It's Len again

Hi, it's me again folks, the Captain of this trip! Carolyn has said it is ok for me to be the Captain as long as I do as she tells me. Neat, eh?

The trouble with being the leader is I am always playing catch up. I may be going over old ground a little but I hope I can touch on some points of interest.
You've already heard about the Petrified Forest but I want to just say that the sights you see and the personal exploration cannot be adequately described with the written word. Photographs are a slightly better medium but nothing can replace walking these sights treading between, touching and sitting on trees that over millions of years of being buried have rendered them into solid rock and yet you can count the growth rings, touch the petrified bark and just stand in awe of what's before you.
We left Route 66 briefly to visit Canyon De Chelly at Chinle. The cost and time constraints never allowed us to take the guided Canyon tour but anyway we had decided right from the outset of our journey that we were going to self guide as much as possible. We drove the perimeter stopping at every available viewing point some 700 - 1000 feet above the canyon base. Truly awe inspiring, truly gobsmacking, truly mind blowing. Do you get the picture? Actually it's impossible without seeing it for yourself.
The day was completed unexpectedly by us attending a story telling at the Rangers Centre. Adam Teller is a young Navajo who travels the country telling stories he had learnt from his grandmother. He told of monsters that would come in the night and carry you away to be boiled in a cauldron by Spider woman, by creatures too horrible for you the reader to have to endure and all this just to make you respect your elders and not allow yourself to be boastful. I used to tell my children the story of "The little boy and the hippo at the bottom on the garden" No creatures of fear for one's life in that story and yet they have turned out to be super responsible young adults so story telling must work.
On a final note about Chinle, Adam's stories don't seem to be having the same effect on today's Navajo youth as one of the most prominent buildings as you enter the reservation is a yellow painted building with very high fences called "Chinle's Youth Corrrectional Institution"!

Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon following Route 89 and 85 brought us early morning into the Grand Canyon National Park. School day teaching, films and photography we have seen through our growing years did not prepare us for what we saw. I overheard one young American girl use the phrase "Awesome" That phrase is totally inadequate for the sights Carolyn and I saw. In the late summer of 1540 soldiers from the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas were the first Europeans to see the south rim of the Canyon (the same rim we were viewing) On seeing what was before him he dropped to one knee and said a prayer. Wow we did not do likewise but I tell you I would not have been embarrassed to have followed suit. This truly is a spiritual place of outstanding beauty and peace. To be standing above birds in flight is indescribable in any language.

I could enthuse endlessly but I suspect I am becoming boring so at this point I will end for now digesting my personal thoughts and memories of this remarkable event that has happened to me. God bless the lady I am with for introducing me to and sharing this trip with me. Carolyn has worked so hard that I may enjoy this holiday. I need say no more for now.