Lake Powell and Glen Canyon

We left the green pine trees and relative cool weather (below 90 degrees daytime and lower 50's at night) of Flagstaff and drove the 130 miles north to Page, home of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  We drove through one of the Navajo Indian Reservations up Hwy 89.  Your heart goes out to those Americans living on these reservations, with no real jobs they live in abstract poverty.  We arrived in Page and found a really nice campground with cable TV hookups (of course, our site's cable hookup did not work so we had to use our satellite dish, no local coverage).  The downside to this trip was we did not plan enough time to see all the sights in this area.  We will only be here one full day and we should have planned at least three days.  However, we did get out and explore today and see the beautiful high desert scenery.  We first went to Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam.

Colorado River's Horseshoe Bend below Glen Canyon Dam - We really need a better camera to take these pictures!

Horseshoe Bend is a 270 degree bend on the Colorado River and you have to hike about 3/4 of a mile from a parking area to see and appreciate the bend in the river.  If you are afraid of heights you may want someone else to take the pictures, it is a shear drop of several hundred feet to the river and there is no protection from the side of the cliffs.  George laid on his stomach over the edge to get this picture above.

We thought we should have a picture taken to prove we were here!

Glen Canyon Dam - it is massive and an engineering marvel!

The Glen Canyon dam is responsible for Lake Powell.  The story behind the dam is shrouded in history and politics.  It seems that Glen Canyon area was to designated as a National Park in the late 1930's because of its beautiful canyons, that rivaled the Grand Canyon.  Before it could be designated a national park, a little war  (WWII) came along and money and politics was turned to the war effort.  After the war it became necessary to power the new American industrial engine in the west (re: southern California) and Glen Canyon dam was to be built to help provide that power.  Of course Las Vegas, Phoenix, and southern California appreciate the ability to have air conditioning but one has to wonder what beauty we sacrificed.  On the flip side of course we also have a wonderful recreation area and a very large and beautiful lake.  It took seven years to fill up and is 186 miles from the dam to the other end of Lake Powell with almost 2000 miles of shoreline.

The mighty Colorado on the release side of Glen Canyon Dam - on its way to the Grand Canyon and beyond!

Beautify and blue Lake Powell, can you see the water line at the bottom of the island?

Lake Powell, like many of the large lakes in the west, is not full.  Notice the white area just above the blue waters of Lake Powell, that is the "high water mark".  It is about 50 feet below the high water level mark, but there is still a lot of water and it is as blue as the ocean.  We were amazed to see how many large houseboats (65 feet or longer) that were on the lake.  These are floating homes during the summer months; but we have no idea what the owners do in the winter -- dry dock and head south, leaving these half million dollar boats behind?

As we said earlier, we did not have enough time to see everything we would like to have seen in this area.  With so much to see in the United States, no one has the time to see all the "major" attractions let alone the nooks and crannies that make this country so special.  But we will try to bring to you, our friends and family,  the pictures and highlights of our backyards as we travel this great country.  We will be leaving Northern Arizona tomorrow and drive back to Colorado.  We wanted to stop at the Cliff dwellings of the Ancient Publeoian Indians but time has run out and we only have two days to drive the 500 plus miles to Denver.  With at least four mountain passes of over 11000 feet to cross we will plan on a two day drive.  The scenery will be beautiful but the drive will be challenging!

As always we hope this edition of our blog finds you all happy, healthy, and safe!  We hope you are enjoying life and are taking extra good care of yourselves and your love ones. 

Another day exploring Northern Arizona!

Again we went exploring the backyards of Northern Arizona.  We have traveled I-40 across Northern Arizona many times but never stopped to look around.  This trip has opened our eyes to the beautiful countryside and the many sights of this part of the country.  If your plans are to come and see the Grand Canyon you might want to spend a few more days to see the sights around Sedona, Flagstaff, and Williams.  Also the lands of the Navajo and Hopi Indian  Nations with their many national monuments and landscapes.  We had planned to stay about four days here but are now are on our second week.  We know we have to leave this week but we are finding more and more backyards to explore as we learn about this part of the country.  One example of our exploration around Flagstaff was the Walnut Canyon National Monument.  It was the home of the Hopi Indians about 1000 years ago and the cliff dwelling homes carved out of the side of the Walnut Canyon walls are just amazing.

Walnut Canyon - home of the ancient Hopi Indians

As we were driving down I-40 just outside of Williams, AZ we came across fields on both sides of the interstate that were seas of yellow wild mountain flowers.  As the saying goes, you need to stop and smell the flowers.  After we stopped another 3 or 4 cars stopped to also take pictures of these wild flowers also.

You have to stop and smell the Flowers

The Grand Canyon deserves more than one day and we could spend a week and not appreciate all of its beauty.  We decided to drive up this morning and take the western loop drive on the south rim.  These views were very different from the east loop in that you could actually see the Colorado river (about a mile down the canyon walls).  We thought you might enjoy these views.

