JIM COLYER BIO
TRAVEL
.....COLORADO 2013
.....LAS VEGAS 2012
.....BOLIVIA 2012
.....CHICAGO 2011
.....NEW YORK 2009
.....ATLANTA 2009
.....GOING WEST 2009
.....GRAND CANYON
.....SEQUOIAS
.....ROCKY MOUNTAINS
.....MEMPHIS 2008
.....ICELAND 2007
.....ALASKA 2006
.....WASHINGTON, D.C. 2006
.....HAWAII 2003
.....AUSTRALIA 2002
.....FLORIDA 2001
.....SWEDEN, ENGLAND, FINLAND 1994
.....MINNESOTA 1993-94
.....NEW HAMPSHIRE & BOSTON l987
.....BIG BONE LICK & TEXAS 1986
.....NATCHEZ TRACE 1984
.....ST. LOUIS 1983
.....OUTER BANKS 1983
.....CHATTANOOGA 1983
.....GATLINBURG 1981
.....THE GRAND TOUR 1980
.....MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER 1980
.....NEW ORLEANS 1977
.....GERMANY 1970
MUSIC
.....GREATEST MUSIC ACTS
.....ELVIS PRESLEY
.....THE BEATLES
.....ABBA FROM SWEDEN
.....ABBA BIOGRAPHY
.....ABBA REFLECTIONS
.....ABBA MUSIC
.....ABBA SONGS 1-110 - BEST TO WORST
.....ABBA VIDEO
.....ABBA REVIVAL
.....CHESS MUSICAL
.....THE EMIGRANTS BY VILHELM MOBERG
.....THE EMIGRANTS (SWEDISH FILM, 1971)
.....THE NEW LAND (SWEDISH FILM, 1972)
.....KRISTINA! (SWEDISH MUSICAL)
.....MAMMA MIA!
.....SHANIA TWAIN
.....JIM COLYER SONGS
.....JIM COLYER SONGS - COMMENTARY
.....JIM COLYER SONGS - CATEGORIES
.....JIM COLYER SONGS - WHO'S WHO
.....JIM COLYER SONGS - GAZATEER
.....INTERVIEW FOR LOUISVILLE MUSIC MAGAZINE
.....JIM COLYER BAND - GOD GIVEN TALENT CD
.....JIM COLYER BAND - HARD EARNED LOVE CD
.....JIM COLYER BAND - SAVE THE PLANET CD
GOVERNMENT
.....PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES
.....U.S. PRESIDENTS 1-43 - BEST TO WORST
.....U.S. PRESIDENTS QUIZ
.....MONEY
.....NUCLEAR
ASTRONOMY
.....ASTRONOMY
.....NIGHT SKY
.....LUNAR ECLIPSE
.....SOLAR ECLIPSE
SPORTS
.....NEW YORK YANKEES
.....ELEVEN TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS
MOVIES
BOOKS
.....SCHOLASTIC ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES
.....THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES
.....ELVIS PRESLEY: THE MAN, THE LIFE, THE LEGEND
.....A DAY IN THE LIFE: THE MUSIC AND ARTISTRY OF THE BEATLES
.....BRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK SHADOWS: THE REAL STORY OF ABBA
.....SHANIA TWAIN: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF A COUNTRY MUSIC DIVA
.....NO APOLOGY: THE CASE FOR AMERICAN GREATNESS
.....THE YANKEE YEARS
.....MAVERICK: LEGEND OF THE WEST
.....YOGA MADE EASY
PERSONAL
.....MICHAEL'S STORY
.....HOUSE
.....TRUCK
.....HEALTH
.....YOGA
.....LINKS
Jim Colyer Papers
PAPERS INDEX
JIM COLYER BIO
I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 29, 1945. Famous people with whom I share a birthday are Mary Tyler Moore and Andrew Johnson, the only president besides Bill Clinton to be impeached. I grew up 15 miles east of Louisville in Middletown. School began for me in the fall of 1952. I hated school, everything about it. My first grade teacher grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me because I tried to work a puzzle which was too hard for me without first asking. She was a dominatrix. She had two huge dogs which she prized, and maybe that is why I hate dogs to this day. Anyway, I went through grade school and high school without opening my mouth. I sat and waited for the bell to ring at three o'clock so I could go home and listen to rock & roll records on my small turntable. I bought Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson. Only in my senior year did I find a means of expressing myself publicly. It was 1964, the year of The Beatles. I latched on to them. I looked in the mirror and saw John Lennon. If I had no talent and was too lazy to work, at least I could grow my hair. My hair became my vocation as I sat up half the night trying to write songs. My mother pulled me out of bed each morning by my arm. She was determined that I would graduate from high school. I strolled through commencement like a zombie in that silly cap and gown. The cap crushed my Beatle hairdo. Thank God it was over!
Little did I know, it was only beginning! President John Kennedy was assassinated during my senior year. This set off a tumultuous chain of events which took 15 years to run its course. The Vietnam War, race riots, illegal drugs, religious fanaticism, women's liberation, homosexuality and the political corruption of Watergate piled wave upon wave. I plowed through my 20s. I got an Associate degree from Lindsey Wilson College in central Kentucky in 1967. I was majoring in English. For the first time, I was taking an interest in literature. I was reading novels and grappling with European history. I thirsted for knowledge. I was eligible for the draft and like other young men, confused about Vietnam. The war made no sense. Nor did the draft. We were told we were in Vietnam to contain Communism. I had trouble understanding what a Communist was. No man could look at another and recognize him as a Communist. The isolated geography of Vietnam was a problem. It lay behind the Philippines on the map. It did not jut out like the Korean peninsula. It was hard to get to and hard to defend. The draft was hard to justify. Something in me was saying no man had the right to take another man off the street and put him in a war against his will. Nevertheless, the draft was real. You went when you were called or risked the chance of being sent to prison. After getting a third year of college as an English major, my draft papers came. My education was without direction, and I went into the Army in October, 1969. I took basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After advanced training in radio school, I received orders for Germany. I recall standing in formation and looking at those orders. What a relief! By 1970, most of America had turned against the war, and Richard Nixon was slowly pulling troops out. Vietnam was becoming something that people wanted to forget. I set out for Germany. I had studied German for two semesters and knew a few words. Once in Frankfurt, I readily found that the prostitutes spoke fluent English. I avoided them. I was thinking of the girl I left behind. I knew it was over but consoled myself with false hope. I did not care for Germany. It was dark and depressing. Buildings were drab. It was like going back to the Middle Ages. I ended up in a nuclear platoon. Over my head! German beer was very potent, and I drank too much. By the time I received my discharge, America had changed. Hippie life had become a norm with young people. A grass roots religious movement was sweeping the country as baby boomers searched for answers in the aftermath of war. They looked to Buddhism and various forms of mysticism. Cults sprang up, and I got involved with Jesus freaks. We attended a Pentecostal church, spoke in tongues and wrote gospel songs. Jesus Paid My Debt came from this period and to this day, I regard the essence of the New Testament as ultimate reality.
In late 1973, I recorded a song called Long Live Rock & Roll. It was a tribute to what was then 20 years of rock & roll. I pressed 1,000 copies in Nashville and mailed them across the country. I would hear from that song in 1981 while working for the State of Tennessee. The people who had the publishing on Long Live Rock & Roll called to say Elvis Presley had recorded my song and that RCA had released it on an 8-record set called Elvis Aron Presley. I was ecstatic! Wasn't this what I had dreamed of? I went to a record shop and bought the vinyl set. I took it home and played it only to be disappointed. It was my title, and I was credited as the writer, but it was not my song. It is hard to say what it was. The band was jamming, and Elvis was groaning in the background. My father said it was my song. I knew it was not. We argued. It makes a funny story now, but it was all secondary to the fact that making a record gave me new hope. I could do things. What next? I decided to finish college with help from the GI Bill. I had a plan. I had the idea of being a librarian since I had read a variety of books by this time and wanted to be around them. It did not occur to me that I did not have the temperament of a librarian. I was a bull in a china closet. But I had to do something. I finished my Bachelor's Degree in English at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. Nearly all my courses were independent. I wrote papers and took them in. I studied Greek drama, Shakespeare and the British Romantic poets. I was out of my mind but graduated and moved to Nashville to pursue a Master's Degree in Library Science from Peabody College. Peabody is now part of Vanderbilt University, and I am living in an apartment complex at Vanderbilt 34 years later as I edit this bio. It is hard not to believe in full circles. I got the MLS and took a library job at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, east of Nashville off Interstate 40. It was a high school. For someone who hated school, I could not get enough. I was in my early 30s, and working with teenagers gave me a sense of responsibility. I quit drinking and tried to hold myself as an example for young people. I put on the same uniform I had worn in the Army. It was not easy. I was neither a soldier nor a librarian by nature. These were things I was caught up in from my youth. My second year at Castle Heights, the songwriter in me came out. I put together a band composed of students, and we recorded an album with my friend Bill Davis. I met Bill while attending Peabody. He was a music major with ambitions of writing serious music. He would make quotation signs with his fingers when he talked about "serious music." Our album was centered around a song I wrote called Phoenix. We called the album Rising from the Ashes. I was fascinated with the idea of resurrection, rising from one's ashes. I liked comebacks, and comeback songs became a category within my catalog. I came to suspect that I was knocking myself down so I could have the opportunity of making still another comeback. The album left me closer to the students than to the faculty, and I received a pink slip. I could no longer do the military thing. I was 32. Jimmy Carter was president, and times were good. Disco music was on fire. ABBA was on the radio with Dancing Queen, and The Bee Gees burned with Night Fever. I wanted a girl friend. I wanted to get married. I bought a house in Lebanon and moved in alone. By October, 1978, I had another library job, this one with the State of Tennessee in Nashville. Jesus! I was not cut out to be a librarian!
Fate stepped in! While at Castle Heights, I fell in love with the wife of a faculty member. We paired off every night in the cafeteria. We gazed dreamily into each other's eyes and confided our feelings of alienation. "We are under siege." she said. Her hair was dark, and her eyes were blue. Her skin was seductively pale. She reminded me of Madame Bovary from Gustav Flaubert's novel: the tragic, lonely wife waiting for some mystery lover to whisk her away to a better place. I wanted to. I thought it was going to happen. I contemplated it for two years. There was one huge obstacle. She had two young boys, and it was not in me to take someone else's kids. The spell broke. I bought the house and lay in bed every night for 10 months grieving over this woman. Her husband finally told me she had a boy friend, a disc jockey from Knoxville. There would be a divorce, but she was not moving in with me. The pain cut like a knife. I vowed that if I ever became enamored with another married woman, I would strike like lightning!
It did not take long. I went to work at the Tennessee State Library. My assistant sat at the desk behind me. It was Karen, the future mother of my son. We got to know each other quickly. She was married to a man who worked on another floor of the library. It was the same story, another unhappy wife. She said that the week before, she had loaded her car and driven around the block only to return because she had nowhere to go. Karen wanted a house. Her husband wanted to drink up their money and run to Florida every time he got a chance. She wanted a baby. He did not want one because he had a child by a previous marriage. Karen and I sat side by side, checking in serials. The chemistry was strong. We rubbed our legs together. Other employees noticed. Ten days after I took the job, Karen was in my bed in Lebanon. We set up a pattern of Thursday nights. She told her husband that she was selling Avon when she was driving to Lebanon to be with me. One night, we met on a corner by the library to go to a movie. A fellow worker drove by, and we were sure he saw us. We saw a Woody Allen movie that night called Interiors, possibly his worst. Then things came to a head. I told Karen to leave her husband and move in with me. I had a house and promised her a baby. She was not sure. We lay on the floor in my living room after sex. She cried and said she needed six months to think it over. Her mascara ran. I laughed and told her she looked like Alice Cooper. Six months was too long! I insisted that she move in right away. She said she would do it after Thanksgiving. She spent Thanksgiving with her detested in-laws and later recalled thinking, "This is the last time!" Karen's daddy rented a U-Haul and moved her belongings to my house the next day while her husband was at work. It was Friday, and we fell asleep that night in each other's arms. It would be that way for a while. We did the right thing.
Confrontation with the husband was inevitable. He was waiting for us Monday morning, pacing on the sidewalk outside the library. We clashed over the next few weeks. The climax came in the lobby of the library. It got physical! He was bigger; I was more determined. I had him by the hair with his head down. I was a matador; he was a bull. We inched toward the stairwell. A wrong move, and we might have gone over!
I heard a bellowing voice! "What in the hell is going on here?!" I looked up. It was the head librarian, a crusty, cigarette-smoking dyke. Behind her, library personnel were peeking through the main doors, their necks stretching to see the fight. It was over. Fisticuffs are not expected from library-types, and I was given two-weeks notice. Karen and I left together, and I never used my degree again.
I had been through Las Vegas the previous summer and got the idea of finding work there. Karen and I loaded my Ford Maverick and left for Vegas on Flag Day, June 14, 1979. We drove west on I-40. A couple of nights in motels, and we found ourselves cruising down Las Vegas Boulevard. We rented an apartment and looked for work. It was useless, at least for me. The trip gradually turned into a tour of the American west. After a month in Vegas, we retreated to Nashville. Karen got her divorce although it took a year because her idiot "husband" contested it. He sued me for "alienation of affection." I could not believe a lawyer would take such a ridiculous case. He found one stupid enough. Karen and I were married in April, 1980. I came in one morning from working at the U.S. Post Office, and she informed me that it was time. I was going to wear bluejeans, and she made me change into slacks. We drove to the courthouse in Lebanon. A woman married us, and I tipped her $20. One picture was taken of Karen and me kissing. I felt no different now that we were married than I had when we were living together.
These were years of travel, my 30s. I was fascinated with great places. Suddenly, I was free to go to places I had heard about all my life. My galleries are filled with pictures. Karen took them while I wrote papers. After a while, I had that full circle feeling. I was repeating as prices rose.
Karen and I began watching Dallas in the fall of 1979. It sounds crazy but when J.R. and Sue Ellen became parents on the show, I realized that I was going to be a father. I never thought it possible before. Karen and I knew we would be parents. We also believed we would have the boy she so desired.
I collected books on human sexuality. I had about 20. I studied diagrams of the female reproductive organs. I learned about ovaries, Fallopian tubes and the uterus. I visualized my sperm cell working its way through Karen's tubes to fertilize an egg.
Karen removed her IUD (Intra-Uterine Device) and began trying to get pregnant. Things sometimes go awry, and it takes a couple of tries to get them right. That is how it was. Karen was pregnant by late 1982. In March, 1983, she called me where I was working as a printer for the State. She was at the doctor's office. There had been a miscarriage. I recall walking through the streets of Nashville with tears in my eyes. That night, Karen and I hugged in the kitchen, and I said we would try again. She must have gotten pregnant the second time around June 11. Michael Brandon Colyer was born 9 months later on March 11, 1984. As it turned out, the pregnancies were so close that only one of the babies could be born. It was hard to understand and hard to explain. It had to be God's will! I came to feel that God brought me to Nashville for the purpose of becoming Michael's father. Years later, I felt He brought me back to help Michael after he got older. Karen and I divorced, and I ended up living in my parents' basement in Louisville. But I lived with my son over a year, long enough to establish a permanent relationship. He never forgot me.
I turned 40 in my parents' basement. It seemed like my life was over. I would be in the basement 12 years: 1985-1997. We perceive time differently after 40. It becomes a running facet. Days, months and years slip by with little meaning. We approach 50. We watch ourselves turn gray and feel our strength ebb. We despise the music of the day and have no interest in television. We long for our youth and are envious of the younger generation.
"I must go on!" I wrote that line on New Year's Eve, 1985. Everything since has grown from that seed. Michael came first. I was virtually broke but started going to him when I could afford it. There was no pattern. I drove to Nashville when something in me said the time was right. I would get a motel and do things with my son or bring him to Louisville. My parents sometimes went with me. I would have been on the street without them. It was the same for Karen. Her parents built an apartment onto their house for her and Michael.
The basement years passed! I read books and wrote papers. I watched movies. I revived ABBA. I went to Las Vegas and to Sweden. Bill Clinton was elected president, then reelected. It was 1997, and there was a 70s revival. I had an environmental song called Save The Planet which I advertised in a local music paper. A lady in southern Indiana answered, and I went to her house. We made a tape in her living room. I continued to believe in that song and finally recorded it in Nashville at Direct Image Studio. I sang it. For such a song to gain acceptance, we need to be in a liberal era. A War on Terror is not a favorable climate. Hopefully, we will win the peace.
I ended up back in Nashville in July, 1997, in an apartment on Music Row. I began writing songs like crazy. Girl songs! It was the Shania Twain era. In retrospect, it seemed inevitable. God brought me back to Nashville for my son. He was 13, and it was better to be close so I could go to him when he needed me. We began having meals and seeing movies together. We talked about life, school, girls and the future. We had many conversations riding in the Nissan truck which I bought on Broadway.
