The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:
The Summer of 1986
In 1986, the summer Erik (our youngest) graduated from Union High School, Dave and I and Erik went on a wonderful first-time trip out West. Memorable places: The steak house in Amarillo with 24 ounce steaks (somebody told me recently that they were 72 ozs.; not 24), free if you could eat the whole thing, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert in Arizona, both rims of the Grand Canyon, and the mule ride on “Adolph.”
Adolph was one of several mules in “the mule train,” and while the rest of them walked in the well-worn path, one behind the other, Adolph preferred to stay out of the path because it was slimy with mule pee, and walk closer to the edge, next to a steep drop off. I leaned in the opposite direction, away from the precipice, although I knew it was a very feeble defense. One of the wranglers said, “If Adolph doesn’t learn to stay on the path, he’ll have to retire.”
Dave was over the allowed weight for mule rides at that time so he chose to walk behind our train for the entire distance rather than wait back at the starting point. Meanwhile, Erik was on a Grand Canyon hike.
Next we visited a strange place called Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona; then to Acoma Pueblo (“Sky City”) in New Mexico; Santa Fe; lava beds in Grants, New Mexico; Navajo National Monument; Zion National Park and Bryce National Park in Utah; Salt Lake City; and Yellowstone National Park (I think of it as “Nature’s Disney World”).
Old Faithful on my birthday was a special treat. Some of these places, especially Sky City, were so far from roads and other signs of civilization and were so quiet that all we could hear were occasional birds. The old saying, “The silence was deafening,” would describe Sky City, if anywhere!
Then, Beartooth Highway in Montana from Yellowstone to Red Lodge; a rodeo in Cody, Wyoming; the town of Deadwood, South Dakota; the Black Hills; Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, South Dakota; fossils. There were many shops and “trading companies” and Indian dances at Red Rock State Park; beautiful Indian things, turquoise jewelry, and wonders that go on and on.
Dave was very busy with his Angus cattle herd business in the ’80s, and we went to meet Larry L. at Red Lodge, Montana, and Mr. Martin J. in South Dakota; they were “cattlemen” Dave knew through Mr. Clark, Dave’s mentor.
It meant a lot to Dave and I that we could take this fabulous trip while one of the children was still with us to enjoy it, too. This was Erik’s senior year so it was a special time for him. We hadn’t found out yet about Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellers’ history so Dave and I returned to the West a couple years later to see what we had missed the first time.
To be continued…
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
Acoma Pueblo (“Sky City”) in New Mexico is famous for its traditional, extremely thin-walled water pots, which transpire and cool the water they contain. They are made by coiling a strand of white clay, then working the coils with a wet stick to “melt” the coils together and thin the pot’s walls They are painted in angular designs which represent the Acoma culture.
We bought a two of them back in the day and Acoma pots are now priced much higher when they occasionally appear on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow”.
Thank you for sharing. I’m glad you had a great time, and lots of happy memories.
I think Adolph was smart.
You’re welcome, bill.