H, it's the what of it the 8th of July today, and we're at a place called Montrose, which is just south of Grand Junction about 60 miles.
Actually we weren planning to come to Montrose, but we wrote to Devev and Jack Shields who live in Atlanta, friends of the waters in Blenheham and they sent us their itinerary, they take tours of school.
Kids from the college that Jack teaches at on a summer camp and they sent us the itinerary and we just happened to look at it the other night and we decided we're only 60 miles from the place where they're going to be tonight so we're actually just waiting for them now so it should be quite they don't know we're going to be here.
So that's what we're doing here but anyway I haven't recorded for simply ages, it was about the 25th of May I think we're in San Antonio which I have told you was just a beautiful town we really loved it there the heat though was pretty intense the humidity 100% humidity there and it really is Texas weather after we left San Antonio we.
We crossed the border into New Mexico where we visited the Carls bad cabins, actually I've covered most of these things and letters to you, but I thought I'd tape it all for.
I don't know what reason you might be interested. The Carlsbad cabins were just tremendous, We've been to Cars in Mexico, but naturally they weren't as organized as the National parks are here in the States and the Carlsba cabins were just beautiful You walked down 829 feet and you took with you little hand operated radio and every now and again there would be a start and finish sign and during that period they would tell you all about the caverns, which was really quite exciting and they had children's ones which were told in sort of nursery rhme fashion, which was really quite fun. We left Carlsbad that afternoon youchan.
St and see the bats fly out of the caves at about7 or eight o'clock in the evening but we wanted to move on so we moved on to right through El Paso El Paso was very dead that day because it was memorial day and everything I shut which is most unusual the supermarkets went of course but nearly everything elses we spent the night.
The El Paso Civic Centre was very beautiful. We had a look around there, Then we went on to the White Sands Meile range and spent the night at Alam Maggorda, which is a city feeling near the this National monument. The White Sands National monument is tremendous. It's white snow perfectly white. It's a natural phenomenon quite incredible. The sand is sort of like salt and the children went able to slide down it as they thought they'd be able to, but we had a picnic breakfast there and was really lovely.
Perfectly white sand for miles and miles. but also in Ellamama Gorda, they've got the space Hall of Fame, which has all the.
Space stuff since the very beginning of any space.
Research here in the States, most interesting they had a little rocket outside which the kids were able to get into and zoom up and down.
And.
You'd have to excuse this, I'm kind of reading back from my diary and it's a little bit disjointed.
 time.
Just to give you an idea of what we've been up to.
That's right, we went on through a place called Vaughn and then we arrived in Albuquerque, which is a fabulous, beautiful city centreed right in the middle of mountains and a beautiful sight to come into.
We arrived there early in the evening it was terribly hot there and very windy and we did stay at a camp to clean up but wasn't a particularly nice camp very barren and wasn't very nice at all.
So we looked around Albuquerque that night and.
One notices as you're travelling through the country, the incredible changes of countryside, the open space is just unreal, they've got so much land here that everything is so spread you really have to have a motor vehicle to get around because there's, you know sort of restaurants right outside town and all over the place that in New Zealand just wouldn't, you know they'd really,
Would't be able to operate because no one had ever go to them but here everything has masses of parking around it and just gives you an idea of the size of this country following morning the 31st of May we went to a  Volkswagen dealer we had to get the pump fixed on our water tank because it wasn't working and we had.
Let had them look at a couple of other little things.
So we were there most of the morning.
We just buzzed around that day I think cleaned up and stuff very hot 90 degrees but you know not quite as humid as the Texas area had been then we went down to old town all these places have old towns the new cities have always seemed to have formed on separate places and they've kept the original.
 just as they were with perhaps a little bit of commercialism to spruce them up a bit, but it was quite an exciting oral town.
We spent the evening there talking to some people from Oklahoma whose camp had broken down as well and they were sort of heading for Carlsbad cabins or Grand Canyon or some that weren't going to get there decide to have the holiday in Albuquerque.
We left there, we visited the old town again in the morning they yeah that's right, they had a very a lot of modern Indian art shops there where they have.
handandmade murals and beautiful furniture, all soft and wool and fabulous and modern jewelry which was really nice, the Indian jewelry I'm not mad on it's fairly brilliant turquoise and very heavy, they have necklaces called blossom necklaces and they're fairly heavy and large and very expensive.
We.
Spent the day looking around there and Albuquerque, and then we went on to.
That's right we went out to visit our Indian friend at Laguna that's when we found out that his wife had been shot the night before, which was all terribly upsetting and they went there anyway but we spoke to the police and a neighbour on the Laguna reservation and then we decided to move on just out of Elbuquerque is the Sandier tra which goes two miles up into the mountains very very scary, very high and you got the mountain 10,000 feet up with a fabulous restaurant on top.
Actually you really noticed.
The lack of air up there it's quite sudden going up in the train car you also see an aircraft that's crashed on the mountains on the way up some years ago but the remains are still there we went up when it was still light and we came back after dark so it was a really magnificent sight of.
Allbuquerque on the way down.
We travelled on to Los Sallamos that evening after we left the tram and there was an incredible lightning and thunderstorm in the distance the whole, we weren't actually in any rain but the sight of these is quite phenomenal because they're nothing like we see in New Zealand incredible.
 just laid up the whole sky and the children were very delighted we were heading for Los Sallamoss to visit Karen Pannado or Xs her uncle Paul who lives there we called on him very first thing next morning and he really is a sweetie but he's been so long at the Los Sallamos.
Nuc station power station. That's where he's worked for the last 20 years. He really is. But like the absent minded professor. And he couldn't couldn't remember anything at all. He just kept saying to us that a lot of things I don't understand about people and.
He really, he wasn't expecting us to know anything about us, and it turned out as son Mark, who was 19 and getting married Saturday week, knew all about us and actually had mail for us and so on.
And.
We had breakfast with them and then we went down to Santa Fe which is the capital of New Mexico and it's a fabulous city because it's quite small, they limit the population, they won't have an international airport and apparently a not little too popular with the rest of the state over but it has kept this particular city most original and very beautiful, it's not possible to build anything but Peeblo Indian style buildings or shops or anything and there's a hotel they absolutely brand new which looks as if it's been there for donkey's ages but inside is just the most beautiful.
 really modern but the exterior is Paeblo Indian we drove around there because for the town for quite a while because it was really rather beautiful to look at the seven museums there we visited several of them and the hotel but that's where I ran into Dick Van Dyck I'm sure dad would have been thrilled about that and we also met the couple from Dunedin from Christchurch who had that was their names.
