The Majesty of the Grand Canyon

On our way to visit the Grand Canyon this morning, we overshot our turn off by about half an hour. We did catch some nice scenery before we realized our error - among which were 6 double trailer UPS trucks parked side by side - resting? I intended to take a picture, but my driver went by much too fast - slowing down or stopping would have been nice, but oh well!

Once we made it back to where we should have turned, we decided to have lunch at the Cameron Trading Post. Since my maiden name is Cameron, I naturally had to stop. I ordered a Navajo Taco - it's an open face taco with Indian frybread instead of a tortilla. Fortunately I ordered a "mini" - I couldn't even eat all of that! I checked out the gift shop, which contained the usual overpriced trinkets - the most expensive items were the native made items, and I couldn't quite bring myself to buy "native" trinkets made in China or other foreign countries!

It took us about an hour to get to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim), and once again I was glad that I had the National Parks Senior Pass - the entrance fee was $25, but with the pass, it cost us nothing. Very nice. My first glimpse of the Grand Canyon literally brought tears to my eyes! Its grandeur is truly amazing! We walked to the Desert View Watchtower. I was assured by a nice lady that I could handle the climb to the top floor - she assured me that I could rest between flights. So we made our ascent - all 86 steps. Piece of cake after the 87 steps at the Houston Control Center. The only difference here, though, is the altitude is much higher which does, of course, make a difference! The views were really something - I was even able to get close enough to the windows to take pictures. We returned to ground level and walked out almost to the railing - it's a good thing you don't have to walk all the way to the edge to get a good look at the beauty of the Grand Canyon.

We drove through the park, stopping again for another view of this glorious wonder! We also saw these beautiful black ravens - they were enormous! Our last stop was at the Visitor Center and then we headed back to Flagstaff. There has been so much great scenery on this trip - I will never tire of seeing the beauty of nature.

The Land of Enchantment

Saturday (Oct 23) after locating the giant roadrunner in Fort Stockton, Texas, we made our way north to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It was a two lane highway most of the way - we were glad it was the weekend, and there was very little truck traffic. 

Due to our "skill" level (read age and physical capability), we opted to tour The Big Room. This is the large cave - 6000 sq ft - that has paths with railings all the way around it. The walk is about one mile and very well lit. I had much expected this to be very similar to the other two caves we had visited, but it proved to be very different. The paths in the other caves were dark and narrow, and we had a guide to lead us through and explain everything. The Big Room is a self-guided tour, very well lit, high ceilings and very wide open. The formations are different in that they don't seem "polished" like in the other caves. A lot of the formations are very similar in shape, but appear to have a much rougher surface. As with any cave formations, you are not to touch them as it does wear them down and changes them. While the temperature is only 50ish, you stay pretty comfortable because you're constantly moving. It was an excellent experience, and I'm so glad we visited. 

We stayed overnight in the town of Roswell - did not see a single alien, although our waiter at dinner was questionable! His name was Jon Jon and was just a little on the weird side - we definitely questioned his sobriety! All of the wait staff at this particular eatery was pretty unique, but this guy certainly took it a few steps farther. Good food, though - I had a most awesome Green Chili Stew - incredible!

Went to church on Sunday where I discovered the retired pastor there used to be a pastor in Lakewood, WA - he even knew my pastor. Mike waited patiently for me - washed the car, bought cigarettes, visited a local park. He took me by the park to show me a piece of the Berlin Wall the German Air Force sent to the city of Roswell. Another tidbit of history is the fact that German POWs were held in Roswell during World War II - they were used as labor for paving the banks of the North Spring River. They also built an Iron Cross into the wall, which was later covered up with a layer of concrete until the 1980's.

Sunday night we stayed in Albuquerque, but left this morning (Oct 25) without visiting anything in the area. We traveled west on Highway 40, and I was glad that Mike was driving. The crosswinds were pretty rough - I'm not sure I could have held onto the steering wheel at times. We arrived in Flagstaff in late afternoon - tomorrow we'll explore some of the area surrounding this city. The temperature is quite a bit lower than we've been enjoying - low to mid 50's during the day and below freezing at night. Mikey's cold, but maybe the home temps won't be such a shock to his system when we get there!