Colorado river at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

That is a mile down to the Colorado River

We say good bye to the Grand Canyon once more!

As you can see it was another outstanding day with hardly a cloud to be seen.  We were going to drive up to Page, AZ and Lake Powell area but decided that side trip can wait for another time.  The trip to Lake Powell would have taken 3 hours each way and we believe there is enough to see up there to warrant another trip to northern Arizona on another date.  We have found a few more sights to see around the Flagstaff area and will explore them the next couple of days as we prepare to leave here and drive back to Colorado. 

Here is hoping this finds you happy, healthy and enjoying life to the fullest!

Chapel of the Holy Dove

Breakfast cooked over the open fire has never been better.  George got up this morning made a fire in our fire pit and cooked bacon over the open fire.   He also cut up a cantaloupe.  Pat scrambled the eggs, Donna cooked the potatoes, peppers, and onions (Bob will do French Toast tomorrow morning).  With the sun shinning and the bluest sky in Arizona the day started perfectly.  When breakfast was over we decided to take a chairlift up to the highest mountain in Arizona.  

Frying the bacon  over the fire pit.  Watch out for the grease splatter George!

On the way to the mountain, we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Dove, which we discovered on the way back from the Grand Canyon the other day.  The Chapel of the Holy Dove sits on a parcel of land between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  It was built by Dr. Watson Lacy, a doctor at the Grand Canyon, in 1962.  Although destroyed by fire in 1999, the chapel was rebuilt by a Northern Arizona University student with the help of townspeople and merchants from Flagstaff.  It was named the Chapel of the Holy Dove to acknowledge the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, described in Mathew 3:16 as descending "like a dove" above Jesus in commissioning His earthly ministry as God, Incarnate.  The chapel is open to all, never locked, all the material inside are free and numerous weddings are held in the chapel.

Bob and Donna entering the Chapel of the Holy Dove 

Pat just inside the door of the Chapel

The back of the Chapel

We made it to top of the mountain and to the highest toilet in Arizona.  the views were spectacular.  We saw as far as the Grand Canyon to the north and 100 miles in every direction.

Had to take this picture -- any questions?

That is a fire about 40 miles away.  It grew to about twice its size while we watched.

This must be a record... three posts in three days!  We are really enjoying our time in northern Arizona.  There is so much to see so we decided to stay until next Friday morning.  We still need to drive up to Lake Powell, see the slotted canyons, enjoy cooking over the open fires and of course sip a few beers as we watch the sunset over the horizon.  Don't know if we will post every day but as long as we have a few pictures to share with you and find new and interesting places  to visit...we may post to our blog...hope you enjoy!

  Take extra good care of yourselves.  In life we have noted ...There are people who will disappoint you, try to burden you with their attitude or problems but please remember that you are the master of your own destiny.  We hope you follow your dreams and are not deterred by anyone...remember it is your life and you are responsible to enjoy it to the fullest! 

Sedona Arizona - A beautiful backyard!

We ventured out today to Sedona, AZ which is about 50 miles south of Flagstaff but a world away.  Today was our traveling friend,  Donna's birthday and we treated her to our traditional birthday breakfast.  We drove into Flagstaff and had a wonderful breakfast at the Railroad Cafe; definitely will go back there again before we leave this area.  After breakfast we decided to drive down to Sedona, not knowing what to expect.  The drive down was just outstanding as we drove first through the pine forest and than into the canyons.  When we arrived in Sedona we could not believe the mountains that surround the town. Here our some pictures of the area around Sedona!

The hills behind the ice cream shop!

Overlooking Sedona from the south

Hills just northwest of Sedona

View from the overlook just south of Sedona

Frank Loyd Wright's Church of the Cross

Cathedral Mountain south of town

Always time for shopping or is it always time for sightseeing but shopping is a necessity!

What a great day, walking thru Sedona!  The girls loved the quaint shops and bought a few Christmas gifts for the family while George was in 7th heaven taking in the mountain scenery.  Sedona is unique because whenever you come out of any shop you are greeted with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.  George is not a shopper so he took about 60 pictures and most of them were from out in front of various stores in town.  We drove south of town to the Church of the Cross and was amazed how it was embedded into the rock yet stood out as a beacon. 

We continue to be amazed at the sights and scenery in northern Arizona.  Tomorrow will hopefully be a day of rest but if the past is any indication of future, we will be on the road exploring the backyards of this beautiful country side.  There is talk among the four of us that we may have to spend another couple of days here, it sure would not make us mad!

 To our friends, Tom and Maryann Graue, we are glad you are back in the USA.  We read your blog and know that your Canadian adventure will provide you with a lifetime of memories.  To George and Sue Summerfield, your blog on the sailing adventure to the Canadian Gulf islands was amazing. You both have a wonderful story telling ability that let us, the reader, go along with you on your adventures.  We are jealous, in a good way!  We will continue to tag along with you through your blog entries.

