A Reputable Journal

Lake Meade is both beautiful and sad at the same time. As we drove along shoreline drive you could see how low the water levels were, and how the resorts and campgrounds and housing developments that used to be on the water are now far from the water!

But then we get to Valley of Fire and we are on familiar (winter) ground. Amazing desert scapes! We set up camp and then did the Fire Wave - seven wonders loop trail and it was beautiful! The contours of the landscape are incredible.

Sitting in the campsite now just relaxing and enjoying the weather, getting ready to make some supper. Tomorrow we have a short drive to Zion.

Should we walk or bike? It’s only a mile to the London Bridge, so we decided walking was easier than undoing the cover and getting the bikes off the rack. So down the trail we headed, then we got to the expansive parking lots for the boat ramp, still following the reliable All Trails path. We ended up standing slightly confused looking at a gate that was chained closed. A voice from above said, if you want to climb over you should do it in the corner here. Wait, climb over the fence? Maybe she doesn’t realize the people over 60 don’t climb fences anymore. Or do they??

It’s pretty impressive that someone would buy the materials, ship them from England and reconstruct the bridge, here in Arizona. There were British flags flying everywhere and restaurants that looked like British pubs, When Jane sent a picture of it on our family message stream, they immediately checked Find My to see if we had taken a strange detour on our way home from California!

We had a decent dinner and flight of margaritas at Javelina’s where we had a good view of the bridge. The wait staff all sported t-shirts with a cartoon of a cactus and a javelina on the back. The cactus calls the javelina a “pig” and the javelina calls the cactus a “prick.”

We retraced our steps back to the campground, hoping to find a better way through the fence — we did not. But it was a nice evening to sit and read and enjoy the sunset.

Death Valley

Our weekend getaway to see Death Valley and the Eagles at the Sphere in Las Vegas began with a drive. We gassed up in the little town of Trona on the edge of Searles lake. This town is a mining town for the minerals from the dried up lake, and it always has been. It feels deserted, and desolate. Houses boarded up businesses closed down. But the mining continues. In the early days the entire town ran on scrip from the mining company from the grocery stores to the gas stations and library.

We stopped for Lunch in Panamint Springs:



It was super windy so we had to eat inside instead of enjoying the view. After Lunch we continued over the mountains and into Death Valley.

Our first stop was a hike in the Mosaic Canyon. Kind of a slot canyon hike in 90 degree weather. It was good to stretch our legs and loosen up the muscles after the long morning drive.

We had planned to stop at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, but the wind was blowing so hard we decided to pass. Instead we drove to Badwater Basin, quite the salt flats not far from our hotel here in the valley.



There was a guy flying a kite!



After our walk on the salt we did the Artists drive. Lots of amazing colors on the rocks.



Since our original plan was to watch the sunset at the Dunes we didn’t have a dinner reservation until late, but we were tired and ready to have some dinner by 5:30. The restaurant was completely booked, except they didn’t say that they had open seating at the bar plus a couple of high tops. Which I discovered on my own. So we were able to eat and then chill in our room. Tomorrow we’ll be up early to catch the sunrise and then off to Vegas to get ready for the concert.

Today was a good day. Jane and I volunteered as “Fan Ambassadors” at the American Express golf tournament in La Quinta. I got assigned to be greeter/traffic control for people arriving. I made a decision that I was going to greet every person as warmly as I could. “Welcome!” “Good morning!” “Have a great day!” “Can I take your picture by the Amex sign?” It wasn’t hard, and I know it’s not much, but it made me feel like I was doing my part to combat the evil in our country right now. I was rewarded 100x people smiled at me, thanked me, told me to have a nice day too. One person called me “Jolly” I don’t think I have ever been called jolly in my life! To whoever told me that I looked “knowledgeable” I’m forever in your debt LOL!

Some people stopped and engaged a bit more and expressed support and sympathy for the people of Minnesota when I told them that was where I was from.

Normally being an extrovert would exhaust me, but today it filled me with a bit of hope and joy.

Before our shift at the AMEX we attended church via zoom with our entire family. Our daughter was singing. “Sunday I’m singing in church and the theme is joy as resistance. I’ll be singing Blackbird by The Beatles, The Joke by Brandi Carlile and an Irish folk tune called The Parting Glass”

I don’t think I had ever heard “The Joke” before, but afterward I was practicing what their minister termed “Kleenex ministry”. This was a very moving service! Their pastor had participated in a clergy action at the Minneapolis airport Friday and was arrested (and released) as part of a peaceful protest against ICE and their unbelievable brutality toward the citizens of Minnesota. There were over 700 clergy from around the country and they were told to limit it to 100!

At the end of the service they shared a poem by Andrea Gibson:

“Picasso said he’d paint with his own wet tongue on the dusty floor of a jail cell if he had to. We have to create. It is the only thing louder than destruction. It’s the only chance the bars are gonna break, our hands full of color reaching towards the sky, a brush stroke in the dark. It is not too late. That starry night is not yet dry.”

So to all of you on micro.blog, or wherever you read this, you are creators, you are artists, and photographers, and software developers, and entrepreneurs, and writers, and bloggers… Please keep creating! Create stuff that inspires and helps people!

I’m going to use this as inspiration to create as a form of protest until Trump is out of office and ICE is not terrorizing citizens. I hope you all will do likewise.

Oh, and please call or write your elected representatives and tell them that what is happening in Minneapolis is unacceptable!

Have a Great Day!!

I wanted to share this Video from Luther College where I have been a student, professor, and now serve as a member of the board. Luther is an amazing place that values Community, and inspires and equips students to serve the common good! The world needs more of that now!

Luther Christmas Cheer

The soundtrack was written and composed by a Luther alum. The performers comprise over 500 Luther students as part of choirs, band and orchestra. Enjoy.

Members of the military take an oath to the Constitution, not the president.

“I, ___, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me… So help me God.”

So when the president is a “domestic enemy” the constitution comes first. Simple.

I’m just home from A Beautiful Noise. The Neil Diamond Juke box musical. It was so good! At the same time it was so hard. I loved it, and learning more about his back story. At the end they reprised two numbers as sing-a-longs. Coming to America:

Far We’ve been traveling far Without a home But not without a star

Free Only want to be free We huddle close Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes They’re coming to America Never looking back again They’re coming to America

I wanted to sing, but the words just wouldn’t come out. This is what our country is built on, but now all the people this song celebrates would be rounded up by masked thugs at the direction of our president. It makes me sick.

Thankfully the second reprise was Sweet Caroline which I could sing to. Reminded me of my Son’s Sr. Year of basketball and our dear friend and mother of another ball player out on the court at half time leading the crowd in the chorus.