I was singing my songs on public access TV in Louisville and recording girl singers with Kenny Royster in Nashville. My biggest challenge was trying not to fall in love with the singers. Songs poured out of me: God Given Talent, Hard Earned Love, I Feel So Country, All Roads Lead To You, Love Me Just A Little, I Looked Twice!, Put Me On The Spot!, A Man Is A Man & The Truth. I was a genius in my own mind as the 20th century faded into the 21st. I did karaoke. I sang the songs of the big four: Elvis, The Beatles, ABBA and Shania. Being older, it did not bother me to get up and sing a Shania song. I was writing for women anyway. I tried not to be affected by 9/11. It was impossible not to be, but I have learned to keep an eye on the future. I took Michael to Florida while he was still in high school. I took him to New York City and to Washington, D.C. in his third year of college. We went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2007, and to California and back to New York in 2009.
Jim Colyer
Originally written 2005
Little did I know, it was only beginning! President John Kennedy was assassinated during my senior year. This set off a tumultuous chain of events which took 15 years to run its course. The Vietnam War, race riots, illegal drugs, religious fanaticism, women's liberation, homosexuality and the political corruption of Watergate piled wave upon wave. I plowed through my 20s. I got an Associate degree from Lindsey Wilson College in central Kentucky in 1967. I was majoring in English. For the first time, I was taking an interest in literature. I was reading novels and grappling with European history. I thirsted for knowledge. I was eligible for the draft and like other young men, confused about Vietnam. The war made no sense. Nor did the draft. We were told we were in Vietnam to contain Communism. I had trouble understanding what a Communist was. No man could look at another and recognize him as a Communist. The isolated geography of Vietnam was a problem. It lay behind the Philippines on the map. It did not jut out like the Korean peninsula. It was hard to get to and hard to defend. The draft was hard to justify. Something in me was saying no man had the right to take another man off the street and put him in a war against his will. Nevertheless, the draft was real. You went when you were called or risked the chance of being sent to prison. After getting a third year of college as an English major, my draft papers came. My education was without direction, and I went into the Army in October, 1969. I took basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After advanced training in radio school, I received orders for Germany. I recall standing in formation and looking at those orders. What a relief! By 1970, most of America had turned against the war, and Richard Nixon was slowly pulling troops out. Vietnam was becoming something that people wanted to forget. I set out for Germany. I had studied German for two semesters and knew a few words. Once in Frankfurt, I readily found that the prostitutes spoke fluent English. I avoided them. I was thinking of the girl I left behind. I knew it was over but consoled myself with false hope. I did not care for Germany. It was dark and depressing. Buildings were drab. It was like going back to the Middle Ages. I ended up in a nuclear platoon. Over my head! German beer was very potent, and I drank too much. By the time I received my discharge, America had changed. Hippie life had become a norm with young people. A grass roots religious movement was sweeping the country as baby boomers searched for answers in the aftermath of war. They looked to Buddhism and various forms of mysticism. Cults sprang up, and I got involved with Jesus freaks. We attended a Pentecostal church, spoke in tongues and wrote gospel songs. Jesus Paid My Debt came from this period and to this day, I regard the essence of the New Testament as ultimate reality.
In late 1973, I recorded a song called Long Live Rock & Roll. It was a tribute to what was then 20 years of rock & roll. I pressed 1,000 copies in Nashville and mailed them across the country. I would hear from that song in 1981 while working for the State of Tennessee. The people who had the publishing on Long Live Rock & Roll called to say Elvis Presley had recorded my song and that RCA had released it on an 8-record set called Elvis Aron Presley. I was ecstatic! Wasn't this what I had dreamed of? I went to a record shop and bought the vinyl set. I took it home and played it only to be disappointed. It was my title, and I was credited as the writer, but it was not my song. It is hard to say what it was. The band was jamming, and Elvis was groaning in the background. My father said it was my song. I knew it was not. We argued. It makes a funny story now, but it was all secondary to the fact that making a record gave me new hope. I could do things. What next? I decided to finish college with help from the GI Bill. I had a plan. I had the idea of being a librarian since I had read a variety of books by this time and wanted to be around them. It did not occur to me that I did not have the temperament of a librarian. I was a bull in a china closet. But I had to do something. I finished my Bachelor's Degree in English at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. Nearly all my courses were independent. I wrote papers and took them in. I studied Greek drama, Shakespeare and the British Romantic poets. I was out of my mind but graduated and moved to Nashville to pursue a Master's Degree in Library Science from Peabody College. Peabody is now part of Vanderbilt University, and I am living in an apartment complex at Vanderbilt 34 years later as I edit this bio. It is hard not to believe in full circles. I got the MLS and took a library job at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, east of Nashville off Interstate 40. It was a high school. For someone who hated school, I could not get enough. I was in my early 30s, and working with teenagers gave me a sense of responsibility. I quit drinking and tried to hold myself as an example for young people. I put on the same uniform I had worn in the Army. It was not easy. I was neither a soldier nor a librarian by nature. These were things I was caught up in from my youth. My second year at Castle Heights, the songwriter in me came out. I put together a band composed of students, and we recorded an album with my friend Bill Davis. I met Bill while attending Peabody. He was a music major with ambitions of writing serious music. He would make quotation signs with his fingers when he talked about "serious music." Our album was centered around a song I wrote called Phoenix. We called the album Rising from the Ashes. I was fascinated with the idea of resurrection, rising from one's ashes. I liked comebacks, and comeback songs became a category within my catalog. I came to suspect that I was knocking myself down so I could have the opportunity of making still another comeback. The album left me closer to the students than to the faculty, and I received a pink slip. I could no longer do the military thing. I was 32. Jimmy Carter was president, and times were good. Disco music was on fire. ABBA was on the radio with Dancing Queen, and The Bee Gees burned with Night Fever. I wanted a girl friend. I wanted to get married. I bought a house in Lebanon and moved in alone. By October, 1978, I had another library job, this one with the State of Tennessee in Nashville. Jesus! I was not cut out to be a librarian!
Fate stepped in! While at Castle Heights, I fell in love with the wife of a faculty member. We paired off every night in the cafeteria. We gazed dreamily into each other's eyes and confided our feelings of alienation. "We are under siege." she said. Her hair was dark, and her eyes were blue. Her skin was seductively pale. She reminded me of Madame Bovary from Gustav Flaubert's novel: the tragic, lonely wife waiting for some mystery lover to whisk her away to a better place. I wanted to. I thought it was going to happen. I contemplated it for two years. There was one huge obstacle. She had two young boys, and it was not in me to take someone else's kids. The spell broke. I bought the house and lay in bed every night for 10 months grieving over this woman. Her husband finally told me she had a boy friend, a disc jockey from Knoxville. There would be a divorce, but she was not moving in with me. The pain cut like a knife. I vowed that if I ever became enamored with another married woman, I would strike like lightning!
It did not take long. I went to work at the Tennessee State Library. My assistant sat at the desk behind me. It was Karen, the future mother of my son. We got to know each other quickly. She was married to a man who worked on another floor of the library. It was the same story, another unhappy wife. She said that the week before, she had loaded her car and driven around the block only to return because she had nowhere to go. Karen wanted a house. Her husband wanted to drink up their money and run to Florida every time he got a chance. She wanted a baby. He did not want one because he had a child by a previous marriage. Karen and I sat side by side, checking in serials. The chemistry was strong. We rubbed our legs together. Other employees noticed. Ten days after I took the job, Karen was in my bed in Lebanon. We set up a pattern of Thursday nights. She told her husband that she was selling Avon when she was driving to Lebanon to be with me. One night, we met on a corner by the library to go to a movie. A fellow worker drove by, and we were sure he saw us. We saw a Woody Allen movie that night called Interiors, possibly his worst. Then things came to a head. I told Karen to leave her husband and move in with me. I had a house and promised her a baby. She was not sure. We lay on the floor in my living room after sex. She cried and said she needed six months to think it over. Her mascara ran. I laughed and told her she looked like Alice Cooper. Six months was too long! I insisted that she move in right away. She said she would do it after Thanksgiving. She spent Thanksgiving with her detested in-laws and later recalled thinking, "This is the last time!" Karen's daddy rented a U-Haul and moved her belongings to my house the next day while her husband was at work. It was Friday, and we fell asleep that night in each other's arms. It would be that way for a while. We did the right thing.
Confrontation with the husband was inevitable. He was waiting for us Monday morning, pacing on the sidewalk outside the library. We clashed over the next few weeks. The climax came in the lobby of the library. It got physical! He was bigger; I was more determined. I had him by the hair with his head down. I was a matador; he was a bull. We inched toward the stairwell. A wrong move, and we might have gone over!
I heard a bellowing voice! "What in the hell is going on here?!" I looked up. It was the head librarian, a crusty, cigarette-smoking dyke. Behind her, library personnel were peeking through the main doors, their necks stretching to see the fight. It was over. Fisticuffs are not expected from library-types, and I was given two-weeks notice. Karen and I left together, and I never used my degree again.
I had been through Las Vegas the previous summer and got the idea of finding work there. Karen and I loaded my Ford Maverick and left for Vegas on Flag Day, June 14, 1979. We drove west on I-40. A couple of nights in motels, and we found ourselves cruising down Las Vegas Boulevard. We rented an apartment and looked for work. It was useless, at least for me. The trip gradually turned into a tour of the American west. After a month in Vegas, we retreated to Nashville. Karen got her divorce although it took a year because her idiot "husband" contested it. He sued me for "alienation of affection." I could not believe a lawyer would take such a ridiculous case. He found one stupid enough. Karen and I were married in April, 1980. I came in one morning from working at the U.S. Post Office, and she informed me that it was time. I was going to wear bluejeans, and she made me change into slacks. We drove to the courthouse in Lebanon. A woman married us, and I tipped her $20. One picture was taken of Karen and me kissing. I felt no different now that we were married than I had when we were living together.
These were years of travel, my 30s. I was fascinated with great places. Suddenly, I was free to go to places I had heard about all my life. My galleries are filled with pictures. Karen took them while I wrote papers. After a while, I had that full circle feeling. I was repeating as prices rose.
Karen and I began watching Dallas in the fall of 1979. It sounds crazy but when J.R. and Sue Ellen became parents on the show, I realized that I was going to be a father. I never thought it possible before. Karen and I knew we would be parents. We also believed we would have the boy she so desired.
I collected books on human sexuality. I had about 20. I studied diagrams of the female reproductive organs. I learned about ovaries, Fallopian tubes and the uterus. I visualized my sperm cell working its way through Karen's tubes to fertilize an egg.
Karen removed her IUD (Intra-Uterine Device) and began trying to get pregnant. Things sometimes go awry, and it takes a couple of tries to get them right. That is how it was. Karen was pregnant by late 1982. In March, 1983, she called me where I was working as a printer for the State. She was at the doctor's office. There had been a miscarriage. I recall walking through the streets of Nashville with tears in my eyes. That night, Karen and I hugged in the kitchen, and I said we would try again. She must have gotten pregnant the second time around June 11. Michael Brandon Colyer was born 9 months later on March 11, 1984. As it turned out, the pregnancies were so close that only one of the babies could be born. It was hard to understand and hard to explain. It had to be God's will! I came to feel that God brought me to Nashville for the purpose of becoming Michael's father. Years later, I felt He brought me back to help Michael after he got older. Karen and I divorced, and I ended up living in my parents' basement in Louisville. But I lived with my son over a year, long enough to establish a permanent relationship. He never forgot me.
I turned 40 in my parents' basement. It seemed like my life was over. I would be in the basement 12 years: 1985-1997. We perceive time differently after 40. It becomes a running facet. Days, months and years slip by with little meaning. We approach 50. We watch ourselves turn gray and feel our strength ebb. We despise the music of the day and have no interest in television. We long for our youth and are envious of the younger generation.
"I must go on!" I wrote that line on New Year's Eve, 1985. Everything since has grown from that seed. Michael came first. I was virtually broke but started going to him when I could afford it. There was no pattern. I drove to Nashville when something in me said the time was right. I would get a motel and do things with my son or bring him to Louisville. My parents sometimes went with me. I would have been on the street without them. It was the same for Karen. Her parents built an apartment onto their house for her and Michael.
The basement years passed! I read books and wrote papers. I watched movies. I revived ABBA. I went to Las Vegas and to Sweden. Bill Clinton was elected president, then reelected. It was 1997, and there was a 70s revival. I had an environmental song called Save The Planet which I advertised in a local music paper. A lady in southern Indiana answered, and I went to her house. We made a tape in her living room. I continued to believe in that song and finally recorded it in Nashville at Direct Image Studio. I sang it. For such a song to gain acceptance, we need to be in a liberal era. A War on Terror is not a favorable climate. Hopefully, we will win the peace.
I ended up back in Nashville in July, 1997, in an apartment on Music Row. I began writing songs like crazy. Girl songs! It was the Shania Twain era. In retrospect, it seemed inevitable. God brought me back to Nashville for my son. He was 13, and it was better to be close so I could go to him when he needed me. We began having meals and seeing movies together. We talked about life, school, girls and the future. We had many conversations riding in the Nissan truck which I bought on Broadway.
I was singing my songs on public access TV in Louisville and recording girl singers with Kenny Royster in Nashville. My biggest challenge was trying not to fall in love with the singers. Songs poured out of me: God Given Talent, Hard Earned Love, I Feel So Country, All Roads Lead To You, Love Me Just A Little, I Looked Twice!, Put Me On The Spot!, A Man Is A Man & The Truth. I was a genius in my own mind as the 20th century faded into the 21st. I did karaoke. I sang the songs of the big four: Elvis, The Beatles, ABBA and Shania. Being older, it did not bother me to get up and sing a Shania song. I was writing for women anyway. I tried not to be affected by 9/11. It was impossible not to be, but I have learned to keep an eye on the future. I took Michael to Florida while he was still in high school. I took him to New York City and to Washington, D.C. in his third year of college. We went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2007, and to California and back to New York in 2009.
Jim Colyer
Originally written 2005
COLORADO 2013
I will buy mine and Michael's plane tickets at expedia.com. We will fly from Nashville to Denver. We will have a rented car waiting in Denver and drive I-25 south to Colorado Springs. We will get a motel and go up Pike's Peak the next day. We will drive back to Denver and tour the U.S. Mint. I need to make reservations two months in advance.
Try to get a nonstop flight. Security only once! No shaving cream! No change! I need to find out the cost of renting a car. We will take the cog railway up the mountain. Reservations for Cog Railway The trip lasts 3 hours, 10 minutes. It is Pike's Peak or bust!
We will see the Garden of the Gods. It is a city park operated by Colorado Springs. It consists of layers of sandstone which were laid horizontally in ancient sea but are vertical due to the uplifting of Pike's Peak. There are fossils, including dinosaurs. It is free.
The town of Cripple Creek is on the slopes of the mountain. It began when gold was discovered in the 1890s.
We will drive back to Denver the next evening. I will have reservations to tour the U.S. Denver Mint. Make the reservations two months in advance. We will go right to the Mint at 320 West Colfax. Ore is turned into coins here. reservations
To get to the Mint, take the Colfax exit off I-70 and go east on West Colfax away from the mountains. The Mint is 1 1/2 miles on the right between Delaware and Cherokee. Park in a public lot.
We will explore Denver's financial district. 17th Street is known as the Wall Street of the West. The Wells Fargo Building is called the "cash register building" because it looks like a cash register. There are World Trade Center buildings.
I am thinking we will spend two nights in a motel in the Denver area. Keep the cost down. Stay active! We will get up to Rocky Mountain National Park around August 10 and tour the Park. The Perseids may be worthwhile on the night of August 11 because there will be no moon. There will be no killer attractions like the Grand Canyon or the Sequoias. We have to accept it for what it is, an experience in the Rocky Mountains, a chance to get out of the city and enjoy what nature has to offer. We can get a motel in the town of Estes Park near the Park entrance.
It is good to get on the road and learn about cities and places in our country. If we get bored, I can remember the traffic in Nashville and Michael can remember those long hours at work.
Denver was founded in 1858. It is called the Mile High City because it is 5,280 feet above sea level. Denver is served by I-25 and I-70. It is in the Mountain Time Zone.
Denver is 27th in population with 567,000 people. We will see the State Capitol Building.
There is a government presence, and federal agencies have offices. There are companies related to energy and the space program. The Rocky Mountains are rich in minerals, so mining companies are important to Denver's economy.
We will drive northwest from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park.
We will make our way east on I-70 in our rented car. There are 616 miles from Denver to Kansas City. A long drive through Kansas in the daytime is what I want.
On the way home we can stop in St. Louis and go up the Gateway Arch. Michael was in it before when Karen was pregnant. Of course, he has no memory of that. We can eat at McDonald's Riverboat on the Mississippi River. Driving from the Arch with it in my rear view mirror in 1983, I wondered how long it would be before I saw it again.
Nashville is 1,180 miles from Denver. Coming back, we drive I-70 through Kansas City to St. Louis, travel east on I-64, then take 57 to I-24 and on to Nashville.
This is a big trip. Michael and I will have to work together to make it happen. One and one equals three!
Back in Nashville, we will drop the car off at the airport. Karen will pick us up.
Try to get a nonstop flight. Security only once! No shaving cream! No change! I need to find out the cost of renting a car. We will take the cog railway up the mountain. Reservations for Cog Railway The trip lasts 3 hours, 10 minutes. It is Pike's Peak or bust!
