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:
