More Surprises and Spectacular Sights

Early Fall 2018.  We leave Durango, CO and head west via Northwest New Mexico.  During our sojourn, we decide to take an Indian Road (that's the official designation when on a reservation) that will provide the most direct route to our destination of Gallup, NM.  After making the turn onto the road, we crested a rise in the road and were treated to a scene out of an old Western movie.  We stared for a long time looking for smoke signals, a wagon train or a group of riders on horseback.  Of course, we saw none but were still carried back to the images we have been fed via the movies many times in the past.  It was a very surreal moment to say the least.

What a sight to see - roughly in the middle of nowhere

After reaching Gallup and our RV Park destination, we enjoyed a BBQ dinner at the park under an Indian Summer night sky.  The setting and food was perfect after a day’s worth of driving.  From this spot on I-40 we continued our westward trek through Flagstaff and on to Williams, AZ where we intend to stop for about a week.

We arrived in Williams and took our spot at the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park.  Williams is located south of the Grand Canyon and is part of the old Route 66.  There are a lot of historic and tourist type establishments in downtown Williams which is within walking distance from our RV pad.  Bibi and I took a stroll one morning just to get a feel for the place and to see what we could see.  Afterwards we booked our train excursion to the Grand Canyon.

It is interesting to me that I traveled on only one train as a child and it was the only trip I took via train my entire life until I retired.  Of course, I did grow up in the era of the car, particularly muscle cars, when trains had diminished to almost entirely freight hauling.  Since retirement, I have been on multiple trains to various locations and thoroughly enjoyed the relatively slower pace of travel.

All Aboard

Hey Bibi - They said All Aboard!

The trip to the canyon on the train was very entertaining primarily due to our ‘conductor’ who provided almost non-stop commentary during the trip.  He writes books about animals he studies and had come to Arizona to study certain animals and write a book about them.  He was quite knowledgeable and entertained us enough to make the long trip seem much shorter.

Upon arrival at the Canyon, we had a certain amount of time to eat and do some sightseeing before boarding the train again for the return trip to Williams.  We determined we would come back in our car to fully explore some of the areas of the Canyon we did not have time to look at on this trip.  We learned from our ‘conductor’ that a group of California Condors had been relocated to the Canyon to try and save the species from extinction.   According to him, it appears to be working because the original group has grown in number.  So this became one of our goals to locate and see the condors.

That is a three story building in between the fingers!

Boy howdy! That is a loooonnngggg way down.

Just don't lean too far back - please.

Having not been successful on our short visit via train to locate the birds, we continued our search a couple of days later when we returned to the Canyon via car.  We spent the entire day exploring the views and sights at many of the stops available via the park service shuttles that operate continuously.  One of our major disappointments is the fact that the three dimensional images seared into our brains cannot be viewed adequately by looking at a two dimensional picture.  There is no way to accurately reproduce the ‘grandness’ or the beauty of what we saw using pictures.

We did have success in locating some condors on this trip.  Here are a couple resting on the ledge of an outcropping.  They are nowhere close to us and this picture was taken with a very strong telephoto type lens by our intrepid photographer pal, David.  So mission accomplished with thanks and a hat tip to David for providing our proof.

That's too close to the edge Bibi and don't pull on me so hard.

Definitely prettier when flying but here's the proof we saw them.

During our stay in Williams I had a super nice surprise.  I was staying inside the RV while Bibi and our traveling companions made a trip to a Flea Market adjacent to our RV park.  While at the flea market, a vendor asked the group where they were from and they told them Longview, TX then they proceeded on their way to other vendors.  A short while later; another couple came by the same vendor who asked them where they were from with the same answer; Longview, TX that led to the next question, ‘do you know those folks from Longview?'

Long story, short, I get a knock on the RV door and standing in front of me is a former schoolmate from high school I had not seen in 50 years.  We had a great time catching up with each other’s lives, friends and events during the intervening 50 years.  What a nice surprise and time we had and it was all owed to a vendor at a flea market three states away from Texas.  Of course, our Texas accents probably had a lot to do with his initial question.  Jus’ sayin’.

