JAMES HAWK SMITH

TRIP TO LAS VEGAS AND GRAND CANYON

On May 30, 2008, we left Mt Juliet for a 11 days/10 nights trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon and points west. We were on a Diamond Tours bus with the Mt. Juliet Senior Citizens.




Our driver, Marla. She did a wonderful job of driving the bus.




She got that bus out of some tight places that some of us thought she might not do, but she always did.

Peggy and her grandson Christopher. He was the youngest person on the bus. They sat across the aisle from us. Mike and I and Charlie and Frances sat in the back across from them. Our seats were turned to face each other and there was a small table between us.
Peggy has a great sense of humor. She kept us laughing and was a lot of fun. She was a great person to be taking a long trip with. Christopher had an Ipod with lots of songs on it and one with lots of movies on it. He listened to music and watched his movies a lot. He was very knowledgeable of the area we were traveling in. If we had a question about something we saw, he could usually answer it. Left Mt Juliet, Tn on Friday, May 30 at 8:00 am. Stopped every few hours for a break, usually at a Loves truck stop. Watched 2 movies that day. Ate dinner at Luby's Cafeteria in Little Rock, Ark. Spent the night in Sallisaw, Ok. Got up the next morning and left for Oklahoma City. At 10:30 we stopped at a rest stop and met a woman from Lawrenceburg, Tn (our home county). She and her husband drive a tractor trailor to California and back every week. It is a small world.

Our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing changed our nation and our world. It was the costliest act of terrorism up to that time on American soil. 168 people were killed, including 19 children--more than 700 injured--it involved thousands of rescuers.

This is the chain link fence where people leave letters, pictures, flowers, momentoes, etc of their loved ones who lost their lives that day. The whole area is very moving and touching.

This is a statue of Christ across the road from the memorial. He has his back to the site of destruction and is holding his face in his hand and on the bottom of the statue it says: And Jesus Wept.

This wall is made up of different things that children sent to the memorial. There are handprints, drawings, etc.

Charlie and Frances in front of the rows of chairs in memory of the people who were killed that day. Each row represents the floor they were on when the bombing happened. Each persons name is engraved on each chair. The second row of chairs are smaller than the others. That is where the Day Care was. These are the chairs representing the children who were killed.

We left Oklahoma and crossed into Texas at 4:21 on Sat. may 31.

On of Amarillo, Tx. more popular attractions is Cadillac Ranch, where ten vintage Cadillacs were buried with their tail fins in the air by Stanly Marsh 111. People stop and spray paint the cars.

On Sunday 6/1/08 we were driving through Texas and we saw more cows than we have ever seen in one place at one time. We think approximately 5-6,000 cows and one cowboy taking care of them.

Also, in Texas, we saw the huge three prong windmills. They were huge and amazing to see. Some of them were right on the edge of the interstate. We also saw several oil wells.

We entered New Mexico at 10:00 our time. We had to set our watches back 1 hour.

Taken outside of the restaurant. This was at the corner of the old Route 66 and the new Route 66. We traveled along the old Route 66 most of the way out there. Some of the old road is not passable now and some of it is part of I-40. We saw the teepee motel that is on Route 66. We were amazed at the terrain out there. In Texas and New Mexico, we drove for 25 or 30 miles and only see one little house. In New Mexico we would see miles of flat desert with no grass and then all of a sudden there would be a huge mountain of solid rock.

A post card of Route 66.

Lake Meade. This is the lake that was formed by the Hoover Dam when the Colorado was dammed up.

These are horned mountain goats. We were on the tour bus going to Hoover Dam. Our guide told us that if we saw these goats, then we would have luck at the casino in Las Vegas that night. I won $60. that night which is a lot for me.

The Hoover Dam. This is an amazing thing to see. It was amazing to me that they went down in the middle of this huge solid rock mountain and made this dam on the Colorado River.

This is a picture of the Colorado River rushing into the Dam to produce electricity.

