Travels with Ann and Ken

We left the Grand Canyon Village and drove east along Desert View Road stopping at lookouts along the way. It gave us a different perspective of the canyon in an area where it is wider and not as deep. More of the river could be seen. We then left the park and drove onto Navajo lands. The elevation dropped off to around 3,500 feet compared to 6,800 feet at the canyon rim where we stayed. The land was very dry and the wind blew like mad. There were however, some pretty impressive cliffs too. A little further on we could see the Vermillon Cliffs in the distance. Just before the Vermillon Cliffs are the upper reaches of the Grand Canyon (technically it begins at Lee's Ferry). We crossed the river at the Navajo Bridge that was built in 1927 (the old bridge has been replaced by a wider one). Getting out of the RV here was quite an experience. The wind was still stiff and the temperature was around 96 degrees! It felt like walking into a blast furnace. The lower eleva...

After spending a delightful night with our friends Reggie and Bill in Phoenix, we headed to the Grand Canyon - South Rim. We had reserved a site at an RV park inside the national park. The first evening there we had a visitor at our site - an elk. The elk were everywhere. The views from the rim a spectacular and the first full day there we spent several hours hiking along the rim enjoying the view and taking pictures. The view below shows the top of the Bright Angel Trail which goes to the bottom of the canyon. Our plan was to hike part of it. The weather was hot but not outrageous (mid-to-high 80s) and most days it was breezy. Our second day we got out our bikes and took a 12-mile ride out to Hermit's Rest then took the shuttle back (the shuttles have bike racks!) The third day we did that hike down the Bright Angel Trail to the One and a Half Mile Rest House - 1.5 miles down then - what goes down must come up. It was hot and dusty and crowded nea...

The intent of our trip this time was to go out west to the Four Corners area and spend some time exploring. The trip to Florida to visit Linda and Al was added kind of at the last minute. It meant that we had extra miles to drive and less time to do them in. Hence, when we left Ft. Myers Beach on April 25th, we had to put some miles down with not a lot of time for stops (our deadline was a reservation at the Grand Canyon on May 6th). We did make a stop in Irving, TX to see a long-time friend, Kathy Runkel but, otherwise, we did a lot of straight through driving. From Ft. Myers we headed north along the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle. Along the way we went over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over the mouth of Tampa Bay. From a distance it looks a bit like golden sails over the bay. From the Panhandle we drove west on I-10 and crossed into Alabama then quickly Mississippi (they both just have narrow feet that connect them to the Gulf) then into Louisiana and Texas. We crossed t...

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Ann and I left Independence on April 16 heading to Florida to spend a little time with my younger sister Linda and her husband Al. We spent some time with them last year on our last visit to Florida. They have been at an RV park in Fort Myers Beach since last October. We joined them there. Some of you subscribed to our blog last year. Some did not. Some didn't complete the confirmation process. If you want to receive notification when we post throughout or trip, click or touch the SUBSCRIBE button at the top of the page. Enter your Email address and then you will receive a CONFIRMATION message that you must respond to or you won't receive the notifications. (I didn't design it, that's just the way it works :-)

After leaving Port of the Islands we headed to a great county-run park and campground in South Miami - Larry and Penny Thompson Park. We wanted a place to just spend a few days with the cats. We had been leaving them alone a lot and thought some quiet time with them would be good - and it was. This park, though fairly large was quiet and friendly with plenty of space between campsites. There are also great walking trails through old mango groves and around a nice lake. See pictures here. We then headed into the Keys to visit with Dave and Marilyn Ayala, boating buddies and great friends. Ann and I also used to work with Dave back in the '90s. The RV park was on Fiesta Key and had almost nothing to recommend it but it did allow us to spend time with Dave and Marilyn. We did have a nice sunset and then turned around and saw the moonrise. Pictures here. After saying goodbye to Dave and Marilyn we headed north to meet up with my sister Linda and her husband Al. It was a long...

After leaving De's we went to visit our friend Leah, who we have known since our days working together in Miami in the mid-1990's. Leah now lives south of Naples in an area called Port of the Islands. It is right next to the Everglades in the west coast of Florida close to Everglades City. She has great condo that looks out over the canal. Manatees are an almost constant presence and I managed to get a  couple of shots  of one right at the seawall. (just for you, Ed :-) While here we went on a hike with a naturalist friend of Leah's, Dick. He is very knowledgeable on the flora and fauna of this area. He is a volunteer at a wildlife preserve and hikes the preserve every week making notes on the animal species he sees. He allowed us to walk with him at Leah's request. We walked about 4 3/4 miles out then retraced our path back. We started at 7:30am and got back around 1:30pm. It was a very hot day and by the time we were back, we all were exhausted (except Dick who k...