Tales from our Crackerbox Palace

  "Brighty" was a burro deserted by minors in the Grand Canyon and
friended by a small boy. He became a favorite friend of many children.

Steve is reading "The Earth is Weeping" about the wars we waged against the Indians in the early days of this country and I am reading "I am the Grand Canyon" containing stories told by and about the Havasupai Indians who were finally granted a tiny piece of their land back on the top of the canyon back in 1974. We are struck by the audacity of most Americans who call this land home and the nationalism that some have, versus patriotism, and how ironic it is in light of what we did to the original owners.

Especially interesting is how they saw the culture and religion of the new settlers. "The haygu 
(white settlers) tear us from our lands and push us into moving and hiding. We live and die like rabbits now...The bear are gone; the deer are leaving... the Jizes (Jesus) is strange; he tells the haygu to go to other peoples' places and make the people follow him. I see no pleasure in this Jizes; he teaches us to turn away from our mother earth and turn away from being a community and to think about death...And more, haygu brings his ha dava (liquor) to us, and we get weaker and grow crazy." "Once there were enough men, enough game, enough water. Once dying and being born kept pace with each other. Once killing was only to keep life going. Now we die faster than we are born and there is not enough of anything except haygu and there are too many of those."

We drove from our RV park in Hurricane, Utah to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Sunday. There we spent the night in a small cabin at the Grand Canyon Lodge and ate supper looking out at the magnificent South Rim. The walk to Bright Angel Point was worth the drive. We were filled with awe at the vastness of the canyon and found the history of the Lodge itself fascinating. Back in the 30's the staff would sing a song to travelers as they left. There are recordings and a picture of that. The stone and wood lodge is much as it was in the 30's and we loved the atmosphere.

The walk to Angel Bright Point dropped off both sides.

Hanging out at the Lodge

Tuesday we were able to meet up with my sister, Shannon, and her husband, Keith who are in a borrowed RV for a trip with their 3 children and a boyfriend of one of them. They are doing some really exciting things like ATV rides and plane rides over the Grand Canyon. Near Zion National Park we were able to watch the sunset with them Monday night. Tuesday Keith and the 4 youth went on a strenuous and scary hike that took over 5 hours while Shannon and Steve and me hiked a less strenuous but still challenging trail that was 5 miles round trip. We got a bit over baked in the heat!

Thursday we drove from Zion National Park to Sedona, Arizona. People who live in Sedona have an amazing backdrop for their lives of red canyons and stones that reach for the skies. Again, it is so very hot but as there is no humidity it takes a little longer to mind it a lot. For the first few months of this trip we were able to bike and hike in fairly moderate weather. Now it's hot no matter where we are except for early mornings and late evenings. Time to head north!

Herd of bison with baby bison on our way to the North Rim.

Zoomed in on one momma and baby

We do have some days of long hours in the car or the RV when we entertain ourselves with the radio. I like Audible books but after Steve missed an exit when we were listening to "Just Kids", the autobiography of Patti Smith, he thinks books are too distracting. So we listen to Sirius Radio stations. If we are not listening to MSNBC or a Nationals ballgame, we listen to music stations.

Two years ago, when traveling in New Mexico with friends Sci Clements, Kate Noon, Jessica Jordan, and David Cooley, we had a rented car and the only stations that came in clearly were country music stations. Neither of us are great fans of country music but sometimes the lyrics were so outrageous or amusing that we actually downloaded them. "If You're Going Through Hell, keep on going... you might get out before the devil even knows you're there" by Rodney Atkins was one that really made us laugh. So Steve thought that we should play country music while we were in New Mexico - mostly the Garth Brooks channel.

In Colorado we discovered the Beatles channel and listened to the top 100 of their hits. We have some new favorites like "Golden Slumbers", "Hear Me, Lord", and "Carry That Weight". We sing along with "The Long and Winding Road" and "Octopus Garden". We found the name we have been seeking for our RV in one of their songs: "Crackerbox Palace". We also like the Coffee House channel. Music is a sweet relief from the news channels. One can get a bad attitude if you listen to the news too much these days. It's hard not to worry about the death of truth and integrity. It's sad there are people who are in so much pain they end their life. May we be people who alleviate pain in others.

From Steve:

The west is big.  Really big.  It makes me feel so small.  The appropriately named Island in the Sky (just a small part of Canyonlands National Park) offers 100-mile vistas of sandstone canyons and towering spires.  Dark skies sparkle with a thousand stars.  I can’t help but realize we are a speck on this planet and our planet is a speck in a galaxy of a billion stars. 

Not only are we a speck in space but we are a speck in time.  The Grand Canyon reveals layer upon layer of sand, mud and sea shells turned to stone.  You don’t’ have to be a geologist to know you are looking at millions of years of history.  Signs along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon tell me that the ground I am standing on was once the western shore of a much smaller North American continent.  Only it wasn’t north, it was on the equator.  A few layers down lie the sand that formed the beach of a shallow sea.  Above that is the mud of a delta and on top of that coral and sea shells.  All compressed and converted to sandstone, shale and limestone.  All human history is a blink of the eye when compared to the billion years laid bare by the Colorado River. 

I am not sure if being a speck in space and time makes humans insignificant or if our ability to contemplate our place in the universe makes us a miracle of nature.  I lean towards the latter for no better reason than the personal pleasure I find in learning new things and seeing new places. 

Anthony Bourdain sure had me beat when it came to learning new things and seeing new places.  You would think his curiosity would never be sated.  Why wouldn’t he want to go on exploring forever?  He seemed so normal, without airs, empathetic and open to his own vices and foibles.  These are traits I would expect to find in a mentally healthy and stable person.  It is stupid to think I could know Anthony Bourdain through a TV screen.  He may be completely different than the person he portrayed in Parts Unknown.   But the people who knew him best said the person you saw on TV was the real Anthony and they didn’t see his suicide coming. 

I became a fan of Anthony Bourdain by accident.  I was channel surfing one day and caught a glimpse of two men sitting at a table on a hotel balcony that I recognized as the Hotel Oloffson in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  I had had lunch on that balcony a few months earlier.  It didn’t take me long to learn that Anthony Bourdain did not make shows about food.  He made shows about people, culture, history, politics and the joys and struggles of everyday life.  I’m mad that his talent is gone.  I’m sad that he was in pain.  Who will take his place?

CNN showed some of Anthony’s favorite episodes Saturday evening.  One paradoxical conversation occurred between Anthony and his good friend and French Chef, Eric Ripert.  Eric is a Buddhist and Anthony wanted to know if the good life Eric was living was a problem because how could the next life be any better.  Anthony made it clear he was speaking for himself and Eric.  He thought both to be living the best of lives.  Eric must remember that conversation and wonder why Anthony couldn’t tell him how he really felt. 

Nadene and I are enjoying our travels but we are also missing family and friends.  She desperately needs a grandchild fix and will fly to Richmond on June 14^th to attend Allen’s High School graduation and to spend time with family and friends.  I will be visiting my sister and brother in Pahrump, NV until Nadene returns on June 23^rd.  We will then head north for cooler weather and slowly make our way back east.  We intend to spend part of autumn in Virginia because there really is no place like home.