We will see the Garden of the Gods. It is a city park operated by Colorado Springs. It consists of layers of sandstone which were laid horizontally in ancient sea but are vertical due to the uplifting of Pike's Peak. There are fossils, including dinosaurs. It is free.
The town of Cripple Creek is on the slopes of the mountain. It began when gold was discovered in the 1890s.
We will drive back to Denver the next evening. I will have reservations to tour the U.S. Denver Mint. Make the reservations two months in advance. We will go right to the Mint at 320 West Colfax. Ore is turned into coins here. reservations
To get to the Mint, take the Colfax exit off I-70 and go east on West Colfax away from the mountains. The Mint is 1 1/2 miles on the right between Delaware and Cherokee. Park in a public lot.
We will explore Denver's financial district. 17th Street is known as the Wall Street of the West. The Wells Fargo Building is called the "cash register building" because it looks like a cash register. There are World Trade Center buildings.
I am thinking we will spend two nights in a motel in the Denver area. Keep the cost down. Stay active! We will get up to Rocky Mountain National Park around August 10 and tour the Park. The Perseids may be worthwhile on the night of August 11 because there will be no moon. There will be no killer attractions like the Grand Canyon or the Sequoias. We have to accept it for what it is, an experience in the Rocky Mountains, a chance to get out of the city and enjoy what nature has to offer. We can get a motel in the town of Estes Park near the Park entrance.
It is good to get on the road and learn about cities and places in our country. If we get bored, I can remember the traffic in Nashville and Michael can remember those long hours at work.
Denver was founded in 1858. It is called the Mile High City because it is 5,280 feet above sea level. Denver is served by I-25 and I-70. It is in the Mountain Time Zone.
Denver is 27th in population with 567,000 people. We will see the State Capitol Building.
There is a government presence, and federal agencies have offices. There are companies related to energy and the space program. The Rocky Mountains are rich in minerals, so mining companies are important to Denver's economy.
We will drive northwest from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park.
We will make our way east on I-70 in our rented car. There are 616 miles from Denver to Kansas City. A long drive through Kansas in the daytime is what I want.
On the way home we can stop in St. Louis and go up the Gateway Arch. Michael was in it before when Karen was pregnant. Of course, he has no memory of that. We can eat at McDonald's Riverboat on the Mississippi River. Driving from the Arch with it in my rear view mirror in 1983, I wondered how long it would be before I saw it again.
Nashville is 1,180 miles from Denver. Coming back, we drive I-70 through Kansas City to St. Louis, travel east on I-64, then take 57 to I-24 and on to Nashville.
This is a big trip. Michael and I will have to work together to make it happen. One and one equals three!
Back in Nashville, we will drop the car off at the airport. Karen will pick us up.
LAS VEGAS 2012
Michael, Karen and I mean to return to Las Vegas for a Shania Twain concert. Shania signed a 2-year deal with Caesar's Palace. Her shows begin in December, 2012. We will have to get tickets from Ticket Master and make other arrangements. We may make a day trip to Mt. Charleston. This resort is 35 miles northwest of Vegas. John C. Fremont named it for his wife whose hometown was Charleston, South Carolina.
I returned to Las Vegas for three months: March 7 to June 8, 1993, with the intention of adding to the experience I had in 1979. I dug in at the Tropicana Club at the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard. I relied on the strip trolley for transportation. I wanted to hang out. Bill Clinton was America's new president, and we were going through a 70s revival. It was an opportune moment for escaping my parents' basement where I had held up for over seven years, It was a chance to fend for myself, to procure my own food and to wash my own clothes. I flew into McCarran Airport from Minnesota, my first flight in 15 years. Las Vegas was the same in many ways, and in some ways it had changed. The Ali Baba Apartments were gone. The Dunes was coming down, and the old MGM Grand was now Ballys. Las Vegas, or the Meadows, was still the entertainment capital of the world! The Strip is a work of art! Unfortunately, wind, heat, crowds, traffic and noise ensure that it is part heaven, part hell. You pump up the things you like, economize and get the best deals. I finally saw rain.
The castle Excalibur was the attraction. It exploited medieval themes: King Arthur and Robin Hood. I patronized restaurants in the Medieval Village on the second level. A belly dancer did her thing. The Excalibur, Tropicana, Luxor and the MGM Grand formed a new hot corner. The trend was toward family entertainment.
Downtown, the Golden Goose Casino was a topless joint. The sign was still there, an historic fixture on the Glitter Gulch landscape. The sign faces both directions. Above it, the goose revolves on its nest of golden eggs. Cowboy Vegas Vic and cowgirl Sassy Sally patrol adjacent sides of the street.
Caesar's Palace is hard to top. The Forum Shops at Caesar's price themselves into the luxury class. The replica of Michelangelo's David (of David and Goliath) presides over Appian Way as the Italian Renaissance imposes itself on the Roman Empire. I ventured into the pool area behind Caesar's, romantic under the moonlit sky. Next door, the Mirage showed off its erupting volcano. The casinos are awful: men at the tables, women on the machines. Expressionless zombies! One must refrain from drinking and gambling if he is to enjoy Las Vegas.
It was the production shows which interested me: leggy, statuesque showgirls. Ballys' Jubilee! was the hot ticket. It was the biggest show on the Strip and had the best showgirls. I took Jubilee's backstage tour but was disappointed to have a male dancer as a guide. Still, I gained insight. One thing which impressed me was the size of the stage. From the stage, the seating area looked small. Jubilee! is a dinosaur, a glamorous throwback to the musicals of yesterday. It is a composite of Vaudeville, Broadway and classic Hollywood. It boasts of its nightly sinking of the Titanic. But the thrill is seeing all those long, shapely legs assembled in one place. 100 people make up the cast. The show is so lavish, it leaves you dazed. I got revenge for the tour when that same male dancer took a picture of me with one of the girls.
I saw Folies Bergere (Ber-share) at the Tropicana. Karen and I saw this show in 1979. This time, I took the backstage tour which was led by a former showgirl of 20 years. She must have been in the show we saw 14 years before. It was interesting to get behind the scenes, especially into the dressing rooms to see and handle the costumes. Some of them are heavy, and the girls have to be strong. I lingered briefly to talk to my showgirl. I asked if there were a pension plan for those who stayed 20 years. She said no, but they were nice and had given her this job. Folies Bergere was the oldest show in Vegas, going back to 1959.
Bare Essence at the Sands lived up to its billing as a "sexy, sizzling revue." All the shows create a sense of euphoria.
For Crazy Girls, the showroom at the Riviera provided some intimacy. I suppose my feeling of being hustled in and out derived from wanting to take those splendid calves and thighs home with me.
I made it to Arizona Charlie's for the Naughty Ladies review. It was good, old timey fun. High button shoes! For the finale, we paraded to "When The Saints Go Marching In."
The Elvis impersonator at Vegas World put on a complimentary show. He called himself E.P. King. I looked down on the city from the top of the building.
A promo ticket gave me access to Imperial Palace's antique cars.
I was scared of Death Valley in 1979. This time, I took the Silver Star Line tour. I rode shotgun in the van as we made stops at Dante's View and the Devil's Golf Course. The "golf course" is a dried lake with salt three feet deep. I tasted it. Death Valley is on the Nevada-California line.
The borax mined in Death Valley is a mineral used in soap. The 110 elements in chemistry make up the 3,000 minerals in geology. Minerals form three kinds of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Fossils are found in sedimentary rocks, those laid down by water.
In Laughlin I took a ride on the Colorado River, 90 miles southeast of Vegas.
Returning to Louisville in order to rendezvous with Michael, I came east on I-40, the old Route 66: Kingman, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville.
The strip is a short-lived thing like the Mall in D.C. I will show it to Michael as part of a western experience.
I returned to Las Vegas for three months: March 7 to June 8, 1993, with the intention of adding to the experience I had in 1979. I dug in at the Tropicana Club at the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard. I relied on the strip trolley for transportation. I wanted to hang out. Bill Clinton was America's new president, and we were going through a 70s revival. It was an opportune moment for escaping my parents' basement where I had held up for over seven years, It was a chance to fend for myself, to procure my own food and to wash my own clothes. I flew into McCarran Airport from Minnesota, my first flight in 15 years. Las Vegas was the same in many ways, and in some ways it had changed. The Ali Baba Apartments were gone. The Dunes was coming down, and the old MGM Grand was now Ballys. Las Vegas, or the Meadows, was still the entertainment capital of the world! The Strip is a work of art! Unfortunately, wind, heat, crowds, traffic and noise ensure that it is part heaven, part hell. You pump up the things you like, economize and get the best deals. I finally saw rain.
The castle Excalibur was the attraction. It exploited medieval themes: King Arthur and Robin Hood. I patronized restaurants in the Medieval Village on the second level. A belly dancer did her thing. The Excalibur, Tropicana, Luxor and the MGM Grand formed a new hot corner. The trend was toward family entertainment.
Downtown, the Golden Goose Casino was a topless joint. The sign was still there, an historic fixture on the Glitter Gulch landscape. The sign faces both directions. Above it, the goose revolves on its nest of golden eggs. Cowboy Vegas Vic and cowgirl Sassy Sally patrol adjacent sides of the street.
Caesar's Palace is hard to top. The Forum Shops at Caesar's price themselves into the luxury class. The replica of Michelangelo's David (of David and Goliath) presides over Appian Way as the Italian Renaissance imposes itself on the Roman Empire. I ventured into the pool area behind Caesar's, romantic under the moonlit sky. Next door, the Mirage showed off its erupting volcano. The casinos are awful: men at the tables, women on the machines. Expressionless zombies! One must refrain from drinking and gambling if he is to enjoy Las Vegas.
It was the production shows which interested me: leggy, statuesque showgirls. Ballys' Jubilee! was the hot ticket. It was the biggest show on the Strip and had the best showgirls. I took Jubilee's backstage tour but was disappointed to have a male dancer as a guide. Still, I gained insight. One thing which impressed me was the size of the stage. From the stage, the seating area looked small. Jubilee! is a dinosaur, a glamorous throwback to the musicals of yesterday. It is a composite of Vaudeville, Broadway and classic Hollywood. It boasts of its nightly sinking of the Titanic. But the thrill is seeing all those long, shapely legs assembled in one place. 100 people make up the cast. The show is so lavish, it leaves you dazed. I got revenge for the tour when that same male dancer took a picture of me with one of the girls.
I saw Folies Bergere (Ber-share) at the Tropicana. Karen and I saw this show in 1979. This time, I took the backstage tour which was led by a former showgirl of 20 years. She must have been in the show we saw 14 years before. It was interesting to get behind the scenes, especially into the dressing rooms to see and handle the costumes. Some of them are heavy, and the girls have to be strong. I lingered briefly to talk to my showgirl. I asked if there were a pension plan for those who stayed 20 years. She said no, but they were nice and had given her this job. Folies Bergere was the oldest show in Vegas, going back to 1959.
Bare Essence at the Sands lived up to its billing as a "sexy, sizzling revue." All the shows create a sense of euphoria.
For Crazy Girls, the showroom at the Riviera provided some intimacy. I suppose my feeling of being hustled in and out derived from wanting to take those splendid calves and thighs home with me.
I made it to Arizona Charlie's for the Naughty Ladies review. It was good, old timey fun. High button shoes! For the finale, we paraded to "When The Saints Go Marching In."
The Elvis impersonator at Vegas World put on a complimentary show. He called himself E.P. King. I looked down on the city from the top of the building.
A promo ticket gave me access to Imperial Palace's antique cars.
I was scared of Death Valley in 1979. This time, I took the Silver Star Line tour. I rode shotgun in the van as we made stops at Dante's View and the Devil's Golf Course. The "golf course" is a dried lake with salt three feet deep. I tasted it. Death Valley is on the Nevada-California line.
The borax mined in Death Valley is a mineral used in soap. The 110 elements in chemistry make up the 3,000 minerals in geology. Minerals form three kinds of rocks: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Fossils are found in sedimentary rocks, those laid down by water.
In Laughlin I took a ride on the Colorado River, 90 miles southeast of Vegas.
Returning to Louisville in order to rendezvous with Michael, I came east on I-40, the old Route 66: Kingman, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville.
The strip is a short-lived thing like the Mall in D.C. I will show it to Michael as part of a western experience.
BOLIVIA 2012
The Southern Skies Star Party will be July 14-21, 2012, in Bolivia, South America. Participants will meet in Miami. If I go, I may take a Greyhound to Miami. From there, we will fly to La Paz and take a bus to the Inca Utama Hotel on Lake Titicaca. I will have to get in touch with Jen Winter again because I know I will have questions. This is a difficult trip. There is nothing easy about it. 7 nights in the southern hemisphere will be a challenge. I know this because of what Australia was in 2002. And that was only for 3 nights. The trip will set me back about $3000 counting everything. If I go, it will certainly be my last experience with the southern stars and constellations. I wanted Larry to go with me, but he said it is out of the question. My studies and my writings in astronomy along with the Australia trip may have prepared me for this venture. Lake Titicaca is sort of a mystical place. July is coming, so I have to decide and make preparations if I mean to go.
Inca Utama Hotel & Alapacha Amateur Observatory
12,300 feet - Lake Titicaca, Bolivia - South America
We spend one week in Astronomer's Paradise. With views of the sky so stunning the summer milky way casts a shadow on the ground.
Saturday, July 14th, Guests board overnight flights to La Paz, Bolivia (LPB) airport.
Flights operate indirectly from the US through MIAMI on American airlines Lima (LIM) on LAN Airlines.
AA Flight 922 MIA-LPB departs at 11: 10pm and arrives at 05:45am +1
Sunday, July 15th - Guests are met at the airport by guide, Ivan Blanco. Our luggage is portered and loaded onto the bus for us as we are transferred to the hotel and observing site on Lake Titicaca.
We check into our hotel and have a chance to explore the hotel at our leisure as bags are portered again to our rooms. The afternoon is free to rest and recover from travel before dinner on Sunday night. The dinner menu is available all day for guests to order in advance for fastest service and earliest chance to go out to observe. The 5-star dining offers a pleasant surprise as the staff caters our meals in 3 courses. Tonight, Ivan and Jen will announce the schedule for optional group day tour departures over the coming days. Due to local circumstances, we cannot confirm these in advance. The schedule below depicts a sample of activities, but occasionally, dates or programs change due to availability or closures.
Tonight, after dinner is your first opportunity to get out under this fantastic sky. Early in the evening, Cruz and the milky way are strait overhead. Eta Carinae is as high as 60° and the LMC will be down around 20-30° depending on what time you make it out after dinner. It will soon set and make way for the SMC, then around 3am, we should see it rise again in the east.
Monday, July 16th - This morning, we take an easy (optional) tour to allow clients to acclimate. Those who want to participate, need merely to put their name on one of the tour lists kept at the front desk. Optional tour costs are added to your hotel bill and you can pay for them on check-out.
Typical Optional tour for Monday: Iruitus Floating Islands We will take the hydrofoil to the floating islands of the Iruitus to visit the people who live on islands made from floating tortora reeds; then the small island of Piriti, where especially fine samples of pre-columbian pottery have been excavated. Those who do not opt to join the tour may sleep in and have breakfast whenever is convenient. The staff knows we like to sleep in and will fix eggs to order with fresh baked bread. Tonight, dinner is served early to allow guests to get out and observe early again.
Tuesday, July 17th - Some clients may stay out late under the skies and want to sleep in and skip morning tours. Those who wake late are not disturbed and are welcome to join breakfast as late as noon with a kindly accommodating kitchen staff accustomed to late waking guests.
Typical Optional tour for Tuesday: This morning, those taking the optional tour will depart by bus early for Tiwanaku. We go by bus back to El Alto, the subburb of La Paz before turning north again to reach the ancient plateau of Tiwanaku. We visit the museum, filled with artifacts excavated from the site from Tiwanaku's III stages of development. Then, we explore the outdoor museum's pyramids, underground temple, courtyard and the puerta del sol. Activities at the hotel include the Altiplano Museum and the living cultural museum. Many guests like to take time in the full service spa for a choice of massage treatments.
By this time, guests have typically either adapted to the altitude very well or else display some symptoms from the lack of oxygen. Our doctor on-staff will be visiting tonight to be sure everyone is in good health and everything is going well. Oxygen is available at no extra charge at the hotel and on all busses and boats. Usually those who have a little altitude sickness recover very quickly with just 15 minutes with the oxygen tank and complete thier full acclimitization process fully.
By now, observers will have a chance to learn their way around the sky and settle in on an observing program. If it gets cloudy, we will have resident expert archeo astronomer, Manuel de la Torre give his planetarium program on the Alapacha - of the Andean sky in our roll-off roof planetarium.
Dinner tonight will again be early for guests to get out and observe as soon as the sun is down.
Imagers should remember to click off some dark frames at dusk.
Wednesday, July 18th - Typical Optional tour for Wednesday: Another favorite option is the fossil hunt. Because this area of the Andes mountains was lifted by tektonic processes, there are many upturned hills which reveal layers dating back many thousands of years. In a favorite nearby hill, guests can visit one such hill where layers are actually tilted laterally. Visitors can walk laterally back through the eons, uncovering hidden treasures of fossils like trilobites and an ocassional fish trapped between layers of sandstone.
