eckermanmichigan.com Blog

   Back when this trip was discussed with Matt and Jon, we decided to meet near Monument Valley in Arizona. It was equidistant for all involved and I, being the riding, not driving, member of this excursion went along with it. I’ve wanted to see the Canyon for many years, but remembering full well, the years I traveled with multiple children in the back seat, didn’t say anything about it. When Matt and Miriah both began to check for accomidations in the Four Corners Region of the Southwest, they discovered that lodging wasn’t what they’d hoped for, and there really wasn’t any place to get out and see. Not to say there isn’t a shitload of stuff to look at, it’s just that there isn’t many places where Grandpa could get out with his grandchildren. When the kids told me of the problem, they also suggested going to the Grand Canyon. “Holy Crap” thought I, as I was about to do something I’ve wanted for a long time. Then they decided to go to the North Rim but when Miriah checked for lodging, most of them were closed because the park wasn’t opening until May 16th. During this same period, as Matt would track out the route we were going to take, he’d email it to me and it’d show up on Google Earth. Google Earth is a wonderful tool when planning a trip like this. Not only does it show a continous picture of the planet, it includes the elevations and also includes photo’s taken from various points through out. (more on this later)  As we began checking points of interest, Matt noticed that the North Rim is 8200′ and the South, 7200′. It made it easier going to the South Rim where the altitude was somewhat lower, giving me a better chance of moving around when I’d get there.

   Some years back, I’d flown with my parents and my wife to South Lake Tahoe where my younger brother was to marry his now wife, Deborah. The air in Denver was sparce, but in Tahoe, it was nonexsistant. Denver is a mile high, 5,280′ and the house we stayed at in Tahoe was at 7700′. I was there for a three day period and I had one hellava headache the entire time. Dad was suffering from undiagnosed COPD at the time and I from an undiagnosed blocked artery in my heart. The thing is, both were undiagnosed and I assumed (yeah, I know) that life was a bitch in both places. It turns out that I’m in much better health than I was at the time. I noticed when I got to Denver, that the air didn’t get used up by the people who got off before me. I could breathe and move around just fine, which I was very greatful for. Salt Lake City is a thousand feet lower than Denver and I had an easier time breathing in Salt Lake, than I do here in Northern Michigan. The place we would meet on Friday night, and stay until Sunday, was the Marble Canyon Lodge, situated on the extreme Northeast end of the National Park.

   Leaving at 6:15am we drove down I-15 South to State Rd 17, to La Verkin on Hwy 9. Through the Zion National Park to US-89 to Kanab and then to Marble Canyon, Arizona, arriving exactly 10 hours later.

   Mark and I started taking pictures right away. My wife had an Aunt who took a cruise to Alaska, and then to New Zealand and never took one picture. When asked if she had any, she replied there were two reasons: One was that it wasn’t her responsibility to show others what she had seen and the other was it cost too much for development of the film. I thought at the time I’d never heard such lame excuses for not taking photos, and when given the opportunity that wouldn’t happen to me, or you. She could afford the plane and boat tickets but not to develop the film? WTF???  She doesn’t feel the need to help the rest of the planet learn, or spark the interest of it’s youth? Again, WTF!?!? Something else I noticed when using Google Earth, was that there were many photos of the destination, but very few of the journey to get there. Isn’t the journey the reason for the trip, or just it’s destination?

 

With the sun breaking over the Wasatch Mountains, we traveled down I-15. Just over the Piano Gallery’s sign you can see where there’s some excavating going on in a major way. From the looks of it, an entire mountain is being hollowed out and spread into the Basin. 

 

This line of refriderator cars sits alongside the expressway for over two miles. The grafitti on these cars were remarkable but at 75 miles per hour, hard to photograph. 

 

 

 

 This is my artsy attempt to prove we stopped in Nephi, Utah, with our first stop of the day. Henry’s on a two hour feeding schedule and there’s a Burger King for the rest of us.

 

 

 

Now here’s something you’ll never see in Michigan. Most of the road is a mere 75mph, but in some of the more open areas, it gets to 80. And unlike Michigan, truckers do the same speed as passenger vehicles.

