USA – A Traveling Fool

February 2, 2020

From Jackson Hole, WY to Salt Lake City, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park , back to Las Vegas

On the way from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, we took our morning break in Afton, Wyoming. Afton is a very small town known for having the largest arch made from elk antlers in existence.

In Idaho, we made a stop in Montpelier. In 1896, Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch robbed the bank in Montpelier. I took a photo of the plaque commemorating the heist. The gang took the money supposedly to spring one of their members from jail. Most of them managed to abscond with the money, but one of the gang was captured and held in prison until 1912. Nearby was Bear Lake. We drove through Logan Canyon to Logan, Utah to have lunch.

When we arrived in Salt Lake City, we took a tour of the Capitol and Temple Square. We could go inside of the Tabernacle, but not the Temple. Non-Mormons are not allowed inside. We could take a look at a model of the Temple, however. We had dinner at the Roof Restaurant that was in a hotel near the Temple Square and had a great view of both the Temple and the Tabernacle.

On our way to Bryce Canyon the next morning, we took a morning break at Scipio, Utah, which had a petting zoo. I made some new friends with several bunnies and baby goats. There were some Ostriches on hand which I was quite content to look at through the fencing. I had once had an experience with an Ostrich back in Texas when I was growing up who was just a tad too friendly.

Then I joined an interesting trio – an Ankole-Watusi (a type of cattle), an Alpaca, and a Peacock. The Ankole-Watusi seemed like he was much more interested in a nap than in people. The Peacock strutted around making noises but did not spread his tail feathers. The Alpaca was just plain adorable. The face was so cute, what with long bangs sweeping across his large, long-lashed eyes.

We made a stop at Red Rock Canyon and took photos of the Salt and Pepper Shakers. We continued on to Ruby’s Inn at the entrance of Bryce Canyon to have lunch. We were also staying at Ruby’s Inn for the night. We hiked into Bryce Canyon to see Bryce Point, Inspiration Point and Sunset Point. A couple of us also went part of the way down the Navajo Trail. We knew that we would have to come back up that same trail at some point and that it was steep, so we only ventured as far as we figured we could return from without giving ourselves heart attacks. Bryce Canyon was really beautiful.

The next day, we went to Zion National Park. The tour coach could only go as far as Zion Lodge. From there, we took a tram to what was called the Temple of Sinawava. I chose to hike the Riverside Trail, which was about a mile long. The temperature was about 102° F. Fortunately the Riverside Trail was relatively level and even had some good shade in places. I had a couple water bottles with me (one for going in and one for coming out) and managed to finish them both by the time I returned to the tram pickup point. Back at the lodge, I had some ice cream and downed about three more bottles of water back on the coach.

We stopped off at a Subway Sandwich shop to pick up lunch to eat along the way while crossing the Mojave Desert. The temperature there was about 112° F. We did take a pit stop along the way and it was like trying to breathe in an oven. It was even hotter than Egypt had been in September/October of 2008.

When we got back to Treasure Island in Vegas, we had a farewell dinner before getting repacked to fly home the next day and into bed. Repacking for the plane home was an adventure due to all of the Native American items I had purchased along the way. But I managed and it all arrived safely with me back in Minneapolis. It helped that I had packed some bubble wrap which I then used on the Kachinas (two of them) and the bowl of the peace pipe. The Lakota breast plate and the horsehair and bead dancer’s bustle I got in Jackson, packed pretty well since they were relatively flat. Also had several pieces of jewelry purchased in Monument Valley, the Black Hills, and Jackson which I placed in plastic sandwich bags I brought with me and tucked in among my clothes.

Next time – a 2014 trip to Greece and the Greek Islands, where we spent 8 days on the mainland of Greece and 8 days on a cruise in the Aegean.

January 5, 2020

The Black Hills

I know I have said this before, but I love the Black Hills. My mom, who grew up there, always loved it too. So this was not my first time there. It was just my first time as part of a tour group.

We checked into the State Game Lodge. I had stayed in a cabin there before, but not in the Game Lodge itself. Once I got my things into my room, I went exploring. The older rooms that were empty were open for guests to see. They were very nice.

I was feeling a little disappointed. A friend of mine in Minneapolis was supposed to join me in the Black Hills for a couple of days. But his contract was extended at the least minute on his job and so he didn’t. I had been looking forward to sharing some of the special parts of the Hills with him. But it just wasn’t going to happen at that time.