Occasionally, one night during the week will experience some cloud cover of some kind. In these times, we invite guests to join a tour of the Kallawaya. This local Andean medicine man is revered as a holy man. This order studies pharmachology of local herbs and provides both medical and counseling advice for local Aymara peoples.
Thursday, July 19th - Typical Optional tour for Thursday: Today, we will offer a more adventuresome optional program. A big favorite is the Chacaltaya Cosmic Ray Laboratory. We reach this high altitude observatory by bus, at an altitude of over 17,000 feet. The facility is uniquely situated atop the Chacaltaya glacier, where researchers can study cosmic radiation at high altitude. Years ago, when glaciers topped this area of the Andes, a ski resort operated on this mountain. This was once the highest place in the world to ski. Now, the glaciers are melted and guests visit the old coffee shop and enjoy breathtaking views out over the Andes, where distant mountains of Sajama can be seen in the distance. Some guests will wish to climb the path even farther up to see the old site of the abandoned observatory once operated atop this high peak.
If the sky has been clear until this point, we typically open the Allapacha observatory up for the impressive local planetarium show. Developed by local archeo-astronomer, Manuel de la Torre, this presentation depicts the close association the local Aymara people have held with their "Alapacha" sky above as tied in with their history and belief structure. As always, the 22" StarMaster Telescope which resides in the Alapacha observatory is available for clients to view after the roof rolls back to reveal the breathtaking sky above.
Friday, July 20th - Fridays, we always offer an optional shopping trip to La Paz. Here, we get to wander the hilly, downtown streets of old La Paz. Columbian style buildings are the backdrop for a rainbow of color in local textile markets, music shops and even the witch-doctor's market. Here you can buy alpaca, woven awayo's, pick up a lucky tallisman, find jewelry of local silver and lapiz or malachite or even have your fortune told in molten pewter cast into water in the main square.
Saturday, July 21st - This morning we check out very early and transfer back to the airport in El Alto, La Paz for your flight back home. This morning, before the sun rises, you will have perhaps your best view of the Large Megelanic Cloud. As large as your outstreached fist, the LMC will be hanging some 15° up over the lake out the side of the bus window on the ride back home.
Other optional day tours are available and will be offered to / and selected by the actual visiting group who attend. To learn more about available options, visit the Optional Tour page here:
Join Now
Inca Utama Hotel & Alapacha Amateur Observatory
12,300 feet - Lake Titicaca, Bolivia - South America
We spend one week in Astronomer's Paradise. With views of the sky so stunning the summer milky way casts a shadow on the ground.
Saturday, July 14th, Guests board overnight flights to La Paz, Bolivia (LPB) airport.
Flights operate indirectly from the US through MIAMI on American airlines Lima (LIM) on LAN Airlines.
AA Flight 922 MIA-LPB departs at 11: 10pm and arrives at 05:45am +1
Sunday, July 15th - Guests are met at the airport by guide, Ivan Blanco. Our luggage is portered and loaded onto the bus for us as we are transferred to the hotel and observing site on Lake Titicaca.
We check into our hotel and have a chance to explore the hotel at our leisure as bags are portered again to our rooms. The afternoon is free to rest and recover from travel before dinner on Sunday night. The dinner menu is available all day for guests to order in advance for fastest service and earliest chance to go out to observe. The 5-star dining offers a pleasant surprise as the staff caters our meals in 3 courses. Tonight, Ivan and Jen will announce the schedule for optional group day tour departures over the coming days. Due to local circumstances, we cannot confirm these in advance. The schedule below depicts a sample of activities, but occasionally, dates or programs change due to availability or closures.
Tonight, after dinner is your first opportunity to get out under this fantastic sky. Early in the evening, Cruz and the milky way are strait overhead. Eta Carinae is as high as 60° and the LMC will be down around 20-30° depending on what time you make it out after dinner. It will soon set and make way for the SMC, then around 3am, we should see it rise again in the east.
Monday, July 16th - This morning, we take an easy (optional) tour to allow clients to acclimate. Those who want to participate, need merely to put their name on one of the tour lists kept at the front desk. Optional tour costs are added to your hotel bill and you can pay for them on check-out.
Typical Optional tour for Monday: Iruitus Floating Islands We will take the hydrofoil to the floating islands of the Iruitus to visit the people who live on islands made from floating tortora reeds; then the small island of Piriti, where especially fine samples of pre-columbian pottery have been excavated. Those who do not opt to join the tour may sleep in and have breakfast whenever is convenient. The staff knows we like to sleep in and will fix eggs to order with fresh baked bread. Tonight, dinner is served early to allow guests to get out and observe early again.
Tuesday, July 17th - Some clients may stay out late under the skies and want to sleep in and skip morning tours. Those who wake late are not disturbed and are welcome to join breakfast as late as noon with a kindly accommodating kitchen staff accustomed to late waking guests.
Typical Optional tour for Tuesday: This morning, those taking the optional tour will depart by bus early for Tiwanaku. We go by bus back to El Alto, the subburb of La Paz before turning north again to reach the ancient plateau of Tiwanaku. We visit the museum, filled with artifacts excavated from the site from Tiwanaku's III stages of development. Then, we explore the outdoor museum's pyramids, underground temple, courtyard and the puerta del sol. Activities at the hotel include the Altiplano Museum and the living cultural museum. Many guests like to take time in the full service spa for a choice of massage treatments.
By this time, guests have typically either adapted to the altitude very well or else display some symptoms from the lack of oxygen. Our doctor on-staff will be visiting tonight to be sure everyone is in good health and everything is going well. Oxygen is available at no extra charge at the hotel and on all busses and boats. Usually those who have a little altitude sickness recover very quickly with just 15 minutes with the oxygen tank and complete thier full acclimitization process fully.
By now, observers will have a chance to learn their way around the sky and settle in on an observing program. If it gets cloudy, we will have resident expert archeo astronomer, Manuel de la Torre give his planetarium program on the Alapacha - of the Andean sky in our roll-off roof planetarium.
Dinner tonight will again be early for guests to get out and observe as soon as the sun is down.
Imagers should remember to click off some dark frames at dusk.
Wednesday, July 18th - Typical Optional tour for Wednesday: Another favorite option is the fossil hunt. Because this area of the Andes mountains was lifted by tektonic processes, there are many upturned hills which reveal layers dating back many thousands of years. In a favorite nearby hill, guests can visit one such hill where layers are actually tilted laterally. Visitors can walk laterally back through the eons, uncovering hidden treasures of fossils like trilobites and an ocassional fish trapped between layers of sandstone.
Occasionally, one night during the week will experience some cloud cover of some kind. In these times, we invite guests to join a tour of the Kallawaya. This local Andean medicine man is revered as a holy man. This order studies pharmachology of local herbs and provides both medical and counseling advice for local Aymara peoples.
Thursday, July 19th - Typical Optional tour for Thursday: Today, we will offer a more adventuresome optional program. A big favorite is the Chacaltaya Cosmic Ray Laboratory. We reach this high altitude observatory by bus, at an altitude of over 17,000 feet. The facility is uniquely situated atop the Chacaltaya glacier, where researchers can study cosmic radiation at high altitude. Years ago, when glaciers topped this area of the Andes, a ski resort operated on this mountain. This was once the highest place in the world to ski. Now, the glaciers are melted and guests visit the old coffee shop and enjoy breathtaking views out over the Andes, where distant mountains of Sajama can be seen in the distance. Some guests will wish to climb the path even farther up to see the old site of the abandoned observatory once operated atop this high peak.
If the sky has been clear until this point, we typically open the Allapacha observatory up for the impressive local planetarium show. Developed by local archeo-astronomer, Manuel de la Torre, this presentation depicts the close association the local Aymara people have held with their "Alapacha" sky above as tied in with their history and belief structure. As always, the 22" StarMaster Telescope which resides in the Alapacha observatory is available for clients to view after the roof rolls back to reveal the breathtaking sky above.
Friday, July 20th - Fridays, we always offer an optional shopping trip to La Paz. Here, we get to wander the hilly, downtown streets of old La Paz. Columbian style buildings are the backdrop for a rainbow of color in local textile markets, music shops and even the witch-doctor's market. Here you can buy alpaca, woven awayo's, pick up a lucky tallisman, find jewelry of local silver and lapiz or malachite or even have your fortune told in molten pewter cast into water in the main square.
Saturday, July 21st - This morning we check out very early and transfer back to the airport in El Alto, La Paz for your flight back home. This morning, before the sun rises, you will have perhaps your best view of the Large Megelanic Cloud. As large as your outstreached fist, the LMC will be hanging some 15° up over the lake out the side of the bus window on the ride back home.
Other optional day tours are available and will be offered to / and selected by the actual visiting group who attend. To learn more about available options, visit the Optional Tour page here:
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CHICAGO 2011
June, 2011 - Chicago
Michael and I drove to Chicago for a June 18 baseball game between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs. The Yankees won 4-3. They have won 3 out of the 5 times we have seen them. We found Wrigley Field on the north side of town after cruising by the Sears tower and along Lake Shore Drive. It is good to get out on the road with my son.
November, 1974 - Chicago
I drove to Chicago to see Burton Cummings & The Guess Who. It was funny because the concert was in an auditorium and somewhat formal. I lit a cigar, and an usher came and made me put it out. I saw The Guess Who three times, 1974-75. Their music inspired me to return to school and get my degrees.
June, 1966 - Chicago
My cousin and I were talking after having watched "The Avengers" on TV. We got the idea of driving to Chicago. We took off in the night. In Chicago, we drove along Lake Shore Drive and saw State Street. We went to an old time burlesque show. We ran out of ideas and headed home. I had read Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, about a girl who went to Chicago to find work. One must have a mission if he is to travel. Chicago sits by Lake Michigan.
Michael and I drove to Chicago for a June 18 baseball game between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs. The Yankees won 4-3. They have won 3 out of the 5 times we have seen them. We found Wrigley Field on the north side of town after cruising by the Sears tower and along Lake Shore Drive. It is good to get out on the road with my son.
November, 1974 - Chicago
I drove to Chicago to see Burton Cummings & The Guess Who. It was funny because the concert was in an auditorium and somewhat formal. I lit a cigar, and an usher came and made me put it out. I saw The Guess Who three times, 1974-75. Their music inspired me to return to school and get my degrees.
June, 1966 - Chicago
My cousin and I were talking after having watched "The Avengers" on TV. We got the idea of driving to Chicago. We took off in the night. In Chicago, we drove along Lake Shore Drive and saw State Street. We went to an old time burlesque show. We ran out of ideas and headed home. I had read Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, about a girl who went to Chicago to find work. One must have a mission if he is to travel. Chicago sits by Lake Michigan.
NEW YORK CITY 2009
NEW YORK CITY 2009
Michael and I made our second trip to New York, September 24-26. We made our way from Kennedy Airport in Queens to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. We again ferried to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a National Monument. They were taking 200 people a day to the crown and were booked til January. We headed for Times Square and the Portland Square Hotel where we checked into our room and prepared for Kristina in Concert. We had time but had to keep moving. The Portland Square Hotel is located at 132 West 47th Street. Phone: 212-382-0600. We used my AAA card.
Kristina in Concert was at Carnegie Hall for two nights, and we saw it on Thursday, September 24. The characters lined up in front of the orchestra to sing their parts. It was nearly three hours. The melodies were beautiful and full of emotion. Even though it was the English version, it was still difficult to pick up the lyrics. Of course, I knew the story. I pitied those who did not. Leaving the theater, Michael asked me what I thought. I told him it was an accomplishment, an achievement! And that is what it was, that I saw it with my son! We sat high in the balcony, close to the edge. A dangerous spot! Benny and Bjorn were in the audience (I figured they would be) and came to the stage at the concert's end. The song getting the biggest ovation was The Gold Turned To Sand. Carnegie Hall was built by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1891. It is located at 57th Street. After the show, Michael and I went to a karaoke bar at Times Square, and I sang Dancing Queen. I told him I had made it on the "big stage."
We walked from Times Square to the Financial District. We entered the New York Life Building. Michael is an agent and sells their products. We had scheduled a tour at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and were taken to the Gold Vault underground to see $190 billion in gold. Michael reminded me that one bar was worth $118,000. I kept biting my nails, and he asked me if I were nervous. I guess it was all that gold! We returned to the charging bull and got pictures. Michael rubbed the bull's balls for good luck. There were more people than last time probably because of activity at the U.N. I told Michael he might be doing business on Wall Street during a future visit.
We took the subway to the Bronx and 161st Street to the new Yankee Stadium. It sits right beside the old one and cost $1.4 billion. It is Steinbrenner's legacy. The Yankees played the Boston Red Sox, the greatest rivalry in all of sports. The Yankees won 9-5. This is four times we have seen them and the second time they have won. The Stadium was the star, and we walked all around it, viewing the game from different angles. There are huge pictures on the walls of great players from the past: Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle. I nearly choked up as we entered the new cathedral. Being among Yankee supporters, I felt like we were among friends. Michael spotted 9/11 mayor Giuliani in the crowd.
Our last day, we found Rockefeller Center and the NBC Studios. We saw the statue of Prometheus, and I told Michael about the Greek myth, how Prometheus gave the gift of fire to mankind and was punished by Zeus until Hercules set him free. We strolled through the NBC Experience, a gift shop, and saw a funny picture of Conan with his hair sticking up.
Our trip ended with a ride through Central Park. We came to the John Lennon Imagine Mosaic at Strawberry Fields, and Michael took my picture giving the peace sign. Everyone else was flashing the sign, so I did. The Dakota was nearby, and I recalled how Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in December, 1980, and how I called Karen after seeing the story on the front page of the Tennessean as I was going into Shoney's for breakfast. Chapman did not try to escape. He sat on some steps and waited for the police. Our driver said that Yoko still lives on the top three floors of the Dakota. We heard several Beatle songs while having breakfast at Starbucks.
Flying back to Nashville, I told Michael how I fed him a bottle in the back room at the house in Lebanon while thinking of New York. Reading about Central Park, I learned that it got its name by being in the center of Manhattan. Michael told me it was his dream to go to New York. Now he has been there twice. These trips are among the many ways I am helping my son.
NEW YORK CITY 2005
Tuesday, August 9 (Day 1) - Michael and Karen came to my apartment at 4:30 in the morning. I met them in the garage, and Karen drove us to the airport. We left Nashville at 6am on Delta Flight 5405. It was Michael's first time on a plane, a good thing about the trip. We changed planes in Cincinnati and arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York at 11:31am. We caught the airbus to lower Manhattan. The first day was hard. We spotted the Empire State Building in the distance and started walking. The Empire State Building is at 34th Street & 5th Avenue. It was built 1930-31, and its architecture reflects the period. It is shaped like a pencil. There are 102 floors. The observatory is on the 86th. The line was long, and I told Michael the story of how I came here in the Army. "It was a cold, windy night. My hat blew off, and I had to run after it." We looked down on Manhattan as I had years ago. 20,000 buildings can be seen. New York is a study in buildings and architecture. Back on the streets, we entered Central Park. Joggers ran past. I felt we were getting in deep, and we retraced our steps. We found Times Square. Michael was elated, and it dawned on me what Times Square meant to him because of seeing it on television. He took pictures from every angle. Night fell. We were turned away from hotels and went into TGI Friday's. The Yankees were playing the White Sox on the Yes Network. We watched the game and talked about staying up all night. We went looking one last time and found the Portland Square Hotel. It was a miracle. The room was small but clean and quiet. Best of all, it was right around the corner from Times Square and the Palace Theatre where we had tickets for the Broadway show. Nothing is cheap in New York. I tried to keep spending under control while doing what we came to do. Michael had his cell phone and stayed in touch with his mother and friends. People were everywhere. You dodge them. Horns blow. Cabs whiz. It takes an effort to cross streets. Michael and I stayed close. We had a flexible plan which we adjusted as we went along. We walked for long stretches. We sat and rested. Michael said he was overweight. This was a chance for him to work off some pounds and for me to fight arthritis.
Wednesday, August 10 (Day 2) - We made our way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx by subway. The Stadium is located at 161st & River Ave. I got tickets by email, $52 total. We were in the upper deck down the third base line toward left field. The game took up a large part of the day. I wanted a day game so there would be light when we hit the street. The Yankees played the Chicago White Sox. This was traditional American League baseball. The Yankees lost, but the main thing was that we experienced a game at Yankee Stadium. There were some leftovers from the great team of the 1990s: Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and manager Joe Torre. The Stadium itself was the attraction. I noted the big "NY" behind home plate and the facade in the outfield. I recalled how Mickey Mantle came within inches of hitting one out. From our seats I spotted the edge of Monument Park. The Yankees' dugout was on the first base side.
