Today is the last day of the trip. We drove to Montezuma Castle, the settlement of ancient farmers of the Verde Valley. This spot was reminiscent of Catalhoyuk in Turkey. These condo like structures were built in the side of the mountain, it was a hunter a hunter gather society. They abandoned these structures around 1400.

We stopped in the Old Town section of Scottsdale for lunch and more shopping (yawn).
We ate a restaurant that brews it’s own root beer.

I will be happy to resume my daily routine, Morning Joe, Chris Todd, Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow, exercise class and after school time with Drew. This trip did reaffirm that I should not buy an RV because the sheer drops off the side of the road and the hairpin curves are more than I can handle. I do need to find a way to travel in North America that allows me more freedom of choice. The tour is nice because you always have interesting conversations but the damn rules did thro me over the edge one day.

This is the last blog entry until January from Machu Picchu.

Today was a much calmer day. No injuries, no hurrying and lot’s of free time to enjoy the view.

Zion has been carved and shaped by water. On a normal day 60 cubic feet per minute is the rate the water moves through the Virgin river. During times of flash flood and the spring rain that jumps to 300,000 cu feet per minute. The native Americans that lived here were aware of that pattern and stored and ground their grain way above the river.
As you travel through the park you experience many different ecosystems, deserts, woodlands and tundra like vegetation. Big horn sheep ( which Super Mario showed us on the route in) and California Condors which were both on the verge of extinction and are now rebounding in the park. Los Angeles zoo took the lead on the condor by tricking the birds in captivity. Condors usually lay one egg every other year, in captivity they boost that number to 4 by stealing the eggs from the nest.

During the first free time I took off on a hike up the mountain to the emerald pools. Halfway up, as my breathing rate increased, I remembered my own vulnerabilities and returned to the lodge. After our park tour Elaine Bennett (former aaps teacher) went with me. Thanks Elaine the view was worth the trip. Water falling from 100 feet into a pool and the rocks loaded with hanging gardens.

The Mormans settled this region. Their dream was to grow cotton, thus the land around the park is referred to as the Dixie Forest

Zion is an incredible sight and adventure. Pictures do it no justice. But here are a few attempts

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Pittsfield seniors contracted Shoreline. Shoreline also contracted with the Manistee seniors, so we really have two busses of people on this trip. To say that our bus has been disappointed in the on the ground decisions made by the company would be an understatement. When we exited the train we were introduced to our new bus driver, Mario. Yesterday he was elevated to Super Mario. He followed the back roads and took us on the most beautiful scenic tour. He chose to not follow the other bus and really show us the country. We drove through the most colorful landscape and stopped at several spots that were not on the plan. Navaho Dome and Pictures in the Rock. Rather than stop at a chain lunch stop we stopped where there were two great hamburger stands and an art store.

This is the beginning of the story of Ruth. Ruth finished her lunch and strolled to the art store where her legs became entangled in a dog on the porch. Ruth fell and hurt her elbow. The bus had the choice to drive back many miles or forward to Bryce Canyon. We opted for Bryce canyon which surely would have medical services at the Ranger Station. For about two hours Ruth’s arm swelled while she iced it and we all quietly discussed what would our insurance cover and did the trip insurance we bought cover this accident ( the answer is No) . When we arrived at the Bryce Canyon Lodge they acted like they had never heard of an emergency. No, there is no emergency medical support in the park… An ambulance , the patient needs to walk into the lodge and request one. Oh and by the way the hospital is thirty miles back. Meanwhile one of our seniors took this opportunity to go into a full blown breathing attack. The rest of us were hustled on to a bus to tour the canyon.

The canyon is beautiful, I enjoyed walking along the paths until there was no railing and my fear of heights kicked in. We visited inspiration point and sunset point. The erosion that shaped much of this canyon is frost and ice. Nine months out of the year the temperature In the canyon drops to below freezing at night. Any moisture around the rocks freezes and expands, eventually cracking rock and creating great “hoo doos”.

We returned to the lodge for dinner. Our breathing patient was still rocky after several breathing treatments ( self administered) and oxygen administered by the park ranger. Ruth was transported to a hospital in the direction of our next stop where a dislocated elbow and broken bone were treated. She traveled with us to the hotel where she will try to make arrangements to go home and have surgery on the elbow.

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After posting Sunday we crossed the mighty Mississippi into Iowa. Flat, dry, burned crops. At 5:30 we went to the dining car. The dining car was like an old time movie, white table cloths, linen napkins, silverware and waiters. The food was very good. The tables seated four, we were joined by another woman on our trip who is traveling alone and a female truck driver headed to Nebraska to pick up a new job. In between her interesting commentary about her job she was counting down the minutes to Ottumwa Iowa where she could get off the train for a cigarette. I’m so glad that monkey is off my back.

The great adventure was getting ready for bed. Gayle and I have a roomette which converts into two beds, an upper and a lower. The porter comes, pulls a bar under the seat and moves the two seats into a bed. He lowers the upper bunk and pulls down a futon that is already made up for the lower bunk. The best part was me hauling my old, well endowed butt up into the skinny little bunk that looks like a sardine can with one narrow side peeled away. Much laughing ensued as I trudged up the tiny stairs and tried to position my self for sleep. Once I was settled Gayle hooked the safety harness so I would not roll out of bed. Sleeping was only fair, trains shake and wobble with no respect for my comfort. I had suggested to Gayle that we needed to think of it as a big mother rocking us to sleep. I wish that image had been true.

Outside of Denver Colorado we had a two hour delay while they tried to move a damaged train off the track.

On the way to Winter Park we went through 28 tunnels in thirty minutes and then went through Moffat Tunnel. The tunnel is 6.2 mi long. When it was built in 1926 it cut 176 miles off the trip between Denver and the Pacific. It also saved countless hours of snow removal from the tracks.

The rest of the day will be spent on the train watching mountains, canyons, rivers,eagles and fisherman pass our window. The vegetation is becoming shorter- more scrub like the rocks a little redder as we travel farther west.

I have to say this is a lot more seat time then I imagined and the organization is not visible to the naked eye.

View from the caboose

Gayle Richardson and I left early Sunday morning with the Pittsfield seniors for a tour of the canyon country. The first stop was Chicago.

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders: (Carl Sandburg)

The first stop was Navy Pier. This was not the Navy Pier I remember from twenty some years ago. This was a bustling exciting destination with lots of little shops and restaurants along a beautiful Lake Michigan walkway. Gayle and I walked the entire length of the Pier and ate at The City Porch. We had wonderful fish tacos. I trust it was not the tilapia I saw raised in The Mekong river houses. On the return to the bus we saw the Fabulous Adams Collection of stained glass. Having just finished reading the book,Clara and Mr. Tiffany, I was thrilled to see one of the panels that the women’s shop designed .

We took the afternoon architectural boat tour. The guide was fantastic, full of history, more than I can remember. The most important fact was that the Chicago Fire burned down 3.3 sq miles and gave the city the opportunity to start over with a plan and excellent architecture. Twenty two years later the city had recovered enough to host the World’s Fair wash here they introduced the world to many modern inventions. If you have not read DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, it is a a marvelous history of Chicago and it’s famous buildings.

A Tiffany Window

View from the Resturant

MONDAY

Today has been a ” hurry up and wait day”. Gayle and I are finally settled in a second story sleeper car for the next Thirty hours.

So far we are seeing first hand the devastation of the drought ( caused by the no such thing as global warming)

The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.”
–Agnes Repplier,
American essayist