Veternan's Day

A Grand Canyon Veteran's Day

School has been in session for one whole quarter. It is the only quarter when we don't get any days off. Everyone at school was ready for a long weekend. When I told Wayne that I had a four day weekend we decided to take advantage. I saw an advertisement in the travel section of the newspaper of a train ride to the Grand Canyon. I thought it sounded fun. I booked a ride and a two night stay in the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel. The train ride starts in the small city of Williams Arizona. Yes, it is small, maybe 1,000 people live there. There isn't a stop light.

The first night there we were trying to find something to do and noticed that a train was approaching the station. We decided to watch. The train from the Grand Canyon comes back at 5:45, it was only a little after 5:00. As we watched we noticed Christmas decorations on the train cars. One of the cars had the words "Polar Express." We asked a few questions. It was the employees night to take the Polar Express. The next night was opening night for the season. Families were dressed in their pajamas. There was excitement in the air. I'm sorry I don't have a picture. We only had Wayne's phone and I haven't download his pictures. We are told the train goes to the North Pole and back. The story Polar Expess is read and hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies are handed out. They reach the North Pole and Santa gets on and gives everyone a bell. They actually have two sessions each night. The workers were dressed as the cooks in the book. They had the cook chef's hats and white shirts. We were told that Friday night they had 16 train cars with over 1,500 people. I just wish we had grandkids with us. We will have to go another time and bring grandkids.

Friday morning at 9:00 there is a Wild West Shootout. It was pretty funny. We watched and then got on the train. The ride wasn't as scenic as I thought it might be but we were kept entertained. A cowboy played an accordion and different size harmonicas on our trip to the canyon. On the way back we had an Indian sing to us. He sang songs in at least 5 different languages.

These are the characters in the shootout.

There was several times on the trip that you could see the rest of the train. We were in the cheap seats. Some of the cars had sky windows.The first view of the canyon is truly amazing. You almost think it is just a painting. At the South Rim it is 12 miles across. There are a few areas where it is 18 miles. Down to the canyon floor and the river is 1 mile, however to actually walk it, it is about 18 miles. This is what we missed 28 years ago at Thanksgiving time. The snow was coming down so hard we couldn't see the canyon then. We thought we might have the same experience this time. Luckily it was just overcast. The canyon was beautiful.

The views are unbelievable.

If you look closely you can see a trail zig-zagging. This just takes you to a plateau.

This is the plateau. If you look you can see where the trail drops off to the next level. Wayne claims he took this Bright Angel's Trail to the bottom and spent a night or two at Phantom Ranch. He was a teenager. He thinks I wouldn't make it back up once I made it to the bottom. I probably could if I had a mule. But then I was sore with the short horse ride we took in Steamboat Springs.

I had fun taking pictures. The view changes every few steps.

Believe it or not Wayne is really on the edge. I don't think his hands were sweating.

He was sitting on a ledge. I caught him with is eyes closed. We joked that he was too scared to look down.

On the ride home we had train robbers get on. If you look at the very first picture in this blog you will notice it is the same characters as the shoot out.

The sheriff saved us.

I I don't think I have ever seen a prettier sunset. The sky just kept getting redder and redder. It was a great way to end our train ride.