My Wild West Vacation

The kids got together and sent me out west for a vacation. They even talked my sister, Carol, and her husband, Bert, into going with me. As I'm writing this, it is my second day out west - this is just a quick report so the kids can see what I'm up to.

I almost didn't make it - my flight took off at 8:55 AM Tuesday morning, and I was supposed to be there 90 minutes ahead of time. Chris called me at 7:10 to ask me why I was 20 minutes late picking him up so he could take me to the airport. The reason I was late was because I overslept. I dunno about you, but I figure that if I didn't drag my lazy body out of bed until 7:11 AM, I did pretty doggone good to make it to the airport departure gate by 8:30.

Look at that - 8:29....plenty of time.

See - I made it in time to take off. I wasn't even the last one to get on the plane!

While I wasn't the first one on the plane, I think I was the first one to fall asleep. I woke up in time to grab a can of Pepsi, a bag of pretzels, and take a couple of pictures of the mountains.

When I got to Las Vegas, my sister was waiting for me. We gathered my luggage (tons and tons of luggage), and then decided to kill some time while we waited for her husband, Bert, to arrive. How do you kill time at the Las Vegas airport?

Me? I killed time by making the three bars that would win a jackpot line up. Unfortunately, they lined up just below the line that would have made me a winner. I put $9 worth of quarters into the machine, won $2 or so a couple of times, and walked away with no money left over. Carol promises I'll do better when we go back to the airport on our way home.

After Bert arrived, we rented an SUV and headed on towards Kanab, Utah, where we'll stay for a few days. Along the way, we stopped at Firelands State Park. Rumor has it that some episodes of Star Trek were filmed here because the scenery looks like it could be some other planet. It sure looked a LOT different than Ohio.

We arrived in Kanab a bit after dark. This is the view I got when I looked out my window in the morning. The butte in the background looks just like what I pictured the west to be.

Here's a view from outside my door. I took a picture of the place we're staying in (looks like it is made out of logs), but the picture didn't get resized - check back later.

We stopped here to pick up a pack. Where else but Kanabe, Utah could you find a place that sold books, espresso, and outdoor gear?

This was one of my first views of the Grand Canyon. I took a bunch of pictures, and none of them do justice to the place. The Grand Canyon is huge - much, much, much bigger and more impressive than I imagined.

This would be my sister, Carol, and her husband, Bert.

See - I'm really at the Grand Canyon.

I didn't realize I get a bit queezy about heights until I looked over the overlook.

The Grand Canyon seems to have a bunch of different "looks" - depending on where you look, what the clouds are like, and what the lighting is like. Regardless of the "look," it is MUCH more impressive than I ever imagined.

Bert spent a lot of time waiting for me and Carol to catch up with him. He's a heck of a good sport and is making the whole trip a pretty doggone stress-free and fun event.

This picture sure doesn't come close to showing how impressive the view is. That ledge is waaaaayyy up in the air and you can see the Colorado River by looking through the overpass. I know that the overpass has been there for centuries and isn't going anyplace anytime soon, but I was still a bit queezy about walking out on top of it.

This is the view from the topof the overpass, looking back to where I took the previous picture.

Amazing, isn't it?

That's it for today. I've moved my pictures from the flash card to my computer's hard drive, so I've got room to take a bunch more pictures tomorrow.

I haven't yet put any pictures up from Days 2 through 5, but here are a few pictures from Day 6