USA

(They finally dragged Dave himself to the keyboard)
July 6, 2006-- I had a couple of what Jack Handey calls "Deep Thoughts" today while driving east from Tuscon...

1. We visited Tombstone, AZ, this afternoon and, after touring the microscopic "main drag"-- Alan Street, such as it was; all of three short blocks long-- and winding up at the small (now, regretfully, enclosed) lot on the northeast end of the gravel street. I was impressed that the historically famous "Gunfight at the OK Corral" took place in this rather unimpressive little lot some 125 years ago. From what could be argued an accidental confrontation between denizens of opposite sides of the era's badly blurred line of good legal standing, lasting all of thirty clumsy seconds, virtually countless feet of movie-film stock and who knows how many hours of History Channel programming-- not to mention vertical feet of Time/Life books-- have ignobly sprung. Who hasn't heard of Marshal Wyatt Earp, his brothers and his eccentric pal, erstwhile dentist Doc Halliday? (More tellingly, who-- other than doctoral candidates, tour guides and Kevin Costner know the names of the alleged "bad guys" who lost their lives that day in 1881?)
Anyway, as I meditated on the gunfight, while driving on to El Paso, I kept coming back how often it seemed lasting moments of historical import were established instantaneously. Consider with me:
-- Those bare thirty seconds in Tombstone.
-- 102 minutes in Manhattan on 9/11.
-- A single step and pistol shot in Ford's Theater in 1865.
-- A mere (considering their impact) several hours on a shabby hillside in first-century Jerusalem.
-- A single articulated thought coming forth from the Father's mouth at time's very initial instant...

2. Anyone who still doubts God's credibility as the 'intelligent" Creator of the Universe need only take the drive east on I-10 from Phoenix to El Paso and I am confident that all doubt will quickly evaporate...

Guest Author tonight! (Nicole)
We are currently in Tucson AZ, and I am having a VERY hard time dealing with the fact that as of 8:15, it was dark :-(

So, the story with the fire truck missing from the parade yesterday...it was supposed to be second in the parade but apparently it got a call minutes before the parade started and instead of it going straight down the street, it turned and left us....(We were at the very start of the parade, so that is why we knew this). So, this parade...it is the "either you are in the parade or you are watching the parade" type of parade....People who live along the route have to rope off their yards a couple of days before the parade so THEY could use their own yards to view the parade. People actually had roped of sections of the public area as early as SATURDAY for a Tuesday parade! My thought was, heck, why even take them down each year! And lo and behold, this morning when we drove down Indian Hill, someone had set up chairs at the park, with a 2007 sign!

Today, we drove to Tucson AZ...it is amazing how fast you can get somewhere when the speed limit is 75 MPH. Only one night here and then we head to El Paso-where we are going to go to Mexico :-) We have a small frog outside our door at the motel...Mari is trying to get a picture of it.

Dave and Mari are giving me a hard time for such a long entry so I am going to call it quits for now.

Take care-
Nicole

PS-DAVE IS IN LOVE WITH TUCSON....

Well first of all happy fourth of July!!!! Hope everyone else's was as good as ours. First we went to the festival at Memorial Park, bought a Claremont board game that was loosly related to Monopoly, what a hoot. And then the main event was at four, the parade to end all parades, although it would have been better with the fire truck ! (You'll have to wait to figure that one out) We came home and had dinner with friends and family, including wonderful fried chicken and numerous salads. We just got home from watching the fireworks, we had tickets to actually go to the football field but we wimped out and just went to Memorial Park and watched from there. Whooo what a day and what an entry! Well, look for another entry tomorrow (maybe from a guest author ) but until then...

Happy trails,
Mari

P.S. Sorry Campbells (and the rest of the wild waves home group) but we will be unable to help teardown on the 10th, but you have fun and we'll think of you while we are in San Antonio! Oh and the picture should be at that link.

Sorry about the absence of update yesterday. When the Luxor charges a dollar for LOCAL calls we decided that we could wait to update until today. We had ALOT of fun in Vegas, but we walked ALOT! The heat was well, it was hot, about 105 degrees yesterday! Dad and I got to see the Chop Show which is a half hour infomercial done by Chop who owns Towbin Dodge in Vegas and is also the star of King of Cars on A&E on Tuesdays which was really exciting. We're in Claremont now and will be here until the fifth. Don't expect much update until the fourth. Oh and one last thing on the Vegas note, Dad saw Pete Rose which was apparantly the highlight of his life.

Happy Trails,
Mari

We're the King... of cars
we do's it large baby
Number one in the nation
and its not no mirage baby
-King of Cars theme song

P.S. Check out our pictures http://www.travellerspoint.com/my_photo_gallery.cfm

The last two days were a whirlwind. We weren't supposed to leave until today but dad and I wanted to get on the road so we packed extremely fast, left at about 9:30 on Tuesday night, and we got to Salem at 1:00 in the morning. Then we left this morning and we went all the way to Stockton. Tomorrow will be shorter than planned and that is great! LAS VEGAS OR BUST BABY!

Happy Trails,
Mari

Guest Commentator: Dave Doyal
AIR CONDITIONING IS GOOD!!!!!!

Coming soon: Pictures