A Little 60 Celebration

Sunday, February 17 – Saturday, February 23

Sunday, February 17

Happy 60th Birthday to brother Ernie in Artesia!!!

Barbara: Since we knew we weren't going to regular church service today, we got up at 6 to watch Hour of Power. It didn't take us long to recognize the fact that this was what we were supposed to do.

First, the guest was Wintley Phipps, who sang for the Billy Graham crusades for 26 years. His story was quite amazing. It went something like this: He was on a flight on Eastern Airlines when he noticed that one of the stewardesses seemed quite down. He called her over and told her he felt God was telling him to share one of his tapes with her since she seemed to be going through a difficult time.

What he didn't know was that a couple of weeks later, this same stewardess on a different flight saw Cliff Barrow, the music director for the Billy Graham Crusades. She shared the tape with him and within a week, Wintley received a call asking that he join this organization.

Then, young Robert Schuler, preached on "When you're down to nothing, God is up to something." He based this sermon on Levitius 15...The Law

His points were:

1. She heard...faith brings hope into reality...never heard it wasn't possible

2. She believed...when you believe you will see it...We live by fiath not by sight

3. She acted...God send you blessings, but sometimes you don't have faith to open!

4. She received...Your faith will make you well...Come before God in prayer...

It was certainly a wonderful way to start the morning!

Jim: It was a beautiful morning for the activities we had planned to get ready for Ernie’s birthday dinner. The temperature was fairly warm, the sun was shining, and there was no wind to speak of…all in all, a perfect morning for firing up the charcoal grill and barbecuing a bunch of pork chops and sausages. Since this was the first time in a long time that I’d had a chance to fire up the grill, I even got to use the high-fashion cooking outfit that Leah and Ryan gave me for Christmas - a padded apron, cook’s hat, heavy duty mitt, and new grilling tools. One of the things I asked for at Christmas was a cooking apron. John, Carol, and Randi sent me a really nice one that I use inside and the one from Leah and Ryan if for barbecuing. Boy…am I set up or what!
When we told Mother what we wanted to do for Ernie’s birthday and, at the same time, asked her if we could have the dinner at her house, she said she would pay for the food if we’d fix it…couldn’t ask for a better deal than that. So, while I tended the fire outside, Barbara went to work in Big V’s kitchen baking potatoes and fixing green beans. We also had a loaf of fresh bread going in the bread-maker. It sure did “stink purty” around here!

By 11:30 we had everything cooked and put together to take over to Mother’s house, but before we could get there, we had to make a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up the birthday cake that Barbara had ordered. We had gotten a cake there for Mother’s birthday last week and it as so good that we decided to give them another try.

Once at Mother’s house, we set the table and then the feasting began. We had a great time enjoying the food and visiting with each other…just another of the benefits of retirement – time to share special events with family members without scheduling around vacation days, ballgames, concerts, etc.

Of course, we had the camera along and we got this shots of Ernie and Billee with his birthday cake (it says, “Ernie’s older than dirt.”)

With dinner out of the way and the dishes in the dishwasher, we all decided that we’d adjourn to our respective homes for a classic Sunday nap.

Since it was such a beautiful afternoon, Nancy decided she’d take Benji for a ride on her four-wheeler. We had told her my comment from last week’s journal about the two of them looking like a modern-day Dorothy and Toto, so Barbara took the opportunity this afternoon to take a picture of them as they stopped by the house for a short visit. It's amazing how little Benji has taken to the ride on the red machine! He just loves the air blowing though his ears and never seems to tire of riding with Nancy. They are quite a sight!

While Barbara was outside visiting with Nancy, she noticed that Jerry was taking advantage of a light breeze to get in his first kite-flying session of the season. His kite just looked like a large bird in the clear, blue skies.

When I finally got up and around, I decided to fire up the motorcycle and take a little ride around the town…it was a little cool, but still a very good day for a ride. During this ride I even found the old farm house that we had lived in when I was in the third and fourth grades and we were out in the country. The house is still standing, but is now used as a storage shed. The old alfalfa fields and the surrounding farm houses have all been plowed under and turned into pecan groves.

Still, the sight of the place brought back great memories. I guess we were dirt-poor, but we didn’t know it because we had green fields to roam, fresh well water to drink, chickens of our own (all the fresh eggs and fried chicken we could eat), and new shirts to wear after every visit to town to buy chicken feed (that is, as soon as the bags were emptied and Mother got busy at the sewing machine).

Anyway, it was a great day all around for us. We finished it off by going over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to play a couple of rousing games of Apples to Apples with Jerry, Nancy, Jean, and Becky.

We did get the following email and picture from grandson Little Jimmy Farnham this evening:

Dear Grams and Gramps,

Thank you for the very cool outfit. I especially love the antelope. Thank you for thinking of me on your trip. See you soon, Jimmy.

How about that kid…not even a year old yet and in addition to being very photogenic, he already has great language and keyboarding skills…should be a cinch to ace his Kansas Assessments when he finally starts to school!

Monday, February 18

Happy Presidents Day to everyone!

After our late night last night, we just slept in and then lazed around the house for most of the morning. With no mail to pick up today, there wasn’t any point in getting out early…besides, it was cool and windy…guess we were just very lucky that we had such god weather yesterday.

Around noon I did ride into town to copy and mail a final (I hope) piece of documentation for our tax preparer in Liberal. Then, it was over to Mother’s house to see how things were going there and to pick up some laundry that we had started yesterday.

During the afternoon I went out and gathered up some of the tumbleweeds that had gathered in our south fence line. It was probably more of an exercise in futility than anything, but at least it was some exercise.

We made a late trip over to see Mother and the puppies and then returned to Big V where we just whiled away the evening.

Tuesday, February 19

It was a beautiful morning out, so while Barbara worked inside Big V, I grabbed a rake and started raking Jean’s south lawn. She has six of her pecan trees between her house and the south fence, and since the folks who are gathering the pecans this season are nearly done in that area, I thought I’d rake up all the loose grass, pecan hulls, and other assorted goodies that seem to gather out there and get everything hauled off to one of the trash piles. Well, we call them trash piles because that’s where we put all the limbs, sticks, leaves, grass clippings, etc., but the piles are also refuges for the many birds, (particularly quail) and assorted other critters that share the land with us.

The job turned out to be much larger than I thought it would be, and I was only half done when it was time to come inside, clean up, and get dressed to take Mother to Roswell for her last follow-up visit with Dr. Osmani, who did her back surgery in December.

We picked Mother up at 2:00 and headed north to Roswell for her 3:00 o’clock appointment. The office had called us earlier to say that they were in a new location and on the second floor. We asked about accessibility, since Mother would need a wheelchair once we got there and they said that would be no problem…just call when we got to the parking lot and they would send someone down.

That all sounded great, but when we got there and called, they said that they had her scheduled for 8:30 Wednesday morning. In the process of moving, they had rescheduled some of their patients, but evidently hadn’t notified all of them. When Barbara explained that Mother was 85 years old and couldn’t go back to Artesia tonight and then be back in Roswell at 8:30 tomorrow morning, they agreed to work her into the schedule today.

Barbara had called her sister Carol to let her know that we were going to be there, so she came out to meet us. However, with all the confusion about scheduling, Barbara decided she should just stay at the doctor’s office and she and Carol could visit later.

As usual, once we were inside and registered, the staff was wonderful to work with…it just took us a long time to get everything done. While we were waiting, I called Jerry and Jane to see if they wanted to come up to the office to visit. It was obvious by now that we wouldn’t get through in time to go to there house on this trip. Jerry was just waking up and getting ready to go to his night job at New Mexico Military Institute, so they allowed that they probably wouldn’t be able to get up to see us.

It all took awhile, but Dr. Osmani is very thorough and is willing to answer all questions. By 6:00 p.m. Mother had a clean bill of health and we were back in the Vibe and headed toward Artesia.

Along the way, Barbara decided that since it was going to be so late when we got home, we might just as well go to La Fonda and have some Mexican food. Mother just wanted to get home and go to bed, so we called Jean to see if she was up to a culinary adventure tonight. She said that was great, so we agreed that we’d call her when we got to Mother’s house and then he could meet us at the restaurant. We also called Jerry and Nancy and Becky, but they were already fixing their suppers, so they took rain checks.

