Traveling over a thousand kilometers through dry brown and rocky landscape, gives a new appreciation for the ‘poor lonesome cowboys’ and the pioneer families that traveled here 2 centuries ago to find a new life. It is a harsh landscape but also very beautiful with magnificent sunsets, and for us the climate is pleasant -  a little cool at night but still very nice during the day. It is easy to imagine the heat of the summer when you see how little grows here and how brown it all is even now. As we drew closer to the Grand Canyon, and the elevation got higher and higher, we woke in -7 C on the morning of our visit to the Grand Canyon. with normal day temperatures being between 0 and 10C, we dressed for the worst.

With very little warning in the landscape as to what is coming, the first view of the Grand Canyon is breathtaking. It is so vast you can’t see people walking in the bottom with the naked eye – even a building is barely recognizable. Beautiful coloured and layered rock cliffs, rolling plains far below, water rushing (although you can’t see that without binoculars) all add to the majesty. Sitting with your feet hanging over a rock and nothing visible below you for 2500 – 3000 feet is an experience one is not likely to forget. We were also very fortunate to have the sun raise the temperature to an almost balmy 12C in the afternoon.

It has apparently taken thousands of years to carve this magificent ‘hole in the ground’ and it has unearthed what appears to be billions of years of history of earth forming and climate changes. It does make a creationist at heart wonder:  How exactly did God make it all anyway!?

The Hoover Dam is an amazing feat of engineering, at time of construction the largest dam and power plant in the world, and still today 73 years later, it is still one of the 35 largest. The lake it created had a shoreline 700 miles long and plays a significant role in the irrigation of southern california. In fact the dam’s primary purpose was to control the water flow of the colorado river as it flows into the plains. The power production is secondary and is driven by the water demand downstream.

For security reasons we were unable to enter the dam for a tour (I forgot to leave my pocket knife behind – I guess I haven’t lost all my redneck-itis) So we saved that money – I didn’t really need to see the power generators anyway, going into the depths of the dam was what really appealed to me, but not enough to walk back up to the car to put my knife away and then all the way back down again. Especially since, not finding parking for our trailer, we had to park several hundred feet above the dam and a half kilometer away. Just walking over the dam, however,  and viewing the awesome power of the water contained by this immense structure of concrete, was well worth the extra drive. More than a 600 foot drop on the downstream side, 1200 feet long across the top, and more than 600 feet thick at the bottom – it is quite a sight.  Even seeing the water levels of the lake at 42% capacity was an incredible sight. We stood on a boat launch later, almost a mile away from the lake! they have had some extra dry years lately.

We’re in Las Vegas right now. Staying in an RV Park right on the strip. This morning we’re recovering from walking 3 or 4 miles last night to see all the free shows at all the casinos and that was only half the strip! Unfortunately the best one, a pirate show, is not running again till the new year, so the kids were a little disappointed about that. Also, the one real show I wanted to see, Bette Midler, is also not running right now. Oh well, more money available to spend on the kid’s entertainment! The shopping is fun here too, we bought Jamie-Lynn some real old fashioned rollerskates at FAO Schwartz for $10!! marked down from $65. I figure I can sell them on Craigslist for more than I paid!
Karl & the three kids are going to do an indoor ride park today in the Circus Circus casino while Sarah & I shop. Mostly window shopping, of course. Jamie-Lynn and William are also writing a newspaper article about the Grand Canyon, so keep checking back for that!

PS: Sorry this post should be last, after the grand canyon & hoover dam posts.  We wrote all of these posts from here in Las Vegas and have little control over the ordering of them.  Julia

We’re stopped for the night in the middle of almost nowhere. This is the only town on our route with anything more than a gas station for about 400 kms in each direction. But that means campgrounds are cheap, cause they’re in the desert. So we get to dump our tanks, take showers (much needed!) and watch Dancing with the Stars. Don’t tell us what happened this week!! (We watch on the internet.) We stopped on Wednesday just south of Houston to see the circus. I’ll let the kids tell you more about that, cause all you’d here from me is why you shouldn’t go to the circus, at least not that one. On the way here, driving through nothing, I thought of that movie where the couple is on a road trip and the car dies, so he walks to the next town to get gas or something while the wife waits by the car and when he comes back, she’s gone without a trace. Really creepy. Thats partly why we stopped. Karl wanted to drive another 400 kms to Flagstaff, AZ tonight, but I was afraid he’d get sleepy and we’d have nowhere to stop. So, this is better. Tomorrow we’ll get to Flagstaff nice and early and then gothe next day to the Grand Canyon. By the way, the forecast is for highs of 0 degrees at the rim of the Canyon. Brrrr. I’m not sure I can handle it after all this sun, but at least I’ll be happy to get to California after that. Time to get organized for dinner. Ciao!

St Bernard Parish is the county near New Orleans where we are staying and working.  We worked today priming a house with 3 other guys and got it completed which is a great feeling. 

St Bernard Parish is next to the Lower Ninth Ward which is the area I remember hearing about on the news.  Water levels were between 4 and 20 feet after Katrina and took 2-4 weeks to recede. The owner of the project office building saw the water rise from his ankle to mid thigh in the 45 minutes that he was trying to gather his stuff and animals to get out of the area.  A boat picked him up and dropped him off on a local church roof where he sat for 7 days with 100 other people waiting to be rescued.  The first rescuers to come through and pick people up were the Canadian Mounties.

When the authorities came through, they declared all but 2 of the 27,000 houses in St Bernard Parish uninhabitable.  Before Katrina 67,000 people lived in St Bernard Parish.  4 years later, about 33,000 have returned but not all are back in their homes.  Many still live in government trailers, some of which have been removed because people were getting sick due to the condition of the trailers.   Some families are living split up across the area or state.  Many residents were also victims of contractor fraud.  They would hire someone to fix up their homes and give them their government aid cheque and never hear from them again.

