Train Day

March 1, 2007
dawned clear and cold. We have been so blessed with the weather on thistrip and we are so grateful.We went to the depot about 8:30 so we could see the "Wild WestShootout". First we had our photo taken next to the old steam engine. Too bad they couldn't be running that one. As we were walking over tothe "Wild West Town", Don spotted a steam tractor and I took his pic next to it. As I was taking the pic, the "Marshall" came by and said "old machine, old man." Whoop! Of course, I said "young wife". He said"I was thinking daughter". Is he not a wonderful, discerning, truthful man? And handsome too. Somehow I don't think Don was as impressed with him as I was. Over at wild west town, we moseyed (catch that wild west talk?) around talking to the actors and petting the horses, even the grumpy one. All of the actors were there in costume mingling with the crowd and getting their pictures taken with various women. During the "shoot-out", they picked a young man from the audience to blame the dirty deed on. He was a college kid wearing shorts and carrying a backpack. The marshall said he certaining did not see a threat from a guy wearing his undershorts and carrying a purse! What a hoot. But maybe you had to be there. It was fun partly because the actors seemed to be having such fun. Finally we got into the nice warm railcar for the 2 hr trip to the rim. We sat next to a young couple from Boston and their 9 yo son - Bob,Peggy and Owen. Of course it was Owen's first trip on a train and he was excited - unlike us oh so cool adults. (believe that?). After the trip thru varied and lovely landscape we arrived at Grand Canyon Village. Let me tell you the area has changed dramatically in 18 years.Probably because of the advent of the tourist train. We hopped a bus and went to lunch. Good thing because I was close to being the grumpy one. During the lunch break we also had time to frequent the gift shop- imagine that!
As we toured the rim our guide had a steady patter and answered lots of questions. But she told us up front that both the North and South(where we were) Rims of the Canyon are in Arizona. Many people don't seem to realize that. She even had someone ask if the North Rim was in Mexico! Duh, Mexico is South, a lo-o-ong way. We made 3 or 4 stops at overlooks for photo ops. As anyone knows Don made the most of those ops. I think he took 135 photos. I didn't do so bad myself.. I tried to take different views than he did. At one ofthe overlooks, Peggy offered to take our pic. Well, she dropped my camera. Don grabbed the battery before it could go over the cliff. She was mortified and could not apologize enough. The camera was fine. Later, when she was apologizing once again, Bob said she was going to worry about it the rest of the trip. Next overlook, I took some great photos and showed her that the camera was fine. She was prepared to offer me her camera. Yes, we finally did get our photo made. The trip back on the train was much quieter. Most of us were fairly tired. Don and I went directly to supper and back to the motel. It had been a really great day and again, the weather could not have been more perfect. By the time we got to the Canyon, it was about 55 degrees and we didn't even need the heavy coats we were lugging around.I n answer to those who asked about my legs. They are fine and have forgiven me for mistreating them.
Love to all,God Bless,Don and Pat