Once we got Mother in place, we headed downtown to La Fonda. As we turned onto Main Street, we saw a Lubbock ISD activity bus parked across the street. Since it was Tuesday night, I figured that one of the Lubbock basketball teams was playing in Artesia and the bus driver had taken off to grab a meal during the games. Since we didn’t see any school-aged kids when we got inside, we more or less forgot about it.

When Jean got there we ordered our meals and visited for a while. After the meals came and we were eating, Barbara noticed some boys wearing Monterey HS sweat suits coming out of one of the dining areas. She asked one of them if they had played here tonight and the young man said yes, but that they had lost and were on their way home.

We continued our meal and a few minutes later one of the coaches, also wearing a sweat suit, came out from the door beside us. I happened to look up as he came past and he gave us a glance and then took a couple more steps before doing a classic double take and spinning around; it was Ryan Bobo, one of our former teachers at Liberal High School, and now a teacher and coach at MHS in Lubbock…what a wonderful surprise! We had just a few minutes to visit and then he had to join the other on the bus and get back to Lubbock.

Now I ask you…what are the odds that we would have been late coming back from Roswell, that the Monterey HS basketball team would be playing a game against an El Paso team at a neutral site in Artesia, and that we would all decide that La Fonda would be a good place to eat tonight?

After that there was nothing else to do but finish our meal, get in our cars and head back home to call it a day.

Wednesday, February 20

Since we are going to be in Puerto Rico on March 4 (Texas Primary Election Day), we made arrangements with Jimmy and Cathey to come to Lubbock and spend the night with them so we could go cast our ballots during the early voting on Thursday. We figured we could visit with Jaycie (and her parents), and do some shopping as part of the package. So, we spent this morning getting everything ready for the trip and an overnight stay at Jaycie’s Boarding House.

Deciding to forego our regular Wednesday Chaos luncheon with the clan, we got away from Artesia around 11:30 after first checking in with Mother and letting her know of our plans.

We arrived in Lubbock around 3:30 their time and went straight to the house. Jaycie had just arrived from school, so we got to visit with her for a while before she had to get ready to go to her cheer practice. Normally we would go out and watch her practice for a bit, but the gym was having a closed session today, so Jimmy took her out there while we went out to take care of some chores (have oil changed and wash the car) and do some shop-looking for a new printer-copier.

After our shopping trip, we returned to the house to visit with Jimmy and Cathey for a bit before Jimmy went to pick Jaycie up. While he was doing that, we took everyone’s meal orders and went to Burger King to buy tonight’s supper.

When everyone was back at the house we sat around the living room, ate, watched TV, got caught up on all the latest news.

Since they all had to get up early tomorrow morning for work or school, we all turned in early. Jaycie offered us her bed and decided to “camp out” on the living room couch. We both did a little reading once we were in bed, but it didn’t take long until the lights were out and everyone was fast asleep.

Thursday, February 21

Sometime around 1:00 a.m. we heard (and felt) a rustling in our room and woke up enough to find that Jaycie had crawled into bed with us. We guess she woke up on the couch, forgot that we were there, and came back to her own bed. After a few minutes of trying to get comfortable, I decided I’d leave the bed to Barbara and Jaycie and went to the living room to sleep on one of the couches.

Around 4:00 a.m. I woke up with some severe abdominal cramps…didn’t know what was going on, but I sure did know I was hurting. I toughed it out on the couch until Cathey woke Jaycie up and then I crawled back into the bed and rested for another hour or so.

While I was asleep, Barbara visited with Jaycie, Cathey, and Jimmy. They had just a little bit of time to take these latest pictures of Jaycie…just can’t figure out how she can get her body to bend this way…makes us hurt to watch!

After Jaycie got off to school and Cathey headed to her workplace, Barbara and I got cleaned up and dressed and said goodbye to Jimmy (he works out of his office in the house) and went to a United Supermarket to buy some Pedro’s tamales, do some banking, and vote. We got there just a couple of minutes before 10:00, so we were able to avoid the lines that quickly gathered.

After taking care of business at United, we hopped back into the Vibe and headed out of town. We hadn’t gotten very far when I was feeling so bad that I asked Barbara to drive so I could lean back and get some sleep. I was feeling pretty sure by then that I had gotten a bad fish sandwich last night at Burger King and was now paying the price.

We spent the drive waiting to hear some important news from Leah and Ryan. Today was the day they were to go have a sonogram and learn the gender of Baby McQuitty. When we hadn’t heard anything by nearly 11:00, Barbara called and left a message to get back to us as soon as possible.

Within a few minutes Leah called and said they had just finished and that we would be welcoming a new boy, Jameson Dudley McQuitty, to the world sometime around June 22.

Later in the evening we received an email with copies of the sonograms. They were interesting, but we have to admit that we are from the old school and don’t really understand what it is we are looking at. However...we were able to see his precious face in one of them! Still, it’s good to know and gives us better information about what to look for in future shopping expeditions.

We had earlier in the month gotten word that my former mother-in-law had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital in Hobbs, so our plans for the day included driving back to Artesia through Hobbs so I could have a chance to see her. Since I figured I only had a touch of food poisoning and wasn’t contagious, we went ahead with that plan.

When we got to Hobbs, we first went by the Black Gold Casino where Barbara waited while I went to the hospital. I got there just in time, as Marie was to be transferred back to her nursing home right after lunch. I also got to visit with Linda and Larry, my former sister-in-law and brother-in-law while I was there and get caught up on what was going on in their lives.

After about an hour, I went back to the Black Gold and played for a bit before we headed off on the final leg of our trip back to Artesia.

Once back at Big V, we opened her up and then unloaded the car and started putting things away. We called Mother to let her know that we were back in town, but that we wouldn’t be coming over to see her tonight. All I wanted to do was lie down and try to get comfortable.

Barbara did go across to visit Jean for a bit and let her know what was going on. After that, we just settled in for the evening so I could start my recuperation and begin (on a very regular basis) the expulsion of whatever was wrong with me.

Friday, February 22

All I can say for myself about today is that it was a day that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I spent the entire day attempting to eat something (heated flour tortillas or some Jell-o that Barbara made for me), drinking some watered-down Gatorade, and paying homage to the porcelain goddess…’nuff said!

Around noon we got a call from Barbara’s sister Carol in Roswell. She was letting us know that her husband, Cal, had been taken to the hospital and was in ICU at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center. He had collapsed and was having trouble breathing. The initial diagnosis, once they got him to the hospital, was that he had a collapsed lung.

We decided that Barbara should go on to Roswell, since I could stay here and take care of myself, so she got herself ready…packed for overnight, just in case, and drove up to see Carol, Cal, and any of the kids who might have arrived.

After visiting with them for a couple of hours and finding that Cal was more or less stabilized, Barbara decided to return to Artesia for the night. We decided that there was quite a crowd there and we would wait and go up there Sunday evening when all the kids took off to return to their homes and jobs.

The evening was relatively uneventful. My “bouts” with Montezuma became a little less frequent, and we spent most of the time just watching Friday night TV…finally got to bed around 11:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 23

Wow…We both got a full night’s sleep…something that’s an unusual occurrence around here.

I felt a lot better this morning…could even see the gates to the land of the living.

We spent the morning and afternoon doing not much of anything – alternately reading email, playing computer games, reading books, or taking naps (the naps were mostly my thing). It was so windy and dusty out that we didn’t make any attempts to go anywhere, although Barbara did make the run to the highway to check our mail for the day.

We heard from Carol a couple of time today. The first was to let us know that Cal was stabilized and doing as well as could be expected. One of his lungs had a “blowout” and collapsed. Since he is on oxygen all the time anyway, this was a major problem.

Later, Carol called again to say that he had waked up and was asking for his cup of coffee. He didn’t remember anything about collapsing or being taken to the hospital yesterday morning, but he did know it was coffee time, and for us that was a huge step. Believe us, folks…the power of prayer should never be underestimated!

Tonight…Join Jerry, Nancy, Becky, and Jean for the Artesia Arts Council presentation of The Madcap Variety Company, a trio of a saxophonist/one man band, a juggler, and a rope trick specialist…some really fun entertainment.

And that’s it for this week,

Jim & Barbara

“Making a living is not the same as making a life” – Church Signs

A Little Celebration of 85 Years!

Sunday, February 10 – Saturday, February 16

Sunday, February 10

Barbara: Just a pretty normal Sunday morning…after it warmed up a little, Jim went out to rake pecans and assorted stuff out from under the pecan trees so Wendell can start setting out the watering hoses. While he was out there, Ernie called to see if we wanted to take part in the Altrusa Club fundraiser dinner.