What a super nice surprise and a reunion from 50 years ago

We made one additional trip to the Canyon late one afternoon just to catch the sunset as it played its last light of the day on the facing rock walls.  We read and were told the best time to take photographs to try and catch the colors, definition and translate the 3D to a 2D image was at sunset.  So we decided to give ourselves a shot at doing just that.  We had a great time and enjoyed a different perspective than previously experienced during our daytime visits.

Time to move on to another adventure and you can read all about it in the next posting.  See ya down the road!

On to Colorado

Late summer 2018.  As we leave the Texas August heat behind us (it was 100+ degrees when our Alaska flight landed yesterday) and head toward Colorado, we make a couple of stops along the way to avoid driving straight through and to mark some things off the bucket list.  We met back up with our Alaska traveling companions in Amarillo.  They are heading to the next TBM (Texas Baptist Men) Camp Builder project with us in Durango, Colorado.

One thing about a bucket list I have observed is that it seems to grow instead of shrink.  As you go about exploring and going on adventures to check off things on the list, you invariably find more things to add to the list.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day or even enough days to see and do everything.

David and I do not like to drive too long at a time; and now that we are retired, try to plan our trips with some built in recovery time.  So we spent a few days in Amarillo after a couple of days driving.  We took in the outdoor drama, "Texas Our Texas", in Palo Duro Canyon along with the BBQ dinner available prior to showtime.  It was quite the production with live animals, laser lighting features, water features, set changes and fireworks during the finale.  Everyone enjoyed the whole evening immensely.

The outdoor amphitheatre at Palo Duro Canyon

Two lovelies at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo

The next stop was in Albuquerque, NM.  We have been here before for the hot air balloon fiesta and wanted to revisit some favorite spots plus do some additional exploring.  One trip was to ride the tram to Sandia Peak.  Sandia is a ski resort adjacent to Albuquerque and the temperature difference between the base of the tram (6,500 feet) and the peak (10,700 feet) is quite remarkable.

What a view of Albuquerque in the distance.

After our adventure up the mountain, some good ‘ole red chili sauce or if you prefer green chili sauce is in order to warm us back up.  El Pinto restaurant is a great place to sample the New Mexico version of Mexican food.  Each weekday there is a lunch buffet which allows a diner to sample the various types of cuisine and sauces available.  Oh yeah, there is a nap in your future if you indulge.

Those are chilis hanging in the entrance

On another day, we visited the Unser Racing Museum.  The Unser family is well known in racing circles and in particular the NASCAR folks.  I did not know they had lived in the area and called Albuquerque home.  We also did not realize the Pike’s Peak run was where they first tested their racing abilities, both driving and building the cars used for the run.  Even non-racing fans would enjoy the museum and history shared with the exhibits and cars on display.

Even the girls enjoyed these cars and exhibits

Here's David trying his skills at racing - it's harder than it looks!

Having exhausted our free time, it is now time to move onto our ultimate location in Durango, CO.  We are volunteering for a few weeks to help rebuild some unsafe stairs on a bunkhouse and build a freestanding bathroom facility.  When we show up for these jobs, all materials and tools are at the job site.  We merely provide the labor to accomplish the desired renovation or complete a building project.  It is always great fun to reconnect with our peeps and have something to show for our efforts.

View from our vantage point

Some neighbors that dropped by frequently

The rest of the neighbor family - they are a little stand offish

Before demolition

During demolition

After rebuild and the end result

Our crew for the two jobs at Durango

The Siding Crew for the free standing bathroom - not too bad guys!

We were blessed with this double rainbow complete from end to end on final days in Durango

While at the camp, we had time to visit a Texas (yes in CO) BBQ joint, a home cooking café with great chicken fried steak (yes in CO too), the Bar D Chuckwagon Show, ride the Durango and Silverton train and visit Mesa Verde National Park.  So you see, it is not all work.  There is a lot of play involved too.