Oh.
Fels, fears. And he's the guy that he was a teacher at Shiley Boys high. He had actually applied at some stage for a job at the police training college and had met dead, which was quite coincidental. We also met another New Zealand guy who was.
With a group, they have lot of groups of 14 that fit into these large sort of camper affairs that go from New York to Los Angeles right around the whole circuit of the states for about $600 for six weeks and we met a young guy from Dunedin that was on one of those who came over and sit hi to us and so on.
And.
That night, we went back to.
The man's house Paul the uncle of Karen and he took us out to McDonald's for, which the children thoroughly enjoyed of course on Saturday the  third of June we went to the Bdeier National Park which is,
I.
Indian ruins and dwellings a particularly nice one and a magnificent park we thoroughly enjoyed our day there, we picnicked there and walked all the trails and so on.
 way everybody talks about hiking here, they don't walk anywhere, they're all hike.
In the afternoon, we visited the Los Alamos nuclear.
Museum, which was most interesting, we saw the Kiwi reactor there, which is sitting beside a replica of a New Zealand  Kiwi and we saw the atom bombs that were well replicas of the ones that were used in Hiroshima and Nakusaka.
We.
That's right. Oh yeah, After we left there that day, we got back to the pinyon loop, which is where the.
Mans love pinion by the way is the national T of the state to find a letter from Helen Ted, we were just astonished it was about seven o'clock at night and in the letter they referred to the bowls, he was the Colel or major or whatever in Blenheham years and years ago and we had met him oh about 10 years ago I suppose they were great friends Helen T Helen Ted just hell have a lot of fun with them.
 Ted and Helen had stayed with them when they're in the States, but they had since moved and had retired from the Air Force and was now living in Los Alamos and actually working at the nuclear station.
So we called them, they weren't going out, they said come right around well they lived in the most beautiful home,5,300 square feet.
Really something special and Mrs. Bowls is a real pet she showed me all through the house and the electrical appliances here are just so much further advanced than New Zealand everybody's got those sort of doubleded fridge freezers which are okay we've got those in New Zealand but these ones have cool water on the outside and you push your glass up to it as you do you know like a kind of on a spirit measure in a hotel and then beside that is an ice dispenser which you put your glass up to and all the ice falls and they all have self-cleaning ovens.
Everybody has one self-cleaning oven and a microwave I have yet to see anybody use it for anything but making instant coffee but their house is really lovely and Los Alamos is a particularly nice place because it's so far from anywhere during the war of course it was a secret place in fact they took it off every map that ever existed just during the war didn't exist and people that went in there they went in with their whole family and they went't allowed to leave during the wartime while they were doing the research and so the.
Little thing that we were told about the place was that all the children that were born there during that time because there was no such place as Los Alamos then were registered as PoO box, something or other Santa Fe and it took some years after the war before these children could actually be registered as having been born anywhere in particular.
Oh, I meant to say something about.
Santa Fe oh yes, when we met these people from Grchuritch we' were actually standing in the very oldest church in the whole of the United States which also has the oldest be on America there was a darling brother telling us all about the place and he was very sweet to Rachel he had a gorgeous voice and he sort of in a sort of a musical little way it told us all about how this bell had been brought from Mexico of course it had originally come from Spain and it weighed many, many tons and was worth great deal of money because it was full of gold and copper and silver and he was telling us heart took four and a half months to bring it up to Santa Fe.
I don't know how many years ago to this church and the church was rather a quaint and it was about to close and there was only six of us and Rachel Maitland was asleep in the camp in the little area where he was telling us about it and he said to Rachel where are you from she from New Zealand and everybody saidOh New Zealand as they always seemed to and one couple said  oh we've been to New Zealand they were Americans and they had been to Auckland and Wellington and Grach and had done a three weeks sort of a trip through New Zealand and this is where the other couple said so are we and they were the one from Graadch so six of us there it was quite a coincidence really anyway on Sunday 4 of June what do we do that day oh yeah that's right, Mark this young son of Karen's uncle was moving they were actually moving from.
Moster Pegosa Springs and they were getting married the following Saturday Mark's only 19 and God knows how old the girl he's marry is because she'd only graduated the night before we arrived made everybody does I gather education is you an occupation here with everybody nobody fails because you can pass something so just about everybody graduates but Los Alamos is particularly interesting in that 65% I think of all parents in the area have a PhD or more either one or both parents so the pressure for kids here for education is terribly high and quite difficult for them I think anyway we hoped Mark clear up in the morning because the poor pool he really wasn't very much used to Mark and Mark was packing out in a whole lot.
Friends came around and we all helped them pack to set off to Pagosa Springs they were taking all their stuff up there you know, so they could be married the following week well we all left there.
And we moved on.
What do we do.
And.
Yeah, the first stop was the G range US agricultural development, it's a conservation display showing you know what.
How the erosion comes about in these areas through over too too many cattle and over grazing and so on. And we moved on to.
And.
 through Charma, which is a big skiing area and onto the Nevajo Lake National Park, where there's many boats and so on.
And lots of water sports and through to Farmington we found a river near Farmington and we camped there the night we met a couple there he was quite interesting him rushing over and said were we from New Zealand and his name was silver Hes he is.
A Frenchcan Indian. and he was in the during the war he was in Wellington on the way to the Gua Canal, and he had actually walked from Wellington to Pacoriki. So he knew the area probably better than we did. but apparently he said I thought he said that his name was on the memorial at Mackaay's crossing, but I'm sure he was still very much alive, but he apparently had four brothers and perhaps some of them were killed and their names were there whether the memorial or still there or not we told him there was nothing at Mackaay's crossing now other than the railway line, but anyway, he was also in Okinawwa and he'd really been around, he has.
a ranch in or part of one in Melbourne, so he goes down there quite often and they were just super to us and they gave us a fishing rod and they gave us some plum jelly and they've invited us to come and stay, they live up near the Hudson Bay.
We spent the next morning at this river and we fished and one thing in another that was the 5th of June, which of course was Swart's.
Anniversary day anyway we didn't catch any fish the roof was blessed cold actually Madelin came back and he said to me oh that water gives me a headache I didn't know what the hell he was getting on about and then I went down I thought it'd take a bath from the river and oh if you'd stand up for a few minutes and your feet would just freeze and it was just quite painful so I guess that's what he meant about a headache.