Thursday, August 11 (Day 3) -
This was the day we cracked New York. We rode the subway to Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero. It was fenced in, and we walked around the perimeter. It was a solemn site, not unlike Pearl Harbor. It was not so emotional at this point, but we wondered what things were like in the city on that day. Michael pointed to a cross. From Ground Zero we hoofed it to Wall Street as I had before. Wall Street is the country's financial center, and Michael wanted to see the New York Stock Exchange where stocks are bought and sold. NYSE lists 3,164 companies and has the largest trading volume of any stock exchange except NASDAQ. This was an education for Michael. Wall Street got its name from the wall built by the Dutch to keep the Indians out. The British took "New Amsterdam" and renamed it New York in honor of the Duke of York. We moved toward Battery Park. A German girl took our picture as we ferried to the Statue of Liberty. She was from Hamburg, so we talked about The Beatles and the Star Club. Michael and I spent an hour on Liberty Island looking up at the green Statue. His Liberty pictures are like post cards. I was doing this for him. He was seeing New York for the first time. The Statue was a gift from the French. It was done by sculptor Bartholdi and commemorated French support during the American Revolution. Lady Liberty holds a tablet reading July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. Her arm is straight, and she holds a torch. The seven rays from her crown represent seven continents. Her official name is "Liberty Enlightening the World." Battery Park is so named because of the guns which once defended Lower Manhattan. We returned to the room to rest. It was a hot August day. I was thirsty, and water fountains were not to be found. I secured the tickets for All Shook Up which I got from Ticketmaster by email. The show was at the Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway. I remembered the address because it was the year of Shakespeare's birth. Off we went! We sat in the balcony. The theatre was ornate, and the usher told us it was about 100 years old. All Shook Up combined the music of Elvis Presley with the plot of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. We exited the theatre and went to our room for our last night in the city.
Michael had to see Trump Tower, and we found it. It is residential. The condominiums are for the rich. Donald Trump is a real estate developer and Michael's hero. I took a picture of Michael against the backdrop of Trump and his wife, Melania. Michael bought shirts at Brooks Brothers, and the clerk told him that Trump's assistant had come in the day before. We passed Rockefeller Center and got pictures of Prometheus and Radio City Music Hall. We slipped into the NBC studios shop. We ate at ESPN Zone.
Friday, August 12 (Day 4) - On our way out of town, we stopped by New York University. Washington Square Park is on the edge of NYU, and we saw the arch. We entered a book store. Michael compared the business books to MTSU's. We got to Kennedy Airport with time to spare and ate at Chili's Too. It was a straight flight to Nashville. Karen met us and dropped me off at Vanderbilt.
I had it in mind to take Michael to the main sections of the United States: down south, up east and out west. Daytona Beach was our trip south. New York and Washington, D.C. were up east. Las Vegas and L.A. are west. I see my early trips as preparation for these trips with Michael.
NEW YORK CITY 1984
I spent two days in Manhattan in October, 1984. My first stop was Dinosaur Hall in the American Museum of Natural History. The Museum sits near Central Park. Dinosaur-mania was talking hold, and I saw tyrannosaurus, brontosaurus, triceratops and stegosaurus. Some fossilized eggs added credibility to the existence of these creatures. I attended a show at the Hayden Planetarium inside the museum. My second day began at the top of the World Trade Center (the one without the tower). I looked down at the Statue of Liberty snug within its scaffold. It was being renovated. From the Towers, I hoofed it to Wall Street. The street was short and nearly deserted as it was Sunday. I learned that George Washington was inaugurated there in 1789. The bus took me up the Avenue of the Americas to Midtown, and I saw the gold leaf statue of Prometheus against the backdrop of the RCA Building. In Greek mythology Prometheus taught man how to use fire. His statue shows him descending from Mount Olympus encircled by the Zodiac. I wanted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but they were not performing. From my room I watched the presidential debate on television between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. The morning before I left, I rode a bus out 42nd Street to the United Nations. I entered the building but did not take the tour. There was a protest against Reagan which rubbed me the wrong way. I glimpsed the N.Y.P.L. (library) and Madison Square Garden before heading for Nashville.
April, August, 1974 - New York state
On truck with Chester. We went to Erie, Pennsylvania, and across upstate New York: Rochester and Syracuse. We spent the night in Binghamton. We were in New York when the tornado hit Louisville on April 3. The closer we got to Louisville, the more we heard about it. It took the roof off Candy Heim's house. She was in the Air Force.
December, 1970 - Philadelphia & New York City
In Philadelphia I gazed through the windows of Independence Hall at the Liberty Bell. In New York I ascended the Empire State Building and blitzed through Greenwich Village and Times Square by night. I was in the Army and made these trips with two guys from Valley Forge Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. It was cold and windy in New York. My saucer cap blew off at the top of the Empire State Building. I caught it before it went over the edge.
Michael and I made our second trip to New York, September 24-26. We made our way from Kennedy Airport in Queens to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. We again ferried to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a National Monument. They were taking 200 people a day to the crown and were booked til January. We headed for Times Square and the Portland Square Hotel where we checked into our room and prepared for Kristina in Concert. We had time but had to keep moving. The Portland Square Hotel is located at 132 West 47th Street. Phone: 212-382-0600. We used my AAA card.
Kristina in Concert was at Carnegie Hall for two nights, and we saw it on Thursday, September 24. The characters lined up in front of the orchestra to sing their parts. It was nearly three hours. The melodies were beautiful and full of emotion. Even though it was the English version, it was still difficult to pick up the lyrics. Of course, I knew the story. I pitied those who did not. Leaving the theater, Michael asked me what I thought. I told him it was an accomplishment, an achievement! And that is what it was, that I saw it with my son! We sat high in the balcony, close to the edge. A dangerous spot! Benny and Bjorn were in the audience (I figured they would be) and came to the stage at the concert's end. The song getting the biggest ovation was The Gold Turned To Sand. Carnegie Hall was built by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1891. It is located at 57th Street. After the show, Michael and I went to a karaoke bar at Times Square, and I sang Dancing Queen. I told him I had made it on the "big stage."
We walked from Times Square to the Financial District. We entered the New York Life Building. Michael is an agent and sells their products. We had scheduled a tour at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and were taken to the Gold Vault underground to see $190 billion in gold. Michael reminded me that one bar was worth $118,000. I kept biting my nails, and he asked me if I were nervous. I guess it was all that gold! We returned to the charging bull and got pictures. Michael rubbed the bull's balls for good luck. There were more people than last time probably because of activity at the U.N. I told Michael he might be doing business on Wall Street during a future visit.
We took the subway to the Bronx and 161st Street to the new Yankee Stadium. It sits right beside the old one and cost $1.4 billion. It is Steinbrenner's legacy. The Yankees played the Boston Red Sox, the greatest rivalry in all of sports. The Yankees won 9-5. This is four times we have seen them and the second time they have won. The Stadium was the star, and we walked all around it, viewing the game from different angles. There are huge pictures on the walls of great players from the past: Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle. I nearly choked up as we entered the new cathedral. Being among Yankee supporters, I felt like we were among friends. Michael spotted 9/11 mayor Giuliani in the crowd.
Our last day, we found Rockefeller Center and the NBC Studios. We saw the statue of Prometheus, and I told Michael about the Greek myth, how Prometheus gave the gift of fire to mankind and was punished by Zeus until Hercules set him free. We strolled through the NBC Experience, a gift shop, and saw a funny picture of Conan with his hair sticking up.
Our trip ended with a ride through Central Park. We came to the John Lennon Imagine Mosaic at Strawberry Fields, and Michael took my picture giving the peace sign. Everyone else was flashing the sign, so I did. The Dakota was nearby, and I recalled how Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman in December, 1980, and how I called Karen after seeing the story on the front page of the Tennessean as I was going into Shoney's for breakfast. Chapman did not try to escape. He sat on some steps and waited for the police. Our driver said that Yoko still lives on the top three floors of the Dakota. We heard several Beatle songs while having breakfast at Starbucks.
Flying back to Nashville, I told Michael how I fed him a bottle in the back room at the house in Lebanon while thinking of New York. Reading about Central Park, I learned that it got its name by being in the center of Manhattan. Michael told me it was his dream to go to New York. Now he has been there twice. These trips are among the many ways I am helping my son.
NEW YORK CITY 2005
Tuesday, August 9 (Day 1) - Michael and Karen came to my apartment at 4:30 in the morning. I met them in the garage, and Karen drove us to the airport. We left Nashville at 6am on Delta Flight 5405. It was Michael's first time on a plane, a good thing about the trip. We changed planes in Cincinnati and arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York at 11:31am. We caught the airbus to lower Manhattan. The first day was hard. We spotted the Empire State Building in the distance and started walking. The Empire State Building is at 34th Street & 5th Avenue. It was built 1930-31, and its architecture reflects the period. It is shaped like a pencil. There are 102 floors. The observatory is on the 86th. The line was long, and I told Michael the story of how I came here in the Army. "It was a cold, windy night. My hat blew off, and I had to run after it." We looked down on Manhattan as I had years ago. 20,000 buildings can be seen. New York is a study in buildings and architecture. Back on the streets, we entered Central Park. Joggers ran past. I felt we were getting in deep, and we retraced our steps. We found Times Square. Michael was elated, and it dawned on me what Times Square meant to him because of seeing it on television. He took pictures from every angle. Night fell. We were turned away from hotels and went into TGI Friday's. The Yankees were playing the White Sox on the Yes Network. We watched the game and talked about staying up all night. We went looking one last time and found the Portland Square Hotel. It was a miracle. The room was small but clean and quiet. Best of all, it was right around the corner from Times Square and the Palace Theatre where we had tickets for the Broadway show. Nothing is cheap in New York. I tried to keep spending under control while doing what we came to do. Michael had his cell phone and stayed in touch with his mother and friends. People were everywhere. You dodge them. Horns blow. Cabs whiz. It takes an effort to cross streets. Michael and I stayed close. We had a flexible plan which we adjusted as we went along. We walked for long stretches. We sat and rested. Michael said he was overweight. This was a chance for him to work off some pounds and for me to fight arthritis.
Wednesday, August 10 (Day 2) - We made our way to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx by subway. The Stadium is located at 161st & River Ave. I got tickets by email, $52 total. We were in the upper deck down the third base line toward left field. The game took up a large part of the day. I wanted a day game so there would be light when we hit the street. The Yankees played the Chicago White Sox. This was traditional American League baseball. The Yankees lost, but the main thing was that we experienced a game at Yankee Stadium. There were some leftovers from the great team of the 1990s: Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and manager Joe Torre. The Stadium itself was the attraction. I noted the big "NY" behind home plate and the facade in the outfield. I recalled how Mickey Mantle came within inches of hitting one out. From our seats I spotted the edge of Monument Park. The Yankees' dugout was on the first base side.
Thursday, August 11 (Day 3) -
This was the day we cracked New York. We rode the subway to Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero. It was fenced in, and we walked around the perimeter. It was a solemn site, not unlike Pearl Harbor. It was not so emotional at this point, but we wondered what things were like in the city on that day. Michael pointed to a cross. From Ground Zero we hoofed it to Wall Street as I had before. Wall Street is the country's financial center, and Michael wanted to see the New York Stock Exchange where stocks are bought and sold. NYSE lists 3,164 companies and has the largest trading volume of any stock exchange except NASDAQ. This was an education for Michael. Wall Street got its name from the wall built by the Dutch to keep the Indians out. The British took "New Amsterdam" and renamed it New York in honor of the Duke of York. We moved toward Battery Park. A German girl took our picture as we ferried to the Statue of Liberty. She was from Hamburg, so we talked about The Beatles and the Star Club. Michael and I spent an hour on Liberty Island looking up at the green Statue. His Liberty pictures are like post cards. I was doing this for him. He was seeing New York for the first time. The Statue was a gift from the French. It was done by sculptor Bartholdi and commemorated French support during the American Revolution. Lady Liberty holds a tablet reading July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. Her arm is straight, and she holds a torch. The seven rays from her crown represent seven continents. Her official name is "Liberty Enlightening the World." Battery Park is so named because of the guns which once defended Lower Manhattan. We returned to the room to rest. It was a hot August day. I was thirsty, and water fountains were not to be found. I secured the tickets for All Shook Up which I got from Ticketmaster by email. The show was at the Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway. I remembered the address because it was the year of Shakespeare's birth. Off we went! We sat in the balcony. The theatre was ornate, and the usher told us it was about 100 years old. All Shook Up combined the music of Elvis Presley with the plot of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. We exited the theatre and went to our room for our last night in the city.
Michael had to see Trump Tower, and we found it. It is residential. The condominiums are for the rich. Donald Trump is a real estate developer and Michael's hero. I took a picture of Michael against the backdrop of Trump and his wife, Melania. Michael bought shirts at Brooks Brothers, and the clerk told him that Trump's assistant had come in the day before. We passed Rockefeller Center and got pictures of Prometheus and Radio City Music Hall. We slipped into the NBC studios shop. We ate at ESPN Zone.
Friday, August 12 (Day 4) - On our way out of town, we stopped by New York University. Washington Square Park is on the edge of NYU, and we saw the arch. We entered a book store. Michael compared the business books to MTSU's. We got to Kennedy Airport with time to spare and ate at Chili's Too. It was a straight flight to Nashville. Karen met us and dropped me off at Vanderbilt.
I had it in mind to take Michael to the main sections of the United States: down south, up east and out west. Daytona Beach was our trip south. New York and Washington, D.C. were up east. Las Vegas and L.A. are west. I see my early trips as preparation for these trips with Michael.
NEW YORK CITY 1984
I spent two days in Manhattan in October, 1984. My first stop was Dinosaur Hall in the American Museum of Natural History. The Museum sits near Central Park. Dinosaur-mania was talking hold, and I saw tyrannosaurus, brontosaurus, triceratops and stegosaurus. Some fossilized eggs added credibility to the existence of these creatures. I attended a show at the Hayden Planetarium inside the museum. My second day began at the top of the World Trade Center (the one without the tower). I looked down at the Statue of Liberty snug within its scaffold. It was being renovated. From the Towers, I hoofed it to Wall Street. The street was short and nearly deserted as it was Sunday. I learned that George Washington was inaugurated there in 1789. The bus took me up the Avenue of the Americas to Midtown, and I saw the gold leaf statue of Prometheus against the backdrop of the RCA Building. In Greek mythology Prometheus taught man how to use fire. His statue shows him descending from Mount Olympus encircled by the Zodiac. I wanted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but they were not performing. From my room I watched the presidential debate on television between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. The morning before I left, I rode a bus out 42nd Street to the United Nations. I entered the building but did not take the tour. There was a protest against Reagan which rubbed me the wrong way. I glimpsed the N.Y.P.L. (library) and Madison Square Garden before heading for Nashville.
April, August, 1974 - New York state
On truck with Chester. We went to Erie, Pennsylvania, and across upstate New York: Rochester and Syracuse. We spent the night in Binghamton. We were in New York when the tornado hit Louisville on April 3. The closer we got to Louisville, the more we heard about it. It took the roof off Candy Heim's house. She was in the Air Force.
December, 1970 - Philadelphia & New York City
In Philadelphia I gazed through the windows of Independence Hall at the Liberty Bell. In New York I ascended the Empire State Building and blitzed through Greenwich Village and Times Square by night. I was in the Army and made these trips with two guys from Valley Forge Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. It was cold and windy in New York. My saucer cap blew off at the top of the Empire State Building. I caught it before it went over the edge.
ATLANTA 2009
Michael and I returned to Atlanta, June 24, 2009. Michael drove, and we discussed Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and the Civil War on the way down. We headed straight to Stone Mountain State Park east of the city and rode the Skyride to the top. We saw the Atlanta skyline in the distance as Karen and I had in 1983.
We found Turner Field. Michael had been there, but it was my first time. The Atlanta Braves were playing the New York Yankees and, of course, we were Yankee fans. We saw a classic game. Baseball at its best! The Yankees won 8-4. I could not have written a better script. Joba Chamberlain got the win. Mariano Rivera got the save and struck out the side in the 9th inning. A-Rod got a bases loaded single to drive in the lead runs. Manager Joe Giardi's ejection sparked the Yankee rally. Turner Field is a modern, family-friendly ballpark and a tribute to America's #1 game and greatest sport!
Michael and I drove to Atlanta and back on January 10, 2006. We went straight to the SunTrust Plaza. SunTrust Bank started in Atlanta and has its corporate office there. We went to the top floor of the building. There seemed to be SunTrust branches on every corner as we drove around town. SunTrust is the 9th largest bank in the country, in 8 southern states and Washington, D.C. It has 1,100 branches with assets of $88 billion and deposits of $55 billion. Michael and I talked about his job. He was thinking of working full time as a Financial Services Representative while SunTrust paid for his MBA. With his Master's, he could become an Investment Consultant. I wanted this trip to be oriented toward Michael's career. We meant to get a hotel but started going from place to place and realized we could get everything in and be back in Nashville that night. We walked through town and spotted the CNN Center. We ate at Arby's inside. A guy in a shop told us that Larry King did his show from New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Michael and I talked about Ted Turner. We crossed Centennial Olympic Park to the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium opened in November and is the largest in the world. We saw thousands and thousands of fish. There were no great whites, but there were whale sharks that get as long as school buses. We drove through the suburb of Buckhead before heading back up I-75 and I-24. We had a learning experience and a good time.
