Grand Canyon 2022

  Journey’s End 07/05/2022 Posted on  July 13, 2022  by  Jerry We left Shreveport on the final leg of our road trip through America. Our grandchildren’s parents were awaiting our arrival. It has been a great trip. Six states, 4,000 miles in eleven days. The children saw a lot and learned a lot. Linda and I saw a lot and learned a lot. When you think back on a trip like this, you realize what good memories you have. The Grand Canyon, The Pink Jeep Tour through the Sedona Mountains, the Williams to Grand Canyon train ride, the Wupatki Memorial, the Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest, the Painted Desert, the Long Walk Memorial, Billy the Kid’s grave, the Prairie Dog Village in Lubbock, visiting family in Lubbock, Fort Wolters Army Post in Mineral Wells. This was just a part of the trip. The time we spent together was priceless. As we entered Alabama, I asked the kids where they would like to go on the next trip. Europe was a resounding answer. Sounds good to me. Until ...

  U.S. Army Helicopter Pilot Training Base 07/04/2022 Posted on  July 13, 2022  by  Jerry As our journey is coming to a close, I had one more stop to make. Fort Wolters, Tx. I thought July 4 was a good time to travel down memory lane. I became an Alabama State Trooper cadet on October 10, 1966, two weeks after I turned 18. I wanted to be an Alabama State Trooper. At that time I had to wait until I turned 22 to be promoted. In 1968 I went on military leave from the Troopers and entered the Army. I was accepted into the U.S. Army Flight School. I became a product of the Army’s program to provide helicopter pilots for the war in Vietnam. We called it “High school, to flight school, to Vietnam”. I was 19 years old. Less than a year later I was WO 1, flying Huey’s, assigned to the 121st Assault Helicopter Company in Soc Trang, RVN. We were the Soc Trang Tigers. Our area of operations was in the 4th Corp and we spent a good portion of that time supporting combat operations...

  The Long Walk 07/03/2022 Posted on  July 12,2022  by  Jerry The  Long Walk of the Navajo , also called the  Long Walk to Bosque Redondo , was the 1864 deportation and attempted ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the United States Government. Navajos were forced from their land in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico.  They were placed in what would be best called a concentration camp. They were held there until 1868. They were released in 1868 to return to their homeland. I had never heard about this until Linda gave me a book to read about the Three Corners War. This book was about the Civil War in the West. The Yankees fought the Southerners and the Indians. The Indians fought the Yankees and the Southerners. The Southerners fought the Yankees and the Indians. When the Southern Army returned to Texas, the Yankees had 53 forced marches of over 300 miles, moving the Navajo’s to Bosque Redondo. T...

  Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest, Painted Desert 07/02/2022 Posted on  July 10,2022  by  Jerry Is the name Lao-Tzu familiar with any of you? Is the Chinese proverb “The journey of a thousand miles starts begins with one step” familiar? Lao said this. We left Wetumpka on June 25 on the first step of our 4,000 mile journey. Today we turned around, 2000 miles later and started back to Alabama. We left Williams, Az and went to Winslow, Az to visit the Meteor Crater. Over 50,000 years ago a meteorite, weighing several tons and approximately 150 feet wide, impacted in an area, outside what is now Flagstaff, Az. The impact result was devastation for miles around (approximately 7 miles) and the creation of a giant bowl shaped crater, which measured 550 feet deep and almost a mile wide. During my flying career, I had the opportunity to fly to California on several occasions. I passed over the crater just about every time I flew to the west coast, coming and going. I always w...

  Wupatki Ruins 07/01/2022 Posted on  July 10, 2022  by  Jerry Today’s travel was a journey into the past. We went to an area about forty miles north of Flagstaff and visited the Wupatki National Monument. The Wupatki settlement site was first inhabited around 500 AD.  Wupatki, which means “Tall House” in the  Hopi language , is a multistory Sinagua  pueblo  dwelling comprising over 100 rooms. The Sinagua tribe lived in this area. This is a semi-arid expanse and Sinagua, in Spanish, means “without water”. It is an unlikely landscape for a thriving community. We visited the largest of the ancient pueblos. It was a three story adobe construction with over one hundred rooms. The park, itself, has over thirty- two separate dwelling ruins. It was estimated that it was between 1,000 and 1,200 years old. Samuel and Ethan at the blow hole Riley, Samuel, Ethan Wupatki Ruins After leaving the Wupatki Ruins, we drove to the eastern entrance of the Grand Cany...

  Sedona Pink Jeep Tour 06/30/2022 Posted on  July 1,2022  by  Jerry Today's adventure took us to Sedona, Az. Sedona was established in 1902 when it got its first post office. Sedona was named after  Sedona Arabella Miller Schnebly  (1877–1950), the wife of Theodore Carlton Schnebly, the city’s first postmaster. She was celebrated for her hospitality and industriousness.  Her mother, Amanda Miller, claimed to have made the name up because “it sounded pretty”. More than 60 Hollywood productions have been made here, starting in 1923. People come here from all over, attracted to the surrounding mountains. That is what brought us here. Have you ever wanted to take an off road tour of the back country? Go no further than the Pink Jeep Tour Company. We started the day off in Williams. Ethan and Riley rode the zip line in the down town area. We then had lunch at Nany’s Mexican restaurant (which was very good) and drove to Sedona. We explored the down tow...