As always we hope this post finds you happy, healthy and enjoying life to the fullest.   We hope our friends and family continue to follow our adventures as we travel the backyards of America.  For our part we will continue to post a few of the pictures we take and add a little commentary of our travels (it also appears that George has added his own little soapbox commentaries but we will try to curb and control that aspect of his entries).  Until the next time, enjoy life and stay healthy!

"The Big Ditch"

We arrived in Albuquerque and decided to spend a few days with our very good friends Mike and Rita.  As always they were perfect hosts and even shared their granddaughter and grandson with us for a couple of days (since they know how much we miss Kasey and Karsten).  When in Albuquerque we always try to go out to our favorite restaurants but this time Mike and Rita decided to have a cook out at their house so of course we said .... YES!  Like many of our friends around the country Mike and Rita are really special and we love to just hang out with them.  But, we are on a mission and we had to get on the road, so we all met at our favorite breakfast restaurant, Milly's for a Sunday meal before we headed down I-40 to the Arizona and the Grand Canyon.

Sunday breakfast at Milly's with Mike and Rita, Bob and Donna and Pat and George (taking the pictures of course)

The scenery on the way to Arizona is spectacular along I-40.  It is a shame that pictures do not do it justice.  But the beauty of the trip will pale in comparison to nature's gem - The Grand Canyon or as Bob calls it " a big ditch"!

A view from the motor home along I-40

We arrived at Fort Tuthill, an Air Force famcamp just outside of Flagstaff, AZ in the middle of a rain storm only to find out that our sites were to say the least unsatisfactory.  Bob and Donna's motor home was mired in mud and our site was so small the back wheels were on one side of a hill and the front tires were up the hill on the other end.  Definitely not up to the Air Force standards and not even close to anything we find acceptable.  So in the middle of the rain storm we left Fort Tuthill to find a better place to stay.  We found an excellent campground 13 miles away and can you believe it, it is a Arizona National Guard post.  It is called Pine View and it is beautiful with two camp hosts that seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome, even in the rain!  The views from our camp site and the smell of pine trees bring nature into focus every morning.

Pat having breakfast at Pine View Campground

We have decided to stay a minimum of 5 days maybe more at Pine View simple because we can, it is beautiful and the people are so nice.  From our campground to the Grand Canyon is a little over 50 miles so after breakfast we headed north to see what can only be call the most beautiful scenery on earth, The Grand Canyon.  It is an amazing sight and a person could spend their whole lifetime here and never see it all.  It bears repeating that what man makes with all his knowledge and technology can never hold a candle to what God makes and we just call it ....  nature!

Just the two of us on the edge of the Canyon!

No picture can do the Grand Canyon justice!

Just another Wow!!!  They call it "Grand" for a reason!

We love to take pictures of our backyard and pinch ourselves every time we visit one of these awe inspiring places in the USA.  Donna, our traveling friend, said the other day, how fortunate we four are to be able travel this county, to see all these wonderful places and to make every trip better and better.  Another one of our friends once said to us as we were all sitting on top of one of the mountain peaks in the Rockies and enjoying the splendor of the views, " I wonder what the rich people are doing".  We think we can answer him now....We are admiring this great country and its beautiful backyards!!

 America really is a beautiful country, we are all rich and fortunate to be able to live here, enjoy it and taste the freedoms of being Americans!  God has truly blessed this country with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.  Whether you are on the coastal waters of Washington state, the cornfields of Ohio, or sitting on a ledge looking over the Grand Canyon, we have found that every part of this country has a beauty all of its own.  We hope you treasure your backyard views and we hope in the near future we will be able to travel to your backyard and to share with you --- your backyard!  Until then, stay happy, stay healthy and stay tuned for more adventures from our trips to America's backyards!

 

On the Road Again!!!!

Before we left Colorado we had to see the grand boys again.  You have to admit they are really cute.  Our blog would not be very interesting if there was not a few pictures of these two guys.  Enjoy the views.

Karsten knows how to make Mom smile!! 

Kasey has that laugh down pat!!!

Grandma and Kasey -- It does not get any better than this!

We only had time for George to do his last two day chemo treatments, make a doctor's appointment, watch the boys for the weekend and to get ready to head out!  We think we spent 10 days back in Colorado before we started down the road again.  Our plans changed just a little bit.  We wanted to drive down to Albuquerque to see our friends, Mike and Rita before heading west to the Grand Canyon.  We decided to stay in Albuquerque until the end of the month.  Besides visiting with Mike and Rita we also fixed the CB in the motor home.  It has been giving George fits for over a month.  He has tried everything to fix it but after we arrived in Albuquerque he gave up and took the motor home into a CB shop.  He found out he was doing everything right but the new antenna he bought was defective and our CB was only putting out about 1 KW of power.  After installing a new antenna and upgrading our CB to include the 10 weather channels we are in business again.  Oh yea, George can now do what he does best when driving down the road --- talk!