Karen and I spent Memorial Day weekend, May 28 and 29, 1983, in Atlanta. We took I-24 to Chattanooga and traveled I-75. We stayed two nights at the Red Roof Inn. We began with what was most typically Atlanta: the downtown area. We went to Peachtree Plaza with its cylindrical tower, entered the blue bubble-domed Hyatt, the Omni and the World Congress Center. These are laden with shops, restaurants and convention halls. Next, we went to the Georgia State Capitol Building. The dome is done is gold leaf. The State Museum inside is strong in natural history. Karen said I would like Stone Mountain, a State Park. The carving in the granite makes it a southern Mt. Rushmore. The figures from left to right are: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. We rode the incline to the top. Sun-bathers were strewn on the rock as if it were a beach. The Atlanta skyline was in the distance. Our second day began with the Atlanta Zoo. Soon as we started along the walk, I felt an urge to take animal notes. Karen got some interesting photos. After some Major League Baseball with the Braves and Cubs, it was back to Nashville.
December, 1977 - Atlanta
Peachtree Street is the main thoroughfare in Atlanta. I visited Emory University and the Hartsfield International Airport. The buildings at Emory were gray and foreboding. The Atlanta airport is the second largest in the country. Nearly everyone changes planes there when flying to or from southern cities. Atlanta is more cosmopolitan than either Louisville or Nashville. I went to Atlanta Underground, a subterranean row of bars and boutiques, early in the morning. Everything was closed.
We found Turner Field. Michael had been there, but it was my first time. The Atlanta Braves were playing the New York Yankees and, of course, we were Yankee fans. We saw a classic game. Baseball at its best! The Yankees won 8-4. I could not have written a better script. Joba Chamberlain got the win. Mariano Rivera got the save and struck out the side in the 9th inning. A-Rod got a bases loaded single to drive in the lead runs. Manager Joe Giardi's ejection sparked the Yankee rally. Turner Field is a modern, family-friendly ballpark and a tribute to America's #1 game and greatest sport!
Michael and I drove to Atlanta and back on January 10, 2006. We went straight to the SunTrust Plaza. SunTrust Bank started in Atlanta and has its corporate office there. We went to the top floor of the building. There seemed to be SunTrust branches on every corner as we drove around town. SunTrust is the 9th largest bank in the country, in 8 southern states and Washington, D.C. It has 1,100 branches with assets of $88 billion and deposits of $55 billion. Michael and I talked about his job. He was thinking of working full time as a Financial Services Representative while SunTrust paid for his MBA. With his Master's, he could become an Investment Consultant. I wanted this trip to be oriented toward Michael's career. We meant to get a hotel but started going from place to place and realized we could get everything in and be back in Nashville that night. We walked through town and spotted the CNN Center. We ate at Arby's inside. A guy in a shop told us that Larry King did his show from New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Michael and I talked about Ted Turner. We crossed Centennial Olympic Park to the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium opened in November and is the largest in the world. We saw thousands and thousands of fish. There were no great whites, but there were whale sharks that get as long as school buses. We drove through the suburb of Buckhead before heading back up I-75 and I-24. We had a learning experience and a good time.
Karen and I spent Memorial Day weekend, May 28 and 29, 1983, in Atlanta. We took I-24 to Chattanooga and traveled I-75. We stayed two nights at the Red Roof Inn. We began with what was most typically Atlanta: the downtown area. We went to Peachtree Plaza with its cylindrical tower, entered the blue bubble-domed Hyatt, the Omni and the World Congress Center. These are laden with shops, restaurants and convention halls. Next, we went to the Georgia State Capitol Building. The dome is done is gold leaf. The State Museum inside is strong in natural history. Karen said I would like Stone Mountain, a State Park. The carving in the granite makes it a southern Mt. Rushmore. The figures from left to right are: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. We rode the incline to the top. Sun-bathers were strewn on the rock as if it were a beach. The Atlanta skyline was in the distance. Our second day began with the Atlanta Zoo. Soon as we started along the walk, I felt an urge to take animal notes. Karen got some interesting photos. After some Major League Baseball with the Braves and Cubs, it was back to Nashville.
December, 1977 - Atlanta
Peachtree Street is the main thoroughfare in Atlanta. I visited Emory University and the Hartsfield International Airport. The buildings at Emory were gray and foreboding. The Atlanta airport is the second largest in the country. Nearly everyone changes planes there when flying to or from southern cities. Atlanta is more cosmopolitan than either Louisville or Nashville. I went to Atlanta Underground, a subterranean row of bars and boutiques, early in the morning. Everything was closed.
GOING WEST 2009
GOING WEST 2009 - CALIFORNIA
Michael and I flew into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Frontier Airlines, May 16, 2009. We changed planes in Denver and flew over the Grand Canyon. We returned, May 22. I used expedia.com to purchase our plane tickets. They were $640.60.
We reserved an economy car from Hertz. It was waiting at the airport. They honored my AAA membership. We got unlimited milage for $302.65.
Rented cars are expensive. At least there were two of us benefiting. While out west, we were not using our vehicles or buying gas in Nashville. So, to some degree, things evened out.
We drove straight to Sequoia National Park. We headed for the trees. We drove up Interstate 5, got onto 99 and 198. We went through Bakersfield and Visalia. We called the Park at 1-559-565-3341. People out there know how to get to the park and we got directions. It is 220 miles from the airport to Sequoia Park.
I reserved a room at the Comfort Inn in Three Rivers outside Sequoia for the night of May 16. We were six miles from the park entrance. Three Rivers is a resort town. We entered the park twice.
Karen and I came down from Kings Canyon in 1979. Michael and I drove north from Los Angeles. There is still no road crossing Sequoia National Park from east to west. We came out the same way we went in.
It was one night at Sequoia. I recalled Michael thinking two nights at the Grand Canyon was too much.
The biggest Sequoias are in Giant Forest. This is where the General Sherman tree is, the largest living thing on earth. We walked along the trail to it, and Michael spotted a deer. We saw bears.
The tree called The Sentinel sits in front of the museum.
Sequoias are an orange-copperish color. Looking up through their green tops into the blue sky, one experiences a healing. Their presence is reassuring. The air was still. No wind.
We climbed Moro Rock and looked down on the surrounding area, something Karen and I did not do. That topped it off. Leaving the Park, we patted trees and told them goodbye, promising to return.
We drove back from Sequoia the evening of May 17. Michael stopped along the side of the road, and I picked oranges. Michael said it was one of the best oranges he ever tasted.
Los Angeles has the biggest complex of freeways in the world: six lanes going, six lanes coming. We had to be careful. We met traffic with patience. Michael drove.
I reserved a room for five nights: May 17-21, at the Best Western Media Center Inn in "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" as Johnny Carson used to say. The AAA rate was $866.20. Our address was 3910 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank. We were near the NBC Studios.
Michael and I were in bed when the bed and building shook for a few seconds. It was an earthquake: my first, Michael's second. It was on the news.
We had tickets for Jay Leno and the Tonight Show. I was stunned when they arrived in my mail box. Michael said it put the icing on the cake. There were two tapings, and we saw both. We stayed in line several hours to make sure we got in. Cameron Diaz and Terry Bradshaw were guests. Announcer John Melendez brought people on stage to warm up the audience. I went down and sang Dancing Queen by ABBA. The crowd went wild! We met Paul Crunk and his wife. Paul helped us get oriented, and we appreciated his company. The four of us ate at the Outback. These were Leno's 9th and 10th shows from his last on May 29, and we were fortunate to see him. The shows were taped at NBC Studios in Burbank at 3000 W. Alameda Avenue.
I had the idea to structure the 2009 trip something like the ones before it. Keep it in the same frame! We concentrated on Burbank, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu. We went to the Hollywood and Highland Center at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. We got pictures of the Kodak Theatre. This is where the Academy Awards (Oscars) are given. Michael knew about it. Grauman's Chinese Theatre is there, and we saw the handprints of Tom Hanks in cement. It was nice to stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame with my son 31 years after I did it the first time. We got a picture of Jay Leno's star. We were prevented from entering the Capitol Records Building because of 9/11.
We roamed through the Hollywood Hills trying to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. After several wrong turns and some frustration, we got it. Roads were narrow and the houses in the hills were jammed together like sardines. Michael said he could not live in Hollywood but admitted that the Hollywood sign was like the Statue of Liberty to him. We drove by Hollywood High School.
Hollywood is part of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills is separate but surrounded by the city.
Michael wanted to see Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It is where the stars shop! We went into Brooks Brothers, Michael's favorite. Michael said it is a different world going from trashy Hollywood to classy Beverly Hills. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and drove through the Beverly Hills Hotel. We noted the abundance of expensive cars on Rodeo Drive.
Laguna Beach was a big deal. Michael wanted to go there because of the TV show of the same name. We drove to Laguna Beach down the Pacific Coast Highway and returned to Burbank on Interstate 5. Our road. Michael saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
Our last full day, we rode up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu. "Michael B. in Malibu!" The city of Malibu is a strip of Pacific coastline and home to many movie stars.
We took Sunset Boulevard coming back and drove through Bel Air, where Elvis had a house while making his movies. Michael rolled down the window and asked, "Do you smell that? It smells like money!"
We dropped the car off at L.A. International, settled our account and flew out. Michael had his friend meet us in Nashville.
We had the idea that one plus one equals three. There was me, and there was Michael. The third person was me and Michael together.
GOING WEST 2007 - LAS VEGAS
Michael and I flew to Las Vegas, June 7, and returned, June 13, 2007. We spent the first two nights at the Sahara at the north end of the Strip. The third and fourth nights we were in the Red Feather Lodge at the Grand Canyon. We stayed at New York-New York the last two nights. We flew Southwest Airlines. I bought tickets at the airport using my check card. We concentrated on the new side of Vegas. We rode the monorail which links the Strip from the Sahara to the MGM Grand. Themed hotels are the thing.
We landed at McCarran Airport and took the shuttle to the Sahara. The city of lights came to life on our first night. We enjoyed the view from the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas. The Tower is a 1/2 replica. Vegas sprawled into the desert. Population has grown to 1.8 million.
Las Vegas has changed since I was there in 1993. There are mega-hotels: New York-New York, Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay and Luxor. They exist for the purpose of making money for the people who own and operate them. We spent conservatively and aimed for an experience consistent with our needs.
We knew why we were here and what we would do. We bought a digital camera, and Michael got 140 pictures. We walked through the hotels. The Bellagio fountains put on a spectacular show while Elvis sang Viva Las Vegas. The Bellagio is Michael's favorite. He called it a "5 star high roller." We saw Bob Dole in the casino.
Our second day began with Michael having his picture taken with a showgirl. He glowed! We visited the antique car collection at the Imperial Palace. I posed behind a 1955 Cadillac Elmerado.
People were everywhere. We kept moving. We ate well while keeping the cost down. When we were tired, we rested. We walked to Mandalay Bay at the south end of the Strip and watched the Yankees play the Diamondbacks. Mandalay Bay was home to Mamma Mia!, and I told Michael we would see the movie.
They had started the Luxor when I was there in 93. I kept thinking, "It looks like a pyramid." Then someone said it was. The beam from the top can be seen 250 miles away. The Sphinx and the obelisk are out front. An obelisk is a four-sided stone needle with a pyramid top.
Phase 2
We rented a car and drove to the Grand Canyon, stopping at Hoover Dam on the way. A bypass was being built. The dam provides electricity for California, Arizona and Nevada.
Michael drove. We took 93 south to Kingman, Arizona, and went east on Interstate 40 to Williams. We drove north on 64. It is a 4 or 5 hour drive. We had reservations at the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, near the park entrance.
I spotted it! The Grand Canyon! The most awesome spectacle on the planet! We pulled over for a picture. We stopped at a number of overlooks along the south rim.
We attended the star party at Yavapai Point. We looked at Jupiter and Saturn through telescopes. I pointed out the Big Dipper and North Star for Michael. The Grand Canyon Star Party takes place each June.
We drove to the Desert View Watchtower at the eastern end of the south rim. We climbed it. From Desert View Michael and I saw the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon.
We saw hikers rehearsing at Bright Angel Trail for a descent the next morning. Michael said that when he comes again, he will go to the bottom. The Canyon is 277 miles long. It took the Colorado River 7 million years to carve it. The rocks at the bottom are two billion years old.
The Colorado flows from the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains through the Canyon. It dumps into the Gulf of California.
We were at the Canyon two nights. Michael thought one night would have been enough. I insisted it is not every day that two guys from Nashville see the Grand Canyon. There is a sameness about the red buttes and mesas which makes it hard to focus.
Canyons are in the west. Valleys are in the east.
Phase 3
Back in Vegas, we checked into New York-New York on the 25th floor.
New York New York is a replica of the New York skyline. There are the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the Bar at Times Square.
I soaked in the tub each morning and wore my straw hat to keep the sun off my head. I had the bag Charlotte bought me when I went to Sweden. Michael took a suitcase. We watched TV in our room before going to sleep.
Michael sat by the pool while I visited the Atomic Testing Museum. We checked out the Palms because it had a Playboy club. We ate at the Outback. I had "shrimp on the barbie."
We went to Fremont Street downtown and got pictures of Vegas Vic and Sassy Sally.
We saw Jubilee! our last night in town. I saved it for the finale. Jubilee! was started by Donn Arden.
We went to Red Rock Canyon the morning before we left. Red Rock is a National Conservation Area protected by the Bureau of Land Management. It is a 13-mile loop out Charleston Boulevard. The red sandstone formations make an interesting drive. Michael saw Joshua trees for the first time.
We made our way back to McCarran and flew to Nashville. It was a direct flight. Karen met us.
My goal was to introduce Michael to one of our most exciting cities and to give him an experience in the west. I try to bolster his confidence and his ability to get around. I told him the city is a magnet and that he will no doubt return.
GOING WEST 1979
The west is like another country, at times like another planet. Its variety is endless. It can be thought of in terms of its major cities or be approached from the standpoint of its National Parks. The National Park system is an effort by the federal government to preserve nature's masterpieces. Fees are minimal, geology the theme. The parks are linked by a system of highways and Interstates that are the best in the world. America's roads are her greatest achievement. It is all transportation.
Going west on I-40, the real change takes place in New Mexico. The town of Tucumcari looks as much like Mexico as the United States. But when you think that the southwest belonged to Mexico until 1848, it is easy to understand the Spanish influence. A few weeks in the southwest will make one see U.S. history from a new perspective.
There are some marvelous sights in Arizona. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest lie side by side. From several vantage points, we gazed at the colored streaks of sand.
Inside the Petrified Forest is a spot called the Crystal Forest. There can not be a more peaceful place on earth. We saw it at sunset. Bits and pieces of petrified wood lay scattered about, and Karen and I felt the sensation of being at the dawn of creation. There were no people for miles on either side. The orange sunset, turquoise sky and quiet blended in perfect bliss.
Near Winslow lies the fabulous Meteor Crater. It is a circular hole three miles in circumference. It was created by the impact of a prehistoric meteor. Pictures can not portray its enormity. Astronauts have used the spot as a training ground. In the distance stands Mt. Humphreys, the highest point in Arizona.
The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is the greatest single phenomenon on the face of the planet! It seems to stand totally out of time. It makes the great literary and musical achievements of mankind seem insignificant. During my first visit, I wondered at the amazement of those who ventured upon it having seen no previous pictures or post cards. They must have doubted their eyes. Indeed, from the rim the Canyon hardly seems real. All sense of distance is defied. The Canyon is a mile deep. It averages 10 miles across, rim to rim, and runs for 277 miles. It is Arizona's pride, and tour buses leave regularly from Flagstaff. The Colorado River cuts through it but looks like a tiny ribbon from above. Geologists speculate that cutting action from the Colorado is what created the Canyon. This was hard to accept at first but after seeing other wonders, I realized that geologists see with different eyes. They are attuned much the way astronomers are. It took 7 million years for the river to carve the Canyon.
I looked over the rim to see a mule train crossing the Canyon floor. The mules looked the size of ants. There are trails leading to the bottom of which Bright Angel Trail is the most famous. People were ascending on foot. They were exhausted.
During the second trip, Karen and I saw both the north and south rims. The north rim is less dramatic, but we caught it at dusk and during a thunderstorm which made it particularly austere. We walked out to a point where the wind was up. The Canyon was dark and ominous. We were virtually suspended over the chasm. The austerity of the scene was enhanced by the lightning in the distance.
We circled the Canyon that night to see the south rim in the morning. We slept in the car in Cameron, Utah. We beelined to the south rim at daybreak and caught the sun rising. We got a series of pictures which showed the sun's rays filling the Canyon with light. The river below seemed to be without movement.
Las Vegas
Sprinting from Kingman, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, you can feel the thrill and enchantment of the city drawing you on. There is an anticipation of something great ahead. Most of the action in Las Vegas is found in two places: Fremont Street downtown and the newer and sprawling Las Vegas Boulevard. It is a city of lights. It never sleeps. At first, it is hard to believe such a place could exist, that little old ladies can be seen gambling their hearts out at 6 o'clock in the morning. But there are rows and rows of slot machines, and the gambling is not just limited to casinos and hotels. There are slot machines strategically placed in restaurants and supermarkets as well. I theorized that Las Vegas is a spinoff from southern California and that only the desert could make such liberties possible.
The basic unit on the Strip is the hotel. Driving down Las Vegas Boulevard, one is amazed at the marquees and the famous names. The hotels are like gigantic malls. There are shops and boutiques of all kinds. Most of the hotels have names consistent with the desert atmosphere. There are the Aladdin, Sands, Desert Inn and Sahara. We spent time in all these.
