Road Trip ‘23, Part 2

Grand Canyon - Brice & Zion Road trip – part II

  It was nearly mid-morning on Wednesday , June 14, when we drove away from Bob and Ann’s to continue our road trip back to NW Arkansas.  Aaron was driving as we left Bakersfield and headed towards Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  Before our arrival in Bryce, we just had to stop and take a few photos of the beautiful Red Rock Canyon.  It was such a sharp contrast to the miles of brown desert country we went through in Nevada.  This part of Utah is very scenic.  

Bryce Canyon did not disappoint us.  I suppose it will always amaze tourists who have never seen it before.  Aaron and Melody had never been here and they were quite taken with this scenic wonder.  The canyon is, of course, colorful and majestic.  The awesome part is the in-canyon rock formations called “Hoodoos” These rocks appear as columns of rocks as if standing at attention.  It is said that these columns are formed by pieces of rock breaking away from the main cliff whenever winter ice forms.  These columns are also pushed around by the winter weather and erosion.  Anyway, it is a gorgeous and unusual sight.  The entire

canyon can be seen from different lookout vistas along the rim.   We stopped at the visitors center before driving to the overlook.  The sign suggested we take the tour bus as the parking lot on top was full.  We decided to take our chances and upon arrival, found 8 or so parking places available.    

From Bryce, we headed for Zion National Park.  In our minds we were headed for the main entrance but in reality, we were on the road to the north end entrance, which is much less populated and busy.  It took a while but soon we pulled off road onto the canyon entrance and a stop at the visitor’s center.  The sign said the canyon entrance road has been closed due to a sink hole forming in the middle of the road at about the two-mile mark.  So, we drove on to that point just to see what we could see.  We were able to get out of the car and take a couple of photos of the entrance canyon.  The small part we could see was very scenic.  We could have walked in as only the road was closed but our tired old bones had no desire to do that.  The grandkids were also of the same mind.  So, we drove back out and headed towards the same way we came to find our motel.     We stopped for a little dinner at a crowded food trailer and then headed to our motel. Aaron quickly headed down the hallway to the hot tub to soak away the stiffness.  He struck up a conversation with a man who had just taken his family to the main entrance.  He suggested that Aaron get there at 6:00 AM to avoid a long line.  Considering that the park did not open until 8:00 and the part about “crowds”,which sounded like a long wait anyway, so we opted to continue on towards the Grand Canyon.  So we did.   We passed alongside the canyon rim, stopping a couple of times to take photos and look over into the deep canyon.  It was awesome, as usual.  We drove on out and pulled into the Red Feather Lodge, where we had motel reservations for one night.  We found some dinner just across the street and had a nice sit-down meal followed by some relaxing time in the motel.     The next morning, we took advantage of their free breakfast and coffee.  I was not hungry but Aaron took advantage.  I did grab a cup of hot coffee and sit outside at one of the picnic tables.  After we packed our car and checked out, we drove over to one of the small airports where we would board a helicopter for a Grand Canyon tour.  Debby did not go with Aaron, Melody and me, but remained behind with Toronto while we were gone.     The Chopper had room for six.  We sat in the front seat, side by side while two other passengers sat in the seats behind us.  Melody sat next to the pilot.  She had been apprehensive about this ride for a while but I kept reassuring her we were safe enough.  She actually did really well and enjoyed our scenic flight.  As the GC is a National Park, aircraft have elevation restrictions.  We were not able to fly down inside the GC but were able to see quite well anyway.  The mighty canyon was even more amazing from our vantage point.  The Colorado River was quite visible.  We could even see kayaks on the water.  The pilot showed us the Little Colorado, a smaller tributary off the main river, looking very pristine.  He said the water is turquois because of the mineral deposits in the creek bed.  With the water crystal clear, it appears to have colors of turquois and purple.   It was a most enjoyable flight with a great pilot.  Our flight lasted less than an hour.  It wasn’t cheap but it was well worth the cost.  Debby and Toronto were on deck waiting for us to land.  We made our way through the visitor’s center and out to the Sienna.  We soon merged onto the Interstate and headed east towards home.  We stopped for the night in Tucumcari.  The next morning, we got an early start for a long drive back to Springdale.  We stopped for lunch and a short visit in Oklahoma City at our son, Matt’s house. He and Brent fed us some great sandwiches! After resting up a while, we continued traveling.   We had a great trip but were happy to sleep in our own bed tonight.   We had a great week spending time with Aaron and Melody.  We enjoyed much time around the pool and in the hot tub. We enjoyed looking over our photographs and laughing over the helicopter ride.  “Ethyl”, our Sienna, was a trooper!  We were blessed to have a van that gave us absolutely no trouble.  We put about 5,000 miles on her and she never complained.  With nearly 200,000 miles of cross-country road trips, she may need to think about retiring.  I’m not sure Debby and I have long road trips in us anymore.  Sitting for so many hours is hard on the old bones.  It’s either hang it up or get new bones! Mike  

