We visited Susan’s family in Green Forest, Arkansas. That’s not far
from Eureka Springs, AR, where there is a big cat (and bear) rescue organization.
We visited their “ranch” and even saw a liger (lion-tiger).
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Driving through Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas was mostly pretty
bleak prairie, though there were some rolling hills. I became reacquainted
with goatsheads; embedded in socks, they hurt!
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In Santa Fe, NM, we witnessed an anti-Iraq-war march that started in
front of the state capitol building with a five-person marimba band.
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There were even some WW2 veterans protesting from their position of
age and experience.
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Just down the street and around the corner from the march, there was
a parochial school having a fall fair ...
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-- which attracted some of the denizens of the hinterland.
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In the national forest above Santa Fe, the aspens were turning their
bright gold autumn finery.
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We met a Navajo shepherd when we first entered Arizona, just west of
Gallup, NM. His sheep had strayed a bit further west than usual. He was
proud of his service to his country, in the Air Force during the Korean
Conflict.
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His brother, he said, lives in Phoenix; about 15 days’ walk to the
southwest, he pointed.
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The red sandstone is spectacular in the Painted Desert. Much of
the Petrified Forest is moonscape. They are both part of the same National
Park.
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The Grand Canyon is still there, a great, breathtaking hole in
the ground. One does not capture it in photographs.
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On the other hand, Apache Canyon, near Page, AZ, to the northeast
of the Grand Canyon, has a narrow passage reminiscent of “the siq,” a similar
but larger passage leading to Petra (in Jordan). The light effects in this
passage were far more spectacular, because of its narrowness. The Navajo
tour guide called it the “corkscrew.”
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Lake Powell, also at Page, AZ, presented us with a spectacular
boatride through some of the narrow canyons flooded when the Glen Canyon
dam was built. It is down 75 feet from its usual level, but is still 550
feet deep just above the dam. The white on the canyon walls is the “bathtub
ring” a mixture of minerals and algae.
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Zion National Park had as much variety of rock formations as the
Grand Canyon. Again, so hard to capture.
(Mt. Carmel Junction is the last settlement east of Zion NP, and has
a nifty little resort with a nine-hole golf course. The course was established
to provide sufficient water rights for a motel owner in the 1960s. It is
out of cell phone coverage!)
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Babbling brooks and mixed forests abound in Colorado.
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And several of the mountains we saw were already snow-capped.
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The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs is a place I visit whenever
I’m in Colorado. This is the first time I actually saw the view that suggests
the name. Susan was having trouble breathing, so we skipped Pikes Peak.
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In Chicago, we visited the church at which my grandfather was priest
until his death in 1947. I was an acolyte there when I visited.
Louis Sullivan, a teacher of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the building.
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Sullivan and Tiffany were buddies, and the chandelier is Tiffany.
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In the windows, you see some of the influence upon Wright.
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The rooftop adjacent to the priest's apartment is where my grandmother
raised chickens for food in the 1930s and 40s. Now, when the leaves are
not on the trees, from there, Father John says, you can see the three tallest
buildings in the world.
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There were quite a few pictures on the walls in the meeting hall adjacent
to the church, and some had my grandfather in them. (He’s the leftmost
clergy, front row.)
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Father John and matushka are the rightmost in the meeting hall, preparing
for a rummage sale.
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