Then we set off for shipwreck and Gallop which is further on and we had dinner there, Gallops are a really hilarious place, it's a large railway centre and it's just one very long street with masses as Meitland calls them Nn signs.
We had dinner there very long street, all their shops are just all down the one street are really quite a strange place, nothing sort of further back than one block and then we went on to Zuni because on the6 there was supposed to be a rain dance there that we thought we'd you take a look at but we drove around Zun he couldn't find very much asked a couple of people know and knew anything about it we finally spoke to the Indian police who seemed to think it was a bit of a joke and only for the tourists so we decided to move on we headed for sands and sander and charmalmers.
And we spent the night at a rest area just out of chals, these rest areas in some states you're allowed to sleep overnight in them.
And this particular one was absolutely chocolate lot we had to sort of get off the road to get into the damnn thing it was very crowded and that wasn't far from the petrified forest and the painted.
DesertSo the next morning we up and away and after the petrified forest, it was fabulous there, Rachel thoroughly enjoyed it she.
Went demeted over the petrified wood and there's long logs you know sort of across small canyons or areas that in fact there's one that apparently a cowboy crossed on us horse for $1 some years ago bit now has a concrete.
.
 thing it across to make it you know much safer and nobody's allowed to walk across it of course, the painted desert was beautiful too the colorss and the whole whole area was just beautiful.
All these national parks are just so beautifully kept and so well organizedised we moved on from there to Holbrook and at Holbrook they've got a meteor crater which is just enormous but we went up there the national parks are almost free to get them because we've got a ticket to go to the mall for the whole year you don't have to pay anything when you bought a$10 ticket in the whole car goes through for nothing we got to this meteor crater and they want have five bucks to have a look down a ruddy hole we'd been looking down holes all day for nothing so we decided to look at a few postcards and we were actually at the top of it then so we decided that no hole was going to be there in trusting so we didn't bother.
We moved on from there to Suns Cater which is a large, it's a volcano which has still got me and messes of lava around it from previous times actually you have been in the past, it looks very like Mount Demont sort of steep like that you have been able to walk up in the past we would dearly like to have done so but.
 has everything here.
The latest geographic magazine says, are we loving the Grand Canyon you know Ti Bs and this sort of crater was just the same so many people had been walking up and the lava was so sort of soft that it was getting too worn away so you cannot go up there now.
So we moved on 89.
To the G Mountains and to Cameron which is a little small town, we passed through Cameron and we spent the night at the little Colorado Canyon which is just beautiful and it was just an insight as to what we were about to see the next day was magnificent.
The Kenys really are something.
We.
In the night there was several other campers there's no camping you're not supposed to camp there but this other couple who were from Canada said well we were going to stay so we all decided to stay and the next morning all the Indians arrived with their jewelry and we I'd purchased a small necklace which is made by the Navahood people which only cost me three and I felt I had a really good deal with this it's about the only.
 I've purchased the jewelry, as I say, it's pretty expensive. And most of it have got chunky for me.
But we met a couple there who were covered in diamonds and God knows what and they in fact were from Memphis and they lived over the road from Elvis, Brasley, in fact was ladies's child had used to play when they were little with Elvis and I really got you know, quite sad tears's came to her eyes when she talked about about him and you know it was really quite quite sad.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon which really is just absolutely beyond words we decided to sort of stop and have lunch and clean up we met a couple Gene and Roger Shera from all Cl if you please this guy said to me  what I happen to know the time and I thought gosh he sounds like an Australian it's funny how you feel that New Zealand a son like Australians when you haven't heard one for a while and we had lunch with them and quite a bit fun they had twin daughters or a son and a daughter twins and they played with the kids and so on and that afternoon we looked around the Grand Canyon village.
Oh, Daveb and Jack have just arrived, so I'll continue this tape some other time.
Wow, at last, I've got back to recording to you.
I was recording last on the 8 of July while we were waiting for Be and Jack and.
As you heard, they turned up, I'll get back to that later, but in the meantime I'll go back to.
The 7th of June when we arrived at.
Grand Canyon, That's right. the first day we were there, we met the she, isn't that, and we.
spent the day just getting organized at the Grand Canyon finding out all about its tremendous village, it's probably the largest tourist resort in the whole world, I should imagine.
The international tourists here just tremendous. Everything has translated into six different languages.
And.
It's really quite a place, the Grand Canyon itself is just magnificent, the sunrises and sunsets here are just really very, very beautiful.
We.
As I say, we got ourselves all familiar with the area and found out what was going on and what one could do, etc.
We discovered to go down to the bottom of the canyon one required a permit to stay overnight. it it never used to be necessary but.
Therangeer was telling me when I was down there that when it was just free for all on one occasion they had there's a camp at the very bottom of the canyon called the Bright Angel camp and on one occasion they had a thousand people stayed there over one night who said the first thing to give up was the lose and it took them weeks and weeks just to repair the damage, not done deliberately but just the vast number of people just the damage is very great.
So, we.
Decided that there was no way we were leaving there without going down to the bottom of the canyon. And, of course, having the children with us, it would have been quite a strenuous walk for them, And we wouldn't have enjoyed it. Our. So we decided we'd have to go down individually.
And.
So it meant that we had to get up really early the following morning and get them waiting for tickets because they retain just 10 tickets for people to collect each day.
At all, the.
The national parks and state parks, they have campfire talks in the evening and all kinds of things to do. We went to the camp Fire talk that evening. It was on the B Canyon, a guy Rangerhead.
Put some sidess together with the Grand Canyon suite, which was a really, very pleasant evening.
We also went and watched the San Francisco sidewalk astrologers it was quite fun Maitland was satturn and we saw the moon and some galaxies and so on it was really quite fun and they tell you a bit about astrology while you're there the canyon itself it she is size and beauty it's simply phenomenal.
It's really just terribly hard to explain.
The feeling that you have when you're there, the temperature was very nice there too it's a nice, comfortable 80. However, it's not so quite so pleasant down at the bottom.
However, we moved on.
Thursday, the 8th of June, John got up terribly early and waited for these tickets that we required to got up at five o'clock, the place doesn't open till seven but by quarter past five it was about 10 other people in line, so we were lucky.
He got out a goods end.