Mike decided we needed to see the burn area around northern New Mexico that made national news so he enlisted Rita to drive us on a 100 mile circle to Los Almos national lab and back.  What a shame to see thousands of acres of burnt trees and shrubs.  Knowing that it will all come back better than ever does not help when you view the devastation.  Sorry we forgot the camera on the trip.

Today we relaxed and decided to go bowling.  Can you believe Bob , Donna, Pat and George all  bowled three games and it cost us a grand total of $3.00.  We all took lessons from Pat, who won all three games;  yeah we know,  what else is new!    We will be leaving Albuquerque August 1st for the Grand Canyon.  After the Grand Canyon we will visit the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Monument and drive up to see our friend Doug at Blue Mesa (April will be in Baltimore getting her grandma fix -see it is not just us that need grandbaby fixes).After a few days relaxing with Doug we will drive back to Denver for that all important Pet Scan!

YOU MAY SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH - GEORGE IS ON HIS HIGH HORSE!

It has become more apparent that our Congress and our President do not care about the people of these United States.  I don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat; Conservative or Liberal, Tea Party or Independent; the Congress and our President will only do what they want and their only objective is getting re elected and staying employed without really having to work.  I vote for voting them all out....everyone up for re election is not worth your vote, please join me in casting your vote for whoever runs against these incumbents.  It is really too bad that those senators and representatives elected in the last election are not forced out .... Remember this next year... do not buy into the 100's of  millions of dollars of political advertising, the half truths, the promises, the hypes...remember what is happening now and the real truth is they only do what is best for them --- not you!!!!  OK, I am off my soap box but it really is a sad state of affairs when we no longer have leaders only politicians!!!!!

The highlight of our day was when Kris and Amy skyped us with the "boys".  Can't believe Karsten got another haircut!!  But you can't get any cuter than they already are - we really appreciate their laughter and antics when they skype us -  it always lifts our spirits.

If you are interested in our mid level travel plans here is the "plan".  Please remember that plans are subject to change and our plans depend on the results of George's PET scan at the end of August.  If all goes well and he is in remission, which we fully believe will be the results, we are set to head east to Ohio in September for three/four weeks and drive back to Colorado for a day or two for normal doctor appointments.  October will find us in Las Vegas (visiting our money that we seemed to have left in several casinos).  We will also be visiting our friends,  Steve and Margie in Vegas. We will come back to Colorado for the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas).  After Christmas our current plans are to drive to Florida for the cold months of Jan thru March.  Again, those plans are not locked in concrete and it depends on what our doctors tell us at the end of August,  please keep George in your prayers for a few more weeks.  In addition to the pictures of our upcoming backyard travels, we will be announcing the results of George's Pet Scan (target date for the annoucement is NLT August 31st).  You may also see some very cute pictures of two very handsome boys, if you like that sort of thing and........... we do!

Take extra good care of yourselves and if you get a chance in the next few weeks ----  tell your friends and family how much they mean to you - you may regret it in the future if you don't tell them now! 

Back in Colorado

We left Utah and the Salt Lake City area and took a couple of days to drive down to Denver.  Our last supper in Utah was at a very unique restaurant.  We ate in a covered wagon and the steaks were some of the best we have ever tasted.  It was recommended to us from Don, the deputy camp host at Hill AFB...he  told us that this is his favorite restaurant, we decided to trust him after he told us that he would eat a 32 ounce steak and all the trimmings and than finish his wife's steak.  He must have weighed in about 130 pounds and had a wonderful sense of humor.  He is the epitome of the people we meet "on the road"

Pat, George, Bob and Donna at the Schooner Steakhouse, Ogden, Utah

Our trip back to Colorado included a side trip to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, on the boarder of Wyoming and Utah.  What a beautiful area, the canyon, the river, the weather, everything was awesome!  What a great backyard to admire and enjoy!

Those are two speed boats on the Green River, 1500 feet down!

One of the many bends on the Green River

That's George with his Ohio State t-shirt on the safe side of the fence!

We see so many different mountain formations and all of them are breathtaking!  This in the Yampa Valley near Steamboat Springs, Colorado

We came back to Denver for what we hope is George's last two chemo treatments.  He will do his treatments on Tuesday and Wednesday and after that we will take off for Mesa Verde and to see our friends from south Florida and our favorite camp hosts at Curicanti National Recreation Area Blue and our own personal astronomer.  We have been so fortunate to meet some of the best people in America on our travels.  It is friends like you and our all of new friends that allow us to enjoy our travels and make our lives so much richer...thank you all!

Take care and enjoy life!!