Written in January of 2006

Hello Canyonites,

Below is part #1 of a very memorable vacation that the four of us took in 2005. We called it "The White Trash Tour".

The reason is that our motor home really looks beat up. It could have been featured on "The Beverly Hillbillies". It’s a great rig. It’s called a Chinook. It’s all fiberglass and has the potential of being completely restored. I have come to terms with the reality that if it ever gets done, it will be after I am retired. Until that restoration happens, I will be checking my pride at the door as I (we) enter it to hit the open road.

MS 12/7/07

Hi Lilli & Jason,

I apologize for the delay of this letter, it has been sitting for a while. Had a great birthday party yesterday, the only down side is that you two weren’t there! Thanks so much for the call! It is always good to hear from you two.

Like I said, my birthday event was almost unreal sailing on Stars & Stripes with Bill and then having him drive me to Coronado for a surprise dinner. Virgil and his wife were there as was Dave & Eva, Joe & Cindy, Bill & Karen, Scott & Elizabeth, as were all of the Secor’s except Margi.. It was perhaps the largest gathering of friends and love ones of mine that I had ever experienced in one place at one time....but it would have been all the better if you were there. You guys are the most important people in my life other than mom, and everyone else put together can’t equal my love and affection for you two.

As Paul say’s, "Fight the good fight", meaning, keep doing what you know you are suppose to be doing, trusting God with the results.

Love,

Dado

This is #6 on the list! Sorry Lilli, your finding and meeting your natural mom doesn’t qualify for #6. Not even close!

This was a fun/adventure filled event! As with all vacations, there was a lot of unexpected turns

We got off to an average start, a little behind schedule but not too bad. We finished the day at the Colorado River at the California/Arizona border in Blyth. I had prearranged a surprise rendevous with Jeff & Carol Jones for a steak dinner at our campsite and all went well in that regard. It was great to fellowship with them as well as creating the surprise visit for you all. We did some swimming and boating in the inflatable, tossed buckeye into the river, etc... The only concern that we had to that point was that the motor home electric fuel pump sounded really bad. We bought a new one in town just in case, and were on our way to The Grand Canyon

Saturday, on to The Grand Canyon

It was a nice ride! Arizona is a beautiful state! Lots of cactus, beautiful barren mountains, small towns etc.. About ½ way there, we stopped at one of our favorite towns for lunch, Prescott. There was an art show at the Courthouse Park that was fun. We finished eating lunch at that diner that allowed dogs to hang out there. That was a little bizarre but I didn’t mind Buckeye eating there with us and it is not my diner. We made it to the Grand Canyon a little before dusk. We set up camp and I went with Jason to the rim to show him the sights. It was almost dark by that time but the visibility was good enough to whet his appetite for our planned hike down the canyon.

Everyone did well! Everybody started ahead of me down the Bright Angel Trail because as I had to go back to the campsite for something, I forget what. By the time I got to the trail head, all were a considerable ways down the trail. Our little walki-talkis worked out well here. It took me about a ½ hour to catch up with everybody. We continued down a little farther before turning around to work our way up and out. That was quite a chore. The ranger lady was a big help as we slowly climbed out. I was very proud of my crew!!! Especially Mom & Lilli!!! It was a great but hard hike.

We left the South Rim on Monday morning to drive to the North Rim. Now the North Rim is only about 10 miles from the South Rim straight across the canyon but the drive was something like 200 miles or so as we had to make a giant loop around the east end of the canyon. We stopped along the Rim a few times to take in the sights. In particular, we stopped at the tall round watch tower for a while. There, we saw a snake. . We stopped at a favorite bridge of mine that crossed the Colorado River way upstream of the Canyon. It was built about 90 years ago and crosses the gorge several hundred feed above the river. River rafters use that location as a start point for the Grand Canyon Whitewater Rafting event. We had lunch there.

By the time we made it to the North Rim it was both freezing and extremely windy. The North Rim is much higher in elevation than the South Rim, about 9000 feet if I remember correctly. There were snow patches on the ground (in June). The wind was blowing so hard, that we deemed it impossible to pitch the tent or to be comfortable at all in either the motorhome so we rented a really cute cabin for the night. Carolyn & I went to the famous lodge that night to check it out. It is built right on the edge of the North Rim with huge windows overlooking the canyon. We could see the lights of the South Rim Village beyond the canyon. The howling wind was causing the window to flex and shake. Also, if I remember correctly, dogs weren’t allowed in the cabins so we had a little smuggling operation going on. We played some card games in the cabin before turning in for the night. One of the oddities with the cabin was that it was a duplex with an inside door that connected the two rooms. The other room was vacant and we weren’t sure if both sides were ours for the night or not. We decided to claim it as ours. (Lilli &

Jason slept there with the understanding that if anything went wrong, they get kicked out by it’s rightful tenants, they could sleep in our side). Well, it turns out that it was ours so there was no problem.

Tuesday, let’s go up to Zion1