Category Archives: 2021

Until recently, I had never even heard the words slot canyon much less know what they were. Today, we were educated by experiencing them first hand. Out here in Arizona when the sandstone gets a crack in it, it allows the water to wash through it eroding the crack from the bottom up or from the top down creating what is called slot canyons. Today we visited one that is like an A-frame where you can walk through but it is narrow at the top. These canyons are all over the Navajo Reservation and some of the families have chosen to allow tourists to see the beauty created by this occurrence and they get paid handsomely for the privilege.

We were led to a 4-wheel drive vehicle with our guide, Norman, who is Navajo and we proceeded to take a “pink jeep” type ride out to the Antelope upper canyon.

In 1994 these canyons were open to the public as a National Park but totally controlled by the families who own the land because they are on the Navajo Reservation. We took lots of pictures hoping to capture the beauty of what we saw. Bear in mind, pictures are never as good as the reality but these come close. See if you can spot the picture Microsoft paid $1.7 million for as one of their screen savers and see if you can find the shot that looks like a heart.

After this wonderful afternoon we found a restaurant with an open terrace for dinner to watch the sunset. All in all a very photogenic day.

Pictures from restaurant

After driving for 10 hours we arrived in Page, Arizona home of Lake Powell and the slot canyons. First thing this morning we went to the visitor center to find out how to fit all the wonders of this area in three days. We found out that we were very lucky to be here at this time with Covid keeping many of the international travelers away. Otherwise it would be very crowded filled with bus loads of Asians and Europeans. It seems much of the tourist trade for this area comes from those areas. One of the things Gordon shared with us is when the government took over the land they allocated pieces to each of the families of the Navajo tribe rather than all the land to the tribe as a whole. The families that got the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons are making a great deal of money conducting these tours, while others just got land to graze their animals.

Gordon, our friendly visitor center employee got us set up for tours of the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, a 6 hour sunset tour of Alstrom Point Canyon and enough other options to make sure our days were filled. We took a walk along the bridge across the dam of the lake while waiting for our sunset tour.

The tour was scheduled to go on the Alstrom starting at 3:30 but it rained and it is too dangerous to be in these areas when it rains so we watched football for a while and then when the rain stopped went to Antelope Marina.

The Antelope Marina on Lake Powell is filled with HUGE houseboats and other boats for rent, complete with a floating restaurant. We thought we should go there and enjoy the peacefulness of the lake at sunset sitting out on the deck. Once you get on the property, thanks to our Senior Gold Pass without a fee, we parked the car and walked towards the ramp to the restaurant. I kid you not, this ramp was the length of half a football field all downhill. As you know, if you go down, you have to come back up. It was obvious to us that the water level of the Lake was much lower than normal because the last leg of the ramp had a very steep angle to it.

Unfortunately, the restaurant was filled with loud, party people and we decided it would not be any fun to stay, so back up the ramp we went breathing heavy and wishing we had known about the party people before we walked down but we did it with energy to spare. Guess we are in better shape than we thought for our age.

Day two with the Coles started with a walking tour of downtown Colorado Springs, taking in all the history and art of the city. Actually the history is pretty interesting starting in 1871 when General William Jackson Palmer, Civil War hero and railroad magnate was deeded the land to start a new town dedicated to attracting long term residents and families in contrast to all the other mining and railroad towns that sprang up one day and died very quickly. General Palmer was hoping that the springs nearby would attract people trying to recuperate from TB and encourage them to stay. The town was initially 2 square miles that he meticulously planned with large parks and open spaces as part of his healthy lifestyle theme. Today this city is 200 square miles.

Another influential founding father was Spencer Penrose who built the zoo, Will Rogers Shrine, Broadmoor Hotel and much more. An interesting story we heard was that when he and his wife had passed on and they were cleaning out the house, they found several glass eyes in a drawer. Everyone knew he had lost an eye in an accident and wore a glass replacement, but they were surprised when they found not only hazel glass eyes to match his good one but blood shot glass eyes to match his good eye on the days he had a hangover.

The downtown area is filled with pieces of bronze statues and one dancing couple are actually spinning on pedestal. Unfortunately, like many big cities, there are also lots of people living homeless.

It was now around 11 a.m. and the cool mountain temperature had turned into hot summer sun and we were on our way to the Garden of the Gods to do some hiking and climbing. For weeks now, Ralph had been texting me messages about how cool it was where he was and how hot it was in Ocala, but the minute we got here so did a heatwave!