We went about enjoying the canyon for the day. we went along and watched the mule trains set off which are really quite fun. The mules are terribly expensive to take down there. It costs you about $50 or $60 to go down just for the day which is only halfway the mules can't go right down and back in a day, but everybody sit off looking all terribly terribly good and Ranger told us that there's one thing funnier than watching the mule train set off and that's watching it coming back again.
I really think that I would rather hike down there because the mules are really quite large animals, being quite a lot larger than donkeys, perhaps a little smaller than horses and they kind of go to the edge of the canyon and look over and I think I'd rather be on my own two feet than it' perched on the back of a mule.
And I think I'd rather have sore feet than I sawre as I'm not too sure, but however.
We buzzed around the canyon that day.
Shuttle buses which are free everywhere and they take you around one of the trips on the shuttle buses an hour and a half which goes around the west room and then they have feeder buses which take you to all the facilities and within the park, you know the camping facility shower, stores, general store post office and all the rest of it the kids thought it was marvelous because in all the national parks they have a five- cent refund on canirs so they spent their whole day looking for canirns and then piling on the shuttle bus and tearing down to refund them and buy things.
And.
That day.
We.
I went and bought my tram and boots that day because I didn't have any decent ones, so it was rather nice to to get them and we took the children.
We picnic and so on during the day.
And that night we took the children to an astrology talk and then along to watch the.
The asstrlogers again.
It's a lovely place to be in the evening at the Grand Canyon, people are always terribly friendly and we thoroughly enjoyed that day well the following morning Friday.
But I didn't really know what time John had gone I knew it was still dark but he got up terribly early, we got tickets to go down and stay down there Friday night and Saturday night well John got up terribly early and set off and he walked from the village itself where we were parked illegally I might add one isn't the camp and National parks outside of the camp grounds however theyre all terribly fullest few miles long at my aim in the morning so we went and for that too much so we just kept where we fear like nobody seems to mind.
And he walked to Yaee Point, which is where you start, which must be about five miles to begin with.
And I had breakfast with the kids and we decided to go on a geology walk, which was from this very Yaee point where John had set off in the morning, we drove down there.
And two guys yelled out in Yahoo and Car and I thought they can't be yelling at me I didn't know anybody here, but they were they and it turned out that John had droppedped over them in the middle of the night.
They were sleeping on the road or somewhere and he had trodden on them almost and I was chatting them for a little while and said to watch out for me in the day and their names were Craig and Patrick and they were from Boston and they were Im in Chicago they were great fun they ended up.
Coming on the geology walk with us and the miland had got blown over the edge and they bravely tried to get it, but one would be a crazy to attempt to try and retrieve a hat from over to the side of the canyon.
And they came and ate ice cream with us and they found's spent the whole day with us. they were really good fun.
The Craig was just like Sart with the children and he played and he stomped along with the kids on a foot each and so on and they really had a great time with them all day they were really sweet guys and they had to leave about 530 they were going across the desert so they'd stayed for the day so that they could travel across the desert in the evening and they gave me the scet with the Grand Canyons week when they left I was really quite delighted so hopefully we'll meet up with them again they want to meet us in Canada and go to a festival up there and Arts Festival later on.
So anyway, I'm sure we'll see them again.
So we spent the day with them and we went off to bed at night and then unexpectedly John arrived back about 1030 I wasn't expecting him because it's a terrible long way had'd gone down to Kenyon in the one day and I isn't recommend it because the heat down there is tremendous it's80 at the top but it's around about 10.
Yeah1110 at the bottom and the steep flying wipe is mis terriblyably fed, however, he got down there and decided that coming back at midday the next day it would be far too hot for me to go down then so he would come back that night and the cold of the evening to it is much easier.
So we drove down to Yaee Point so that I could set off the first thing in the morning while I left at 6am I went down the Kiab trail which is a trail about nine mile oh no some sorry, six miles down the Kabab trail it's very steep zigzags right down you sort of feel you' were going down through the ages is the different layers of earth change colour.
There is no water.
Stops on the way down and this track isn't advised for coming back up because of the lack of water stops and it's a great deal steeper it's six miles down that one compared with nine coming up the other way and with water stops so I was down there by about 830 in the morning and I had breakfast down there and then I went over to Phantom rannch which is a.
Typically American in that one John had warned me to take some money with me but one doesn't expect to find anywhere to spend money at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but sure enough there's Coca- Colla and hamburgers and all the usual fast foods and beer and anything you could wish to eat down there, there's a restaurant and bar and goodness knows what, and at Phantom Ranch they have like little bungalows for the people that come down on the mule trains to stop over.
And anyone else that quite often the raft trucks stop there and the people can sleep in the cabins as well.
So I sort of spent the day around Phantom Ranch and at Bright Angel Creek, people seemed to be smoking hassh was the most popular pastime, very common and very pleasant I met her.
Later I was talking to some girls most of the day, but it's so terribly hot when you first arrived down there you're not allowed to swim in the Colorado River itself it's terribly s and terribly dangerous and very cold but you can swim in the small creeks that lead into it and the bright Angel creek is nearby the camp so everybody swims in that the first time you get on it seems terribly cold but as the heat of the day draws on you just sit in there and cool off your feet.
There were some really hilarious people down there. There was a woman down there that must have weighed 20 stone if she was a pound, and John had told me about her, the Rangrs said.
 didn't know how he was going to get her out of there but you know he was really quite worried because people are getting lifted out all day long they find it's really easy going down of course downhill and when they get to the bottom they're pretty exhausted and they panic at the thought of getting back out again and so they cart them mountain helicopters No mules all day long and it's terribly expensive it's more expensive to take a mule out than a helicopter.
Because you have to pay for the mule to come down and back and for two days but it's over $100 to get a helicopter lift down and this woman also weighed over 200 pounds and the mules can only cope with 200 pounds so as far as I know she's probably still down there.
And.
I was.
Or about as evening came on a guy came along the river and he saidH you must be the kiwie bird, I thought gosh Bush Telegraph travels fast and it was a guy from Ta's Maine yeah Rob' his name was he has been travelling for four years and he was with a girl.
Well woman she would have been about 50 Robs 28 and they came from Woodstock, they were real sort of hubbbies and she was into astrology and all the rest of it she'd written a few books and stuff they were great fun there was another couple down there Rick and.
I reckon Kay, they were rum.
