1989

My What A Big Cactus You Have

One of the last stops in Arizona in 1989 was the Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson. By this time in the trip I think we had both decided to move south to Aiken, but we didn’t really say it out loud until we returned home to Madison, NJ.

Recap of today’s events, film at eleven.

  1. I got up
  2. Rode the indoor bike and then showered
  3. Ate breakfast, the usual
  4. Light grocery shopping at Fred Meyer
  5. Walked across the street to Lowes
  6. To pick up the spray can of Flex Seal I ordered online last night
  7. Drove home and put away groceries
  8. Sprayed Flex Seal along the edge of the awning
  9. Walked up the the Community Center
  10. Spent an hour with my peeps drinking coffee
  11. Lunch of an Ensure
  12. Took a short drive with the top down
  13. Took a 2-hour nap
  14. Chatted with Sally on the WhatsApp
  15. Dinner of a sandwich and half an apple
  16. Put together my new computer chair, it has lights!
  17. Started this…

Grand Canyon

Continuing with more pictures of the 1989 Arizona Road Trip, theses are of the Grand Canyon. I can’t really swear to this, but I think we stayed in the Grand Canyon Lodge in the park itself. I am basing it on the large paper napkin that was in the album with the photos. For all I know we could had lunch in the dining area of the Lodge and Donna slipped the napkin in her purse.

I want to say we did the trip in a counterclockwise direction, so if that is right, the posts are kind of out of order of them being taken. Then again I just tried to link the half dozen places I have pictures of I don’t see how there was anyway to do it in a tidy loop. There had to be a lot on backtracking.

Two Parks In One

We have been to this combo park several times since 1989. Partially because it is conveniently just off of I-40 in northeastern part of Arizona. And partially because the food is excellent and inexpensive at the Visitor Center.

Petrified Forest

Painted Desert

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam

Here are some more photos of that whirlwind driving tour of Arizona in 1989. The first 4 pictures are of Las Vegas. I know we spent the night there, but I couldn’t tell you which one it was. I might not even have been any of these for properties. The Flamingo is the only hotel of these four that still stands from 36 years ago. The Sands was torn down in 1996 and was replaced by The Venetian. The Dunes closed in early 1993 and one of the towers was imploded later that same year with the second tower coming down early in 1994. The Bellagio was built on the site and opened in 1996. The Frontier closed in July of 2007 and the 16-story tower was imploded in November of that year. The property it stood on has to this date not been built on.

Next four are of the Hoover Dam. Look at that water level! Pretty near full and right now the level is about 160 feet lower. We even took the tour. Even though 112 people died during its construction, none of them are entombed in the concrete despite that popular myth. When the bottom of the large concrete bucket opened up, pouring 8 cu yd out, a team of men worked it throughout the form. Each bucket deepened the concrete in a form by only 1 inch (25 mm), and Six Companies engineers would not have permitted a flaw caused by the presence of a human body.

Monumental

So, for episode 2 of “Driving Ms. Sally” in late April I’ll be driving down to Santa Fe instead of flying. Because after we get back to Santa Fe from the Hammond visit, I’m leaving Sally there and I’m going to continue driving around the country visiting folks. On the trip down I want to visit Monument Valley. Sally mentioned that she wanted to go there and see it someday, so I’m going to reconnoiter the place.

I have driven through the area twice recently and I actually visited it a long time ago. Back in 1989 Donna & me were deciding whether to quit our jobs in Florham Park and move to a sister plant in South Carolina or just stay in NJ and think about buying a house there. To help clear our heads and think on it we took a couple weeks of vacation and flew into Phoenix, AZ, rented a car and circumnavigated the state. One of the stops was Monument Valley. We arrived late afternoon and they were no longer running the Jeep tours, so we thought we were out of luck, but things were a bit more laid back then. The guy behind the counter handed us a map and said, “Just stay on the roads and be back here before 6 to leave, because they lock the gate.” We got back in our little red 1989 Ford Escort and bounced along on several miles of dirt road. That would never happen now.