 

 

 

This mountain range ran beside us the entire length of I-15, but the land between it and us changed the further South we traveled. At times it would be much further West,

 

and sometimes it got up close.

 

From time to time I’d look behind and besides me to see if everyone was still awake and on the job. Matt always was, so were Mark and Mia, but Hoa, not so much.

 

 

 

As we traveled further south the terrain became hillier and the vegitation became mostly cedar with a lot of sagebrush added.

 

 

Then we came to a town which exemplifies what all guys are looking for.

 

This is me lookin’ fer sum beavers.

 

This was the first example of what we were heading into.

 

 

 

For all you homesick Toquerville residents, these are for you.

 

 

 

 

Between Toquerville and La Verkin, the landscape really started to brighten up.

 

 

 

 

It was getting to be about feeding time for Henry, so we stopped in La Verkin and I stood next to something I hadn’t seen since Rota, Spain, in 1970.

 

 

 

La Verkin is just outside Zion National Park and the geological formations amazed us at every corner.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was about here when we entered Zion National Park. There is a $25.00 entrance fee that’s good for one weeks use, but there are a couple ways to waive the fee. If the driver or any passenger is over 62, or if the driver or any passenger is drawing a disability from the Government, it’s free. We didn’t find this out until later ($50.00 later) but not because they didn’t publish it. It’s posted at the entryway and if it wasn’t for Hoa’s eagle eyes, we would never have known. I carry a card now that’ll let me into any National Park anywhere in the country for free, for the rest of my life. So, if ya’ll go, either take an old geezer or a crip, like myself, along. Just show’s to go ya, that us crippled old geezers are worth having along.

After entering the park all the conversations either started with “Holy crap” or “Good God, look at that!” and it remained that way for the entire ride through.

 

 

 

 

 

This is two examples of Gods glorious accomplishments. I’m the accomplishment on the left. The one in the back is called the Sentenal.

 

 

 

Below is the Cathederal

 

 

 

Matthew and Hoa 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the last photo I took before we entered the first of two tunnels. As you’ll see the topography chances considerably but yet remains very similar to the preceeding side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second tunnel is considerably shorter than the first and doesn’t have the clearance problems the first one did. The first one by the way, has three or four “windows” carved into it giving you some panoramic views of the park. On the way back, we stopped because there wasn’t any traffic and took a couple pictures which I’ll show on the return ride. This was the view going in.

 

 

 

 This one I took while inside. Please notice how I captured the clarity and ambiance of the ride through.

 

 

 And this on the other side.

 

 

 

 

As we came out the other side, the country side once again opened up and continued until we arrived in Kanab, Utah, where we took a break.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before Kanab, I flipped the camera around to see how things were going in the back seat and this is what I saw.

 

 

 

Her sentiments were being felt by all of us so we stopped in Kanab to feed Henry and give us a stretch. As with all towns, each has it’s own suburbs, this was Kanab’s.

 

 

Another shot of the glorious accomplishment in downtown Kanab. 

 

 

 

After Kanab, things really started to open up.

 

 

 

 

We’re on the home stretch now, everybody’s about had enough but to help, we had this running along side us until we reached Marble Canyon, Arizona.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, after 10 hours of the most beautiful country I’d ever seen, we arrived in Marble Canyon, Arizona.

 

 

 

Over my left shoulder is the back of Olivia, and her mom Mariah. Over my right is Mia and her cousing Ava which I’ll introduce in the next installment. It’s late and the Red Wings are playing and I’ve had enough for one day. There are many more pictures involved with this that are posted on myspace picture section. There will be many more before this is over as I’ve yet to get to the Grand Canyon, and a few other sites. 

 

 

  

   Matt had suggested a couple months earlier that he’d like to take us to Promontory Mount, at the North end of Salt Lake. Near Promontory Mount, two railroad construction crews butted up the rails originating from Sacramento at one end, and Omaha on the other in 1869. Matt and Mark have been train students since Matt was 5 and Mark from the time he become cognizant. I’d been interested in this spot since the time I saw it in a history book in grade school.