We went over to Edith’s around 11:15 and then Jim and Ernie went out to get our meals. The local Altrusa Club holds an annual dinner in Artesia…either turkey and all the trimmings, or roast beef and all the trimmings. We kept it simple and ordered five roast beef dinners to go. It was the first time we had eaten their food, and all agreed that it was quite good.

After eating and visiting, we all voted that it was time for a nap.

Jim: I decided this evening that a motorcycle ride tomorrow was probably going to be out of the question. After checking and rechecking the weather forecasts, we determined that the temperature would be just fine – mid-seventies, but the wind velocity was predicted to be mid-30’s to 40’s – not conducive to an enjoyable ride.

Still, while the weather was nice this evening, I decided to get the Voyager up on the slab and give it a good bath and polishing…just so we’d be ready for the next opportunity to ride. The weather around here is always “iffy” during this part of the year, but a person wants to be ready for a good riding day.

Monday, February 11

Happy 85th Birthday to Edith (Mother)!

Jim: I started the day early by getting dressed and going into town to visit with Tom Dillon, the high school band director. It had been a while since I’d seen him, and with so many things going on in the music department, I thought I’d get caught up on what’s happening there.

The first thing I found out, after going to the band room, was that Tom and the band were meeting in the auditorium to prepare for a concert tonight. In the old days, we had “Valentine Vanities,” a huge production that featured all of the music ensembles and culminated with the crowning of the Valentine Sweetheart” and her court. Evidently, that production has gone by the wayside. Now, the bands have their own “Sweetheart Concert,” a program that allows the 7th grade intermediate school band, the junior high band, and the high school band to give a preview of their contest programs.

I got to the auditorium just in time to watch Tom and the band at work, and while it was obvious that the band had a case of “Monday chops,” it was also obvious that they had worked hard on a very difficult program. It was interesting to see how Tom worked through the various situations; also to see and hear him use almost the same words and gestures that I used on the final rehearsal before a big concert.

Once the rehearsal was over and the kids were on their way to their next classes, Tom suggested that we go to the Java Hut (the local coffee shop and internet café) for a cup of coffee and some conversation. We spent about an hour just visiting and catching up on mutual friends, and then it was time for him to get back to work and me to head back to Big V to get started on today’s lunch menu.

Barbara: When asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, Edith’s constant reply was, “I don’t have birthdays anymore, just anniversaries of my last birthday; so we don’t have to do anything.” Therefore, Jim and Ernie decided that they would surprise her with a spaghetti meal fixed by Jim.

We arrived before Billee and Ernie, so Edith just thought we were coming over to fix her lunch and visit like usual. She was thoroughly surprised when Billee and Ernie showed up.

But, we really surprised her when we brought out the birthday cake! My philosophy is this…every birthday deserves a cake!

We had also picked up a small bouquet of flowers and Ernie and Billee provided the vase.

It was a wonderful celebration and you can see in the photos how happy and pleased she looked. Each day has brought her better health since the back operation. We’re very grateful to Dr. Osmani and, of course, God for that!

Jim and I needed to go to Roswell after the party to find a ballast replacement for one of our ceiling lights. We also wanted to do some other shopping and Ernie sent some pecans over to deliver to my sister Carol.

After returning home we had dinner and then Jim went to the band concert at the high school auditorium while I stayed home and generally goofed off.

Tuesday, February 12

Jim spent the morning reviewing all of our income tax documents before bundling them all together to be copied and then sent off to our tax preparer in Liberal.

There’s not much else that we did that anyone would be interested in. My sister Nancy did send me these photos and another Keylinism…

Nancy wrote that she had gone to the beauty shop to get a perm while Keylin went to have her hair relaxed. When they were finished, “PaPa (Tom) told her, “Look Keylin, you and Nanny have the same type of hair now. Isn’t that neat?”

After a long pause, Keylin leaned up toward the front seat and said (with her hand waving all over the front of her head), “Yeah, except I don’t have that white thing going on in my hair. I’m sure I’ll have some of that white stuff going on when I’m a grandmother, but by then you and Nanny will already be in heaven and you won’t get to see it.” Then she sat back in her seat and went back to writing on her tablet…Oops! Out of the mouths of babes, Nancy!

Wednesday, February 13

Another Chaos Wednesday! However, it just wasn’t an ordinary one since Susie announced that Paul and Stephanie are expecting a baby sometime in September!

We weren’t able to find a replacement ballast or light fixture in Roswell Monday, but Jim did find out that the burned one is under warranty, so he took the fixture out of the ceiling, boxed it up, and got it mailed off to the company in California that manufactured it. Maybe one of these days we’ll be brighter (and maybe the inside of Big V will be, too)

Thursday, February 14

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE!

Today Jim took Edith to the eye doctor where she got a really good report!

I took the time to clean out another cabinet. This seems to be the week to get that done. Now, all cabinets except the bedroom ones have been overhauled this week. It is just amazing to me how much useless junk two people can accumulate! Go figure.
We did get a picture from our friend Charlene at LHS. Charlene is the media specialist at the school and she and her assistants were dressed up to show everyone that they “had heart” today.

Pictured here are Heide (left), Charlene (center), and Tyna (right). Way to go ladies!!!

Jim: Earlier today Nancy called to tell about a concert that was being held at the high school tonight and wanted to know if we were interested in attending with Jerry and her.

Of course, we said we wanted to go, so when the time came, we got out of our “work around the house” clothes and even dressed up for the occasion.

The Artesia Arts Council sponsors several programs throughout the year; tonight’s presentation was by Robin Spielberg, one of today’s most popular contemporary pianists/composers. We weren’t sure what to expect, since the term “contemporary” can have so many connotations, but it didn’t take long for us to become totally mesmerized by the keyboard skills of this talented young woman.

With a program of old piano standards and a healthy dose of her own compositions and stylings, Robin kept the audience members on the edge of their seats as she told stories of her life and how she came to write the various pieces. It was obvious that the piano is an extension of her very heart and soul! If you ever get a chance to see one of her performances, jump at the opportunity…you will not be disappointed.

Friday, February 15

It was a relatively quiet day around our place…not a whole lot to talk about, except that we had a visit from Nancy and Benji this morning, something that’s always a pleasant surprise. They were out riding around on Nancy’s 4-wheeler and dropped by to chat. When Nancy takes the 4-wheeler out, she puts Benji in a little basket on the front…looks somewhat like a modern-day Dorothy and Toto out for a ride on the New Mexico plains.

I ended up getting a touch of some kind of sickness during the morning…don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden I had a long sneezing spell and then my sinuses went crazy; there went my plans to get anything done outside. I got started on Benadryl tablets and that eventually helped some. I guess the change in the weather was just messing up my head more than usual.

We did make a couple of trips over to see Mother during the day and made a Wal-Mart run late in the evening in anticipation of a winter storm that is supposed to hit in the early morning hours tomorrow’ predictions of ice and freezing rain helped us decide that going out tonight might be the lesser of two evils.

Saturday, February 16

After a crazy night, we finally got going this morning. I woke up at 12:30 a.m. and couldn’t get to sleep because my legs were jumping around (a side effect of the Benadryl), so I finally got up and went to the living room to read…finally got back to sleep around 4:30, but by then Barbara was awake, so she left me in bed and came to the front of the house.

I finally got up around 8:30 a.m. and was feeling much better than before. Barbara said that she’d like French toast and eggs, so I got started whipping that up. We then ate a late breakfast and watched another episode of M*A*S*H.

The winter storm that was predicted for last night and early this morning never materialized, so it turned out to be a pretty nice morning, just a little cool. I ventured out to the highway to check the mail and then came back to Big V. We both felt that a nap was in order, and with nothing else on the dance card, we decided that was the thing to do.

We went over to Mother’s house for a few minutes late this afternoon and then back to Big V to fix supper. I went over to Jean’s house during the evening to watch the VCO/ODU basketball game while Barbara stayed in Big V and experimented with a new cookie recipe – homemade thin mints…yum-yum!

Tonight…watch some TV and generally take it easy in Big V.

“Life is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.” – Benjamin Franklin

Just another week in Artesia,

Jim & Barbara

While we were at Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago, we found some really fun gifts for the grandkids. Andy and Heather shared this picture of Alexander in his new Park Ranger outfit, complete with binoculars and sunglasses.