Many business have not returned.  The local Walmart is still closed.  There are very few grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations.  We wanted to take the kids to a local pool after working today, but the nearest one is 40 miles away.  So we thought maybe we’d just get some ice cream.  Nope, can’t find that either.

Many of us have heard of the Make It Right foundation which Brad Pitt is the spokesman for.  Mike Holmes built a house for them as well.  They’ve completed 8 homes in the lower ninth ward, which they have built up on stilts and supposedly to withstand any hurricane God can throw at them.  Its kind of the Extreme Home Makeover approach to solving this problem.  The St Bernard Project is refurbishing homes – gutting and renovating the interiors.  They’ve completed almost 250 homes in 3 years.  I suppose there is room for both organizations and philosophies in this situation.  But it seems to me, we just need to get people home.

These are two of the Make It Right homes.

This is an example of the type of house we’re helping to refurbish.  There are a lot of empty concrete slabs around, because many homes just floated down the street.

This is what a lot of storefronts look like.  The signs are there, but nobody’s home.

The need for volunteers is so great, that there is very little red tape involved.  We walked into the project office Thursday morning and said, “Put us to work.”   The coordinator said, “Come back tomorrow we’ll put you somewhere.”  We were also given a house to park our trailer on, which is set aside for volunteers.  It has bunk beds for 20 people.  There is a nominal charge for using the house, but we were told not to worry about it even though we’re using the water and electric and doing laundry.  They’ll get a donation anyway.  But they are just so happy that people come and pitch in.  Even if it is just for a day or 2.  Cause every little bit helps to get these houses done.

Yes, we’re fine.  We chose to drive North for a couple days to avoid the heavy wind associated with the hurricane that was headed for the gulf coast.  Right now we’re in a little town just south of Jackson, Mississippi waiting it out.  By Wednesday we should be able to head back to the coast.

It might have been ok to stick around, but high winds and a travel trailer don’t really go together well, so we decided not to push God’s providence too far.  He’s been good to us so far, why push it?  Hopefully we’ll be in New Orleans by Wednesday night and maybe be able to help out a little.  We have word of a project we’re looking into.  Pray that we can be of help to some people and learn something in the meantime.

So don’t worry about us when you hear the news.  We’re fine, safe and having a ball.

Julia

Animal Kingdom is one of the four main parks of Disney World.  In my opinion, it is the best of the four and by far exceeded my expectations of it.  Animal Kingdom is what it sounds like.  It’s main focus is animals, both living, and Disney characters.  It is a mixture of an up close zoo and amusement park.  There are rollercoasters, boat rides, safari tours, walking tours with interesting animals, and even restaurants.  Everything you see or do is in some way connected to animals.  There was a section dedicated to dinosaurs, a roller coaster with an Everest & Yeti theme and a river rapids ride through a jungle.  They also put in some stuff about Disney too.  For instance, the Lion King festival, and the Finding Nemo musical.  Everywhere you went it was animals, animals, animals, hence the title, “Animal Kingdom”.The day our family spent there was our last day in Disneyworld.  We of course started with all the fast and cool rides and then joined back up with Mama to see the animals on the safari tour.  We saw all the african animals you can think of.  Lions, elephants, rhinos, weird zebras, giraffes and so many others.  Then we did the walking tour adn saw fish, turtles, crocodiles, hippos, lizards, snakes, large spiders and my favourite, gorillas.  We were not to be dissappointed!  But after having seen those great animals we finished the day with the Everest roller coaster without Mama and Sarah.  I was certainly happy with how our Disney experience ended.

Who would’ve guessed?  That in Disneyworld there was a place that depicted many different cultures from many different countries.  An eiffel tower, an Aztec temple and the Canadian Rockies. All side by side with a Mission Spaceway by Nasa and a GM race track thrown in.  And who could forget the fountain displays full of leaping water, backwards waterfalls and a water and light show choreographed to classical music.

I thought that the ride, Mission Spaceway, was brilliantly done.  The ride took you into space.  I’m sure that a real take-off would make virtual reality seem smooth and pleasant.  Nevertheless it was still a test for the stomach and they provided you with barf bags as a precaution.  The entire ride was making it to Mars, and having a safe landing.  There were buttons to push and steering to be done.  I have a slight inkling, however that they didn’t have any effect on the ride.  Throughout the experience feelings of turbulance, 0 gravity, G-force, spinning and hyper-sleep all put you through the motions of being an astronaut.  It ends with a congratulatory, Good Job team!

Walking through the marketplaces of Mexico, UK, France, Italy, Morocco and Germany, just to name a few, was like walking the globe in one day.  The Disney enhanced versions were great, for Disneyworld.  They felt as if it was just a shadow of the good, sellable highlights of each country.  It gave me just enough to leave me yearning for more, a travel bug in the making.  The only problem is that some people are satisfied with that, the partial truth and don’t feel the need to explore and taste further.

I feel that as a whole, Epcot Park in Disneyworld was a pleasant surprise and a satisfying change from the rest of Disneyworld.  It drew on the importance of a world community and global awareness.  The fireworks rocked too.

Just so you know we really suffered from the no-see-ems.  Every one of us looks like this all over our arms & legs & feet (except William).  We told William its because he doesn’t wash enough that the bugs don’t like his skin.

Unfortunately the sores don’t show up right away, so we really didn’t know how bad we were bitten until it was too late.  And we left the location where they were bad on Monday and we’re still itchy on Friday!  Feel sorry for us now?