Going around in circles in San Antonio

Thursday morning, Oct 21, found us heading north to San Antonio. The motel we chose was right alongside the freeway - should be easy, wouldn't you think? Not in San Antonio - we took the exit that Miss Aggie told us to, and then while we continued to try to follow her confusing directions, we managed to get right back on the freeway. While we gnashed our teeth complaining about our inept GPS system (certainly not our fault!), we determined that it was the crazy snarl of a freeway system that was mostly the problem. We finally made our way to our motel and wisely ordered our dinner to be delivered rather than try to navigate to a restaurant. The next morning on our way to the Alamo it wasn't a whole lot better - neither was our exit from San Antonio after our visit to the Alamo.

We did enjoy our visit to the Alamo - it wasn't quite what I had expected. I certainly was surprised that it was in the middle of a lot of very large buildings, hotels, etc. I thought it was really kind of a shame that time and progress overtook this bit of history. I am glad that the Daughters of the Republic of Texas took responsibility for saving this for future generations to visit and learn from. The grounds were beautiful, and as usual, I was fascinated by all of the flowers and trees. Such beauty - in late October! Just not what I'm used to!

We left San Antonio and drove to Fort Stockton, Texas. This was just a one night stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns, but we did search out the 20 ft X 11 ft roadrunner in town before we left. By far, this was also the best Days Inn we had yet visited - even better than Houston.

And then we were in Houston . . . .

As we drove into Houston, I was in awe of the many, many oil refineries - and they were huge! Wow - way bigger than any I had seen before, like for example, Anacortes. We settled into our motel - the nicest Days Inn yet. I chose this one because it was so close to the Space Center, but also because it had great customer reviews. Definitely a good choice, and a big improvement over the not so super, Super 8 from the night before.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the NASA's Johnson Space Center the next morning. We got there just in time to board the Tram Tour, which I think ended up being the last one for the day. The tram wound its way through the complex, past some longhorn steers at the Western Heritage Pavilion, past the warehouse that houses a Saturn V rocket and stopped at the Mission Control Center. We climbed 87 stairs to the Control Center - I only had to stop once, and then realized I was almost there. We sat in a balcony area behind a window looking down into the room where the words "Houston, we've had a problem" (the actual statement) was heard for real - not a movie. There have been many events in that room that are beyond incredible - what teamwork it must take on both the ground and in space. Our next stop was the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility. This building contained  numerous different vehicles that astronauts need to train in. The third stop was the Saturn V rocket - this was one of 3 rockets built for Apollo 18, 19 and 20, but those missions were cancelled. Our final stop before returning was the grove of trees planted in honor of astronauts who have died. It was very interesting, and would be an absolutely wonderful experience for children.

After the Space Center, we drove down to Galveston. The area is still recovering somewhat from Hurricane Ike in September, 2008. We didn't spend too much time there, but we did drive around a bit. We stopped and took some pictures of big ships in the Gulf, found some shells - one with a little hermit crab in it (we left it alone in its little home), and the beach "parking lots" are really something - it cost $8 just to park on the beach and walk a long way to the water. We arrived in the area too late to visit any museums, since they all close at 4 pm. It's probably just as well as I think we're running out of steam - we're just not as young as we used to be!

Tabasco anyone?