Back Home For a Little While

Monday, February 4 – Saturday, February 9

Monday, February 4

Happy Birthday to son-in-law, Andy, in Richardson, TX!

How wonderful it is to be back in our domain…okay…so that’s stretching it a little bit since we’ve had to keep Big V closed up on 2 sides since the wind is blowing 90 miles an hour (that’s a little bit of exaggeration). However, we did awaken at 2:00 a.m. with the home rattling and shaking; so we quickly got up and brought in 2 slides. Jim was able to go right back to sleep, but I stayed up until 3:00 and then conked out again.

The entire morning and part of the afternoon was spent getting income tax records together and putting the journal on the blog. Finally, around 3:00 we wandered out into the windy weather. On the way over to Edith’s, Cathey called to report that they were having car troubles coming back from a cheer competition in Oklahoma. Yuck! At first, I thought maybe Jim and I would go to help them, but seems as they had some human angels with them. Another couple was driving behind them and stayed with them throughout the whole ordeal. What should have been a 5 hour trip, wound up being 11 hours! But, they found help in Elk City, and their friends stayed with them; so what better blessings could one have?

A trip to Wal-Mart to stock up the cabinets and refrigerator was a real necessity today which wasn’t all that much fun, but at least it’s done!

Jim went over to Jean’s to watch the KU basketball game while I stayed home to work on some bills and correspondence.

Yep! You can tell…we’re back to the “real” world.

Tuesday, February 5

It must not have been an exciting day, because I can’t remember one thing about it other than that Jim did some more work on income tax records while I worked on the blog. There were so many pictures from the Arizona trip that it took a long time.

Wednesday, February 6

Another one of those unforgettable days; but I did forget so guess it wasn’t so unforgettable. Jim did go over to Jean’s house to watch the Duke/North Carolina basketball game.

Thursday, February 7

Now! This was a day! Jim went out to continue removing an old satellite dish Jean and Cal once had, and it was so pretty outdoors that I wanted to do something. Jim suggested that I rake the pecans away from the trees since Jean wanted to start watering them. (This year she has some people who are picking up the pecans)

Anyway, I stopped for a minute and went into the house just as my phone was ringing. It was Joyce; she and Gary were leaving El Paso (they had attended another funeral) and heading to Ruidoso. They wanted us to meet them. Needless to say, this is exactly what retirement is all about…Jim and I cleaned up, called Edith to give her a heads up, and took off around 2:00 in the afternoon.

It was 4:00 when we pulled in to the Inn and there was Gary in the parking lot. While Jim waited for Gary to get what he needed out of the car, I went in and found Joyce. I was in hog heaven! When Joyce finally retired and they sold their Maryland home and moved to Houston, I hoped and dreamed that we’d get to do things together and here it was actually happening for the 2nd time in 3 or 4 months. It just doesn’t get any better!

After eating supper, we all climbed into our vehicles and headed back to Artesia. Once home, we stayed up until 12:30 a.m. visiting (way past our usual bedtime!) But…they are planning to go on an Alaskan cruise in July and August and want us to go. We’ll just have to see about that…

Friday, February 8

Happy birthday to brother-in-law, Tom, in Cleburne!

Once we were all up and ginning around, Joyce and I went over to see Nancy while Gary and Jim visited a little with Jean before she had to go to work. Saying good-bye wasn’t very hard this time since we’ll be staying with them the night before we go to Puerto Rico and when we get back from there.

While Jim started on the housecleaning project we had planned, I went over to Edith’s to wash for the 2nd or 3rd time this week…what dirty people we are!

Once I got 2 loads going and visiting with Edith completed, I headed home to do my share of the cleaning. In no time at all, Big V was sparkling clean!

Jim then went out to continue his “grave” project…that’s what I call it since the hole looks big enough to bury someone…if I disappear, look there first!

The satellite dish was mounted on a 4-inch steel pipe. What Jim didn’t know when he started digging was that the pipe was eight felt long, with the bottom four feet encased in concrete…lots of concrete. He had to dig down four feet to break the pipe and concrete loose from the packed caliche before he could even think about getting it out of the hole!

He tried pulling it out with Little Red, but it just didn’t have the umph; and besides all of that, it was time to come in and clean up for our evening’s activity.

Becky was a cast member in the Artesia Community Theatre and we were leaving at 7:00 with Jerry and Nancy to attend their dinner performance. Susie had come over from Hobbs with her best friend Rhonda and they were riding with Jean.

Since the play was The Pajama Party Murder!!! by Eileen Moushey, all audience members were asked to wear their pajamas. We five women were readily prepared for such a casual dress function; however, Jerry and Jim, in regular guy fashion, chose to wear their couch sleeping clothes as opposed to their regular bedtime attire.

For years, Jean would e-mail us telling of Becky’s drama events and Jim and I often wished we could be there since in “real” life Becky is really quite shy and doesn’t seek attention easily with those she doesn’t know. So…we just couldn’t imagine her acting.

Well, we’re here to tell you that she is a wonderful actress! She played Bertha a 50 year old niece who blamed her dead Uncle Cosmo for a broken romance thirty years ago. And, she’s an assistant warden at a school for wayward girls. What a grouchy, sourpuss she was! Becky had that part down perfectly!

What a fun evening!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

We joined the whole tribe at Chaos for breakfast before heading over to Edith’s with another 2 loads of clothes…I told you we were definitely dirty people this week! A trip to Wal-Mart was next on the hit parade before my taking a nap and Jim going out to the “grave” site. Wendell had gotten the pipe out of the hole and Jerry had gotten Jim a sledge hammer so Jim was determined he was going to finish this chore today.

Once I awoke from my nap, I wandered out to see how things were going for him. Breaking that concrete base on the pipe was quite a job! Just for kicks, I asked if I could try using the sledge hammer….that thing was heavy so I proceeded to give the concrete some love taps…no way I could swing that thing like Jim…But, we alternated that way, my love taps/his pounding, until the pipe was free. Jim threw the concrete in the hole and together we covered it with the dirt he had dug up. Mission accomplished!

Jim: I guess I’ll provide the footnotes for this week’s journal.

I’ve decided that swinging a sledge hammer is not an acceptable retirement alternative. I told Jean that if I was ever in prison and got fed according to the number of rocks I cold break up, I’d be the skinniest guy there! Luckily, Barbara was there to provide water, rake up the concrete chips as they flew around, and make sure I didn’t fall into the hole.

After we got everything put away, I went into the barn and checked all the pressures on the motorcycle. We’re supposed to have good weather for the next couple of days (possibly up to 78 degrees on Monday) and wanted to have the cycle ready to ride of we get an opportunity.

I made a cycle trip into town to get gas and go over to Mother’s house to visit and get our laundry. Ernie dropped in just as I was leaving the house, so we visited a few minutes and then I headed back to Big V where Barbara was fixing supper.

Tonight…eat supper, get the journal and blog ready to publish, watch some Saturday night television, and generally sit back and relax.

“He who has tact has less to retract.” – Church Signs

Wishing everyone a great new week,

Jim & Barbara

A Little Arizona Adventure

January 24 – February 3, 2008: The Arizona Adventure

Thursday, January 24: Day 1

Happy Birthday today to Jesse Fairfax! Jesse and his wife, Nancy, are the volunteer coordinators that we worked with when we went to Lady Lake, Florida, to help build a church. He is spending his 79th birthday working with a group of volunteers in Hollywood, Florida.

We were up at 5:00 a.m., ready to begin a new adventure. For the past three weeks, Barbara has been planning another trip for us, one that would take us on a couple of train rides and give us the opportunity to visit with friends along the way.

Even before our retirement in 2006, we had talked about taking an Amtrak ride somewhere. We mapped out routes along the Gulf Coast (out of the question now because of Katrina damage), to Chicago, or out west to California. None of those trips ever materialized, but now we have the time and opportunity.

Barbara, the ultimate trip researcher, found that Amtrak tickets for a westbound trip out of Albuquerque were only half-price this time of the year. Further research got us information about great rates on an excursion train from Williams, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon, including three nights lodging, several buffet meals, and a motorized coach tour of the South Rim.

In addition to these experiences, we could also take the opportunity to travel south to the Phoenix area to visit with Kelly’s parents (we had visited them at their home in December of 2006, and they came out to visit us in Richmond last summer when we were there to see Mike), and to travel out to Laughlin, Nevada, to see our former Liberal friends, Therese and Bill, who are teaching in Las Vegas.

