7-27-13.  Grand Canyon railway ride was thru high mountain desert... 6200 ft in Williams AZ to 7200 ft at Canyon.  The word of the day was WATER= drink often.  The natural spring supplies water as you need your own bottle as they sell no bottled H2O there.  Started with shootout play then rail ride.  Will post my movie to FB when back of arrival and first glimpse.  We had some sun but rain for about 45 min.  Ate at El Tovar Lodge..oldest hotel at Canyon.  Our waiter was from Miami - go figure.
All both Al and I could say was WOW!  The photos dont do it justice.  It is truly one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.  And AL did love the train.
The day before they had torrential rain with mud slides over tracks in front of Station at GC where Al is standing. They refer to this time of year as "Monsoon season"... sudden downpours with flash floods and mud slides. We did luck out so far.

1 mile down to floor of canyon from this point.

 California Condor - rescue center at GCanyon

 Station at Williams

Rain to east in canyon

1880 mil yrs ago marker on Time Line Trail

One of dome cars.

Station at G.C.

7-26-13 = on way to Grand Canyon area. In Albuquerque overnight with stop in Thunderbird HArley Davidson - sister store to Ft Myers. Albuquerque NM to Williams AZ on I -40 and Old historic Route 66.  And to boot, Al discovered it is along the BNSF (Burlington Northern & SantaFe) railroad line.  Needless to say we saw many many trains.  Some with 4 pulling and 2 pushing engines - all mostly Dash8 types.  He was in 7th heaven.  I will post a huge album on Facebook when I return as I got a movie of one starting at about last third of one.
We ran into some really significant thunderstorms - Tampa lightening has nothing like what we saw.  ALso many flash floods but we lucked out with none on road.  Just dust storms - photo of one... it is not lens or car window effect.  This was one beautiful drive going from desert to mountains of AZ.  Just breathtaking scenery.  This is one phenomenal country.

Al in HD in Alburquerque

Wind caves in NM

Wind - dust storm

7-24-13 ---- onward wagon to TX and overnight stay with Al's niece, Vicki.  We had a too short visit with Vicki & Larry, her daughter's Courtney & her hubby Jeremy and Haley, nephew Joey, and great-great nephew Mason (Courtney's son).  On next day we passed thru Snyder TX (wind farms as far as eye can see), Lubbock and Amarillo to Albuquerque NM.  One long 14+ hr drive.

Hi from hot & humid NOLA.  We spent a wonderful 2 days.  Monday arrived and dropped off contraband beverage cases of Yuengling at Mike's house (my nephew and great person) with 6 bottles of Mr. Yoshida sauce.  Mind you theses are a Pennsylvania thing but he loves them and being my godson, well, I love him.
Monday dinner at Crescent City Microbrewery.  Great beer and greater music courtesy of the trio Mike plays with there on regular basis.  Did I tell everyone he is a musician in NOLA (Sax, clarinet etc)?
Tuesday we did the French Market, Cafe du Monde with beignets, and the WWII NAtional Museum.  Even met a WWII vet from Pacific theatre.  If you are in NOLA, it is worth the admission to see a very impressive set of exhibits.
Tuesday dinner was at Bourgne in the Hyatt.. a John Besh rsst. with incredible food.  Since Mike works in a Besh site aka Luk we had a really nice benefit.  He did help with serving the first Lady Michelle Obama today as she lunched at Luk.  We had a wonderful evening with Mike and Mary.  They are a great couple ... hope they visit us in sleepy SWFL soon.
We leave in Am for TX and Al's niece's family.  Post in a few days!
Hugs to all!
Marti

Latrobe Park - in French Quarter

Al @ Cafe du Monde

Al& Mike

 Mike playing @ Crescent City Brewery - sound may not work but he is great!

MArti, Mike & Mary

Getting ready

Thursday:  Getting ready for our great western adventure.  All sorts of things scattered around including valued cargo for my nephew in New Orleans.