   Hoa opted to stay home with Henry as we were going to be spending most of the next day in a van to the Grand Canyon. So it was the four of us going for the ride. We would follow I-84 from South Ogden to 1600N Rd, near Corinne, and then follow Promontory Rd to Lampo Junction and a left onto W7200N Rd. From there follow the posted directions to a well maked position, right square in the middle of NOfuckingwhere, Utah.

As we traveled north on I-84, the Wasatch Mountains bordered on the right, and their excuse for a lake, on the left. Luckely, I was a passenger, so I could take advantage of it by admiring the view and taking some pictures.

Some years back, Matt had given me a Sony Cybershot camera, with a magazine capable of holding 800 pictures at a time. I come from a time when taking pictures could cost you a significant amount of money, and so far, I’ve taken over 7 thousand pictures with it. I don’t know what Matt paid for the camera, but so far, it owes him back about 2k. As some of you will notice, there’s a radio antenna involved with some of the pictures I took. It’s a very small camera and I can hold it in the palm of my hand and operate the shutter release with my right, ring finger. What I did with most of the pictures I took, was to hold it out the window and squeeze the trigger, several hundred times. 

 

 

 Until we reached Corinne, the Wasatch mountains dominated the scenery for 1600′ up on my side. After turning left on to Promontory Rd, the landscape took on an older look.   

 

 

The closer we got to the site, the more the countryside looked like this.

 

 

When we got to the corner of Promontory Rd, and W7200N Rd, this was on the corner.

 

 

This is one of the entrances to Thiokol where they test rocket engines for NASA and the military. This sign is advertising the test firing of a Delta GEM40 Rocket engine on June 16th and the test firing of an ATLANTIS STS125 Rocket engine on May 12th. The buildings and bunkers took up miles of space and if I were to ever want a spot to test rocket engines, this place was it. We drove for miles of scrub growth on rock outcropings and not a park to be seen anywhere. After some more wide vistas and interesting rock formations, we drove past this sign letting us know all was not lost.

 

 

 After a couple more miles we came upon the buildings and a length of track that led from the middle of nowhere, to a barn that housed the two train engines. Inbetween those two points lays the spot where: two golden spikes, a silver one, a conglomorant of iron, gold and silver, and one of iron from the Mormons of Salt Lake City was driven connecting the rail line from Omaha to Sacremento. The two gold spikes came from California, the silver from Nevada, the mix from Arizona, and because John Smith was pissed ’cause it didn’t happen in Salt Lake City; the iron one.

 

 

 

 

 

 There is a small building there containing a book and souveneur store, a theatre that explains the ceremony, a ticket counter and a small museum with artifacts from the era. After getting the tickets, we stepped on the back door and this is what was waiting for us.

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the picture, there was a strong wind blowing there, that never went away; the entire time I spent at that end of the country. Matt said that at times it would come up from the South, with the sand of the desert and the salt from the lake, that looked very similar to a fog. On that day long excursion, I drank two gallons of water and only pissed once, and that was a ceremonial one into the Last Cut. (More on that in a bit)

 

 

 

On the left side, was the “Jupiter” owned by the Central Pacific, originating in Sacramento, California. On the right is “Number 119″ owned by the Union Pacific and came from Omaha, Nebraska.

 

 

 

These two companies had obtained a contract from Congress, allowing them to build from their starting point towards the other, without ever saying where the two companies would meet. Instead, they paid them by the mile of track laid and discussed with each other for months on where the junction would be held. As you can see, our Government didn’t get stupid lately, it’s been going on a while. These two companies laid track side by each, in opposite directions, for over a hundred miles before they made up thier minds on where to put it. There was all kinds of politicing going on between different cities wanting the site and it was eventually decreed, to put it in the middle of nofuckingwhere. They did a really good job in their final decision.

 

 

 During the summer months, the NPS (National Park Service) holds two demonstrations each day showing how both engines work. As the engines come in and out of their barn, they make a run alongside the main track on a sideing, giving people the opportunity to take movies as they travel. I’ll try and post the little movie I made with my camera in the video section of this page on myspace. (I think the Eckerman readers are out of luck)

  On the way in to this place, Matt had shown us where these two tracks ran, and on the way out, we stopped and looked at an example. When I took this picture, we had turned on to one of the road beds that had been converted to vehicle traffic after the line had been abandoned, not long after it was built. The other line, which was never used can be seen running in a straight line beneath us.

