JerrysJourneys

The Grand Canyon is a river valley in the Colorado Plateau. It is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and attains a depth of over 1 mile. The Canyon was formed over millions of years through erosion by the Colorado River. Native Americans have inhabited the Grand Canyon for thousands of years. The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1540 by the Spanish. Theodore Roosevelt visited the Canyon in 1903, and it was established as a US National Park in 1919. Visitor attendance last year exceeded 4.5 million people. We chose to travel to the Canyon aboard the Grand Canyon Railroad. We saw a wild west show before boarding the train in Williams. Samuel was impressed with the gun fight. The train ride was 2 hours and 15 minutes, We were provided commentary throughout the trip with historical information on Williams, the local history, and interesting details about the Canyon itself. We left Williams at 9:30 am and returned about 6:00 pm. A fun day for all of us. We stayed in Wil...

Day 4 of our road trip adventure across the United States. The kids have been great and we have tried to make this trip fun as well as educational. I was asked if the Grand Canyon was our destination. In my opinion the trip is our destination. The Grand Canyon is just one part of the trip. We wanted to expose our grandchildren to travel across the US and learn about each state they go through. Our daughter, Courtney, flew into the Albuquerque Airport. She joined us on the trip to Arizona. We then continued our trip to Williams, Az. Williams was founded in 1881. It was named after William "Old Bill" Williams. "Old Bill" was a trapper and mountain man and a statue of him is located in Monument Park. Williams is noted for being the terminus of Route 66. The city was bypassed by Interstate 40 and in 1984 Route 66 was decommissioned. Williams was added to the National Register of Historic Places. An interesting place whose major industry is tourism. If yo...

Our journey across the United States continues. The kids are great and we are all enjoying the trip. We left the hotel this morning and headed to Albuquerque with an intermediate stop at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. I know everyone is familiar with Billy the Kid. Just to refresh your memory, he was shot and killed here by Pat Garrett. He was buried in the Fort Sumner cemetery in 1881. There is more history to Fort Sumner than Billy the Kid. Fort Sumner was established in 1862 as a place to hold members of the Navajo and Apache tribes. In excess of 10,000 Navajos and 2,000 Apaches were forced to walk here from their homes. It was called the Long Walk and covered 300 miles. Many members of both tribes died from starvation and disease. They were finally released and allowed to return to their homes. Fort Sumner closed in 1869. A very dark period in the history of the United States. Albuquerque was founded in 1706 by the Governor of Nuevo Mexico. It was an outpost of the El Cami...

Day 2 found us on the road again. Our destination today is Lubbock, Tx. Lubbock is located in the heart of Comancheria. This land was the domain of the Comanche. This region is known as the Llano Estacado, the southern end of the High Plains. Lubbock is the home of Texas Tech University and also this area is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. Lubbock is also known as the home of Buddy Holly and Prairie Dog Town. We stopped in Lubbock to visit my my two nieces, Tami and Traci and their families. Bart, Tami's husband, cooked for everyone on his Big Green Egg. We had bison burgers and peppers stuffed with cream cheese and shrimp, wrapped in bacon. The bison meat came from a buffalo that Bart took on a buffalo hunt. The kids spent the next two hours in the swimming pool. I might mention both families are members of the Texas Tech family and the Auburn family. Ashleigh, Tami and Bart's daughter, is a senior at Auburn. Tami and Bart's other daug...

The Adventure Begins 06/25/2022 I was asked one time as to how I would describe my life. My answer was that it was one of adventure, but I was not finished. Linda and I have embarked on great adventure. We left Wetumpka this morning with our 3 grandchildren, Riley 13, Ethan 13, and Samuel 9, on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. Our route will be through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The whole trip will cover over 4,000 miles. It is my pleasure to allow Riley to take over writing this blog. In her words.. Riley Today I woke up at about 7:00am. We embarked on our journey to Longview, Texas at 8:00am. In the car, we all were on our electronics until we got into Mississippi. We stopped on the shoulder so Granna could get a picture of the "Welcome to Mississippi" sign. We also stopped at a rest area so we could get a picture of all 3 of us in front of the Mississippi sign. When we left that rest area we drove about an hour, still in Mississippi, we st...