Garden of the Gods started as a 480 acre city park deeded to the city as long as it always remained free to the public.

Today, the park is 1,367 acres including some of the most beautiful sandstone formations and geological wonders seen by an estimated six million visitors per year. There are many trails and formations suitable for hiking and climbing by ordinary people like us with no skills but Jim and Ralph managed to exercise the mountain goat in them to get the best pictures.

Just an observation, but it seemed to me that the average visitor to this park is at least 30 years younger than me and much better shape. The heat and the sun finally won and we gave up for the day.

Coming back from dinner at night, there were three deer walking down the middle of the street in the neighborhood and Kandie told us that happens all the time. It must be true, because they were not intimidated by the cars at long and just kept strolling along.

Tomorrow we leave for Page, Arizona.

For over 400 miles this was our view across the great State of Kansas. To say it was boring would be a compliment. Occasionally there would be a wind farm to break up the monotony, but that was about it.

We were on our way to Colorado Springs to spend some time with our neighbors and friends, Ralph and Kandie Cole.

We had a wonderful dinner while we got caught up and made plans for the next two days. So much to see and so little time. First on the list was the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo considered one of the better zoos in the country. The first area was the Africa exhibit with all the animals from there starting with the giraffes. This habitat was different in that the people were on a raised area putting them at eye level with the animals and because we were feeding them lettuce, they were not shy about coming right up to us.

Of course, then there were the meerkats being as cute as you can get.

This zoo has 6 African elephants of varying ages that visitors are permitted to feed and watch. They also do something different which I’ve never seen in a zoo. They teach them behaviors such as raising their leg or turn around on command. This seemed more like circus tricks than zoo behavior until I realized all the behaviors allowed them to inspect the well being of the animals. The one I couldn’t connect to their well being was the painting with water colors and a brush to create pictures. We didn’t check, but I bet you can buy a elephant painting in the gift shop.

After a long time, we tore ourselves away from the elephants and moved on to the other animals.

Once you are in the zoo, you have access to the Will Rogers Memorial built in 1937 by a major property owner in the area, Spencer Penrose. Will Rogers died tragically in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935 after becoming well known as an actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, and social commentator. Rogers and Penrose were great friends, ergo the shrine complete with Westminster chimes every 15 minutes and on the hour and music that plays at 10 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. that can be heard throughout the neighborhood. The monument stands 114 feet high and offers a serene spot to see the area from a bird’s eye view.

After leaving there, we wandered down to the Broadmoor Hotel known to be the oldest luxury hotel in the area thanks again to Mr. Penrose.

The hotel is filled with paintings from the time it was built and lots of Remington bronze sculptures. The hotel is fabulous as are their prices. Mr. Penrose has a reputation for being quite the drinker and the hallway to the bar area is decorated with empty bottles of liquor and wine supposedly consumed at party he hosted to celebrate the end of prohibition.

Tomorrow is a big outdoor adventure so we stayed in to rest up.

We had a long way to go today so we made some decisions that we found to be usual for us, but turned out pretty good. We found the Heritage Church of Christ in Franklin and they had a 9 a.m. service online so we called them to see if we could prevail on them to give us the now commonplace “rip and sip” communion elements and were able to get on the road by 8:45 in time to stream the service through the Bluetooth on the car radio while we drove. This may be something you’ve already done but it was new to us and it allowed us to be in two places at once; in the car driving and in church worshiping. Ain’t technology grand!

The rest of the trip was boring with nothing noteworthy driving over 650 miles to get to Topeka, Kansas. We did catch a glimpse of the Arch as we passed through St. Louis but we’ve been there, done that.

By 7 p.m. my rear end was tired and we spent the last hour driving into the sun going west. Bummer! I know tomorrow will be better because we get to do something other than sit.

One question everyone asks is “What’s in Topeka?”. My answer is I have no idea which is why we are going there but also so we can legitimately say we have been to all 50 states in our travels. When we were in Kansas City, Missouri a few years back, realizing we had not been to Kansas, we drove across the border into Kansas and just turned around and came back so that we could make our 50 state statement. Today, we are legitimately in Kansas and we will be taking a walking tour of the city to see all the historic buildings and savor this historic city.