Oregon ‘23

Oregon ‘23 June 11, 2023 OREGON

  Our week in Portland was busy with events and people.  Sunday morning services at church brought back a lot of good memories.  It was great seeing our friends and fellow Christians once again.  It was good to hug our grandkids and see how they had grown.  We drove down to Newberg and spent the night with Rick and Mona, Debby’s brother and family.  We were proud to see that Violet, our Niece was also graduating from high school.  Unfortunately, her graduation party and actual graduation ceremony was at the exact same time as Dawson’s event.  We love Violet but would have to participate in Dawson’s graduation, as that is the reason for our road trip.  We have been active in the life of Dawson since the day he was born when we held him at the hospital.  It has been fun watching him grow up into a wonderful young man.  We have been with him through the days of growing up that included soccer, baseball, basketball, camping, hiking and fire building.  I taught him how to build his first fire when he was three. I would have liked to have taken him hiking and backpacking more, but he was more interested in just staying home or playing sports. But he was so much fun as a little tyke and we have so many good memories of him and his three brothers.  We also did things with them; especially enjoying camping and taking trips to the beach.  All the boys loved playing basketball and playing in the state championship playoffs.     Dawson had a great graduation party.  We arrived in Portland early enough for Debby to organize and help with that event.  Dawson asked for several dozen Little Smokies dogs for his friends.  I helped Debby by helping prepare the tiny hot dogs.  I think I made nearly 100.  We had a lot of other snacks, too.  We tried to take photos of all the guests.  Hopefully, we were successful.   Dawson said he wasn’t going to college this year.  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do.  Perhaps he will work part time and attend nearby Clackamas Junior College, until he decides what to do.  In the meantime, we were busy visiting everyone and enjoying our vacation.  It was great seeing Dan and Ami once again.  She has been like a daughter to me.  I love her like my own.  Our Great-Granddaughter, Melody, is the love of our life.  She is so smart, beautiful and has a great sense of humor.  Her personality is independent, having a strong will and a mind of her own.  She and our grandson, Aaron, will be driving back to Arkansas with us.  We have some adventures planned for them.   The week went by rather quickly.  Sunday morning came and Debby dropped me off at the airport.  I would be flying to Bakersfield, California to spend a couple of days with my cousin, Ann Wood and her husband, Bobby. Ann has Macular Degeneration like me.  Her’s might be a little worse than mine and it’s certainly different. She has had no organized training on how to better use her remaining vision and I thought I might could help her.   My reason for this visit was to try to help her with her mobility and to use magnification and OCR (Optical Character Recognition).  I brought an OCR device with me to loan her and see if it will work for her.  She will need to practice a lot but I believe it will help her with seeing pill bottles, paperwork and photos.   I also want to work with her as she uses the cane.  The blind cane is very helpful with checking the space in front of one walking for any obstacles or hazards.  With practice, confidence increases as the blind becomes more and more self-reliance   Bob and Ann picked me up at the airport about noon and we drove to their home.  Bakersfield appears to have grown a lot since my last visit here to see my grandmother in 1967. They have a beautiful home with an amazing backyard.  There are so many plants and flowers surrounding a well-manicured grass lawn that looks more like a putting green on a golf course than a backyard.   We spend the next couple of days getting reacquainted as we had not seen each other for more than 60 years.  She was a lot of fun to talk to and get to know.  She is in her 80’s but very sharp and spry.  It was a lot of fun reminiscing about common stories and things we still remember.  I had never met her husband, Bob.  He was also fun to get to know.  We went out to eat a couple of times.  For the most part, I worked with Ann learning to use the OCR reader, the cane and her iPhone   As planned, Debby, Aaron and Melody showed up Tuesday afternoon.  They left Portland Sunday afternoon and drove to Bakersfield via Yosemite National Park, where they spent some time checking out that beautiful place. Aaron was our designated driver.  Debby is not too keen on driving busy roads. But even worse, she isn’t too keen on letting me drive, either! Mike

Road Trip , May 27, 2023

Road Trip 2023

May 27, 2023   Towards the end of May, we began final preparation to pack our 2012 Sienna for another cross-country trip to Oregon.  Our good friends, Greg and Dottie Woods have been spending the past few weeks with their grandchildren in Oklahoma.  They would be taking the road trip back to Portland with us.  Our grandson, Dawson is graduating from high school and we certainly want to be there.  We were there the day he was born and have watched him grow up into a nice young man and all the way to graduation.   Our traveling companions, the Pinkertons, will not be making this trip with us as they have other plans with their own family.  But Greg and Dottie are excited to be taking this adventure with us once again.  It will be like old times as we have taken this trip with them before.  Not to mention that Greg and I drove our car from Portland to Oklahoma City in 2020 when we moved to Arkansas.     Ron Pinkerton was kind enough to drive me to the Oklahoma City area to rendezvous with Greg at a famous Route 66 iconic stop called “Pop’s”, a gas station and burger joint boasting selling over 600 varieties of soda pop.  I always like going there because it’s one place where you can buy sodas that are nearly extinct; like Big Red, Orange Crush, Nehi Grape, Grapette, Jolt Cola and many, many others.   Greg and Dottie arrived on time with his daughter-in-law and two grandkids.  After a few hugs and tears with the kids we headed back home to Arkansas.  We spent the next two days relaxing and driving to Branson to see Silver Dollar City.  It was a short trip but long enough for us Codgers. On Friday we relaxed around the house and began packing our Sienna.  Saturday morning, we finished the loading and said goodbye to our Pinkerton friends.  Nancy would be busy the next few weeks watering and taking care of things around our house.  I had rigged up an automatic watering system for my garden so she would not have to worry about that.      We drove away a

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