The Bar D Chuckwagon Show is an outdoor dinner theatre (located at the old Dalton gang hideout) with old west cowboy music as the entertainment.  We really enjoyed the food and the show.  It is an amazing feat to feed the number of folks that show up and in such an orderly, efficient manner.  The musicians are some of the finest on their instruments I have heard with a wonderful mix of comedy and singing.

Mesa Verde National Park is where some of the best preserved cliff dwellings are located.  The vistas and views are spectacular.  We only spent a day there but easily could have spent several days exploring in detail the various areas located in the park.  It is amazing to learn about the daily lives of the humans using their skills to survive and prosper in seemingly hostile terrain.

One of the cave dwelling sites

A close up view of the dwellings, notice the multi story aspect too

The train ride to Silverton and back was filled with rugged mountain scenery.  We chose to ride in an open car so we could take pictures and hang out the windows to get a full view of everything we passed.

What vistas and scenery we saw

So happy to be alive and blessed to see what I am seeing

Our traveling buddies needed to repair the slide mechanism on their rig so we spent an extra week in Durango after the building project to make sure the slide was operating smoothly before moving on.  Our next route is westward.  We were within 60 miles of seeing the Grand Canyon the last time we were in Arizona but an emergency family situation interrupted that trip.  Since we are so close, we decided to go back.  More on that adventure in the next posting.

Doctors and Alaska

It is now the fall of 2017.  We made it back to Longview, TX (our home base) just fine and we begin the seemingly never ending doctor appointments.  That is one thing you can count on as you age, the almost constant contact with doctors.  I really don’t have anything against going to the doctor but it is a hassle to schedule, make the trip and listen to what they have to say (usually the same thing every time) and then wash, rinse and repeat again next year.

This time proved me totally wrong as God wanted to throw me yet another curve ball.  I have been in more hospitals and had more contact with the medical community since turning 55 than I ever dreamed possible.

 

A routine (btw - love that they call it routine) colonoscopy proved to be not so routine.  The doctor comes out and tells me that normally these polyps stand up at 90 degrees to the wall of the colon and he snips them and goes to the next one but I happen to have one parallel to the wall and he could not snip it out.  So he recommends (pretty strongly) that I visit a surgeon to have it removed surgically (along with about a foot or so of the colon).  Oh my!!!!

Long story, short; two weeks later I am recovering in the hospital from this latest encounter with a doctor and surgery.  Good news, all is well and the offending polyp is gone as well as tested benign.  Bad news, strength has to be built back up and my lifting of any kind of weight is temporarily on hold.

Pretty sad looking patient.

Everything has a way of working out for the good.  These weeks of recovery allowed us to reconnect with loved ones, enjoy the holidays and make some plans for the upcoming year with some great friends.

2017 Christmas gathering

As we enter 2018 it is an exciting time.  Our oldest grandson is graduating from high school and during his baseball season pitched a no-hitter which garnered a lot of attention from college baseball recruiters.  Our only granddaughter began playing club volleyball and her team won a qualifying tournament allowing them to compete in the National Finals held in Detroit, MI.

All of our grands make us extremely proud and we are so thankful they are all good kids and seem to enjoy our company.  Our spring and summer was very special in that we were able to spend a lot of time with them and enjoying their participation in activities they love.

We spent part of the spring working with Texas Baptist Men Camp Builders again.  We have made so many new friends and feel so thankful that we have an opportunity to volunteer.  This provides us an extended family/friends group to work, share, worship and pray with as we go about helping these camps with repairs, renovations and building projects to further the ministry of the camps.  It is very gratifying and satisfies a need to feel useful as well as give of our time and service.  This is not to mention the new skills both Bibi and I have learned from the great people we get to share the work alongside.

Earned our green jackets at this camp

Crew we were with when earning our jackets.