A Native American breastplate was one of the items that I had hoped to find at a price I could afford. The gift shop in the Game Lodge had a Lakota breastplate at a reasonable price. It was authentically made of bone, beads, and leather. The last thing I wanted was a plastic version. I was assured that it was bone and it felt like bone, so I was pretty sure it was bone. When I got home, my dog confirmed that it was indeed bone. He was mighty interested in it. He always showed interest in anything with actual animal bone, horn, fur or feathers.

We all had dinner together in a special room in the dining room. My choice that evening was bison ribs. After dinner, we went for walk, turning back when it began to get dark.

The next morning we paid a visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial. The statue (which dwarfs Mount Rushmore) has been under construction since 1948. An Oglala Lakota Chief commissioned the carving and the funds were (and continue to be) raised privately. It is still not without controversy. But I won’t get into that here. We had plenty of time to see a film about it, tour the original house of the family that has been in charge of constructing it, and explore the museum.

On our way from the Game Lodge to the statue, we passed by the reconstruction of the stockade that had been built shortly after General Armstrong Custer and his troops discovered gold at French Creek in 1874. Although the US government had signed a treaty with the Lakota back in 1868 promising that the Black Hills would forever belong to the Lakota, this all went out the window the minute gold was discovered.

After Crazy Horse, we drove to Mount Rushmore. We had quite a bit of time there too, so I hiked the entire Presidential Trail and explored the studio. The model of what the carving was planned to look like was very different from the finished work. For one thing, it wasn’t just going to be the heads of the presidents, but their bodies from the waist up, as well.

This model was constructed after the position of Thomas Jefferson was changed. Originally Jefferson was supposed to be carved on Washington’s right. But the stone was not of good enough quality and the face also just didn’t look right, so Jefferson’s face was dynamited and placed on Washington’s left instead. This meant that the entire plan needed to be changed regarding the placement of the four presidents. Mom and her family were present for Jefferson’s unveiling in 1936.

We had lunch at Mount Rushmore and then returned to the State Game Lodge for some free time before joining the Buffalo Safari in the evening. Three large male bison were hanging out between the Game Lodge and its cabins. I stayed on the bridge over the creek and took my photos from there. Several others got a little bit too close for safety. People always think they can outrun the bison, but they can’t. Those suckers can really move. Fortunately, the bison weren’t at all concerned and didn’t charge anybody.

Once they left (heading up into the mountains behind the Game Lodge), I took a walk down to the General Store in the opposite direction. When I returned to the Game Lodge, some of the others had decided to take a hike up the trail behind the hotel. I figured that the bison were long gone, so I joined them.

Along a level portion of the trail, we heard a noise to the front and below where we were. We all stopped still and then saw a single, gigantic bison come up the side of the mountain and cross the path a ways ahead of where we stood. We all stayed still. It didn’t seem to notice us and he continued on his way. We turned around and went back to the Game Lodge.

The game keepers at Custer State Park have always said that the bison respect what is larger than them. So they use large vehicles that are open air, can seat about eight to ten adults and have all-wheel drive. They keep in touch with each other so they can follow the wildlife and they spend most of the time off road. This was my second time on a Buffalo Safari. Both times we rode in among the herd, which I absolutely loved.

We also encountered White Tail Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, and Prairie Dogs. We saw some Elk from a distance, but I was on the wrong side of the vehicle to get a decent photo. The deer also kept their distance. But the antelope and bison weren’t concerned by us much and had no problem with being relatively close. The Prairie Dogs were putting on a show, popping up and down from their holes and dashing around. Each time they did anything, they looked in our direction to make sure we were watching.

We briefly stopped at the grave of a baby who had died on the 6^th of June in 1902. The date we were there was the 5^th of June, 2013.

Once the safari was done, we met up with the rest of our group and some other people who had taken a similar tour from Bluebell Lodge. The spot was not far from Bluebell. The cookout included steaks or burgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, cornbread, coleslaw, and a dessert. We were entertained by some silly comedy and bluegrass music.

By the time the cookout was done and we were traveling back to the Game Lodge, it was quite nippy. Fortunately we were furnished with warm, wool blankets. Our route back included crossing Mount Coolidge. It was too dark to see much, however, which was probably a good think since my last encounter with Mount Coolidge was rather scary.

Next time – Deadwood and the Devil’s Tower.