 

 

 

Instead of traveling around the lake, they built a bridge that crossed it. Later that bridge was removed after they built a causeway, which they use today. You can see in this photo of the two cuts made side by each over/through a rock formation.

 

 

There is a sign along this road that explains about the “Last Cut” made into this gawdawful material they call rock. It’s all limestone from when it was a lake bottom and it looked to be a real bitch to work with. For any of those readers who’ve worked with nice clean stone, or even good concrete, it breaks up into nice clean edges. There isn’t anything nice or clean about this crap and I’ll bet it was a real MF’er to break out and haul away. Anyway, this proportedly was the last cut to be made through this stuff before Congress fianlly got their heads out of their ass’s and agreed on a location.

 

That trench right there is where I pissed for the first time that day. (wet spot not shown)

Must be I got a thing about leaving my DNA strewn across this world of ours. (I could do an entire series on the places I’ve pissed, and you’d be absolutly amazed) Anyway, after taking these pictures, we traveled further down this grade and through another one of these cuts.

 

 

It was about then when we saw some smoke rising up from the Thiokol testing facility. I remembered back to the days when I watched one of those birds take off the rails toward it’s target. The distance was far too great to hear the thunderous crackle or better yet, get a good whiff of it’s toxic smoke comin’ out it’s ass. But it was nice to remember.

 

 

A little further down this grade was a rock formation that reminded me of some on Mackinac Island and it turned out, they were both formed the same way. The difference being, the water level on the Straits of Mackinac lies 10′ below the rock and here it was 711′. While I took these photo’s I began thinking about huge rattlesnakes.

 

 

I seem to have run out of space for this blog so I’ll just post the rest of the pictures in the photo section. You won’t find any rattlesnake pictures ’cause I didn’t see any, but I sure got to thinking about it. Michigan has a few things going against it, but all we have are pigmy rattlers and those only found in the most marshly vegitated areas. I wanted to see one of those and at least one scorpion and maybe a lizard but I’d get more chances the next day when we headed for the Grand Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Before I got my trip to the Museum, we had to get to Utah first, and that involved airports. Back in the day when I used to travel regular, I’d walk in, get my ticket and go get on the plane. This time I check into a prime example of what the Soviet Union looked like back when I was traveling regular. I believe what happend on the fourth airplane that fatefull day, is what’s going to happen the next time some poor stupid fucking terrorist try’s to take one over. I understand about a heightened sence of security, but I think we can do that pretty good ourselves.

   The Security people involved, treated us with utmost respect as I had to pass through with a frisking rather than the machine. I’ve an implanted defib and the machine kinda messes with them. Both ways, the guys who did it “used the backs of their hands in the more sensative areas”, and didn’t gawk when they discovered how far down my leg that area is. Once I got through all that the ride to Denver was overcast all the way.

   We flew on Pioneer to save money and there’s a reason they’re the least expensive. I haven’t flown on Northwest or United in a loong time, but my ass didn’t hurt when I’d get somewhere. The people were all very courtious and professional and the shitters didn’t stink. You have to go into a bar and purchace a drink in order to smoke at the Denver Airport. I’d prepared myself for several hours without a cigarette so I didn’t even bother with the bar. I would think though, that airports would supply a space rather than encourage the consumption of alcohol. The cloud cover from Denver to Salt Lake City broke up and I could see the tops of snow covered mountain ranges. Either the plane was at a lower altitude or the planet a higher one, it didn’t look that far from me to there.

   I come from a geologic formation which contains vast amounts of clean, blue water and the Great Salt Lake, looks like shit. I’ve seen pleanty of pictures of where it looks good, but once you see it, you know different. There isn’t any of the typical lush vegitation surrounding it, or of the deep blue of deep water to the gradiently altered hues as it grows shallower. The shore line looked dead from the prespective I had flying in and would later learn it wasn’t quite that bad. The airport in Salt Lake City has the best greeting view that I’ve ever seen. No matter which exit you take, your eyes are going to see vast distances and snow covered mountains.