Our plan was to drive the Vibe from Artesia to Albuquerque, leave it at a long-term parking facility, board the train, and take off on our new adventure. When we couldn’t get information from Amtrak about available parking (except that they had none), I decided to call my old college friends Bob and Teresa to see what they could tell me about parking in downtown Albuquerque. Bob immediately told me that any kind of long-term parking in that part of town was risky at best, and offered to let us leave the Vibe at their house and he and Teresa would drive us to the new Amtrak station and come pick us up at the end of the trip.

And so, it was finally time to put the plan into action. After getting ourselves ready, packing the car, and closing Big V up, we headed over to Mother’s house to say goodbye. We stopped at the mailbox when we got to the highway; the mail hadn’t come yet, but we could see the car stopped down the road, so we thought we’d come back after we visited with Mother and gone to Sonic to get some breakfast…only a couple minutes out of the way, and then we’d be on the road.

Mother was doing just fine this morning; she was up and around when we got there, so we visited for a few minutes and then left, hoping to get on the road before the weather got too bad (it was already beginning to spit some snow around town).

We went to Sonic and ordered a couple of breakfast burritos…something quick and easy, right? We have forgotten to mention something really unique about our Sonic in previous journal entries…their unspoken motto must be, “Our service may be slow, but the orders will always be wrong!”

After waiting far longer than we should have, we got the order and decided we’d wait until we got on the road to eat…first, we needed to go back out toward the place to check our mail, and then we could be on our way.

As we got to the mailbox, the phone started ringing. I got out to open the mailbox while Barbara answered…it was Ernie, wanting to know if we’d remembered to leave the extra garage door opener at Mother’s house (something I’d told him last night I’d do). Of course, I hadn’t done that, so I told him we’d run it by his house in a few minutes. First though, we thought we should go back to Big V and turn off the water at the main faucet, just in case it got too cold and the hose should burst while we were gone.

Having accomplished that little chore, we crossed the lot to Jean’s house, gave her some mail that had come for her, said goodbye, and got back into the Vibe to leave again. But wait…as we were getting ready to pull away, I noticed that the TV antenna was still raised on Big V…something that could be disastrous during high winds, so we once more went back so I could go inside and lower the antenna.

Finally, we were on the way (kind of), but first we had to go by Ernie and Billee’s house to drop off the garage door opener. As we got closer to their house, I looked in the back seat and saw two large bags of trash that we were supposed to have dropped in the dumpster at Mother’s house on the first trip to town this morning. Obviously, we didn’t have it all quite together!

We got to Ernie’s house, gave him the opener and I took the trash out to his dumpster, and then we said goodbye and were finally on our way out of town, ready to eat our breakfast, which was probably not too warm when we picked it up earlier, and now was certainly on the cool side.

Remember what I said earlier about our Sonic? Once again they fulfilled their motto…not only had the service been slow, but my Big Breakfast Burrito was quite unlike any I’d ever had…it consisted of a slab of egg, two sausage patties, and a slice of cheese, all rolled up in a flour tortilla…the only thing chopped or slice in the whole thing was the jalapenos, and that’s because they came out of a jar that way. Oh well, it was breakfast, and we were ready for it.

We were finally on our way at 9:35 a.m., only an hour or so after first leaving Big V. Luckily, the trip to Albuquerque was generally uneventful. We hit some snow around Roswell, but it cleared up and we even saw some patches of blue sky around Vaughn. We hit more snow as we got close to Clines Corner…enough that we started to get concerned about road conditions, but didn’t have any problems as we headed west on I-40.

As we got close to Albuquerque we called Bob and Teresa to get directions to their house. We’d been there in August, but from a different direction, so we weren’t too sure. Bob gave a great set of directions, and we were soon at their place out on the west central side of the city.

After visiting a few minutes, we transferred our luggage to their van, parked the Vibe, and left in their van to go to the Amtrak station in downtown Albuquerque. Bob told us that they had just opened the new station last Thursday, so he wanted to see what they’d done with it.

At the station, we unloaded everything, got checked in, and settled in to wait for the train’s arrival from Chicago. We’d heard all kinds of stories about how late the trains run, so we were prepared to be there for the long-haul, but ours got there right on time at 3:30. The departure was scheduled for 4:45, so we had more than enough time to get seat assignments, load our carry-on baggage, and explore our new transportation.

To backtrack a little (actually, a whole lot), the last time I rode an American train was in July, 1966, and that was between Portales and Artesia, back in the days when Santa Fe still had passenger service between Clovis and Carlsbad, New Mexico. Barbara and Leah had ridden from Washington, D.C., to Boston back in the early 90’s, so both of us could be considered novice train riders at this point.

I also need to point out that I had harbored considerable doubts about this trip. Even if the fare was only half-price, I didn’t see the point in going from one cold part of the country to another part that was even colder. Still, it sounded as if it might have its interesting moments, so I let her do the planning and agreed to go along with the idea.

So, we found ourselves ready for the next leg of the adventure, preparing to board the Amtrak Southwest Chief in Albuquerque for five and one half hour run to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we would settle in for a couple of nights, get a rental car, and continue the adventure.

The first thing we noticed was that all the Amtrak folks were very friendly and helpful, and willing to answer any questions we might have.

Next, we found that the atmosphere around the station was very informal. There were security officers around, but they weren’t at all intrusive. People wandered in and out of the station, on and off of the train, and up and down the boarding platform, where there were several booths of Indian jewelry, weavings, and other curios. It was almost a carnival atmosphere!

By 4:25 we had explored all of our new surroundings – the coach to which we had been assigned, the lounge car just ahead of us, and the dining car, and were settled in our seats, reading, and waiting for Train No. 3 to pull away from the station.

With a blast of the horn, the train pulled out on time at 4:45 p.m. As we rolled slowly down the tracks toward the west side of Albuquerque, we listened to the announcements from the conductor, and then got up to go to the lounge car to see what we could see of the scenery before it got dark. Did I mention that we also had the camera along with us? Of course, you probably knew that already. That’s how we got this great shot of the sun setting over the western mountains.

After we had been rolling for a while, the dining car steward came through the cars taking reservations for dinner. Always the skeptic, I had already decided that I’d just as soon go downstairs to the snack bar and grab a sandwich instead of spending good money on bad food, but, before we left Artesia, Jean told Barbara (and me) that we should go for the whole experience. So, I gave in and agreed to go to the 6:30 p.m. seating in the dining car and see what happened.

What we found, as the time rolled by and our seating time was called, was that there was a wonderful menu with acceptable prices, and an added bonus – we were seated with a couple of delightful ladies who had boarded at Lamar. Tillie and Shirley, mother and daughter, live in Bristol, Colorado, and were very familiar with the southwest Kansas area, including Liberal. We spent well over an hour visiting with each other and enjoying a wonderful meal as we rolled westward. Our meal choice for the evening…salad, rolls, a plate of delicious tortellini, and apple crisp for desert…another of my assumptions shot to heck!

We returned to our seats for the remainder of the ride and arrived at Flagstaff around 10:15. After a couple of phone calls and a 45-minute wait, the taxi sent by the hotel came to pick us up and take us to the Holiday Inn Express, our home away from home while in Flagstaff.

Still excited from the ride (and braced by the cold mountain air), we were up until past midnight, first talking through everything we had done during the day, and then reading until we finally fell asleep.

Friday, January 25: Day 2

I woke up at 7:30 this morning and started moving around. Although we had nothing on the agenda except to get our rental car, I wanted to go on downstairs and try the hotel’s complimentary breakfast. In the course of my getting ready, I woke Barbara up, only to find out that she had gotten up at 5:15 and had just gotten back to sleep around 7:00…oops!

I went on downstairs to eat (and see if I could get a good wireless connection down there…I was having trouble keeping an internet connection while in the room). After eating my meal, I grabbed a couple of cinnamon rolls and brought them back to the room so Barbara could have some breakfast.

I had looked out our window earlier and thought that the view was pretty spectacular (as long as I was looking up at the mountains and not down at the highway traffic), but didn’t bother to get the camera out. What I found out when I got back was that Barbara had already taken a couple of shots of the morning sun hitting the snow-covered mountains just to the north of us…a really beautiful sight.

We spent the rest of the morning doing not much of anything…just lazing around, working at the computers, and reading the newspaper…exciting stuff, huh.