Oh rich and no Rick Caty were from Mississippi that's Rich and Vicky were from New York and they were great fun they actually came back up with me anyway we all had the evening together and we went over to the Phantom Ranch mainly to see Peter Fonder who was down there making a movie with the new Ch star that they Heaven in this country he looked slightly different from the days of E Rder with big Red beard and.
And a slightly porty stomach now.
But I gather the movie he's making is something to do with him winning a gold mine.
Of a gamble and he wins this girl as well and the gold mine but is sat in the Grand Canyon and he takes this young girl with him.
Anyway, so we saw all the film stars and so on and we had a drink in the bar which was all very active being Saturday night.
B.
You sleep on the floor of the canyon. You don't have.
' sorry.
Side, too.
Well I think I was up to tents or anything Yes you sleep out under the stars which is really rather nice although there is quite a lot of wind down on the canyon so things rattle around a bit all night and you keep thinking it might be a snake beside you or whatever but anyway you wake up pretty early too because as soon as the sun comes up so I sit off about five o'clock and.
Pooky and Rich left shortly after me and they caught up to me at Indian Gardens, which is about halfway up we had breakfast there.
And the first half of the trek up is relatively mild, but the second half is really quite tough going and that last mile is just.
One thinks the one will never get there, however, we were prompted on by rich who kept threatening the most gorgeous cocktails when we got to the top we got up there about 1030 qua to1 only to find that the Arizona lu on Sunday doesn't permit the pubs to wait until midday, so unfortunately we had to have set off of coke and ice creams.
So they also when we got to the top some bright guy was looking for people to go down and bring up 50 pound packs for the film team that were down there and they offered you 64 to bring up a 50 pound pack, the joke went so they could go take a mule.
Anyway we leap onto a strattle bus and tore down to the showers and got all cleaned up and spent the rest of the day lying under the trees just chatting with everyone it's really quite a pleasant day John and the kids were all okay and had been having a great time tearing around the canyon.
But really that the hike down the Kenyon is quite an event it's really.
Great deal of farmamine. and well worthwhile.
You know, really is the ultimate in seeing the Grand canyon. you really feel there' a few.
You've done it I think that the most wonderful thing would be to take a raft trip down people seem to be having such a great time on the raftrops it really would be a thrill. Well, on Monday the 12th of June was Rachel's birthday of course, and Rick and Vicki who had come back up the hill with a gorgeous Vicky was quite an artist and shed drawn made a handmade card with the drawing of the Grand Canyon and Rachel's name on the Grand Canyon and on the card was wishing her a very grand Canyon birthday and they gave her a beautiful never her necklace was.
Caaled ivory sort of birds on it, which really is rather sweet. She was just delightedlighted. so we all had breakfast together.
And.
We all went in our various directions, ours happened to be to bedrock to see the Flintstones, which of course the kids were delighteded with actually Flintstone or bedrock or whatever it's called is not all that marvelous but you it's a bit of a commercial wrecker.
We then went on to a place called Williams. and we had dinner a place called Kingdom in the heat that was increasing again. It was starting to get pretty hot. We got to ho dam.
And.
About 7,30 yeah it was 95 degrees at 9 o'clock at night, so we decided we'd stop at Lake Mead, which is a reserve there, now men made lake through the Hoover dam of course, and we camped at a at the campground there which was very, very pleasant had lovely trees and flowers and things camp and swam there the lake was lovely and cold and fresh.
So we had a swimman down.
To it easy for a while and the heat you really just can't do anything if you're so lazy and so worn up. so on Tuesday the 13th it was terribly hot again so we just relaxed and swam in the morning.
And.
Really quite enjoyed being there.
And.
Set off for. That's right. We went and had a look at Hoover dam.
 wentnt over Hoover dam, just a very, very large dam, of course, and quite interesting.
And then we set off for Las Vegas, well.
We were going to take a motel, because.
 of any of the places in the states, the cheapest motels in the whole of the country must be at Las Vegas. Everything is really cheap there. food motels, drink, everything, of course, all do.
Get you to get into the casinos however we discovered that we could park up back of the silver slipper casino absolutely free and with security as well and that there was no point being in the casinos all night in half the morning as well there was no point in taking the motel or anything up with cooler or more pleasant in the casinos.
So we had our first sort of taste of Las Vegas, Las Vegas has to be the most brilliant sparkling city in the whole of the United States that is just full of neon signs and glittering shining buildings magnificent.
Luxurious, overdone buildings.
We had our first free meal after midnight, you get all these breakfast steak and eggs, they serve you after midnight, all the free breakfast and things, of course are between midnight and 6 am you can have three or four and a night if you really want to at the different places we went and the silver slipper casino was very nice we went there and we toured around a few of the others.
It's been half the night I mind you and lost a few showings, nothing too serious, but.
You know, it was really quite family. it's impossible to stop gambling, of course. And it's just as impossible to to win anything.
The next day we went on the 14th of June, we went to circus Circus Well, this is probably the best casino with children because they have a it's an enormous casino very, very.
Beautiful one, really and.
They have a complete floor which is devoted to children's games which of course costs the money, you know side show things very really good prizes, you huge pink panthers and things like they're quite good value but of course you can spend plenty and the children can stay on that floor and from 11 am in the morning until midnight they have every half hour have fantastic big top performances.
All kinds of things from riding bicycles in every possible conceivable manner from dog shows, performing poodles to you know the high wire then loose wires and every wire.
And all kinds of entertainment, absolutely free, which as long as you aren'.
Persuaded to go downstairs and start gambling in the casino.
Its a very, very good deal. The children thoroughly enjoyed it. So we spent the whole day there. while Maitland met the sweet guy. His name was Chuck, and Chuck was the sweetest little kid as parents were on their way to Alaska. They were in the Air Force and.
They were staying in circus circus, which is a pretty expensive hotel to be staying and and middle Chuck, he was 12. this saw him there for two days. he must have had a par of dough because he' had been winning all these soft toys and we never laid eyes on his parents once in the two days and chuck you know following it round them he was spending money madlyley. well, first of all he gave meland.
A little soft toy. And the next thing he came back with an even bigger one. And, of course, Rachel didn't have one. And both the children wanted to try and do these sideshow things to wooden prizes. Of course for Rachel one was the prize. I you shouldn't have a hope in hell of winning it. So we had this brainwa that chuck was such a great shot with a water pistol. you fire a water pistol into a clown's mouth and the balloon blows up and you have to beat the other 10 people or whatever. So we gave Chuck a quarter and he' won. And we gave him another quarter. and he won. and he wouldn't Rachel a toy exactly the same as the one he'd given meatland. So all was happy..