We drove to Days Inn in Lafayette, LA on Monday but decided that there really wasn't anywhere nearby for dinner. So - we drove back to Super 8, which was right near the freeway we would be getting back on to go to Houston. No problem - they had a room and there was a Shoney's right next door. I started to wonder if we had made the right choice when a police car slowly cruised through the parking lot of the Super 8, both motels next door and the Shoney's lot. We walked out to our car to bring our bags in, and a young woman was picked up at the back door of the motel by 2 men in a big black car - she got in the back and they drove away. We were sitting in our room when another woman in a bathrobe came and sat down on the curb outside our window (ground floor), had a cigarette and then went back inside. Dinnertime came and we walked next door for a bite to eat - excellent by the way. I had a chicken stir-fry skillet - closest thing I've found to teriyaki since we've been on the road. As we walked into the lobby of the motel, there was another young lady using the guest phone - no big deal. We got to our room and realized that there were a couple of things that we left in our car. As we walked outside to get them, this same young lady went up to this very rough looking fella that was walking in the parking lot. All things considered, I was thinking this Super 8 had not been the best choice - not too super! Neither of us slept well, between the very uncomfortable bed and people getting ice (2 doors down from our room) at all hours of the night! In addition to that, it was very warm and every time I turned the A/C on I started sneezing and coughing from the overpowering air "freshener". 

Tuesday morning we drove to Avery Island, which was a little bit of back tracking from yesterday to tour the Tabasco factory. We got out of the car and were met with the very pungent aroma of Tabasco - quite different from the lovely cinnamon aroma from Pacific/Kerry. We had a very informative although brief tour of the factory - it was mostly information about the product, but it was fascinating. Every single bottle of Tabasco sauce, including the new ones (such as green/jalapeno, habanero, chipotle, garlic pepper) are bottled at this facility. It is produced by the McIlhenny Co, a fifth generation family business that was started in 1868. The peppers are mixed with a little salt (that is actually mined from Avery Island), ground up into a mash and stored in oak barrels to ferment for 3 years. The liquid is then separated from the skin and seeds, mixed with vinegar and stirred intermittently for 28 days. Once this process is completed, it can be bottled - over 700,000 bottles (of assorted sizes) are produced every day - they have a 4 day (2 shifts of 12 hours) work week 52 weeks/year. All components of the peppers are used either by McIlhenny or other companies. I sampled "sweet and spicy" and "jalapeno" flavored ice cream - it was really quite tasty - I could get used to it! Mike didn't participate in the taste test - he prefers much more traditional ice cream. I'm glad we visited the Tabasco plant, but I wish we had more time so we could explore Avery Island and its Jungle Gardens and Bird City.

Homeward bound . . . .

When we left St Augustine on Friday, we fully intended to spend the night in Tallahassee. Just before reaching Tallahassee, I decided to check with motels in the area. The first one I called gave me an emphatic NO when I asked if they had any rooms available. My next call was to a Super 8 and was advised that they had one room left - and it was only $189! For Super 8?! When I asked if he really had said $189, he assured me that yes, that was the rate. Apparently, our timing was impeccable as always - the Seminoles were playing in town that weekend. Yikes! So we decided to continue on - we stopped in a small town named Marianna and were able to get a reasonable room for the night. Judging from the parking lot later on, we got there just in time. We were about 65 miles from Tallahassee, but not too far for die-hard Seminole fans!

Dinnertime rolled around, and we were right next door to PoFolks! We couldn't wait to try this place - with a name like that, how could it be bad? Well, I won't say it was delightful, but it was interesting. The food was a little different, but filled us up. It definitely satisfied our curiosity - I haven't seen another (and there are more of them), but we see no need to visit again.


We traveled through Niceville, which appeared to be a very touristy town - stopped at the fanciest McDonalds I've ever been in. Food and service was good, but the decor was like a nice restaurant. From Niceville, we traveled south to the Emerald Coast and drove to Navarre, a small town about 25 miles from Pensacola and checked into the local Days Inn for 2 nights. On Sunday, we drove to Navarre Beach - beautiful white sand along the Gulf of Mexico, and it truly is emerald in color. I know the sand is not as pure white as it was before the oil spill. It is really hard to walk in, because you sink so far in it! I had taken my sandals off, and my feet were killing me from the effort of trying to walk in it. 

