Never let yesterday use up too much of today.---Will Rogers Monday. Our first order of business is to go to Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, but first we enjoy Bob’s famous grits, eggs, and salsa. The tower is a solitary stump shaped granite formation that looms 865 feet above the tree-lined river valley, like a skyscraper in the country. It’s the core of an almost volcano. The mountains markings are the basis for Native American legends. After viewing this monument, we both felt it has been misnamed, “God’s Tower” comes closer to what we [View Full Entry]

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"NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED IS WORTH COUNTING. NOT EVERYTHING THAT COUNTS CAN BE COUNTED." A. EINSTEIN June 4, 2005, Saturday. The morning was gray and rainy as we drove west toward the Badlands NP . Both the Indians and the French/Canadian called this “bad land to travel across”, and indeed it is. As we approached, the ocean of prairie is transformed into a jumble of wilderness of badlands. About 75 million years ago the earth’s climate was warmer and a shallow sea covered the region we call the Great Pla [View Full Entry]

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"Measure often, cut once." Punjabi proverb Alaska and Northwest Canada Introduction: The next adventure, expedition, journey, will start June 2. We will drive across the United States, stopping at the Badlands, Rushmore, then to Mt. Rainer, Seattle, and Bellingham, Washington. From there we will board the Inside Passage Alaskan Ferry, getting off at Ketchikan, Wrangle, Sitka, Juneau, Haines and then Skagway. We’ll be spending a few days at each place. From Skagway, we will drive over to Seward along part of the Alaskan Highway, then to Homer and Kenai Penins [View Full Entry]

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My soul can find no staircase to heaven through a place like this . Bob Tait The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. --H. L. Mencken LINKS Valley of Fire TRAVEL TIPS May 30. Today is a day in Las Vegas. I haven’t been here since 1971, at that time we saw Elvis perform, not his impersonator. It is a town of glitz, sparkle and more glitz. We were in touch Joan and Jim, friends from the “Burg”, and we scheduled lunch [View Full Entry]

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My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth’s loveliness. Michelanglo LINKS You need to go see these pictures. There are a few better than ours Valley of Fire Valley of Fire TRAVEL TIPS If you live by or go to RV Parks they often have a library of books and a lot to good travel information. It is a good place to stop and ask what there is to do in an area. So go to their web sites when looki [View Full Entry]

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When our memories outweigh our dreams, we have grown old. --William J. Clinton - Bill Clinton LINKS None TRAVEL TIPS This is an early get up and we are preparing for the end of our trip. We packed up, had a light breakfast and headed down the river. There were no rapids; it was pretty calm the whole way down. The raft float was at least four hours, before the jet-boat picked us up and brought us to Lake Mead. As we traveled out of “The Canyon”, things just disappear. No more fascinating geology, no more [View Full Entry]

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quotation here LINKS None TRAVEL TIPS We’re here in the Grand Canyon looking up; the sun’s starting to come up. It’s going to be another beautiful day. Everybody is up and moving about. We’re going to get a good start this morning, get on the river, get ahead of people. This is the last day of the real rapids. We have one coming up called Lava Rocks, which is the biggest. Then there are a bunch of small ones after that, but it will be a pretty easy day, except we’re going to be out in the [View Full Entry]

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Quote by Edward Abbey, the author of the Money Wrench Gang. “The Great Canyon Endures - the Canyon endures the trifling businesses of humans as it does the industry of ants. The trickle-down erosion of snow and freeze, the cascade of floods, the transient insult of the Glenn Canyon Dam; these things shall pass, the Canyon will outlive them all.” LINKS None TRAVEL TIPS Everybody’s up - a beautiful moon just setting over the canyon - the sun’s coming up and the moon’s going down - just beautiful [View Full Entry]

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“Strenuousness is the immortal path,” another quote from crew LINKS None TRAVEL TIPS Well, we’re back on the river and we’re continuing to move downstream. Today was a great day for rapids. We just hit one right after another - we were soaked! As soon as we’d get a little bit dry, another rapid. We stopped and did a hike up a stream and we followed the stream right through a gorge all the way to a beautiful waterfall. Everybody got to play in it - another just beautiful, beautiful place. Pe [View Full Entry]

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“Sloth is the way of death!” Quote from our crew master!! LINKS We will be looking at a place to post the pictures that we took and did not include on this and future blogs So stay tuned Picture web site TRAVEL TIPS This is a day of rapids! ABC Alive Below Crystal!! We survived the Crystal Rapids. We were wet early on in the morning. It seemed chilly, but only briefly. Floating down the Colorado, a familiar sight came into view, the bridge leading into Phantom Ranch. The temperature was [View Full Entry]

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