Hoover Dam is a testimony to a country's ability to construct monolithic projects in the midst of adverse conditions. Built during the Depression; thousands of men and their families came to Black Canyon to tame the Colorado River. It took less than five years, in a harsh and barren land, to build the largest dam of its time. Now, years later, Hoover Dam still stands as a world-renowned structure. The Dam is a National Historic Landmark and has been rated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders.

Go to: www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam to read about this amazing engineering wonders.

As of 9/11, buses carrying luggage are not allowed to cross the Hoover Dam because of security reasons. In the background of this picture is the construction of a new highway that will cross over the Colorado River for the traffic that is not allowed now.
The Colorado River has a lot of lime in it. The white section is how high the river has been on the mountain. It left a bleached area.

This is a memorial made for the 96 men who lost their lives while building the dam.

After we left the Hoover Dam, we went back to Las Vegas.

One of the buildings in Las Vegas.

All of the casinos were huge. Las Vegas is a very busy place. Their are cars, buses and people everywhere. They have a monorail system that takes you from casino to casino. Mike and I found out that that is the best way to travel in Las Vegas. We were more interested in seeing the sights than gambling. We spent very little money playing the slot machines and I won $60.

The lights of Vegas at night. We were on a schedule, so we didn't get to see many of the sights of Vegas. I would like to go back some time and stay longer at Vegas and at the Grand Canyon.

Inside Caesar Palace. This is a huge place. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky. It looks like you have entered the ancient city of Rome when you go in Caesars palace. It is very beautiful.

The shops in Caesars Palace.

One of the many sculptors in Caesars Palace that reminded us of Rome.

Thursday June 05, 2008, we arrived at the Grand Canyon. It is the most awesome site I've ever seen. Pictures and movies don't do it justice. I kept hearing things like awesome, amazing, incredible etc. It is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and now I know why. Words can't describe how incredible it is. I almost cried when I saw it. It is an amazing site. Nothing manmade could ever compare to what God can make.

Mike and I in front of the Grand Canyon.

A close up of the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

Another view of the Grand Canyon

Another view of the Grand Canyon. The little bitty white line is the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon is a mile deep and over 240 miles long.









This was made at The Amarillo Botanical Gardens on the way back on Sat June 7.

All of the plants and flowers were beautiful.

Fay, Frances, me, and Mary



Charlie and Fran at the Botanical Gardens













Mike at the Botanical Gardens.

We really enjoyed this trip. My favorite sites were the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Some of the animals we saw were a prong horned antelope in Arizona. Elk in Oklahoma and the horned mountain goats in Boulder City, NV.

We were amazed at how different the scenery is out there. Mike and I had never been further west than Little Rock, Ark. The vastness of everything. We would go for 20 or 30 miles and not see a house. The desert had no grass, just little bushes. The long trains in New Mexico. The windmills in Texas. We saw the Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert. The huge mountains of solid rock. But the absolute most amazing site was the Grand Canyon.

Some of the things we did while riding along: On the way to Amarillo, Tx, we decided that we needed to know the words to the song by George Strait--Amarillo By Morning. We managed to come up with some of the words and then Christopher heard us talking about it and he said he had the song on his ipod, so we got the words from him.

We played bingo. Some people told jokes. We watched movies. After seeing the Grand Canyon, Frances and I decided that we needed to know all of the 7 wonders of the world. So I called my sister in SC and she got on the computer and gave us the 7 natural wonders of the world and the 7 man made wonders of the world. Fran went up to the front of the bus and got the microphone and shared the info with everyone.

Mike wrote a poem about our trip. Peggy went up to the front of the bus and read it on the microphone to everyone.

This is it:

Riding through the great southwest.

We're heading for Amarillo tonight.

Marlo's doing the driving,

We're looking at the sights.

There's no trees and no green grass to remind us all of Home.

No, we're out here in the Desert where the mule deer and the antelope roam.

There's dirt and sand stretching far and wide

And rocks and mountains reaching to the sky.

We looked into the great and awesome Grand Canyon

And we stood there in wonder feeling so small

Taking in this great panoramic view.

There's lots of speculation on how all of this came to be.

But there is one thing that all of us agree.

God blessed all of us when He let us come and see.

We traveled over 4,000 miles round trip.