Don & Sandi at "home", back in the Stockton area.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Grand Canyon

Hi.

We have spent the past two days at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.  We had previously visited the North Rim and it was beautiful...but we have found that we believe the South Rim views are even more beautiful.  But you cannot lose by visiting either rim of the Grand Canyon...absolutely spectacular!

We hiked some of the South Rim trail on Wednesday and enjoyed the views and the walk.   On Thursday we drove about 25 miles along the South Rim roads and stopped at scenic-view outlooks about ten times.  We also visited the Tusayan Pueblo Ruin,  occupied by Native Americans over 800 years ago.   We also visited the Desert View Watchtower, built in 1932.  It was designed as a re-creation of prehistoric towers found over large areas of the Southwest, believed to be used for food storage and protection during war.  This tower was built as an observation tower and rest stop for early visitors to the Grand Canyon's South Rim.

We will leave the Grand Canyon on Friday and head towards California.   We should arrive home in the Stockton area in the next 7 to 10 days...or so  ;-).

Take care.
Don & Sandi.  

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

White Sands & Belen

Hi.

We have spent the past couple of days with "Uncle Ken" in Alamogordo, New Mexico.  We had a great time visiting with him and going to the White Sands and the Space Museum.

The White Sands are incredible...miles-upon-miles of white sand (looks almost like snow from a distance); and the sand is soft, almost like talcum powder.   The Alamogordo area has been an instrumental site in the development of weapons (first A-bomb test called the "Trinity" project took place at the White Sands); as well as space-related projects.  The White Sands Space Harbor is an emergency landing site for the Shuttle.

Our visit with Uncle Ken was great.  He has been a fixture in Alamogordo for decades and he has to be the youngest 95-year old person I have ever met.  Our wish is to be as "young" as him when we are 95 years old!  

We then drove north to Belen, New Mexico...my father's birthplace.  He grew-up in Belen until he was 17 (and moved with the whole family to Richmond, California).   He worked at the railroad station as the person who had to wake the train engineers and caboose-men to tell them their train had arrived and it was time to get to the train.  He worked out of the "Harvey House" (see photo), which is now a national historic site.   He would wake the men sleeping at the Harvey House, or run to their homes locally to wake them.  It was great to visit Belen.

We arrived at our campground inside the Grand Canyon National Park late on Tuesday.   Boy is it cold (predicted low of 23 degrees F tonight)!   There are even some small patches of snow on the ground in our campsite.

Take care.
Don & Sandi  

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