Grand Canyon Family Trip 2016, Part Four in Travels with ConnieK

In the afternoon, we visited the Planes of Fame air museum. The museum has 150+ aircraft displays and is a walk through history. The members hold periodic air shows (1st Saturday of each month) and members can enter a raffle for a chance to fly in a vintage plane.

(That’s my youngest…he has his pilot’s license and loved this place)

(My eldest and his girl)

Looks like Jeb found a new job after his unsuccessful run for President:

Mohammed Ali flew on this plane:

After that, we toured the rest of the west rim, including Hermit’s Rest.

Duck Rock. It’s supposed to look like a duck. I can see it, my husband, not so much. See that vertical crack in the rock ledge underneath? ALL the rock cliffs look like that from the side. Only you can’t see it when you’re actually ON the cliff, unless it has split all the way through. The weather had turned cold (in late August!) and as I sat in the car waiting for my sons to be done with exploring, I look up to see my youngest backing up on a cliff very much like the one under the duck rock so that eldest could take his picture. They were too far away for me to yell, but I watched my son backing up on a cracked cliff that hung over an abyss. Keep in mind that it’s been about a year and a half since we lost Nick to thyroid disease. Even my youngest commented that the rock looked dangerous when you looked at it from the car’s angle:

The Colorado River is constantly cutting deeper into the Grand Canyon, absorbing smaller tributaries, eroding softer rock layers, undermining harder layers. The river’s power fluctuates with the season and over time. At the end of the last Ice Age (12,000 years ago), the river is estimated to have had ten times the force it has today:

We returned to the hotel and I did a load of laundry. As I was putting clothing away, I felt something in a side pocket of our suitcase. It was Nick’s last paycheck. I’d told his cousin to keep it, but he slipped the cash into the suitcase at some point, I guess. We cried buckets. I’d been missing him that day, wishing he was with us. I’d asked God for a sign and saw a half rainbow of almost glowing colors and had thought maybe that was his stairway to heaven, but the paycheck was also a sign. I truly believe they stay nearby and only the veil of death keeps us from seeing those we loved. I gave some of it to the kids to gamble in Las Vegas and donated the rest.

I look forward to sharing my next entry. It will appear in a magazine in November. Oh, and I got word that I have my own column in the magazine!!!!