During this time off, we planned a special anniversary trip with our good friends, David and Sophie.  They reached the wonderful milestone of 50 years and we celebrate our 25 years together as husband and wife.   Since Alaska is on our bucket list of places to visit, we decided to visit via a cruisetour (both sea and land tour) in July/August.  It is such a long way to travel to and through using a RV; we thought this would be a good alternative.

..and this is how it went.

Having no idea about where and what to do, it seemed the prudent alternative to use a travel agent and rely on their guidance to help make decisions.  Turns out that was the best decision for us since we had a ball, got to see a ton of things, experienced Alaska and its indescribable beauty without any worries or headaches.

In July 2018, we flew to Vancouver, boarded Princess Cruises’ ship Island Princess and headed out to voyage the inside passage the next seven days.  We had stops in Icy Point Strait, Juneau, Skagway, disembarking at Whittier then by train to Talkeetna then by bus to Denali National Park and finally to Fairbanks.  Even though this is just a snapshot view of Alaska, we had a marvelous time and saw some spectacular sights.

All Aboard

You too, David and Sophie

Icy Point Strait was the site of a former Salmon canning factory and now the tourist industry has reinvigorated the local population.  We glimpsed the backside of a bear that had been fishing for salmon in a river as it was leaving.  One of these days we will actually see all of a bear in its entirety in a natural habitat.

Someone was petrified of the bear!!!

We also stopped over in Juneau the state capitol.  Did you know the only way to get to Juneau is by air or water?  There are no highways over land because of a huge glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier at Juneau

Whales in a pod fishing and feeding together, pretty unusual to see, we were lucky!

All humpbacks have unique designs on flukes, like our fingerprints.

Skagway was an interesting stop with a bus ride up and a train ride back through the White Pass.  The trip carried us from Alaska into Canada and back again.  The trip to and from was filled with wonderful breathtaking views of mountains, valleys and forests.

Massive, expansive country

That stripe around the mountain is our rail line.

What a beautiful day to go take a bus and train ride through the country.

Before disembarking at Whittier, we cruised by a lot of glaciers and got up close to several.  Close enough to hear the ice moving, creaking and breaking away into the water.

Long days but pretty sunsets

These are huge walls of ice

Closer even yet, you can hear the movement as it slides against the rocks and ice

Beautiful, what else can I say?

The train ride from Whittier to Talkeetna went through lots of wild areas as well as through many towns including Wasilla (ala former Governor and Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin’s hometown).  In fact, the lady providing commentary on our train voyage was neighbors with the Palin’s as their children grew up together.

Train ride time to Talkeetna, goodbye trusty ship

Arriving at Talkeetna, we had just a short time before moving on to the Wilderness Lodge.  This is where we were fortunate on our last day in the area to actually see Mt. Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley) the highest point in North America.  We are now part of the fortunate 30% club to actually view the mountain without any clouds obscuring the peak.  According to the locals, only about 30% of visitors to the area get to see the mountain because the elevations in the area are usually wrapped in the clouds and you cannot see the majestic mountain and its peaks.

Cloudy with a chance at not seeing the mountain.

There it is, highest peak in North America.

...and we were there to see it!

Next stop is Denali National Park and a tour down through part of the park.  There was a lot of scenery and wildlife to view including a stop at an old cabin used by the crews that built the first roads into the park.  It even had a place for the sled dogs to shelter from the weather in their own little cabins.

Cabin in the wilderness

Moose or Mooses, what is plural of moose?

Moose cow (female)

Little bunny foo foo, no that's probably not, just a rabbit - name unknown

Alaska's state bird- Willow Ptarmigan

Final stop before leaving was in Fairbanks where we tried our hands at panning gold.  It was fun and educational but not very lucrative.  A trip upriver proved very educational about modern day living in this Alaska northern city and provided a stop to see how the residents lived pre-settlement days.

Notice the authentic native footwear.

Tried our hand at panning for gold.  Not much success here.

After our two week excursion, we now fly back to good ol' Texas and familiar places, only to pack up and leave for Colorado the next day.  It is too hot to stay in Texas during August, time to move on.  More in the next posting.