He was a cute little kid and we sort of spent Maland had got quite friendly with them and we spent sort of a couple of days with him we had lunch at the silver birdd which was another casino across the road food here is incredible you know for a couple of dollars you can just eat then eat and eat and meat they're all small was boards and this most incredible desserts and kids quite enjoyed being able to eat just what they liked.
And.
That night we visited many other casinos, the Jolly trolley and we had breakfast a couple of times that night, I think John and I the cast away and I think we finished up at oh I think the casino that Howard Hugh owns or one of them owned and we had a breakfast at about 4amm.
When that did a sort of thing for the whole of the next day.
We thought we saw some follies that night and a couple of strip shows and you can go to there's all fabulous entertainment of course, but most of us pretty pretty well you know probably quite reasonable really but for about $15 ahead you can get a couple of cocktails in a show was you know really top performer there was all kinds of people who was there old Libchi was there in a 40 there was 40 people in Hashire really would like to have seen that and.
ho's the dancer. Mike can't think now there was the very good dancer there well known one.
And the only person that I would like to have seen had he been there was Sammy Davis, but unfortunately wasn't there at the time.
So boy, we got to bedroll late that night.
H.
Anyway, so that was so much for casinos you can spend an awful lot of money and casinos it's actually I quite enjoy watching the crap tables and the Roette wheels it's where the really big money changes hands, it's just incredible how much money changes hands and the wealth that's there but I gather that they make the most money out of the dimes lot machines.
Anyway, on the Thursday, the 15th we back to Ccus Ccus in the morning and saw some of the acts that we hadn't seen the day before because they change every half hour and there is a terrific variety.
And we left Las Vegas about2 o'clock that day and we drove through extreme heat again, Las Vegas is just so hot, it's incredible to find such an oasis in the middle of a desert it really is to a place called over to the National Park.
And there's a beach there.
We had a swim and spent the afternoon there trying to call off and in the later part of the afternoon we drove on to St George in Utah that was just crossing the border into Utah we had dinner at a very nice park there and we'd been in Utah about two minutes we met the first Mormon who of course after 10 minutes conversation with my hand and said my dear you've met a Mormon and I felt like'd saying well I thought it was about a 99.9% child that you were one and gave us the rundown on the whole.
Deal bring a man and all does that now, I think.
We didn't stop there, we moved on that night.
Yeah.
Or did we would we stay aspect.
Yeah.
Well, that's right, we moved on towards Zion National Park and we came just short of Zion that night.
This was the beginning of Utah, 90% of Utah is owned by the government because it's mostly national parks, there's very little else there and so we moved on design first thing in the morning.
And.
On Friday the 16 of June that track got design.
Which is a very, very nice.
Canyon.
Very picturesque. lots of cottonwood trees and.
Little sort of cabins and.
It's got sort of multicoloured gorgeous and it's really quite spectacular. This canyon's nice and that youre at the bottom of it. And instead of as Grand Canyon are at the top and look down this one youre in the bottom and there's a lot more trees and things. and you look up at the very steep cliffs around you.
We had most of the day there by a river which was very, very nice these incredibly steep.
Cls around you.
We were thankful for a little bit cooler weather than in Nevada where it really was extremely hot.
There was a, oh we had to go through a tunnel at Zion, which is a mile long, It's an un tunnel and it's quite interesting. Then you travel through a magnificent canyon called the Red Canyon.
And it was really red, you, really quite brilliant red, the scenery changes so dramatically from one place to another, you know, quite often it's not terribly many miles, but the complete.
 geographiceographic shapes and colour and the whole.
Areas are just so different from one another.
That night, we stopped a Bryce canyon.
And.
Bryce really we got there quite late at night so we didn't see much that night I think we went to the campfire to talk or something and then on the Saturday morning we walked through Bryce now Bryce is really super it's a very, very small canyon compared with some of the others but very very pretty it's all pinkish and it has the most unusual formations and there is one called the Queen Victoria and really it's almost as though it's the statue of Queen Victoria in Courtney Place or Cambridge Terrace standing there so so lifelike.
Very, very pretty.
Canyon, indeed.
Almost like fairyland yeah that's just what it looks like fairyland or we spent the day there and then we left for archers which was quite a long trip through the mountains and we went over a dirt road through a place called Boulder.
And.
Through that.
Capitol Reef National Park.
We stopped there, oh yes, this is Ka, we stopped at Capitol Reef National Bar for a little while there a wee schoolhouse there, it wasn't originally a Mormon settlement and I think a peak this little schoolhouse had about 10 students.
And.
There was a girl employed by the rangers who to sit in the school all day and there was the we desks that used to be there in the old days and she had gras and pencils and the children stopped for a little while and did some colouring.
And it was quite intriguing the old maps that we used to have at school that rolled down one sort of waxy looking things, was one on the wall and it was half down and it was a picture of Australia.
 we were intrigued, I rushed over and pulled it down a little further and New Zealand was on it as an inset and it was quite funny to look at it it was an old Rands McNally map they're very famous mapmakerrs in this United States.
Very old company and quite a lot of the names spellings were wrong, you know hook ticker and some of the original.
Bigger places in those days were the spellings were quite wrong.
And.
It was quite an interesting little incident.
As, that's right.
Went on and spent the night at Archers and so that we could take the trails the next morning down the ground that was the first time we came across a snake kidsd were delighted to see a snake, I don't know that it was terribly poisonous or anything but to my delight.
Sakes don't chase you.
People chase their eye together and the snake tore off as fast as a could go.
Ars National Park is just once again this complete change of.
Of scenery, it's fairly bare and sort of a place and these arches are just enormous they you stand under them and it just makes you feel so small they're intriguing they have windows and sort of porthole they've all got names and things of course.
Really, yeah.
Incredible sight. They're just enormous natural.
Aes.
From there.
We moved on through Moab, which is a big centre for the beginning of or end of ra troops's rafting is big.
Really big time here everybody goes on raft trips it's really quite a thing to do you know they all get geared up and all the right gear and tear off down on raft trips for weekends it's a lot of fun.
And we got to a place called Monteello.
And.
 Monticello was strangely still on Utah and we needed some groceries and there was nothing open in the most unlike the states, but because it's Utah of course in Mormon, it was being a Sunday there was very little open and we crossed the border.