The most distinctive and appealing of the hotels are Caesar's Palace and Circus Circus. Caesar's Palace at night is a gorgeous shade of green. An escalator carries patrons from the sidewalk to the front entrance as a recorded message provides the welcome, "I, Caesar, welcome you to my Caesar's Palace..." Replicas of famous statues exploit the Roman theme. When we arrived, Ann-Margret was at Caesar's.
Circus Circus is like a never-ending carnival. It features circus acts at intervals through most of the day. There are games and stuffed animal prizes to lure the young and unsuspecting. While we were there, artists worked on a statue of a gorilla in front of the hotel.
All the big hotels have shows, and no one should go to Las Vegas without seeing a couple. They run the gamut from comedy to music to animal acts to burlesque. They are Broadway in style and are for the sexually liberated. We saw two major shows. They were Folies Bergere at the Tropicana and Razzle Dazzle at the Flamingo Hilton. Razzle Dazzle was on ice. It occurred to me that girls in their twenties flock to Vegas from all over to sell their legs.
We lived for a month on Deckow Lane, down the street from the Tropicana. We were in the Ali Baba Apartments. We worked a couple of days. I worked for an office equipment place, and Karen worked at the phone company and the Golden Goose Casino. Take away the hotels and casinos, and Las Vegas would be like any place else.
There are some interesting sights surrounding Las Vegas. Old Nevada, a replica of a western mining town, sits at the foot of some tall and scenic bluffs. There is a petting zoo there and some beautiful peacocks. On the way to Old Nevada is Red Rock Canyon. The blue sky, red sandstone cliffs and green desert landscape merge in silent beauty. The peacefulness of the scene matches that of the Valley of Fire State Park. In the Valley of Fire we stopped to look at a petrified log. Again, we were totally alone. I yelled, and my voice echoed off the distant hills. This kind of environment was a relief from the turmoil of the city. It was hot in the Valley. At the tourist center, the thermometer read 118 degrees. The twisted rock formations in the Valley of Fire have taken some extraordinary shapes. One grouping is known as the Seven Sisters, and there are several so-called elephant rocks.
When my Greyhound crossed Hoover Dam in 1978, it was at night, and I could not see anything. I was barely aware of where I was. When Karen and I returned to the spot, we were amazed. The dam captured our imaginations. It was built between 1931 and 1935.
Hoover Dam blocks the Colorado River in its journey from the Grand Canyon to southern California. Lake Mead sits behind the dam. It is in the middle of the desert and complete with beaches.
The Desert
The desert is so eerie and yet so compelling. Trees become remembered as an eastern vegetation. Brown landscapes become normal. We were most aware of the desert during our journey from Las Vegas to Yosemite. We felt our isolation most keenly when viewing some white sands from a high elevation and thinking it was a body of water. Our car ran short of gas, and we just made it to Big Pine, California. These were our most apprehensive moments. We were glad when we espied the Sierra Nevada.
The Mojave Desert lies between Las Vegas and southern California. For the most part, it is flat and featureless. Joshua trees are abundant as they are in all southwest states.
Around Barstow, the power of the desert is strong. The presence of Death Valley can be felt. We did not cross the Valley but passing a few miles from it, the heat that hit my face was like a blast from a furnace. The thought of Death Valley instills wariness in the tourist. A temperature of 134 degrees was once recorded there. It is the lowest place in the United States, 282 feet below sea level.
The mountains of the west present a contrast to those of the east. They appear sculpted. They are flat on top and treeless. The buttes and mesas are formed from rock, whereas eastern hills are primarily earth. Paradoxically, there are a lot of flash floods in the desert because water runs off ridges and stands on the desert floor.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite lies across the Sierras in California. This is where we spent the night of July 4, 1979. We slept in a tent. The stars were beautiful shining through the Ponderosa pines.
The mountains of Yosemite are breath-taking. They had snow on them in July, and Karen made a snowball. From above we satisfied ourselves with the explanation that the valley was carved by glaciers. The scale is a grand one. The one thing all National Parks have in common is a quality of magic. They are raw, primeval. Natural beauty is their offering.
We got pictures of Yosemite Falls, the highest falls in North America. It divides into upper and lower. We crossed the bridge leading around the lower section.
El Capitan is the second attraction. It is the world's largest exposed mass of granite. It stands 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Yosemite is full of domes shaped by glaciers during the Ice Age.
The Sequoias
San Francisco seemed pleasant for such a big city. I stormed the bay area, but never saw the Golden Gate Bridge. That was 1978. I headed for Reno where I learned the devastating power of gambling. A guy at a street corner told me he had just lost $7,000, his life's savings. From Reno I was going to the Sequoias. I got as far as Carson City and turned back. I played the slots all night in Carson City waiting for a bus.
The big trees were exerting their pull. The following summer, Karen and I saw the Sequoias. We toured the three adjacent parks while on an excursion from our base in Las Vegas. We saw our first Sequoia in Yosemite. My reaction must have been comical as I jumped from the car and ran to it. Karen said I looked like a little boy. The Wawona Tunnel Tree is in Yosemite. This is the one they used to drive cars through. It fell in 1969 and still lies there.
Sequoia National Park lies south of Kings Canyon N.P. We got more exposure to the big trees. There are 75 groves strung along the western slopes of the Sierras. The epic proportions and otherworldliness of the Sequoias put them in a category with the Grand Canyon. Some are as much as 3,500 years old. They were living when man's civilization was in its infancy, when King Tut reigned in Egypt. Their age is attributed to a chemical in the sap which resists bacteria. The bark is soft and spongy and may be from six inches to a foot thick. The crowns are small compared to the rest of the tree. Before the Ice Age, much of North America was covered by Sequoias. Certainly, there is a prehistoric quality about them. Many have been ravaged by lightning and fire, but the older ones are being replaced by younger ones even today. The General Sherman Tree is the largest, located in Sequoia Park.
Southern California.
My experiences in southern California in 1978-79, were limited. In 1978, I took a city bus to Hollywood and Vine. I entered the Capitol Records Building and saw some gold Beatle discs hanging on the wall. On the sidewalk I saw the Walk of Fame, celebrities' names inscribed in a series of star patterns.
In July, 1979, Karen and I left Las Vegas for Anaheim and Disneyland. Karen had been to the park in Florida, so she conducted the tour. The rides were thematic. There were Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Disney's secret was in making the most of his knowledge of children's literature. To this, he added his own characters. I was too old for Disneyland. I had a migraine headache.
Yellowstone National Park
After six days and nights dozing on the Greyhound, I finally took a room in Salt Lake City. The next morning, I observed the Mormon Temple, or temple of the Latter Day Saints. Only Mormons are permitted inside. Salt Lake City is a clean town. No slums.
From Salt Lake City, I rode the bus north to Yellowstone, Through the window, I glimpsed the Great Salt Lake. A lady was telling me about the Mormons.
After a few night time hours awaiting the bus in Idaho Falls, crossing and recrossing the Snake River, I arrived at Yellowstone ready for the tour. The brightest and most scintillating things about Yellowstone are its waterfalls and geysers. I saw the geyser Old Faithful. It spouts water once every hour, thus its name. The hot springs are sulfurous and smelly. Yellowstone is in the northwest corner of Wyoming. I spent the night in the tourist town of West Yellowstone, Montana.
Southern Utah and Colorado
The grotesque cliffs of Zion National Park made the ride through it an exciting one. We were not able to linger long enough to appreciate it as we would have liked. We hurried to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. They were 11 miles off the main road. We came close to getting the car stuck in the sand, so we kept moving. Our next stop was Kanab, Utah, known as Little Hollywood. Many of the old westerns were filmed there.
Southern Utah sports some weird terrain. The traveller almost expects to be confronted with dinosaurs. It is seldom dull. We stopped at Four Corners to look at the monument. This is the spot where four states touch: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. It is the only such place in the nation. People like to say they were in four states at once.
Mesa Verde National Park is in southern Colorado. The ruins of the Cliff Dwellers are found here. The most famous and the one we explored is the Cliff Palace. It rests beneath a rock ledge. The descent is a precipitous one, and the Indians who lived there must have been in good condition. It was inhabited between the 7th and 13th centuries when Europe was in its Middle Ages. The circular structures, or kivas, were used for religious purposes.
From Colorado, the west disappears rapidly. We saw Pike's Peak from a distance and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Pike's Peak is a mountain 14,110 feet high and not unlike the mountains of the east.
Jim Colyer
Written in 1980 to cover
the trips of 1978 & 1979
Michael and I flew into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Frontier Airlines, May 16, 2009. We changed planes in Denver and flew over the Grand Canyon. We returned, May 22. I used expedia.com to purchase our plane tickets. They were $640.60.
We reserved an economy car from Hertz. It was waiting at the airport. They honored my AAA membership. We got unlimited milage for $302.65.
Rented cars are expensive. At least there were two of us benefiting. While out west, we were not using our vehicles or buying gas in Nashville. So, to some degree, things evened out.
We drove straight to Sequoia National Park. We headed for the trees. We drove up Interstate 5, got onto 99 and 198. We went through Bakersfield and Visalia. We called the Park at 1-559-565-3341. People out there know how to get to the park and we got directions. It is 220 miles from the airport to Sequoia Park.
I reserved a room at the Comfort Inn in Three Rivers outside Sequoia for the night of May 16. We were six miles from the park entrance. Three Rivers is a resort town. We entered the park twice.
Karen and I came down from Kings Canyon in 1979. Michael and I drove north from Los Angeles. There is still no road crossing Sequoia National Park from east to west. We came out the same way we went in.
It was one night at Sequoia. I recalled Michael thinking two nights at the Grand Canyon was too much.
The biggest Sequoias are in Giant Forest. This is where the General Sherman tree is, the largest living thing on earth. We walked along the trail to it, and Michael spotted a deer. We saw bears.
The tree called The Sentinel sits in front of the museum.
Sequoias are an orange-copperish color. Looking up through their green tops into the blue sky, one experiences a healing. Their presence is reassuring. The air was still. No wind.
We climbed Moro Rock and looked down on the surrounding area, something Karen and I did not do. That topped it off. Leaving the Park, we patted trees and told them goodbye, promising to return.
We drove back from Sequoia the evening of May 17. Michael stopped along the side of the road, and I picked oranges. Michael said it was one of the best oranges he ever tasted.
Los Angeles has the biggest complex of freeways in the world: six lanes going, six lanes coming. We had to be careful. We met traffic with patience. Michael drove.
I reserved a room for five nights: May 17-21, at the Best Western Media Center Inn in "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" as Johnny Carson used to say. The AAA rate was $866.20. Our address was 3910 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank. We were near the NBC Studios.
Michael and I were in bed when the bed and building shook for a few seconds. It was an earthquake: my first, Michael's second. It was on the news.
We had tickets for Jay Leno and the Tonight Show. I was stunned when they arrived in my mail box. Michael said it put the icing on the cake. There were two tapings, and we saw both. We stayed in line several hours to make sure we got in. Cameron Diaz and Terry Bradshaw were guests. Announcer John Melendez brought people on stage to warm up the audience. I went down and sang Dancing Queen by ABBA. The crowd went wild! We met Paul Crunk and his wife. Paul helped us get oriented, and we appreciated his company. The four of us ate at the Outback. These were Leno's 9th and 10th shows from his last on May 29, and we were fortunate to see him. The shows were taped at NBC Studios in Burbank at 3000 W. Alameda Avenue.
I had the idea to structure the 2009 trip something like the ones before it. Keep it in the same frame! We concentrated on Burbank, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu. We went to the Hollywood and Highland Center at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. We got pictures of the Kodak Theatre. This is where the Academy Awards (Oscars) are given. Michael knew about it. Grauman's Chinese Theatre is there, and we saw the handprints of Tom Hanks in cement. It was nice to stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame with my son 31 years after I did it the first time. We got a picture of Jay Leno's star. We were prevented from entering the Capitol Records Building because of 9/11.
We roamed through the Hollywood Hills trying to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. After several wrong turns and some frustration, we got it. Roads were narrow and the houses in the hills were jammed together like sardines. Michael said he could not live in Hollywood but admitted that the Hollywood sign was like the Statue of Liberty to him. We drove by Hollywood High School.
Hollywood is part of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills is separate but surrounded by the city.
Michael wanted to see Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It is where the stars shop! We went into Brooks Brothers, Michael's favorite. Michael said it is a different world going from trashy Hollywood to classy Beverly Hills. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and drove through the Beverly Hills Hotel. We noted the abundance of expensive cars on Rodeo Drive.
Laguna Beach was a big deal. Michael wanted to go there because of the TV show of the same name. We drove to Laguna Beach down the Pacific Coast Highway and returned to Burbank on Interstate 5. Our road. Michael saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
Our last full day, we rode up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu. "Michael B. in Malibu!" The city of Malibu is a strip of Pacific coastline and home to many movie stars.
We took Sunset Boulevard coming back and drove through Bel Air, where Elvis had a house while making his movies. Michael rolled down the window and asked, "Do you smell that? It smells like money!"
We dropped the car off at L.A. International, settled our account and flew out. Michael had his friend meet us in Nashville.
We had the idea that one plus one equals three. There was me, and there was Michael. The third person was me and Michael together.
GOING WEST 2007 - LAS VEGAS
Michael and I flew to Las Vegas, June 7, and returned, June 13, 2007. We spent the first two nights at the Sahara at the north end of the Strip. The third and fourth nights we were in the Red Feather Lodge at the Grand Canyon. We stayed at New York-New York the last two nights. We flew Southwest Airlines. I bought tickets at the airport using my check card. We concentrated on the new side of Vegas. We rode the monorail which links the Strip from the Sahara to the MGM Grand. Themed hotels are the thing.
We landed at McCarran Airport and took the shuttle to the Sahara. The city of lights came to life on our first night. We enjoyed the view from the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas. The Tower is a 1/2 replica. Vegas sprawled into the desert. Population has grown to 1.8 million.
Las Vegas has changed since I was there in 1993. There are mega-hotels: New York-New York, Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay and Luxor. They exist for the purpose of making money for the people who own and operate them. We spent conservatively and aimed for an experience consistent with our needs.
We knew why we were here and what we would do. We bought a digital camera, and Michael got 140 pictures. We walked through the hotels. The Bellagio fountains put on a spectacular show while Elvis sang Viva Las Vegas. The Bellagio is Michael's favorite. He called it a "5 star high roller." We saw Bob Dole in the casino.
Our second day began with Michael having his picture taken with a showgirl. He glowed! We visited the antique car collection at the Imperial Palace. I posed behind a 1955 Cadillac Elmerado.
People were everywhere. We kept moving. We ate well while keeping the cost down. When we were tired, we rested. We walked to Mandalay Bay at the south end of the Strip and watched the Yankees play the Diamondbacks. Mandalay Bay was home to Mamma Mia!, and I told Michael we would see the movie.
They had started the Luxor when I was there in 93. I kept thinking, "It looks like a pyramid." Then someone said it was. The beam from the top can be seen 250 miles away. The Sphinx and the obelisk are out front. An obelisk is a four-sided stone needle with a pyramid top.
Phase 2
We rented a car and drove to the Grand Canyon, stopping at Hoover Dam on the way. A bypass was being built. The dam provides electricity for California, Arizona and Nevada.
Michael drove. We took 93 south to Kingman, Arizona, and went east on Interstate 40 to Williams. We drove north on 64. It is a 4 or 5 hour drive. We had reservations at the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, near the park entrance.
I spotted it! The Grand Canyon! The most awesome spectacle on the planet! We pulled over for a picture. We stopped at a number of overlooks along the south rim.
We attended the star party at Yavapai Point. We looked at Jupiter and Saturn through telescopes. I pointed out the Big Dipper and North Star for Michael. The Grand Canyon Star Party takes place each June.
We drove to the Desert View Watchtower at the eastern end of the south rim. We climbed it. From Desert View Michael and I saw the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon.
We saw hikers rehearsing at Bright Angel Trail for a descent the next morning. Michael said that when he comes again, he will go to the bottom. The Canyon is 277 miles long. It took the Colorado River 7 million years to carve it. The rocks at the bottom are two billion years old.
The Colorado flows from the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains through the Canyon. It dumps into the Gulf of California.
We were at the Canyon two nights. Michael thought one night would have been enough. I insisted it is not every day that two guys from Nashville see the Grand Canyon. There is a sameness about the red buttes and mesas which makes it hard to focus.
Canyons are in the west. Valleys are in the east.
Phase 3
Back in Vegas, we checked into New York-New York on the 25th floor.
New York New York is a replica of the New York skyline. There are the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the Bar at Times Square.
I soaked in the tub each morning and wore my straw hat to keep the sun off my head. I had the bag Charlotte bought me when I went to Sweden. Michael took a suitcase. We watched TV in our room before going to sleep.
Michael sat by the pool while I visited the Atomic Testing Museum. We checked out the Palms because it had a Playboy club. We ate at the Outback. I had "shrimp on the barbie."
We went to Fremont Street downtown and got pictures of Vegas Vic and Sassy Sally.
