FLAGSTAFF, May 2011

Gerri’s mother has two weeks of time share at the Wyndam Resort in Flagstaff, one in the spring and one in the fall. Her week for May this year started on Friday the 13th. We decided to join her on Tuesday the 17thand stay until Friday the 20th. We made arrangements for my mom, Glenna, to stay Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights with our son Curtis and his family. Dana, our daughter-in-law, picked her up after we left on Tuesday and brought her home on Friday

Tuesday May 17

We left Las Vegas at about 9 AM. Our plan was to stop in Kingman, AZ. to visit a friend in the hospital there. The route to Flagstaff is pretty basic, US 95 to Kingman and then I-40 to Flagstaff, a trip of about 260 miles with an estimated travel time of 5 hours. This route used to take us across the Hoover Dam, but no more. The new bridge, the Michael Callahan/Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, now crosses the river a little downstream from the dam. After passing what used to be the Gold Strike Inn, now the Hacienda, you are quickly on the bridge and there is no view of the dam from the travel lanes of the bridge.

What with city traffic it takes a little over two hours to get to Kingman. We went to our friend Joel Barez’s room. No Joel. An inquiry at the nurse’s station revealed he had been taken home for an evaluation in preparation for him going home. We called the house and his wife Sandy said they had just left and should be back at the hospital in about 30 minutes.

Joel and I went to the Clark County Sheriff’s Academy together in 1964. I stayed on after the consolidation of the Sheriff’s Office and the City of Las Vegas Police Department and retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 2000 after a total of 36 years. Shortly before consolidation Joel resigned the CCSO and went to work for the Las Vegas City Attorney’s Office. He later went to work for Don Laughlin at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin working up to International Sales Director, retiring last year. Joel has been a good friend over the years. He was very supportive of Metro in Laughlin and made friends with both Metro officers from many departments that we worked with in Laughlin over the years. Joel has had some heath issues over the last few years. He is in the hospital now being treated for multiple serious injuries suffered in a fall at his home. We should have known Joel would have the therapist go by a restaurant to pick up a non-hospital meal. It was about an hour before he got back to the room. We visited for over an hour, talking about old times, old friends and of course his injuries. Although he seemed in good spirits, the old Joel, he admitted he was a little depressed about his rate of recovery. He had several serious injuries including a broken hip, two broken ribs; injuries to his left knee and broken bones in his ankles. We did our best to cheer him up and assure him he was actually making good progress considering his injuries. He is now home from the hospital since our return from Flagstaff.

After visiting with Joel we continued to Flagstaff, arriving at Gerri’s mother’s time share at about 4:30 PM. After unloading and getting settled in we had a delicious meal with boneless pork chops prepared by Neva, Gerri’s mother. She only makes delicious meals.

We played a couple of games of Quidler before bedtime. This is a word game with cards that our friends, the Cavagnaro’s, introduced to us. We had played it with Neva while in Cabo San Lucas earlier this year.


Wednesday May 18

We woke up to a grey day with fast moving clouds. I went out for a nearby cache and got pelted with little hard pellets of snow being driven by the wind. It was muddy and cold so I gave it up. Back at the condo we watched the weather go by; alternating rain and snow, and being able the see the nearby San Francisco Peaks through the snow. Sometimes we could see the antennas on the top of Mt. Eldon, other time the whole mountain was obscured.

The weather continued that way all day, with the snow increasing in the late afternoon. We made dinner reservations at Black Bart’s. We had passed the sign for years when going east on I-40, but had never stopped. Neva had eaten there a couple of times; she has been coming to Flagstaff twice a year for several years.

We arrived at the restaurant during one of the heavy wet snow episodes. For those of you have never been to Black Bart’s; it basically a steak house, a very good one. In addition to the good food the wait staff sings musical numbers and floor shows during the evening. The wait staff is made up of students from the nearby University of Northern Arizona, mostly very talented music and theater students. We had a great meal. When we got there a large group from a tour bus were already seated, they took up four long tables. After they left and before we finished out meal, another large group came in.

When we left the restaurant it was snowing heavily, large wet flakes that were sticking to the car. Remember Flagstaff is at an elevation of around 6800’with higher areas around it, so snow isn’t really that uncommon in May. The drive back to the condo was interesting. With heavy snow falling and the car moving into it visibility was down. We were yakking and missed our off ramp. The next ramp, Walnut Canyon, was several miles east. When you exit the interstate here is a little less than a quarter mile to the crossover bridge, it wasn’t visible through the snow. Of course we got back safely and settled in front of the warm fire place.

The plan for tomorrow was a visit from Denise Barnhart and, Kyoto, Denise is a cousin of Gerri’s that lives in Sedona. Neva planned to serve a brisket and started preparing the meal before bedtime. We also played some Quidler before retiring.


Thursday May 19

The weather continued the same as the last two days. Sometimes it cleared and we could see not only nearby Mt. Eldon but the other nearby snow covered peaks. Our guests arrived at about 10 AM. After visiting and looking at photos of past family reunions, we had a delicious meal followed by more visiting.

After company left we had a leisurely afternoon with some more Quidler. The weather had pretty much cleared up by evening with the snow flurries and rain getting further apart.

Since checkout was Friday morning we started making preparations to leave by 10 AM. Neva’s packing is very organized with a place for everything and everything in its place.

We did manage to get a couple more Quidler games in before bedtime. During our visit we played a total of ten games, Gerri and I won four each and Neva won two.


Friday May 20

Departure day: Without rushing we were loaded up and ready to leave at about 9:30 AM. After fueling up it was on the road again. Neva packed snacks and drinks and only planned for a quick stop at the Petro station just east of Kingman. We also had snacks with us, but planned to stop in Williams to check out an RV park for a possible stop when we start out motor home trip in June.

We also wanted to stop at Hoover Dam and get pictures of the new bridge. The road approaching the dam from the east has all been redone and we thought we missed a turn to cross the dam itself instead of the new bridge. We crossed into Nevada via the bridge and followed the signs to the dam. Our first stop was a parking lot for walling onto the bridge. There is a plaza with information on the construction of the bridge there and along the walk up to the bridge. Unlike when driving across the bridge the walk offers spectacular views of the river and the downstream side of the dam. After taking pictures from the bridge we drove across the dam and got great views of the bridge. After crossing the dam we went on the way the road used to go. After topping the first hill we realized that we hadn’t missed a turn on the Arizona side. The road is closed and we had to go back across into Nevada to access US-93 on into Las Vegas.

Dana brought Glenna home during the afternoon so she was there when we got home

All in all a great trip, we visited family, saw new sights and had some interesting weather.

Now we have only one day to prepare for our annual trip to Carlsbad, CA. As usual Gerri has posted pictures of this trip on her Face Book page.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1902067004180.107876.1616875321