I never knew cold until I traveled to Europe after Chuck and I travelled to Europe with friends from Barry University in Miami. I might have known cold before I was 2, but after that it was sandy beaches and palm trees in Miami! I remember sitting in my underpants in the sand, my little toes curled up and the water of the beach curling up and getting me wet! Hot, hurricanes, green grass. But wait! This trip has taken us through the sandy deserts of I-10 Texas to the deepest reaches of the Grand Canyon in her rosy splendor. The Grand Canyon is a massive, big crevasse that was carved (a long time ago… 14 million years ago?) by receeding water. The area is now water starved. Visitors are begged not to use too much water and not to touch the water in the toilets! Recycle is the name of the game. Our Grand Canyon 5 day visit rewarded us with many amazing rosy and golden views, art work painted on the rims, music played in the Shrine of the Arts… It was wonderful! Then we drove north to Kenab and the amazing Peek a boo canyon! Narrow pink sandstone is still carved by waters that rush through the canyon after a heavy rain. Tree trunks stick in the canyon walls, bourne into the canyon and stuck in the roof. “They’ll be gone after the next rain,” confidently said our guide. I’m looking up at a dark tree trunk stuck in the rust colored colored ceiling. “Wow!” I repeat, taking a clue from my Grand Canyon vocabulary. Mountains, 5500 feet deep canyons, pink rocks, rosy and golden rocks abound in the Grand Canyon area. Head north!
As we travel north, I imagine the woman out on the prairie. She gets out of that covered wagon and stretches out in the deep grass surrounded by nothing but grass, wind, and sun. Maybe a herd of Bison wanders by, their grand furry coats rustling with the wind. The woman is alone with her thoughts. Will Cather imagined the woman’s words and wrote them down in her novels. At the Grand Canyon, the flautist at the concert read from a Willa Cather novel… Imagine what the woman speaks!
As we drive north to Yellowstone, a green river accompanies us and fishermen in small open boats cast their lines into the muddy, cold rainy afternoon. Houses dot the hillsides and cows hang out on the sides of the hills. Old Faithful hisses and roars and gets us wet! The tetons touch the clouds. We sleep in a tiny cabin in the woods near giant Yellowstone Lake. We wrinkle our noses at the stink of sulfer at the mud volcanos and geysers, and we drive on, accompanied by Bison walking along the road with us! Leaving Yellow stone, we enter Montana, land of snow-topped mountains, and we drive along tiny country roads to visit my Assumption student Cathy Sholtens in a sweet farm area in western Montana. We start at the beginning when I taught the Assumption girls in 1974, and we come forward to the beautiful home Cathy and wife Becky have built. Two very happy black dogs stretch at our feet and welcome ear scratches. The girls help us plan the drive north to Glacier National Park. The journey continues.