didn't have to do more. (N.B. Asthma makes altitude climbs even more challenging.) We then hiked the Sunset Point to Sunset Point path and returned, before primarily relegating our Bryce activities to beautiful camera shots from scenic overlooks.

Friday, July 28
We returned to Zion today, arriving earlier and getting good parking. After taking the shuttle, we hiked the Kayenta trail to the Upper Emerald Pool trail, and finally came down the Lower Emerald Pool trail to the lodge, where the heat started building up. We assuaged that with soft-serve ice cream, however, and were glad that we had avoided the hottest parts of the day. Later we went back up the canyon so the three oldest kids could hike (race?) up the trail to Weeping Rock.

After a dearth of serious animal sightings (outside of a deer in the river and a tarantula (or near relative) on the Lower Emerald Pool trail), we saw Bighorn sheep at four different locations as we left the park. Cindy's trigger finger got achy from all the pictures she took!

Final report on Kanab RV Corral: This Good Sams site earns an 8.5 in my book. The proprietors, although not young, are very energetic and appear as though they've been running the place only a short time (a couple years or less?). They were very accommodating and are working to improve the place. The wifi is very good, but there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers, but there are rough-ins for another of each. There are 3 showers in each rest room, but only two toilets in the men's (although a rough-in for another). These are minor detriments, as is the location right next to the road, allowing occasional road noise. Overall we were quite pleased with this site.

Saturday, July 29
We had an enjoyable, albeit uneventful, drive to Green River, UT, highlighted by a "hobbit breakfast" when we stopped en route at Forscher's Baekerie, a German bakery. Cindy's progenitors had a bakery in Ellicott City (Leidig's), so she was eager to try out Forscher's.

We stayed at the Green River State Park, enjoying the great rates and actually eating out for a change. Cindy was shocked by how much the kids ate, and started worrying that she had not been feeding the kids enough on the trip!

Sunday, July 30
Today's visit was to Arches National Park. After all the other parks, we were kind of unimpressed today. The heat was also a factor, as this was our hottest day of the trip. Furthermore, several of the overlooks at Arches were closed. We made this a shorter day, enjoying some games in the RV before preparing everything for the next day's departure.

Monday, July 31
The variation of scenery throughout this trip has been wonderful. We crossed the Colorado River several more times today before finally making our ascent on the Rockies. We had two major ascents, at Vail Pass (elevation 10,662) and then just below the Continental Divide (unknown precisely, since we were in a tunnel when we passed below it). Metaphorically speaking, I pushed the SUV and RV up and over the summits, with some long ascents at about 35-40 mph. One rather interesting thing was a stoplight ON I-70 just before the long descent that began in the tunnel. It's the first stoplight I remember seeing on an interstate. After 9 minutes of a promised 12-minute 5-6% downhill grade, we were still at over 9,000 ft elevation! I never want to make that drive again, at least while pulling a trailer! (Of course, I may change my mind quickly, as we are still considering a trip to the Upper Mountain West (Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Tetons) next summer.)

We arrived at our friends the Fraziers' house in Longmont, CO and had a wonderful evening with them. They used to live in Maryland before moving to Colorado three years ago to help care for their son's triplets. A daughter of theirs is very good friends with Hannah, so they immensely enjoyed getting back together.

Tuesday, August 1
We brought Bree with us as we took a quick trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park just outside Estes Park, CO. For me, some of the mountain roads were pretty harrowing, but it was a good time. Lowest temperature we got was around 60, at elevations up to 11,158. After coming back down and returning to Longmont, we had a great time with Dave and Nancy, enjoying food, fellowship, and some gametime.

new olympic sports

With the increasing prevalence of "synchronized" sports, such as synch swimming and synch diving, and "rhythmic" gymnastics, I see room for many more Olympic sports. Consider the following:

1--synchronized javelin: there could be deductions for different trajectories, distance between where the throws land, etc.
2--synch. shotput: grunts must be synchronized, as well as trajectories, flight paths, landing zones
3--synch. pole vault: must clear bar at same time, land in the same fashion, etc.
4--rhthmic greco-roman wrestling: I'll leave this one to your imagination!