And.
As soon as you reached the border, of course, there was 24 hours supermarket markets and goodness night once he stopped the place court.
And.
What was that.
Ctes.
Did our shopping and there we met a guy on a girl on the garden and a motorbike yelled out to us and he turned out to be he saw our New Zealand flag on our camp and he was from New Zealand from Christch and Di, Pete and Di. the names were she was from Australia and we chatted to them for quite a while and as it happened, they were heading for Mesa Verdy, the National Park, which we were also heading for and so we did meet up with them again.
We got to severe Ver and cleaned up and spent the night, you at a block of motels or something or other we camp any legal.
And.
There was on the Sunday night.
On Monday the 19, we got an early start of the bus to with.
Where there's rock.
Twiings, Indian Indian ones. there these are the best ones we actually we really saw right. think there are.
Very well preserved and being very high upon the mea.
We met a guy from New York there who was most informative and we had done for quite a while. he'd done a lot of tu, and he was actually a guide for a greyeyhound tour with all these people on board, got back onto the bus. they must have told that we were from New Zealand well and the bus stopped and half the people leaped off to say hello to us and a couple had just come back from New Zealand and Noee, they jumped up and down the whole busway could back to us it was really quite funny. We met up with Pete and Di again and.
I just spent the afternoon with themme.
And on that day, I meet a guy called Rob who was an architect from Denver and he was actually with some friends and they had all had Honda motorbikes. Americans have everything for recreation. These were just for hospital sort of weekend away, great big Stephen and 50s they were, but they're so cheap here.
And he said, I know must go see in Denver. So we got his number and everything. And that afternoon we.
We went back and had dinner hours.
Peter and I and chatter with them and they got ready to camp for the night and we set off at the ghost the Springs quite late at night. we camped actually just out of durango.
En on the Tuesday morning.
A we.
Yeah, we had breakfast at Durango and we moved on to Pegosse Springs was to go back and see Mark and Donna and he Mark being the son of.
Poor mans, Karen Pannaus uncle, whom we'd stayed with in Los Alamos. Well, we got to. They were in a mess in Los Alamos because they were moving house and getting married the following Saturday. But boy in Los Alamos was nothing on Pegosa Springs. They were't one holy bloody shambles. Theyd finally got married the following Saturday, but the house was half finished and you know, it really wasn't terribly beput, but it was quite strange because.
When we were looking for their house, they lived where the held because the Springs is a pretty small place anyway. And they lived, you know, some 20 miles out about long a dirt road. And and it was difficult to find their house because there was no numbers or anything. And agar came along in a pickup up truck and we waved them down. And he said, well hi there. And we asked if he knew them and he did. And he pointed out where they lived. And he said to Rachel.
 you. And she said, I'm 7. And he said, he said, I've got a seven year old. you know, he said back home. He said, actually, I've got a whole bunch of kids back home. He said, we've got horses on a waterhole. He said, and we've got lots the farm animals. He said, you know, why don't you guys come over.
And so I said to him well I don't think we'll be staying here long with these people because I knew that the newlywes wouldn't be particularly good come in and I said, you know will you be home this afternoon he said yeah come right over or he said, you know come and meet Morty, wife's name was Morwty, his name was Larry.
Larry and Mauy, well, we got to the farm. The children were both asleep in the camp.
And.
The goats greeted us that apparently, they've got a friend that brings over some rubbish for the goats to eat. And they've got a  Volkswagen also And the goats thought we were, whoever they were. And the goats descended upon us. The goats were all named. by the way, there was long fellow and Keats, and they were all named.
Anyway, the children, as I said, were asleep. So I opened the door of the camper and the goats got inside while Maitland was just a at the heightest reach when they woke up to these goats in the camper. They couldn't believe their eyes. Well it turned out that Larry and Morty, who were just fabulous people. They had this farm. And they had all these goats. And they had a horse and the donkey and couldn't not suppose what else and farm animals. Of course, dogs. And they had three children of their own. And two welfare children.
A friend staying with two other kids and the four of us. And they were so friendly. we had to stay for dinner and.
All the rest of it, Larry was ne he drank Buweisr, which is a beer here all day long.
Even when he took you out in his pick truck, which he everybody drives at about 65, constantly even in down dirt tracks, Larry took half a dozen bottles of badweisr with him and drank the whole time when he was driving along. It was a real scream.
Anyway, actually Mauty's father is a state senator and I can't imagine that he approves it the way that she lives on the farm but however she's obviously she's from back East, everybody's from back east.
She's living very heavily on this farm.
And they were just marvelous. And we had some really good food there. just not fast food for a change. Everything was homeade, lovely muffins and all kinds of things and all kinds of fun. And they had a very basic sort of a house. you know, outdoor loo and all the rest of them. the kids thoroughly enjoyed staying there.
We ended up staying.
For a couple of days, it was really fun we talked and talked and talked into the night. They were very interesting. and they knew a lot about Indians and so on. actually, the area where they live at Pagosa Springs. It on the little Navajo River.
And the particular valley they live in a very, very lush valley, good growing there's only been two farm sold in 20 years they're mostly owned by Spanish people and theirs was one of them that were sort lucky to get gun thing the land doesn't change hands very much.
Anyway, the next morning, we had a fabulous breakfast of dozens of pancakes. You and the children can eat anything after such pancakes for breakfast with Mount Morordi had real maple syrup.
And she really looked after us terribly really well and that day Larry Dr John and I up to the high country and we walked trails so we went three or four miles into the mountains and.
They hi we drove a long way up into them and then we walked from there and the mountains are really beautiful wild flowers and animals we haven't seen any bears, but they're all there, of course.
Andand this the had a very heavy snow falls this year, so the snow is still quite low on the ground.
And.
We got back quite late that night and.
We just all had to know discussed our different ways of life and.
The differences in countries and people and genuinely enjoyed their soul, the children all that evening, they all went down and visited.
A beaver, they've got beaver dams on their farm, so that was quite fun.
And read generally.
Had a great time with them, they're very, very special people.
On Thursday 22nd, we oh, you had great difficulty leaving the farm because it really was very sad we all had photos taken on we.
 reallyally terribly hard to leave them, we took fresh milk with us, which was very nice.
Because all the milk here is separated, they don't have cream with the milk unless you buy half and half, which is hell longer expensive it something like 45 cents for a half a pie.
And that's.
TheHa and half is about equivalent to what we get, you know, in the milk bottle.