   Matt was waiting at baggage claim for us and took us to his apartment to see Hoa, Mia and my new grandson, Henry. Henry looks remarkably like I did at his age, but yet I can see Hoa’s genes involved, and it worked on him pretty good. (This kinda reads like I had a physical involvement in this situation, but you’ll understand more when you see what a swarthy lookin’ guy his dad is. After Hoa feeding us a homemade pot pie, Matt took us for a ride around town and a trip to the Union Pacific Railroad station in Ogden. We took some pictures there but weren’t able to get into the museum due to a wedding. They were going to ask the bride and groom if they’d mind us walking around, but we stopped that before it got started. We decided to come back the following Monday and do it up right.

 

This is the view Matt and Hoa get every time they come out on their porch.

   Matt had to work on Wednesday, so the rest of us went looking for a dinosaur museum. Hoa had checked on the internet and came up with three options and one of which was close by. After punching in the co-ordinates into a GPS unit they have, we followed the arrow through the streets of Ogden until we came to a dead end in the middle of a small industrial park. Hoa then called and got directions from the museum and we found out had we turned right instead of left, the rest of the co-ordinates would have worked.

   The George S. Eccles Dino Museum sits on 8 acres at the very bottom edge of the Wasatch Front. The mountain range runs the entire length of the Great Basin that holds Salt Lake and it makes for a great setting for a Paleontology museum. Most of it is taken up with a walk through park and life sized dinasaurs placed throughout.

 

 Mark and Mia at the entrance.

 

 

 The Stewart Museum holds the actual fossils in several exhibits and a working lab where someone was using a dremmel tool to expose bone that hasn’t seen daylight in several million years. The Museum didn’t have the quanity I’d hope to see, but what they had was well displayed and presented. I’d highly recommend it to someone who wanted to give their kids a great beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   On 5 May 09, Mark and I started on a vacation of sorts. Mark and I both draw disibility pay, so in a sence, we’re always on vacation. But for want of a better term, vacation will do just fine.

   As with all vacations, it began with a want and my ‘want’ started in December of 1969 when I borrowed a Louis L’Amour book from Butch. Mr. L’Amour wrote Western’s and his ability to describe his surroundings gave much creedance to his stories. His books describe the scenery from the Smokey Mountains to the Pacific, but what got my attention, was the Southwest. Over the years I’ve watched movies (in Technocolor) of the same area which further deepend my ‘want’. Then in 1986 I think, Jan and I went along with my parents to South Lake Tahoe for my brother Jim’s wedding. It was clear and dry the entire flight from Detroit to Denver, and then to Reno where we rented a car. Seeing the West from 32 thousand feet was impressive enough, but the ride to Tahoe really got the juices flowing. Then a couple years ago, my son Jon and his family, moved to Arizona. First to Tucson, Arizona, near where Geronimo kept the calvery busy for a while, and then to Prescott Valley in the North. Mark had gone out last year for a couple weeks and brought back pictures that made my ‘want’ grow stronger. Then this last winter, Matt and his family moved to South Ogden, Utah. On top of all that, I had 5 Grandchildren wanting to see me, three of which had never seen me before.

   I ended up taking 8 ‘wants’ off my list:

See two new Grandsons, and three wonderful Granddaughters, along with their moms and dads.

Visit three museums; a Train, Dinosaur, and Air Force.

See the point where the Union Pacific Railroad met the Central Pacific Railroad, spanning the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.

Observe the Geography, Topography, Foilage, Fauna, and Society between the Mountain’s in Utah, to those in Northern Arizona.

Observe the Geography of the Grand Canyon and environs.

Spend a week with brother Butch, in the Upper, Lower Pensinula, and the Eastern Upper Pensinula, fishing and bullshitting.

   Learning from my Eckerman series, I thought it might be best if I do this up in segments, probably 8 of them. Matt tells me that Mark and I took about 1700 pictures and I have no intention of putting them all here, but I’ll use enough to get the point across.

I should make a disclaimer here, about the quality of the realism to these images though. To those who’ve seen these images in person, will understand how profound the view, to those who haven’t, my heartfelt sadness.

Below is a couple pictures as an example: