Glen Canyon; Lake Powell

We planned to spend one night at Page, which was started by the builders of Glen Canyon Dam, and the resulting Lake Powell. It was more interesting than we had expected, so extended our stay by several days. We took a guided tour of the dam the first day. It is the second largest dam in the US, and supplies water and electricity to four states. Pretty impressive. Just a few miles away there was another electrical coal plant that burns a thousand tons of coal an hour. They supposedly have a filtering system so that it reduces the air pollution, but we did see a haze over the area. We took a boat tour of the Lake, with its interesting rock formations.

We fantasized about renting a houseboat there sometime -- looked like fun!

Another day we went on a tour of Antelope Slot Canyon. It was awesome! The ride to and from the canyon was an adventure in itself! It is on Navajo nation property, so we had to pay to enter the area, then pay a hefty sum to ride in and out on the back of an old pick up. The Navajo young adult driver seemed to enjoy bumping along the sandy road. We had to hold on for dear life as he drove 50 mph, lurching and swirling around. But the slot canyon was so worth it! We've never seen anything like it. Flash floods have created this narrow canyon, with swirling rock patterns. We were there at noon, just as the light came shining through. The photos don't begin to do justice, but I took a lot of them!

We also took a hiking trail to Horseshoe View of the river (Colorado) below the dam. Had to stick my camera out over a ledge, since I wasn't too keen on leaning my body over the rock with its sharp drop off!

We're on to Zion National Park!

Flagstaff

If we wanted to move to Arizona, Flagstaff is where I would want to live -- at least, in the summer. They get lots of snow in the winter -- in fact, they're #2 of the metropolitan areas (if 52,000 people qualifies as metropolitan) for the amount of snow they get per year. (Syacruse, NY is #1). It's at 7000 ft, so quite cool this time of year. In fact, the RV park where we're staying just opened for the season last week. There are more ponderosa pines here than anywhere. And did they blow last night -- very windy -- kept us awake part of the night because our trailer rocked a bit.

But today was beautiful. We went to the Arboretum of Flagstaff, with an interesting tour about their efforts of planting native plants, ecological sustainability, water management. They also had a great talk and demonstration about raptors -- with an owl that flew over us several times as part of the demonstration, and a red tailed hawk, among other birds.

We also went to the Lowell Observatory, which was built in 1896. One of the original telescopes is still in use. We got to see the structure built for it -- very interesting -- and see how they move it into position. This is where Pluto was discovered, as well as some other amazing things they've researched. They had a neat Pluto-walk, too, that spatially informed us the distance between the planets.

Phoenix area

We have spent the week at another great RV resort park in Mesa, Arizona. We had planned to be at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon by now, but found out the roads into the park from the north don't open until mid-May. So we extended here, and have enjoyed playing tennis and shuffleboard every morning, swimming/spa every afternoon, exercise room, library, computer room, game room, ping pong, poolside restaurant for lunch .... those kinds of things. The weather has been wonderful -- mid 80's generally.

The first afternoon here we went to visit John and Charlotte Gunter, former CCUM members now living in Scottsdale. It was fun to see them in their new home/environment. (Unfortunately, the pictures I took of them won't upload for this blog -- some things are a mystery to me!)

Sunday was the best day. We worshipped at the Asbury UMC in Phoenix. The minister, Jeff Procter-Murphy, is one of the interviewers/producers of the Living the Questions series that we used at CCUM -- a wonderful collection of interviews with progressive theologians. We recognized the ceramic pots on the worship table from the video.

The people were the friendliest of any church we've been to, and Jeff's style is casual, friendly and engaging. The sermon was great, "Why I Am Still a Methodist", given the less-than-hopeful actions that will come out of our UMC General Conference that starts this week in Ft. Worth. I have given a similar sermon(s) in the past, so obviously thought it was a terrific sermon! There were many gay and lesbians in the congregation, we assume, so his sermon was right on! The pianist and instrumentalists jazzed up the hymns. (It was the same pianist who plays in the background on the Living the Questions videos; she gave us a CD of the music on their latest DVD.) This is also the church where Tex and Peggy Sample are members, and we had heard about the church from them. Unfortunately, they were out of town that Sunday. But his new book was on sale after church: Earthy Mysticism. He had talked about it when we had dinner with him back in Sarasota in February. If we lived in Phoenix, Asbury UMC would be our church!

After church we went to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix. It has a wonderful collection of history, stories and artifacts of the 22 tribal communities of Arizona. There was even a Sandra Day O'Conner Gallery -- she was a former president of the Board of Trustees.

On another day we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright winter home, the Taliesen. The tour took us through some of his living quarters, as well as his educational areas (he established an apprenticeship school) and entertainment areas. All very interesting. He did most of his work in the last 12 years of his life -- 80-92. There's hope for us yet!!!

We now head north to Flagstaff, and then will spend several weeks in Utah, visiting the national parks.

Tucson

We were never so happy to get to Larry and George's home in Tucson, Arizona! We had more driving challenges on the way through New Mexico and Arizona than we have had on the whole trip. Between a broken spring on the trailer axle out in the middle of nowhere, high winds, a flat tire, a road we shouldn't have been on with huge dips, confusion finding the RV place to store our trailer, and all exits off the Interstate in Tucson blocked for construction... we finally made it!