Well, we finally did get away and we went on to Buonena Vista.
Had lunch at Buonena Vista and then moved on to Colorado Springs.
There we called on the Smith people that we'd seen in San Diego had a sun there so we called on them we had a very pleasant few hours jettting with themre very helpful it's right it's quite nice to see someone when you first arrive in a place to you know get a quick general idea of what's the best things to see and so on we cut out most touristy sort of attractions and that night we camp not far from the Garden of gods which we wanted to go and see next morning and we were also anticipating going up Pikes Pe early because Pikes Peak is the highest road in.
The United States, something like 12,000 feet.
But it's often covered in cloud. and of course, there's not much pointing going up afoots like that. So the following morning, it was a little bit cloudy, and we decided not to bother. it cost you quite a lot to go out there. It's a tall road. And I you're going to see something It's hardly worth it just to say you've been to well, I guess it's with it say you've into the highest road in the country. but anyway, we decided not to we spent the evening near this garden of the gods. And we toured the following morning.
We went all around the Piike's Pe area this is where Father Christmas loves and makes all his toys supposedly. That's what they advertise It is. It's a very touristy place, Colorado Springs.
There's a good deal to see. But many of the things there are like wax museums, things like that. they're crazier, but.
Oh that's his name Wow Bill Hecock, things like that, but the only for the tourists are kind of expensive visiting they're okay if you're on a couple weeks holiday and want to fill on a day or two, but they're not really necessary.
We went to Menaou which is near that area and there's many tourist attractions there and had a look around so generally a through pteria later on that day we on to the United States Air Force Academycade at Colorado Springs the chapel there is really war worth seeing itss magnificent stained glass who's fantastic and gather its the only the top part of the chapel as the Protestant part and the bottom part has got the Catholic and the leading through from the Catholic church.
 is the Jewish synagogue, apparently the only place in the world where youll find a Catholic Church in a Jewish synagogue but join en act to one another.
Well, we toured the academy which is really quite a place and then we left for Denver and picked up our mail.
Yeah which was great fun and we just got there entire time actually the American Express Company closed but they reopened just to give me the mail and when we arrived there we called Rob that were Rob Robs and we'd meet at.
Mesa Verde. And he was just putting arms from Sshkaab's fis and said, hi, come round. So we were very delighted to attend dinner party. Rob has a condominium.
In Din though which is very, very nice, he's got what's called a Bachelor condominium which is just a very large one bedroom study affair but it has a lounge dining room, kitchen and lots of little outdoor areas and things very very nice.
So that was the Friday night, the 23rd on the Saturday, the 24th we went into the city, had to register for the conference.
Yeah.
And I was sitting in the middle of the Hilton Hotel, Am midst.
Male and tears to find that Beverly Bennet rushed up to me, which made me feel even more tearful seeing the first person from New Zealand, but anyway was all very nice, so.
I registered for the conference and just sort teed up, you know, a few things for the next day and stuff. And in the meantime, John came back to pick me up and he had found a thingwood spree, which was marvelous. That was at a high school.
And it was an arts festival, which they have every year in Denver. And all the artists don at their time and effort for nothing. And there was things just happening all day. Rachel spent the whole day with an artist, who was a sculptor marble. and he had marble out for the children. And he showed them what to do. And she was just absolutely wrapped and spent the whole day chiselling away a piece of marble. turned out that John became quite friendly with him and they spent.
Quite a lot of time together get over the next week.
But there was all kinds of things at this place. They had, you know, miming is terribly.
Popular here and they had lots of mis People just sort of do their thing anywhere at any time, any place, just whatever they fancy doing that and.
And.
They had a children's area where the children could go and paint their faces up like mimes and all the paint and everything was all provided free. They were able to do those swirly painting pictures they swirl a thing around and pour paint on and they could make necklaces and all kinds of things like that. and they had puppet shows, everything free. It was just marvelous. there was fantastic gymnastic displays, and they had the Scots.
Scottish bands and all kinds of other musicians wandering around and all kinds of handcrafts and.
And things to do, it was just the every time we turned around, there was something further to do. And that night, they had an all free and open air jazz concert with some very, very well known jazz artists playing, and they had an ear balloon.
Oh gee, it was just a a really fantastic place you could spend the whole day with no trouble at all.
.
Yeah, I met some kiwis that night that were living here in Denver.
They called out to us, said,H.
On the Sunday morning, we swam we were still staying at Robs at the condominium. so we.
All the condominiums have their own swimming pools and pool rooms and laries and you name it they've all got it and it's all free because you pay when you live at the condominium you have all these facilities available to you so we swear all morning and in the afternoon John dropped me off and I attended the first session of the conference.
Which was familiarization.
And this time, as.
Thank for for his time and so on. on just the general.
General pattern of what was going to.
To take place, it was.
Quite an interesting orientation program, actually.
That only lasted a couple of hours and in the afternoon we had our district meetings, which Beverly Bennett, of course, being our district governor ran and all the Australians in New Zealanders met for the first time there was 46 people from Australia and New Zealand so it was really quite fun and of course I knew most of them because I knew all the girls from New Zealand but the Australians that had come over when we had the district conference in Wellington last year many of them had been to New Zealand to that so I knew most of the Australian.
 well so it was really quite a reunion.
 that afternoon, oh yeah, Cherry Raymond and Anne Mellonson and I all went out that night, we went to Duffy's Bar, which was quite fun just across the road from the Hilton.
It was really good to see the Aussies New Zealanders again and John and the kids went off back to the sp thing again, they had another whole day there they just loved it and then John had got friendly with this artist guy and I think they went to his place or some friends of for dinner that night and the kids belonging to go back simply to paint up their faces again.
Well it was a weep bit of a problem being in Denver because the conference was starting early in the morning and pretty late and finishing every night with the social events and parties and so on and so forth so An Manson was staying at the Hilton Hotel so.
I managed to squeeze them of hair and there.
That night they had the opening ceremony, which was a very elaborate affair, was very, very nice.
Ha started off with the flags from every country, 47 and all. and that was a very moving.
Start to a conference I thought and then they had the national anthems of the United States in France and France being of course because our international prison at this time as a Frenchwoman.
Well had general, you know, the usual welcoming thanks from mayors and.
One person another, but the key address was from T Thompson she's Secretary of State for the state of Wyoming an honorary member of the Cheyenne Club.
I was a little unimpressed with her.