December 1, 2019

Arches National Park & Colorado Rockies

I loved Monument Valley so much that I was reluctant to leave. But our next adventure was to take place at Arches National Park at Moab, Utah. En route, we passed a rock formation called the Mexican Hat. The nearby town of 31 residents was also called Mexican Hat.

We went by another interesting rock formation before entering Arches National Park. The park contains roughly 2,000 natural arches and is considered to be the largest concentration of naturally formed arches in the world. The arches were formed from an underground salt bed that was deposited there about 300 million year ago. Humans have occupied the region for 10,000 years – since the last Ice Age. Ute petroglyphs can be found.

One feature that I found interesting was something called the Petrified Dunes. These had once been sand dunes that turned to rock. They were cool to see, but didn’t translate well into photos until I hiked up to the North Window. The view on the other side had a pretty decent example of Petrified Dunes about mid-range.

The Balanced Rock was one of the famous rock formations. I thought it resembled a seated alien with a large head. The head was about the size of three school buses. It seems to be staring at a solid stone wall. We parked by the Balanced Rock so we could take some photos. I have included two of the nine I took here.

We then drove over to where we could walk to the North Window, the Turret Arch and the Double Arch. I had packed hiking sticks and pulled them out of the suitcase that morning, carrying them onto the tour coach. They really came in handy. The climb to the North Window turned out to be steeper than it first appeared. It was also a hot day and we were in a desert. I felt that the hike was worth it to see the view on the other side. It was also worth it to get closer to the Turret Arch.

When I came back down from the Turret Arch, I could cross the road and take a better look at the Double Arch. This arch was formed differently from the rest of the arches in the park. It was created from water coming from above and escaping through the two arches that were formed.

From there we drove to a spot from which we could take the long hike up to see the Delicate Arch. The hike was more of a climb as it was nearly straight up (and this was considered to be the easier of the possible routes). The sun was beating down with the temperature hovering near 100°F. I drank a lot of water on the way up.

The Delicate Arch is made of sandstone and is often used as a symbol of the state of Utah. Originally it didn’t lie within the boundaries of the Arches National Monument that had been created in 1929. But the monument was enlarged in 1938 to include the Delicate Arch. Once again, it was worth the climb. It was quite beautiful.

Before leaving the park, we drove around to look at other areas and other formations. Another formation I found interesting was called the Three Gossips. It does look like three women clustered together, but they could just be three close friends and not necessarily gossips.

We drove along the Colorado River into the state of Colorado to Grand Junction, where we paid a visit to the Grande River Vineyards. We had a tour of the winery, a wine tasting and lunch. After lunch we headed towards Vail, where we took a break. By this point, we were well up into the mountains and surrounded by snow. So we had gone from summer temperatures of around 100° to snow. I had a rain jacket with a zip out lining with me that I put on before leaving the coach for our break.

Vail was a small town with mainly hotels and restaurants and ski resorts. From Vail, we continued to climb up to about 11,000 feet above sea level. Eventually, we arrived in Denver, where we spent the night at a downtown hotel.

The next morning after breakfast, we began our journey to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We had our morning break in Cheyenne, Wyoming, lunch in Torrington, Wyoming, and an afternoon break in Edgemont, South Dakota. Edgemont is at the southernmost edge of the Black Hills.

Next time — the Black Hills, Deadwood & the Devil’s Tower.

November 3, 2019

Las Vegas & the Grand Canyon

The tour to the Western US National Parks that I took in 2013 was a change of pace for me. Usually I take trips to places with lots of history, architecture, art, and local culture. The National Parks are scenic. They are located in some of the most gorgeous landscapes in the US. So it was all natural beauty instead of much of anything man made.

We started our tour in Las Vegas. I arrived fairly early in the day. After checking into Treasure Island, where my room was located on the Mirage side (which a friend of mine had told me had the best views and he was right), I had some lunch and then went exploring. The Venetian, Flamingo, Mirage, Harrah’s, Caesar’s Palace were all nearby. The Bellagio, with its dancing fountains, was not far as well. The fountains could be easily seen from my room all lit up at night.

It was quite a hot day, with the temperature just a bit over 100°F. I walked down the Strip to take a closer look at the Venetian. It played off of an Italian theme, with gondolas and buildings modeled after those in Venice. After that, I visited Madame Tussaud’s for fun.

I headed back to Treasure Island, which naturally had a pirate theme. They had some battles between a couple of ships in the lagoons outside of the hotel. I found that these battles went on at all hours of the day and night. But they weren’t on my side of the hotel, so they didn’t disturb my sleep.

Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, but 1931 was a huge year for them when construction began nearby on the Hoover Dam and the state of Nevada legalized casino gambling. Located within the Mojave Desert, Vegas has a subtropical hot desert climate.

In the late 1930s/early 1940s, organized crime took an interest in building casinos just outside of the city on what is now called the Strip. One of the most famous of the early casinos was the original Flamingo – Bugsy Siegel’s pet project.

I met the rest of the group for drinks at 6pm. Surprisingly to me, most were from the US – mainly the South or the East Coast. There were a handful from Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Seemed like a nice group of people, so I was looking forward to traveling with them. I had also gotten a new smart phone. I was looking forward to sharing the trip as it happened with family and the friend that was planning to join me in the Black Hills.

The next morning, we set out for the Grand Canyon. On the way, we waved at Hoover Dam and Lake Meade as we went by. We also saw some lava flows from now extinct volcanos.

We traveled along Historic Route 66 for a ways. Our morning break was at Seligman. Pretty much lost in the 1950s, Seligman has several kitschy little shops, diners and such for the tourists.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon by lunchtime. We watched an IMAX movie called “Hidden Secrets” before those of us who had signed up for it, took a helicopter ride over the canyon. I had hoped we would dip down within the canyon a little. But the helicopter stayed above it. Something about the winds. I took lots of photos.

The Ancestral Puebloans were the Native Americans who lived in and around the Grand Canyon for thousands of years before the first European arrived in 1540. The first American expedition down the canyon took place in 1869 and was led by Major John Wesley Powell. Three men left the expedition and were never heard from again. To this day, their remains have never been found.

We stayed at the Bright Angel Lodge. A central lodge building, right on the rim, was flanked by several cabins. We had dinner in the lodge and spent quite a bit of time after dinner looking at and photographing the canyon from the ridge at that viewpoint. I managed to get a photo of a California Condor in flight over the canyon.

The next day, we continued along the South Rim to Desert View (which had a tower built to resemble ancient Anasazi watchtowers). We also made a stop at Moran Point.

After leaving the Grand Canyon National Park, we entered the Navajo Nation. Some of the canyon is located in part of the Navajo Nation, which includes most of the Four Corners – Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, with the fourth state being Colorado.

We drove through the Painted Desert, which mainly lies within the Petrified Forest National Park. Quite a bit of the desert also lies within the Navajo Nation.

We arrived in Cameron in time for lunch. We ate at a restaurant attached to the Trading Post. I had a Navajo Taco. This was a large portion of Fry Bread topped with ground beef, chili beans, lettuce, cheese, tomato and mild green chilies. In the Trading Post, I found a large peace pipe carved from a horn and a Hopi Kachina. Both were swathed in large quantities of bubble wrap in order to travel through the rest of the trip safely.

I had in it mind before taking the trip that I wanted to get a Navajo peace pipe, a Hopi Kachina, and a Lakota breastplate. I just hoped that I could get them at reasonable prices. I was excited to get two of the three items already. The Kachina was a bit more than I had intended to pay, but it was hand carved and all wood, which was the traditional way of creating them. It was a bear and a work of art. Photos will be included of the four items I eventually purchased on the trip with the next post.

Next time – Monument Valley & Tony Hillerman.

View from hotel window
Treasure Island
A pirate ship
The Strip and the Venetian
The Venetian
Thor at Madame Tussaud’s
Seligman along Route 66
Grand Canyon from helicopter
More of Grand Canyon from helicopter
Even more of Grand Canyon from helicopter
View from Bright Angel Lodge
Another view from the lodge
Still another view from the lodge
A California Condor
View from Desert View
Anasazi style watchtower
Zoomed in for a closeup
The Painted Desert

February 24, 2019February 24, 2019

Washington, DC Revisited

For a fall 2010 tour of the US Historic East, including Colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil War sites, I had an early morning flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. I do dislike early morning flights. But I would rather take one when going to a domestic destination and have a decent amount of time on my first day than taking a late flight and not getting to see anything before the tour begins. This tour, the flight from Chicago to Washington’s Reagan National was delayed by a thunderstorm. After getting a good late lunch at the hotel, I set off to explore the area around it.

I was upgraded to a suite on a special floor where you had to use your room card on the elevator when selecting the floor in order to get there. Unlike Amman, Jordan where I had a suite but couldn’t use it, I had two full nights at this hotel. After getting back to the hotel from my exploration of the neighborhood (the hotel was roughly a block from the White House), I checked out the VIP room for the people on my floor. I found bottled water, fruit, pastries and small bottles of sparkling wine. Trying not to be too much of a pig, I hauled a few items back to my room. I wasn’t going to need to go anywhere for dinner that night.