Their home is a beautiful southwestern style home. They have furnished it very tastefully, and all the art they have collected is displayed throughout the house with such artistic flair it looks like it could be a museum. Larry fixed a wonderful meal for our first night, and invited former friends/acquaintenances from Santa Rosa to join us. We have enjoyed being wined and dined! We have our own private bedroom and bathroom -- what luxury! -- and a whole house to roam around in. They have a great view from their kitchen-family room of the hills of Tucson.

They have taken us to the Saguaro Desert National Park, and we've seen more cactus than ever. Today we went to a very interesting desert museum. We also saw much of downtown Tucson, including a cathedral, and wonderful gardens at the old Tuscon Inn. The weather? It was the hottest spot in the US these last couple days, according to the weather reports -- 94 F -- but with a breeze, it didn't seem so bad.

We went to the UCC where Larry may become a member. While in Santa Rosa, Larry was on staff at Christ Church. We used to enjoy "practicing" music for a worship service with his singing and my playing the piano. It was great fun to share music again out of the Faith We Sing UMC songbook.

We leave tomorrow for Phoenix.

New Mexico

We experienced the heaviest winds so far traveling to Carlsbad Cavern area in New Mexico. Gusts up to 65 mph. Not fun driving, that's for sure. After we parked the trailer in an RV park, we drove through lots of dust to get to the Caverns. No wind in the caverns, though. They were absolutely awesome. It was sacred space, for sure. With the low lights and magnificent "decorations" (as the stalagtites and stalagmites and other formations are called), I kept feeling I was truly in a sanctuary. The photos I've added don't begin to do justice to the caverns.

The wind died down during the night. But rather than stop at the caverns again the next day, our original plan, we ended up discovering we had a broken spring under our trailer axle. The wheels had shifted and it was touch and go whether we could drive the 120 miles to El Paso, or whether we would break down and do severe damage to the trailer on the way. Luckily we made it, with John driving 50 mph through the desert. We were directed to a place that made and installed two new springs under the trailer, and they got us right in. We were afraid that since it was a Friday afternoon, we would be stuck for the weekend. Boy did it feel good to get back on the road, feeling safe once again.

Although John was too focused to enjoy it, the Guadalupe Mountains and old stage coach road along the way through the desert were quite interesting. We've lost the mountains and sea, certainly, as we now enter the Desert Southwest where we'll be for the next month or so.

We're now on our way to Tucson to spend time with Larry and George, who moved from Santa Rosa last January.

San Antonio, Waco

We have enjoyed visiting with friends and family these last few days. We spent several days in San Antonio, spending lots of time with former friends from CCUM, Joseph & Marilyn Waters. They seem to love being in San Antonio. Of course, it helps that their daughter and family live just around the corner from them. They are enjoying the United Methodist Church that we attended with them, even getting to hear their granddaughter play the cello during the service.

We didn't realize, until too late, that the Final Four was happening the same weekend that we were in San Antonio. We decided to take a City Tour rather than drive downtown to tour the Alamo and missions, etc. But we sure saw lots of fans of Jayhawks and Tigers (Kansas and Memphis) downtown, and were glad we hadn't actually driven the tour route ourselves!

We also had a wonderful visit with Linda and Kent Barnard (Gayle's sister-in-law) who moved from Bakersfield to Waco to be part of an Antioch Ministries Mission. (Their daughter and family are serving as missionaries in a remote part of Asia.) We had a chance to see their other daughter who lives with them, and will be graduating from Baylor University in May. Linda and Kent will be going to India in June for a couple weeks to participate in the mission they have been training for. It was wonderful to re-connect with them. They sent us off with prayer before we left. We felt blessed.

Corpus Christi, TX

We took two days to get to the Corpus Christi area. This turned out to be our least favorite place so far, even though it had been highly recommended to us by a couple of people we met along the way. But it was windy almost every day. The sky was overcast or a dingy grey. We took a ferry to get to Mustang and San Padre Islands where there are miles of coast along the Gulf of Mexico. You could even drive on the beaches at the various access points, but the water was also grey, it was choppy on the days we were there, and there was a lot of seaweed at the water's edge. We have gotten spoiled by the white sandy beaches and beautiful blue water in Florida!

We had one of the best RV spots in our park, though. We were right by one of their ponds, and could sit and watch the turtles and ducks swim by, or hear the laughing gulls (that's there name, really) perched on a building nearby all day long! Luckily the gulls found someplace else for the night!

On the day we went into Corpus Christi, we did the tour of the Lexington Battleship, which had been used in WWII, then went to the State of Texas Aquarium, which was quite interesting. We particularly enjoyed the dolphin show, and the talks about river otters and stingrays.

I wasn't prepared for all the oil refineries and tankers around the bay. Too industrial for us! John had read that Corpus Christi had been settled by Methodists, but we couldn't find any historical areas that mentioned it.

We've been eating quite a bit of shrimp in these parts. One place on the water near our RV Park that sold bait also advertised "table shrimp." The Vietnamese woman at the counter didn't speak much English, but she had me follow her to where there were pails of shrimp. The heads were still on them, which was not something I was used to seeing in seafood stores. I wanted just a pound but she kept trying to sell me two pounds for $6.00. Since I wasn't sure if she understood me, I didn't know if I was getting bait shrimp or eating shrimp, so I only got one pound. She popped the heads off for me. I cooked some for dinner and they actually were very good. I'm sorry I didn't get six pounds to freeze for those desert days coming up when seafood will be a distant memory! (We actually do have several meals worth of seafood in our little freezer already, so we'll be well stocked for awhile.)

We're on our way to San Antonio to visit with former Christ Church friends.