By noon we were dressed and ready to go pick up the rental car. Luckily for us, the office for Alamo Rentals is in the hotel, so we didn’t have to go traipsing around town to find it. The folks down there were very helpful, and within a few minutes we were in the car and ready to go exploring.

We headed toward the historic district, but decided we weren’t in the mood to just walk around the town, so we drove up the mountainside to the Lowell Observatory. We knew that it was here from previous trips that we had made through Flagstaff, but had never stopped to see what it was all about.

What we found was a beautiful astrophysics research center staffed with friendly, helpful people who gave us a series of great science (and local history) lessons during the two hours that we were on the grounds.

The Lowell Observatory, located in Flagstaff, was founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell (of the Lowell, Massachusetts Lowells). He was an astronomer who popularized the idea that Mars might support intelligent life, and spent a great deal of time, effort, and money to study and map the Red Planet. His original telescope, built in the late eighteenth century, is still in operation.

Lowell was convinced that water from the melting polar icecaps on Mars was flowing down to the equatorial regions of the planet through a series of canals. He determined that intelligent life had all moved to the equatorial regions in order to be sustained by the water supply there. His science, although highly researched, proved to be faulty, but it did spawn a new literary genre’, science fiction. H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom (his name for Mars) series were predicated on the work of Lowell.

It was also at the Lowell Observatory that a young Kansas farmer, Clyde Tombaugh, discovered the planet Pluto in 1930. Tombaugh was born Streator, Illinois. After his family moved to Burdett, Kansas (located on Kansas Highway 156 between Garden City and Larned), he built his first telescope and sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars to the observatory. His work resulted in a job offer at the observatory, where he was employed from 1929 until 1945.

After discovering Pluto, Tombaugh went back to school and earned astronomy degrees at the University of Kansas and Arizona State College, now Northern Arizona University. He taught astronomy at New Mexico State University from 1955 until he retired in 1973.

Some of Tombaugh’s ashes are being carried on the New Horizons spacecraft which is currently traveling toward Pluto.

From Mars Hill (site of the observatory), we drove back down into Flagstaff to return to the hotel, where we spent the rest of the afternoon alternately napping and reading.

This evening: work on the journal, read, and watch TV.

Right Photo: View of Flagstaff from Mars Hill.

Barbara: I wanted to put this collage in as I liked these photos.

Top left: We both got to see the sun safely through a red filter on this telescope. Wow!

Top right and middle left: Our train was a double-decker and Jim and I were assigned seats upstairs. Definitely handy, as the lounge car was one car ahead of us and 2 cars up was the dining room.

Middle: We took this at the Amtrak Station in Albuquerque before the train arrived.

Right middle: I’m standing in the lounge car…notice the windows above which give you a great view of the sky.

Bottom right: Jim and I in the dining car.

Saturday, January 26: Day 3

Birthday Greetings go out today to son-in-law Jim Farnham in Lenexa, Kansas!

It was a really lazy morning for us. We took our time getting around, eating breakfast, packing, etc. since we weren’t on any kind of schedule.

Around 10:00 a.m. we were finally packed and ready to pull away from our hotel and leave the cold and snow of Flagstaff for Phoenix. We had snow alongside the road for about 35 miles on Interstate 17, but then the temperatures came up into the mid-40s and it got quite comfortable.

At Exit 289 we pulled off to go to the Montezuma Castle National Monument. We had passed it on a previous trip and decided that it would make a nice break; but, it turned out to be much more than that.

Montezuma Castle is considered to be the best-preserved cliff dwelling in the United States. It was built by the Sinagua Indian culture over 600 years ago. Situated above the Verde River, this ancient dwelling is 5 stories tall and has 20 rooms.

The Sinaguas, a peaceful farming culture, lived in the area from the 12th century until the early 1400s. No one seems to know what caused them to leave or where they went, but there is some indication through Hopi story-telling that many of them might have been assimilated by that culture.

The area around the monument is very peaceful, with the Verde River meandering slowly along the base of the cliffs, cutting through quiet meadows. There is a wide variety of native vegetation, with giant Arizona Sycamore trees being a dominant feature.

Leaving the monument after a visit of an hour or so, we continued south on I-17 to the northern edge of Phoenix where we broke away on Loop 101 to make our way to David and Jan’s house to visit with them for the rest of the weekend.

David and Jan (Kelly’s parents) are wonderful hosts. We had stayed with them when we went to California in December of 2006, and they visited us when we were all in Richmond last summer to see Mike and Kelly.

One of the first things Jan showed us was her new motor scooter. She earned her motorcycle endorsement last year but decided to start small and work up to one of the larger bikes. We talked her into taking a short spin so we could take some pictures, and then she twisted my arm until I was “forced” into taking a short ride myself.

After a couple hours of talking and getting caught up on all the latest news, David said that they were going to take us out to a local barbecue place, Joe’s Real B-B-Q. Joe’s features good family dining with a variety of pecan-smoked meats and all the trimmings.

We got there a little after 5:00 p.m. and the line was already out the door. Shortly after we finally got served and seated, we noticed that the line extended down the sidewalk and around the corner; it was still like that when we left! While the barbecue wasn’t quite as good as what David fixed for us on the last visit, it was certainly well above average; we’d recommend a visit to Joe’s to anyone who happens to find themselves in the Phoenix area.

Following our meal, David and Jan took us out east of Phoenix to meet and visit with their other daughter, Jennifer, and her family.

Jennifer, Zach (her husband), and their daughter Rachel had moved to Phoenix in October of 2006, but we hadn’t had the chance to meet them yet. Now, they also have new-born Brooke as part of their family

Jennifer and Zach were a lot of fun to visit with, and we also had a good time playing with Rachel. As soon as she found out that we were related to Mike, the doors were wide open…it turns out that 2 year-old Rachel is crazy about Mike.

It was also very obvious that Rachel is crazy about her grandparents, and it wasn’t long before she was giving David a real workout!

All good things must come to an end, and we left Zach and Jennifer’s house around 8:30 to head back to the house in Gilbert. With plans to be up early to attend church together, it didn’t take long after we got “home” for all of us to head to our rooms and get ready for bed.

Sunday, January 27: Day 4

What a wonderful morning! After a nice breakfast, we all headed over to Gateway Fellowship, SBC, David and Jan’s church. We attended the early church service and were completely drawn in by the friendliness of the people, an inspiring music service, and great preaching…a combination that we really needed.

After the church service, we all met for Sunday school with David and Jan’s class. David was teaching the lesson this morning, so that had extra meaning for us.

We went back to the house and had a nice lunch and more conversation until it was time for us to get back on the road toward Williams, Arizona, our destination for the night. It had been raining all day and the weather was predicted to deteriorate the farther north we drove, so we felt we needed to get on the way, so we said our goodbyes to wonderful friends and hit the road again.

All I can say about the ride from Phoenix to Williams is that it was one of the most nerve-wracking drives I’ve made in a long time. It rained constantly (and much of the time heavily) all the way. At the higher elevations, the clouds settled in on top of us and visibility was low. On top of that, we were worried about when we would run into the snow and ice that was bound to greet us as we got closer to Flagstaff.

Luckily for us, the snow and ice never materialized, but the wet highway took its toll on other drivers. We saw at least five accidents along the way…all of which appeared to be the result of excessive speed resulting in loss of control and spin-outs. We also saw several rockslides, but managed to avoid the large rocks that found their way out in the travel lanes.

Around 4:30 we stopped in Flagstaff so we could take a call from Mike, and then we headed west on I-40 to Williams and our home for the night, the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, where it finally began snowing just minutes after our arrival.

After checking in and finding our room, we went across the way to Max and Thelma’s Restaurant for a delicious buffet dinner and then returned to the hotel where we did some exploring before going to our room for the night.

Monday, January 28: Day 5

It’s adventure time! Today we got up early to begin a new round of adventures on the Grand Canyon Railway.

First, we made our way through the blowing snow to Max and Thelma’s Restaurant for our buffet breakfast; and then returned to the room to do the final packing of everything we thought we needed for an overnight trip to Grand Canyon.

After taking our luggage to the lobby, where it would be picked up and transferred to the train, we did some exploring around the train station and the gift shops. We were supposed to have an “Old West Gunfight” before boarding the train, but the snow and high winds put a stop to that. It seems that nearly all the employees were busy helping to clear the platform so the passengers would be able to get safely aboard and depart on time at 10:15.

On September 17, 1901, rail service began between Williams, Arizona, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Initially, two trains a day carried passengers and supplies to the canyon, but there were also as many as six special trains a day that might make the journey. Operating as a subsidiary of the Atchinson Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, the Grand Canyon Railway was the preferred means of reaching the canyon until the early 1950s, when automobile travel soon surpassed the rails as a favorite way of travel.

On June 30, 1968, Train No. 14, with a diesel locomotive pulling just one baggage car and one coach car, left the Grand Canyon Station with only three passengers aboard, and began the final run down the 65 miles of track to Williams. The golden age of rail travel to the canyon was over.

The tracks lay dormant and deteriorating until the late 1980s, when Max and Thelma Biegert, realizing the need of train service and wanting to bolster a sagging economy in Williams, pledged nearly all their assets toward bringing the railway back to life, and on September 17, 1989, 88 years to the day from the first train to run to the canyon, the new Grand Canyon Railway began operation. Now, nearly a quarter of a million passengers ride the line each year.

Current service includes several classes of travel, from the basic coach service to the refurbished Luxury Parlor car. Passengers have a variety of snacks and drinks available, depending on the class they choose, and entertainers travel throughout the cars on each of the runs.

The ride today took us through the mountains surrounding Williams, across arid plateaus, and into great stands of Ponderosa Pines before rolling onto the South Rim. Our entertainment today was provided by Jesse, an accomplished banjo picker and singer, as well as by Ernie, our car attendant. The songs, jokes, and visits with the passengers helped while away the two-hour ride.

Upon arrival at the canyon, we immediately transferred to a bus for a one and a half hour tour of the rim. Our tour was hampered somewhat by the storm that was blowing in, so we didn’t get to make some of the usual stops. However, our driver did stop at some of the turnouts, and the hardiest (or most foolish) among us got out to take pictures.

Luckily, Barbara and I had dressed for the occasion, but even then it was bitterly cold. Along the tour route we experienced 30-40 miles per hour winds and horizontal snow, with wind chills in the single digits. I certainly enjoyed the use of my hat that Kelly brought me from Russia last year!

After traveling out to Hermits Rest on the western end of the rim, we returned to Grand Canyon Village and our home for the night, a room at Maswik Lodge. Our luggage had already been delivered to the room, so all we had to do was crank up the heater, unpack our things, and get ready to do some more exploring.

We caught one of the village buses and rode the full circuit to get our bearings for tomorrow’s adventure, but did stop and explore the area around the Yavapai Observation Station.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t observe much, as the clouds and snow obliterated any view of the canyon. (If you look carefully at the photo on the right, you can see the snow melting on the window.)

We returned to our room and spent the night watching TV, reading, working on the journal, and occasionally looking outside where the winds had increased to 40 – 60 miles per hour and the snow was coming down even harder. We even experienced a couple of power failures during the evening, but each time we got the power back in just a few minutes.

Millions of words have been written in an attempt to describe Grand Canyon, but nothing can take the place of standing on the rim and being in the middle of that vast panorama of magnificent beauty. The following collages show some of the scenery we experienced on today’s trip.

First are scenes from the depot in Williams and along the 65-miles of track to the canyon rim.

The next scenes are from our travels along the rim today, and show some of the beautiful rock and strata formations.
The Grand Canyon extends some 277 miles along the route of the Colorado River. While there are deeper canyons in the world (Grand Canyon is approximately one mile deep from the rim to the riverbed), none are longer. At its widest, the canyon stretches 17 miles from the south rim to the north rim.

The canyon is a vast and important geological study. What is truly unique about the geological record at Grand Canyon is the variety of rocks present, the clarity with which they are exposed, and the complex geological story they reveal.

The crumbling remains of rocks along parts of the river bed date back two billion years. A geologic timeline up until the last 270 million years is exposed in the layers as they reach from the riverbed to the rim. It is still uncertain (at least among some factions of the geological community) whether the evidence relating to the past 270 million years has eroded away, or whether those rocks were never deposited. The canyon itself is some 5 – 6 million years old.

The final collage shows us enjoying the beauty of this great national park. (and the cold!)

Tuesday, January 29: Day 6

Happy 1st Birthday to great grandson, Rhett, in Hobbs, NM.

We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland this morning. The winds had stopped and the new snow covered the ground everywhere we looked…must have been about four inches of snow last night, but it was all horizontal, so we couldn’t tell what things would be like until we got up.

After getting everything packed, we walked over to the main lodge to check out and get some breakfast in the Maswik cafeteria.

Following breakfast, we decided to make the 5-minute walk down to the canyon rim to start our day’s explorations. We could have waited for the bus, but with clear blue skies and no wind, we thought a walk was in order.

The Rim Trail is a moderate hiking trail extending approximately 13 miles from Pipe Creek Vista in the east to Hermits Rest in the west. Since we had seen many of the views of the canyon along the Hermits Rest Trail when we took the bus ride yesterday, we thought we’d go to that trailhead and work our way back toward the east through the edge of Grand Canyon Village and on to Yavapai Observation Station. We had also been to Yavapai yesterday evening, but couldn’t see even the edge of the canyon because of the blowing snow.

Our hike today was about three miles, but most of the trail was covered with ice and snow, so we just took our time. With timeouts for pictures and taking a breath every now and then (the 7,000-foot altitude is rough on those who aren’t acclimated to it); we made the trip in about two and a half hours.

After we got to Yavapai Observation Station, we boarded the shuttle bus and headed back downtown to the train depot to rest and wait for our boarding call. Since we had quite a bit of time before the train was scheduled to leave, we walked up the hill to the El Tovar Hotel. We’d heard a lot about it and wanted to see what the fuss was all about. And, while the El Tovar, described by some as “the architectural jewel of the Grand Canyon, is a beautiful place, we felt that we had done quite well ourselves by staying at the Maswik Lodge.

Barbara decided she would go back down the hill and wait at the train station, but I was up for some more walking, so I hiked back over to the rim and backtracked to where we had started our morning hike at the Hermits Rest trailhead. I was fascinated by the number of hikers who were taking the Bright Angel Trail down to the canyon. The trail was still covered with ice and snow, and warnings were out for hikers to wear crampons to help manage their footing. I wandered a few yards down the trail just to see what it looked like from below the rim, but decided that discretion was very much the better part of valor today, and climbed back up to the main trail. I’d still like to hike to the bottom of the canyon someday, but it’s going to have to be at a time when the conditions are better.

By 3:00 p.m. most of the passengers on the afternoon train were back at the station, all of us wanting to get out of the cold and into a nice warm railway car. The station has a very small waiting room, so there were about 20 people inside and 400 standing around outside.
We were given the “all aboard” call at 3:15 and started making our way to our car. When Barbara made our reservations for this excursion, she booked us into the Luxury Parlor Car for our return trip. We entered the car from the open-air platform at the rear and found ourselves in an elegant setting with parlor seats and small tables, beautiful wood walls and luxurious carper. In our section we had a small table laden with fresh fruit and a selection of crackers, cheeses, vegetables, and dips. Carol, our friendly service attendant, also provided soft drinks and sparkling cider or champagne during the trip.

About halfway back to Williams the train came to a stop. We had been told that sometimes the train makes unscheduled stops because of livestock along the route, which is all unfenced prairie and ranchland. If the train hits a cow, the Grand Canyon Railway is held responsible and must pay the owner the going rate for a cow of that age, size, and weight, with the price ranging from $700 to $1,800. I guess it wouldn’t take very many “cow collisions” to make a pretty deep cut in daily profits for the railway!

Once we got underway again, we were treated to an old-fashioned train hold-up. Luckily, the robbers were somewhat inept, and it didn’t take long for the sheriff to get things back under control. One of the robbers tried to pass himself off as Barbara’s traveling companion (see collage above...She is trying to bribe the robber with a Hawthorne Suites pen instead of cash).

Once the excitement of the “great train robbery” had subsided, we were treated to more entertainment, this time by a country singer/guitarist who did pretty good imitations of Johnny Cash, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Marty Robbins. He treated us to the Reader’s Digest version of El Paso – “Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love, killed a man, and got shot.” Now, that just about says it all!

We pulled into the Williams Depot right on schedule at 5:45 and headed back to our hotel room to await the arrival of our luggage. Once it arrived, we undertook the chore of repacking everything for the next leg of our trip. Then, it was back to Max and Thelma’s Restaurant for our evening buffet meal.