We saw Jubilee! our last night in town. I saved it for the finale. Jubilee! was started by Donn Arden.
We went to Red Rock Canyon the morning before we left. Red Rock is a National Conservation Area protected by the Bureau of Land Management. It is a 13-mile loop out Charleston Boulevard. The red sandstone formations make an interesting drive. Michael saw Joshua trees for the first time.
We made our way back to McCarran and flew to Nashville. It was a direct flight. Karen met us.
My goal was to introduce Michael to one of our most exciting cities and to give him an experience in the west. I try to bolster his confidence and his ability to get around. I told him the city is a magnet and that he will no doubt return.
GOING WEST 1979
The west is like another country, at times like another planet. Its variety is endless. It can be thought of in terms of its major cities or be approached from the standpoint of its National Parks. The National Park system is an effort by the federal government to preserve nature's masterpieces. Fees are minimal, geology the theme. The parks are linked by a system of highways and Interstates that are the best in the world. America's roads are her greatest achievement. It is all transportation.
Going west on I-40, the real change takes place in New Mexico. The town of Tucumcari looks as much like Mexico as the United States. But when you think that the southwest belonged to Mexico until 1848, it is easy to understand the Spanish influence. A few weeks in the southwest will make one see U.S. history from a new perspective.
There are some marvelous sights in Arizona. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest lie side by side. From several vantage points, we gazed at the colored streaks of sand.
Inside the Petrified Forest is a spot called the Crystal Forest. There can not be a more peaceful place on earth. We saw it at sunset. Bits and pieces of petrified wood lay scattered about, and Karen and I felt the sensation of being at the dawn of creation. There were no people for miles on either side. The orange sunset, turquoise sky and quiet blended in perfect bliss.
Near Winslow lies the fabulous Meteor Crater. It is a circular hole three miles in circumference. It was created by the impact of a prehistoric meteor. Pictures can not portray its enormity. Astronauts have used the spot as a training ground. In the distance stands Mt. Humphreys, the highest point in Arizona.
The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is the greatest single phenomenon on the face of the planet! It seems to stand totally out of time. It makes the great literary and musical achievements of mankind seem insignificant. During my first visit, I wondered at the amazement of those who ventured upon it having seen no previous pictures or post cards. They must have doubted their eyes. Indeed, from the rim the Canyon hardly seems real. All sense of distance is defied. The Canyon is a mile deep. It averages 10 miles across, rim to rim, and runs for 277 miles. It is Arizona's pride, and tour buses leave regularly from Flagstaff. The Colorado River cuts through it but looks like a tiny ribbon from above. Geologists speculate that cutting action from the Colorado is what created the Canyon. This was hard to accept at first but after seeing other wonders, I realized that geologists see with different eyes. They are attuned much the way astronomers are. It took 7 million years for the river to carve the Canyon.
I looked over the rim to see a mule train crossing the Canyon floor. The mules looked the size of ants. There are trails leading to the bottom of which Bright Angel Trail is the most famous. People were ascending on foot. They were exhausted.
During the second trip, Karen and I saw both the north and south rims. The north rim is less dramatic, but we caught it at dusk and during a thunderstorm which made it particularly austere. We walked out to a point where the wind was up. The Canyon was dark and ominous. We were virtually suspended over the chasm. The austerity of the scene was enhanced by the lightning in the distance.
We circled the Canyon that night to see the south rim in the morning. We slept in the car in Cameron, Utah. We beelined to the south rim at daybreak and caught the sun rising. We got a series of pictures which showed the sun's rays filling the Canyon with light. The river below seemed to be without movement.
Las Vegas
Sprinting from Kingman, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, you can feel the thrill and enchantment of the city drawing you on. There is an anticipation of something great ahead. Most of the action in Las Vegas is found in two places: Fremont Street downtown and the newer and sprawling Las Vegas Boulevard. It is a city of lights. It never sleeps. At first, it is hard to believe such a place could exist, that little old ladies can be seen gambling their hearts out at 6 o'clock in the morning. But there are rows and rows of slot machines, and the gambling is not just limited to casinos and hotels. There are slot machines strategically placed in restaurants and supermarkets as well. I theorized that Las Vegas is a spinoff from southern California and that only the desert could make such liberties possible.
The basic unit on the Strip is the hotel. Driving down Las Vegas Boulevard, one is amazed at the marquees and the famous names. The hotels are like gigantic malls. There are shops and boutiques of all kinds. Most of the hotels have names consistent with the desert atmosphere. There are the Aladdin, Sands, Desert Inn and Sahara. We spent time in all these.
The most distinctive and appealing of the hotels are Caesar's Palace and Circus Circus. Caesar's Palace at night is a gorgeous shade of green. An escalator carries patrons from the sidewalk to the front entrance as a recorded message provides the welcome, "I, Caesar, welcome you to my Caesar's Palace..." Replicas of famous statues exploit the Roman theme. When we arrived, Ann-Margret was at Caesar's.
Circus Circus is like a never-ending carnival. It features circus acts at intervals through most of the day. There are games and stuffed animal prizes to lure the young and unsuspecting. While we were there, artists worked on a statue of a gorilla in front of the hotel.
All the big hotels have shows, and no one should go to Las Vegas without seeing a couple. They run the gamut from comedy to music to animal acts to burlesque. They are Broadway in style and are for the sexually liberated. We saw two major shows. They were Folies Bergere at the Tropicana and Razzle Dazzle at the Flamingo Hilton. Razzle Dazzle was on ice. It occurred to me that girls in their twenties flock to Vegas from all over to sell their legs.
We lived for a month on Deckow Lane, down the street from the Tropicana. We were in the Ali Baba Apartments. We worked a couple of days. I worked for an office equipment place, and Karen worked at the phone company and the Golden Goose Casino. Take away the hotels and casinos, and Las Vegas would be like any place else.
There are some interesting sights surrounding Las Vegas. Old Nevada, a replica of a western mining town, sits at the foot of some tall and scenic bluffs. There is a petting zoo there and some beautiful peacocks. On the way to Old Nevada is Red Rock Canyon. The blue sky, red sandstone cliffs and green desert landscape merge in silent beauty. The peacefulness of the scene matches that of the Valley of Fire State Park. In the Valley of Fire we stopped to look at a petrified log. Again, we were totally alone. I yelled, and my voice echoed off the distant hills. This kind of environment was a relief from the turmoil of the city. It was hot in the Valley. At the tourist center, the thermometer read 118 degrees. The twisted rock formations in the Valley of Fire have taken some extraordinary shapes. One grouping is known as the Seven Sisters, and there are several so-called elephant rocks.
When my Greyhound crossed Hoover Dam in 1978, it was at night, and I could not see anything. I was barely aware of where I was. When Karen and I returned to the spot, we were amazed. The dam captured our imaginations. It was built between 1931 and 1935.
Hoover Dam blocks the Colorado River in its journey from the Grand Canyon to southern California. Lake Mead sits behind the dam. It is in the middle of the desert and complete with beaches.
The Desert
The desert is so eerie and yet so compelling. Trees become remembered as an eastern vegetation. Brown landscapes become normal. We were most aware of the desert during our journey from Las Vegas to Yosemite. We felt our isolation most keenly when viewing some white sands from a high elevation and thinking it was a body of water. Our car ran short of gas, and we just made it to Big Pine, California. These were our most apprehensive moments. We were glad when we espied the Sierra Nevada.
The Mojave Desert lies between Las Vegas and southern California. For the most part, it is flat and featureless. Joshua trees are abundant as they are in all southwest states.
Around Barstow, the power of the desert is strong. The presence of Death Valley can be felt. We did not cross the Valley but passing a few miles from it, the heat that hit my face was like a blast from a furnace. The thought of Death Valley instills wariness in the tourist. A temperature of 134 degrees was once recorded there. It is the lowest place in the United States, 282 feet below sea level.
The mountains of the west present a contrast to those of the east. They appear sculpted. They are flat on top and treeless. The buttes and mesas are formed from rock, whereas eastern hills are primarily earth. Paradoxically, there are a lot of flash floods in the desert because water runs off ridges and stands on the desert floor.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite lies across the Sierras in California. This is where we spent the night of July 4, 1979. We slept in a tent. The stars were beautiful shining through the Ponderosa pines.
The mountains of Yosemite are breath-taking. They had snow on them in July, and Karen made a snowball. From above we satisfied ourselves with the explanation that the valley was carved by glaciers. The scale is a grand one. The one thing all National Parks have in common is a quality of magic. They are raw, primeval. Natural beauty is their offering.
We got pictures of Yosemite Falls, the highest falls in North America. It divides into upper and lower. We crossed the bridge leading around the lower section.
El Capitan is the second attraction. It is the world's largest exposed mass of granite. It stands 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Yosemite is full of domes shaped by glaciers during the Ice Age.
The Sequoias
San Francisco seemed pleasant for such a big city. I stormed the bay area, but never saw the Golden Gate Bridge. That was 1978. I headed for Reno where I learned the devastating power of gambling. A guy at a street corner told me he had just lost $7,000, his life's savings. From Reno I was going to the Sequoias. I got as far as Carson City and turned back. I played the slots all night in Carson City waiting for a bus.
The big trees were exerting their pull. The following summer, Karen and I saw the Sequoias. We toured the three adjacent parks while on an excursion from our base in Las Vegas. We saw our first Sequoia in Yosemite. My reaction must have been comical as I jumped from the car and ran to it. Karen said I looked like a little boy. The Wawona Tunnel Tree is in Yosemite. This is the one they used to drive cars through. It fell in 1969 and still lies there.
Sequoia National Park lies south of Kings Canyon N.P. We got more exposure to the big trees. There are 75 groves strung along the western slopes of the Sierras. The epic proportions and otherworldliness of the Sequoias put them in a category with the Grand Canyon. Some are as much as 3,500 years old. They were living when man's civilization was in its infancy, when King Tut reigned in Egypt. Their age is attributed to a chemical in the sap which resists bacteria. The bark is soft and spongy and may be from six inches to a foot thick. The crowns are small compared to the rest of the tree. Before the Ice Age, much of North America was covered by Sequoias. Certainly, there is a prehistoric quality about them. Many have been ravaged by lightning and fire, but the older ones are being replaced by younger ones even today. The General Sherman Tree is the largest, located in Sequoia Park.
Southern California.
My experiences in southern California in 1978-79, were limited. In 1978, I took a city bus to Hollywood and Vine. I entered the Capitol Records Building and saw some gold Beatle discs hanging on the wall. On the sidewalk I saw the Walk of Fame, celebrities' names inscribed in a series of star patterns.
In July, 1979, Karen and I left Las Vegas for Anaheim and Disneyland. Karen had been to the park in Florida, so she conducted the tour. The rides were thematic. There were Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Disney's secret was in making the most of his knowledge of children's literature. To this, he added his own characters. I was too old for Disneyland. I had a migraine headache.
Yellowstone National Park
After six days and nights dozing on the Greyhound, I finally took a room in Salt Lake City. The next morning, I observed the Mormon Temple, or temple of the Latter Day Saints. Only Mormons are permitted inside. Salt Lake City is a clean town. No slums.
From Salt Lake City, I rode the bus north to Yellowstone, Through the window, I glimpsed the Great Salt Lake. A lady was telling me about the Mormons.
After a few night time hours awaiting the bus in Idaho Falls, crossing and recrossing the Snake River, I arrived at Yellowstone ready for the tour. The brightest and most scintillating things about Yellowstone are its waterfalls and geysers. I saw the geyser Old Faithful. It spouts water once every hour, thus its name. The hot springs are sulfurous and smelly. Yellowstone is in the northwest corner of Wyoming. I spent the night in the tourist town of West Yellowstone, Montana.
Southern Utah and Colorado
The grotesque cliffs of Zion National Park made the ride through it an exciting one. We were not able to linger long enough to appreciate it as we would have liked. We hurried to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. They were 11 miles off the main road. We came close to getting the car stuck in the sand, so we kept moving. Our next stop was Kanab, Utah, known as Little Hollywood. Many of the old westerns were filmed there.
Southern Utah sports some weird terrain. The traveller almost expects to be confronted with dinosaurs. It is seldom dull. We stopped at Four Corners to look at the monument. This is the spot where four states touch: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. It is the only such place in the nation. People like to say they were in four states at once.
Mesa Verde National Park is in southern Colorado. The ruins of the Cliff Dwellers are found here. The most famous and the one we explored is the Cliff Palace. It rests beneath a rock ledge. The descent is a precipitous one, and the Indians who lived there must have been in good condition. It was inhabited between the 7th and 13th centuries when Europe was in its Middle Ages. The circular structures, or kivas, were used for religious purposes.
From Colorado, the west disappears rapidly. We saw Pike's Peak from a distance and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Pike's Peak is a mountain 14,110 feet high and not unlike the mountains of the east.
Jim Colyer
Written in 1980 to cover
the trips of 1978 & 1979
GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon is in northern Arizona. It was carved by the Colorado River as the land rose. The knife and cake analogy is used. The river is the knife held stationary while the cake is lifted. It took seven million years to carve the Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is a mile deep and 277 miles long. It averages 10 miles across. It is shaped like a bra or a woman's bosom. The Canyon continues to widen as its rims disintegrate. Two billion years of Earth's history are exposed.
Erosion from water, ice and wind widen the Canyon. Water has the greatest impact. It gets into cracks in rocks and freezes. Cracks widen, and Canyon walls collapse.
The Grand Canyon is the most complete geologic column on the planet. Rock layers are the same on both the north and south rims.
Geologists study rocks. Paleontologists study fossils. Their work overlaps because fossils are found in rocks, an indication that they are the same age.
Rocks can be dated. Even if they could not, it is obvious as we dig into the fossil record that life was less complex in the past. Simpler fossils are found in older layers as we descend.
Sedimentary rocks are laid down by water. Layers of sedimentary rock form when oceans move in and out. Limestone forms when they move in. Shale forms when they move out.
Rocks in the Grand Canyon are from the Paleozoic Era. There are no rocks from the Mesozoic or Cenozoic. They either eroded away or were not laid down. That means there are no fossils of dinosaurs, birds or mammals. The Paleozoic is the era of shelled invertebrates.
Kaibab Limestone is the top layer of the Canyon. It is 250 million years old. It formed at the bottom of an ocean and contains fossils of ocean animals.
Coconino Sandstone is the remnant of sand dunes from 270 million years ago. Sandstone is solidified sand. There are no fossils.
Hermit shale was deposited 280 million years ago. Shale is solidified mud. It contains plant fossils, indicating that it was above water.
The schist at the bottom of the Canyon is two billion years old. Schist is metamorphic rock.
GEOLOGIC TIME -
CENOZOIC ERA - present to 60 million years ago - mammals
MESOZOIC ERA - 60 million years ago to 220 million years ago - fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds
PALEOZOIC ERA - 220 million years ago to 540 million years ago - invertebrates
The age of the earth is 4.6 billion years. The oldest rocks on earth are 3.8 billion years. The oldest fossils are 3 billion year old microbes.
Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets 1984 IMAX 37 minutes
Grand Canyon Skywalk
The Grand Canyon by Joseph Wood Krutch
The Grand Canyon is a mile deep and 277 miles long. It averages 10 miles across. It is shaped like a bra or a woman's bosom. The Canyon continues to widen as its rims disintegrate. Two billion years of Earth's history are exposed.
Erosion from water, ice and wind widen the Canyon. Water has the greatest impact. It gets into cracks in rocks and freezes. Cracks widen, and Canyon walls collapse.
The Grand Canyon is the most complete geologic column on the planet. Rock layers are the same on both the north and south rims.
Geologists study rocks. Paleontologists study fossils. Their work overlaps because fossils are found in rocks, an indication that they are the same age.
Rocks can be dated. Even if they could not, it is obvious as we dig into the fossil record that life was less complex in the past. Simpler fossils are found in older layers as we descend.
Sedimentary rocks are laid down by water. Layers of sedimentary rock form when oceans move in and out. Limestone forms when they move in. Shale forms when they move out.
Rocks in the Grand Canyon are from the Paleozoic Era. There are no rocks from the Mesozoic or Cenozoic. They either eroded away or were not laid down. That means there are no fossils of dinosaurs, birds or mammals. The Paleozoic is the era of shelled invertebrates.
Kaibab Limestone is the top layer of the Canyon. It is 250 million years old. It formed at the bottom of an ocean and contains fossils of ocean animals.
Coconino Sandstone is the remnant of sand dunes from 270 million years ago. Sandstone is solidified sand. There are no fossils.
Hermit shale was deposited 280 million years ago. Shale is solidified mud. It contains plant fossils, indicating that it was above water.
The schist at the bottom of the Canyon is two billion years old. Schist is metamorphic rock.
GEOLOGIC TIME -
CENOZOIC ERA - present to 60 million years ago - mammals
MESOZOIC ERA - 60 million years ago to 220 million years ago - fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds
PALEOZOIC ERA - 220 million years ago to 540 million years ago - invertebrates
The age of the earth is 4.6 billion years. The oldest rocks on earth are 3.8 billion years. The oldest fossils are 3 billion year old microbes.
Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets 1984 IMAX 37 minutes
Grand Canyon Skywalk
The Grand Canyon by Joseph Wood Krutch