We got back to the car, and I told Mike that I didn't think my camera would hold out for the rest of the trip - it wasn't working right and making funny noises. Sure enough, within the next 10 minutes it just flat out died. So off we went to buy another camera. I bought the same camera as my poor dead one - just a newer, working version. It wasn't an expense that I had planned, but a necessary one. I can't imagine not having a camera for the next 2 weeks on the road. We headed back to the beach, but this time we just drove all the way down this little strip of land on the water, with dunes and water on both sides, to Pensacola Beach. I took some pictures of some pretty far-out homes - must be nice to have these little beach cottages!

Last night, as I was pondering the next leg of our trip, I realized that we had a minimum of 8 days of driving at about 6 hours a day. That does kind of limit what we have time to see if we want to be home by the end of the month. So, we rethunk it, and decided to bypass New Orleans and most of Louisiana. We will still be going to Houston and the Space Center, most likely the Alamo and on to Carlsbad Caverns. Other than that, I'm not sure just what lies ahead between Carlsbad and Los Angeles where we will visit son Tony for a couple of days before heading home. Tonight we are in Lafayette, Louisiana (we're not sure just what all goes on here in this motel) - we may go visit the Tabasco plant before heading to Houston. It's amazing that we've traveled less than 350 miles today, and have been in a total of 4 states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana).

St Augustine and the Fountain of Youth

So - there we were on Thursday morning, Oct 14 (Happy Birthday, Whitney), trying to decide where to go first. Our decision led us to the St Augustine Visitor Center where a very nice volunteer pointed out different things to see on foot. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. Construction on this fort was started in 1672 by the Spanish. During British occupation (1763 to 1784) it was named Fort St Mark; it was renamed Fort Marion in 1821 after Florida became a US Territory. In 1942 Congress restored the name to Castillo de San Marcos. This is the oldest masonry fort in the US. It is made of a stone called coquina which is similar to limestone and made up mostly of little shells. When first quarried, it is too soft to use for building, so it needs to dry for one to three years before using. The good thing, though, it is soft enough that cannon balls would sink into it rather than shatter or puncture. The fort is very interesting - it had a moat and drawbridge, look-out towers, bronze cannons. The design of the fort made it difficult to penetrate by the enemy, and it endured many battles in many wars. 

We left the fort and walked to the entrance of Old St Augustine. As one would expect, there are many tourist traps (souvenir shops, eateries, expensive shops) along the way. We saw the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, built before 1763. Stopped for a hot dog at TP's Crazy Dogs - we ate outside in a lovely courtyard surrounded by some of the most incredible flowering vines - one was a bleeding heart vine, but I have no idea what the other was - Rocky? After our bellies were filled, it was time to continue our walk through the old streets. We walked to the Gonzalez-Alvarez House - the oldest surviving house in Florida - where we were just in time for the guided tour. It is estimated that the house was built around 1723 and was resided in by the Gonzalez family for 40 years until the British took control of Florida. A wealthy Englishman lived there from 1775 until he died in 1784. Two years later his widow married a young Irishman about half her age - gee, there were cougars way back then. This young man liked to gamble and incurred so much debt that his wife had to auction her home in 1790 - he was also banished from St Augustine, so they moved to her country home. The winning bid for the house was a Spaniard named Alvarez, and his family lived in the house for almost 100 years. There is so much more history of this house - check it out on the internet if you're interested.

By the time we were done with the "oldest house", we were ready to head to our car. Unfortunately, our car was several blocks away. There was still a lot to see, but it seemed like the return was much farther than getting there. We did see a lovely cottage for sale for a mere $699,000. This little cottage was only 5800 sq ft, had 7 bedrooms and 5+ bathrooms. Nice little vacation home, don't you think? We finally made it back to the parking garage and returned to our motel.


Friday morning we visited the Fountain of Youth before heading to Tallahassee. We probably should have done that the day before - maybe we would have been energized by the "special" water. We both had a little drink of this youth potion - alas, we felt just as old as we did before drinking it! We walked the grounds, saw a Native American exhibit (Timucua), watched the peacocks and squirrels - and definitely did not feel any younger!