The rest of the evening was spent sitting in the great room of the hotel, enjoying a blazing fire in the fireplace and checking our email. While we were there we visited some more with two new friends we had made on a shuttle trip in the Grand Canyon, a couple of Japanese boys who were crossing the United States on Amtrak.

They had flown into New York a couple of weeks ago and were visiting cities and national parks along the Amtrak route to Los Angeles. Since they were leaving tonight to go back up to Flagstaff to catch the westbound train, we took time out to talk to them some more and get our pictures made with them.

What courage it must take for a couple of young kids to strike out like that to go travel through another country! I’m sure nothing like that ever crossed our minds when we were that age.

Finally for this day, we offer a collage of just a few of the pictures from our hike this morning. As we said before, millions of words have been written to try to describe something that is truly indescribable. These pictures are only a means to show some of the views of the ever-changing grandeur that is the Grand Canyon.

Wednesday, January 30: Day 7

We don’t know why, but we both woke up early this morning. Our plan was to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, pack the car, and then head west on I-40 toward Kingman, Arizona and then to Laughlin, Nevada.

With plenty of time on our hands, we decided we’d better do some laundry before we left, so Barbara loaded our largest suitcase with dirty clothes and took the shuttle over to the hotel’s RV park, where there was a very nice laundry room. While she was doing the laundry, I finished checking the room and packing everything else and then loaded the car.

Meanwhile, a new snow storm was blowing in and we were beginning to get a little nervous about whether we would be able to get out of town before the roads got treacherous.

While the last load of clothes was drying, we went over to the restaurant to have our buffet breakfast. Then, we went back to the laundry room, packed the last of the clothes in the car, and got out of town while the getting was good.
Once we got back up on I-40, we had a pretty clear road, even though the snow was still blowing for about 15 miles. After that, it was just cloudy and cold until we reached the Kingman area and turned off to go to Laughlin.

We had made arrangements to meet with our friends Bill and Therese tonight, but she called to say she was under the weather and they wouldn’t be able to come down from Las Vegas this evening, but maybe they would make it tomorrow after school.

Thursday, January 31: Day 8

Today was just for relaxing. While the temperatures in northwestern Arizona and the lower part of Nevada aren’t as balmy as in Southern Arizona, it was still nice enough to get out and walk around. Our legs are still hurting from all the hiking at Grand Canyon, so it was nice that we could get out and work out some of the soreness.

The picture on the left shows the Colorado River running between Laughlin, Nevada, and Bullhead City, Arizona. It’s very stark, but a really pretty setting.

Therese called to say that they just wouldn’t be able to make it down today either since the doctor had ordered her to stay off her feet for 3 days, so we just whiled away the afternoon and evening and enjoyed not having anything that had to be done.

Friday, February 1, 2008: Day 9

What a lazy morning! We just took our time getting up and around this morning…got everything packed up and carried out to the car and then got checked out of the hotel around 10:30.

We drove up the street to Harrah’s to see if any changes had been made since the last time we were here…found that a lot had changed, and not necessarily for the better. However, one thing that might have improved was the buffet, where we enjoyed a great brunch at a very reasonable price.

From Harrah’s, we headed on down the main street of Laughlin, crossed the Colorado River into Bullhead City, Arizona, and pointed the rental car toward Kingman, where we hooked up with I-40 and drove east through Seligman, Ash Fork, and Williams, until we reached Flagstaff around 5:30 and checked in at the Holiday Inn Express.

Tonight…order a pizza, sit around the room, watch some TV, and work on the journal.

Did you ever wonder how Flagstaff got its name? Well, whether you did or didn’t, you’re going to get a quick lesson here.

In 1876, when the United States was celebrating its centennial, a group of settlers passing through the area stopped and camped near a spring at the base of the San Francisco Peaks in the northern Arizona Territory.

To join in the centennial celebration, the settlers found a towering pine tree, stripped the branches off of it, and flew the US Stars and Stripes flag from it. After they left the area, the tree became a local landmark and when, in May, 1881, enough people resided in the area to justify a post office, the name “Flagstaff” was chosen.

And there you have it…your history lesson for the week. If this helps you win the big prize in some trivia show, just remember that you heard it from us.

Saturday, February 2: Day 10

With a scheduled 6:11 a.m. departure from the Flagstaff train depot, we left a wake-up call for 4:00 this morning, leaving us plenty of time to get cleaned up, finish packing, check out of the hotel, and get downstairs to meet out taxi at 5:15. They had told us to check in at the depot at least thirty minutes early, and we wanted to be sure we had plenty of time.

I figured that there would be only a handful of passengers boarding on a Saturday morning, but when we walked into the depot, the seating was nearly all taken. But, we were early…boy, were we early! After making our way to the ticket counter, we saw a note informing us that Train No. 4 was behind schedule and wouldn’t arrive until 8:30 a.m.

Trust us, there were not many happy folks at the depot this morning; nearly everyone had basically the same story as ours…wake up early, check out of hotels, turn in rental cars, etc., so there was nothing for us to do but make the best of it. It was around 17 degrees outside so long walks were definitely out of the question. While most folks were trying to catch naps, we did some reading and took an occasional short walk around the outside.

Finally, right on schedule (if you count the new time), the train arrived and we all boarded and found our seats. As we pulled out of the station, the dining car steward announced that they would begin final seating for breakfast. Since we had missed breakfast at the hotel due to our early checkout, we decided we’d go to the dining car and see if breakfast was as good as the dinner we had on the way west.

Again, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food and the reasonableness of the price. Our selection this morning was the French toast…very tasty. After eating our breakfast and visiting with our tablemates (a couple from Iowa – she is a middle school science teacher),
We made our way back to our assigned seats for the rest of the journey. We both did some more reading and took short naps.

The engineer did a good job of making up some time (we were traveling at 90 mph on the long flat stretches) and he managed to make up 30 minutes of time between Flagstaff and Albuquerque. We had hoped to get some photographs of the sun rising as we headed into it this morning, but that went by the wayside. Instead, we offer these photos of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico scenery.
Our friend Bob was waiting for us as we got off the train and walked down the platform. He got his pickup while we waited for our checked baggage to come off, and then he took us back to his house where we transferred everything to the Vibe.

After some time for relaxation and a little shopping, we headed east on I-40. We knew we wouldn’t make it to Artesia until well after dark, so we pulled in at Moriarty, New Mexico, to find something to eat and a place to stay for the night.

Tonight…kick back and relax after a l-o-n-g day.

Sunday, February 3: Day 11

The word for today is W-I-N-D!!! We woke up to a cold wind and 17-degree temperatures and a light covering of snow) in Moriarty and, while we fully expected the temperatures to come up as we headed south toward Artesia, we didn’t know that the winds were going to increase so much. (Bottom middle photo shows the dirt blowing across the fields.)

When we arrived in Artesia shortly after 1:00 p.m. the winds were howling from35 – 40 mph with gusts up to 60…certainly not good weather for unloading a car and moving everything into Big V.

First, though, we drove over to Mother’s house to let her know we were home. Ernie was there and asked if we wanted to order burgers for lunch. We said that would be great, so he called in to Ruth’s to order for everyone and then he and I went out to pick them up.

After visiting and eating, we headed on out to Big V to start the chore of moving everything from the Vibe into Big V, a daunting task, since the winds threatened to tear the door off its hinges every time we opened it; and, with several suitcases and other assorted stuff to carry in, I made several trips. Meanwhile, Barbara worked to put things away inside as I brought them in. Without the teamwork, it would have been nearly impossible.

After checking in with Jean to let her know we were back and to pick up our mail, we sat around Big V for a bit and then wandered over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to join in their traditional Super Bowl party. Quite a few of their friends were over there and everyone enjoyed great food and fellowship as they watched the game.

We watched through the first quarter and then said our goodbyes so we could go back to Big V for the rest of the game. It had already been a long day, what with the drive from Moriarty this morning, combined with the high winds that we experienced all day.

Tonight…watch the remainder of the Super Bowl…saw the last quarter over at Jean’s house…what a heck of a game!!!

We close out this journal of our Arizona Adventure with a picture of a plaque that is mounted on a column at Hermits Rest in Grand Canyon. We don’t know how this escaped the attention of the PC (politically correct) police, but it is such an apt expression to the Creator of this magnificent place.

Back at home with family and friends,

Jim & Barbara