We had about 45 people on the tour. Since it had to do with US history, there were several Americans. We also had a few Canadians and a couple of Brits. Our Tour Director was named Scott. At our meet and greet that evening, I met a couple of ladies (Judy & Gaye) from Louisville, Kentucky with whom I often sat for dinner or lunch.

The following morning, we began our tour with a walk to Lafayette Park and the White House. However, we were fairly quickly asked to leave as the President and his family were walking from the White House to the church on the other side of the park (St Johns) to attend Sunday morning service. So we walked back to the hotel, jumped on our tour coach and made our way to Arlington National Cemetery.

The first thing we did was to visit the graves of President Kennedy, Jackie, Bobby & Ted. Then we looked at some of the Civil War graves before heading to the Iwo Jima Memorial. The land upon which the cemetery stands was originally owned by the Custis family. These were the descendants of George Washington’s wife, Martha and her children by her first husband. Martha’s great-granddaughter married a fella named Robert E. Lee.

When he resigned his commission in the US military and took the reins of the Confederate army (actually the Army of Northern Virginia at that time), Lee stationed his army on his property. This was way too dangerous for the Union. So once the Union managed to remove Lee and his forces, they took over the property. It wasn’t widely used as a cemetery until after the war ended, although a couple bodies were buried on the outskirts once the other cemeteries in the DC area filled up.

The Iwo Jima Memorial is actually dedicated to the US Marines. This was not a memorial that I saw on my first trip to DC back in 1999, so I was glad to see it. We then visited the Korean War Memorial, which I find to be very haunting. Next came the Lincoln Memorial (one of my favorites) and the Vietnam War Memorial. The son of one of our neighbors back in Dallas, where I grew up, died in the Vietnam War. We had enough time there for me to look up his name and find it on the memorial.

We drove by the Capitol, only stopping for a photo from across the lawn. That was okay since I had been able to go inside on my last tour to DC. I had other plans for my free time in the afternoon. We were dropped off at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art to get lunch and set off on our free time. We could either return there later in the afternoon for a pickup or make our own way back to the hotel. I chose to make my own way back.

After lunch, I walked to Ford’s Theatre. During my last trip, I had been able to see the museum in the basement of the theatre, but not the theatre itself. It had been closed due to a performance of a play. After paying for my admission, I walked up the stairs and entered the theatre at the balcony level. I was retracing John Wilkes Booth’s footprints at that point, but then I departed the path he took to walk down to the front row of the balcony and sit down to soak it all in.

When I was in college, I had designed the costumes for a play which ended up traveling to Ford’s Theatre as part of a competition for play productions from universities around the US. Since I wasn’t actually in the play that time, I didn’t get to go. Just my costumes. I stared at the stage for a while, imagining my costumes moving about down there.

Although you can’t get into the Presidential box itself, you can see right into it from the same perspective that John Wilkes Booth had in the small hallway right behind the presidential box. I managed to get a pretty decent photo from there without reflections. After spending as much time in the theatre itself as I wanted to, I went downstairs to the museum and explored that again.

I had been pretty much all by myself in the theatre and had purchased the ticket to see both the theatre and the Peterson House across the street. Back out in the street, there wasn’t any line in front of the Peterson House at all. I went in and found that I had it pretty much to myself too. The challenge with photographing the bed on which Lincoln died, is that it is completely surrounded by glass. So getting a photo without reflections is difficult. But I don’t think I did too badly. He was too tall for the bed and had to lie diagonally across it.

On my way back to the hotel, I went by Madame Tussaud’s, so I decided to stop in. In addition to the usual actors, singers, etcetera, this one had several historical figures and presidents. Not all of the wax figures are great likenesses of their subjects, but they can give you a good general idea of what someone looks like – especially height and build. Since you can walk around among them, you can stand toe to toe.

That night, we went to Georgetown for a delicious seafood dinner, followed by a visit to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I sat with Judy and Gaye at dinner. They were delightful company.

A World War II Memorial had been built in 2004. We visited it too and took photos from there of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial and Capitol. The WWII Memorial was quite beautiful at night. It has memorials for both the European theatre and the Pacific.

Next time – we set off for Alexandria, Mount Vernon, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg.