Twins, Los Angeles, Sister, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon

We stayed one night at the hotel outside the Grand Canyon - we had a buffet dinner and breakfast. My grandson the pickiest eater in the entire universe even managed to find something good to eat.



Here is my little guy in the gift shop posing with an arrow (no - we did not buy it - are you kidding ).


He is such a ham. And I think he's pretty photogenic.

Got up early in the morning, had our breakfast buffet, and then off to a gun show. . .

. . . right before we got on the train.

We would soon be on our way taking the train into the Grand Canyon.

(Of course the good guys won.)

The grandson even got to ride the horse.

He loved that.

We got on the train - day 3 - and went to the Grand Canyon National Forest to spend the night.

Happy Birthday Susan Hayward - Wikipedia -

Hayward was married to actor Jess Barker for 10 years, and they had two children. The marriage was described in Hollywood gossip columns as turbulent. They divorced in 1954. During the contentious divorce proceedings, Hayward felt it necessary to stay in the United States and not join the Hong Kong location shooting for the film Soldier of Fortune. She shot her scenes with co-star Clark Gable indoors in Hollywood. A few brief, distant scenes of Gable and a Hayward double walking near landmarks in Hong Kong were combined with the indoor shots.

In 1957, Hayward married Eaton Chalkley, a Georgia rancher and businessman who had formerly worked as a federal agent. Though he was an unusual husband for a Hollywood movie star, the marriage was a happy one. She lived with him in Carrollton, Georgia, becoming a popular figure in a state that in the 1950s was off the beaten path for most celebrities. In December 1964, she and her husband were baptized Catholic at SS Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church on Larimar Avenue, in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, by one Father McGuire. She had met McGuire while in China and promised him that if she ever converted, he would be the one to baptize her.Chalkley died in 1966. Hayward went into mourning and did little acting for several years, and took up residence in Florida because she preferred not to live in her Georgia home without her late husband.

Hayward died at age 57 on March 14, 1975, of pneumonia-related complications of brain cancer, having survived considerably longer than doctors had predicted. There is speculation that she may have been affected by radioactive fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests[3] while making The Conqueror with John Wayne. Several production members, as well as Wayne himself, later succumbed to cancer and cancer-related illnesses. She was survived by her two sons from the marriage with Barker. Hayward was cremated and buried at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church.

I think when it was all over - almost everyone in that movie died with cancer. . .

Day 2 - Twins, Las Angeles, Sister, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon

Flying, renting the car, and driving to Las Vegas - took us the whole day. We had a buffet breakfast played some games and headed off to Williams, Arizona on the ridge of the Gran Canyon.

Day 2- It was about a five hour drive through the desert to Williams. The temperature went from the 100's in Las Vegas (even at night it only went to 92) to 113 degrees and then as we approached Williams - northern Arizona the temperatures turned more pleasant.

These pictures are some of the things we saw on our way to Williams. This is a teepee of course. There is a lot of Native American Indiana Culture out west -





This is a painting on the side of a bar - the only bar, tiny restaurant, and little store (bathroom) for miles!


This was a picture of a man hanging - he must have runoff without paying a bill - the man at the little store - carried a gun - he was dead serious about making sure no one ran off without paying. And if you used the bathroom - you had to buy something.

Or obviously he'd come after you!

Day two - we arrived in Williams, Arizona - we were going to stay one night out of the canyon and one night in the canyon.



The way there the new highway - every exit had a sign - Route 66 - I figured we were running kind of parallel to it.



Call me old but I love Nelson Eddy - I thank my mom for that - do you remember Naughty Henrietta - Ah Sweet Mystery of Life I Now I Adore You . . .

Happy Birthday Nelson Eddy - from Wikipedia

Nelson Ackerman Eddy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the only child of Caroline Isabelle and William Darius Eddy. His father was a machinist and toolmaker whose work required him to move from town to town. Nelson grew up in Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a boy, he was a redhead and quickly acquired the nickname "Bricktop." As an adult, his red hair was streaked with silver, so that his hair photographed as blond.

Nelson came from a musical family. His Atlanta-born mother was a church soloist, and his grandmother, Caroline Netta Ackerman Kendrick, was a distinguished oratorio singer. His father occasionally moonlighted as a stagehand at the Providence Opera House, sang in the church choir, played the drums, and performed in local productions such as H.M.S. Pinafore.

Eddy's parents divorced when he was 14, which severely traumatized him. Living in near-poverty, Eddy was forced to drop out of school and moved with his mother to Philadelphia, where her brother, Clark Kendrick, lived. His uncle helped Eddy secure a clerical job at the Mott Iron Works, a plumbing supply company. He later worked as a reporter with the Philadelphia Press, the Evening Public Ledger and the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. He also worked briefly as a copywriter at N.W. Ayer Advertising, but was dismissed for constantly singing on the job. Eddy never returned to school but educated himself with correspondence courses. He was bitter that his father refused to provide financial support after the divorce but in later years they had an uneasy reconciliation.

Los Angeles - Sister - Twins - Las Vegas - Hoover Dam

I am going to be posting some (a lot) of pictures from our trip - so you may get board - but it's a good way for me to remember and make some history.

We left from Atlanta Hartsville Airport - the busiest in the US. The minister jokes that even to go to Heaven y'all have to stop through Atlanta first.

I have had hip replacement so every time I go through the detector I buzz. IT drives me crazy. This time I had to go through a full body scanner.

We flew to Los Angeles - arrived about 1pm. Got to the car rental by 2. It took us 2 hours to get the car! Off we went to Las Vegas. We're staying the night at Sam's Town on the outskirts of Las Vegas. It was great - especially for the GS. It took uis about 5 or so hours so it was kind of late when we arrived. We looked around and went to bed.

In the moring we went to their buffet - it is one of the best buffets I've ever eaten at. Everyone loved it.

The GS could not get near the casino floor and we aren't really big gambers so we went to the game room. Had fun we played Deal or not Deal and had a lot of fun doing it.

At Sam's Town they have an indoor mall and waterfall. On the fall they had all sorts of animals which you know the GS loved. The lion is on top of the rocks.
They looked very realistic.


He was so happy.
There was a bear, a howling wolf, lion, cheetah, hyena and more. Every two hours they had a show with the waterfall, lights, and story telling.

Day 1 - a success.


Tomorrow on the way to


Happy Birthday to John Cusack - Wikipedia

Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish American Catholic family. His father, Dick Cusack, and siblings Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie are also actors; his father was also a documentary filmmaker,owned a film production company,and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack's mother, Nancy, is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in his belly".

Sorry not to much on him and not too many birthdays today either!

Twins VS Twins

Remember the movie Twins with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito?




My sister and I are not twins of course, but being together does remind me of this picture (and I am Danny by the way). While we don't look alike too much, raised with two different mothers, and they moved to LA in 1985 so we haven't been together much - it just boggles my mind how alike we are.

We joke that we are each one half of the same orange (?). We can finish each other's sentences, and what I find so incredibly odd (?) is that our feelings and reactions to life and others - exactly the same. Our cores are incredibly similar - and I am not saying that our cores are that great (lol) - but they are the same. She's a care taker, responsible, determined, strong - yet our brothers - are nothing like that - in fact they were the opposite.

We hurt the same, we believe the same things, we cry over the same things, the same things are meaningful to us - what blows my mind is how can we be so many years apart - live 2000 miles apart and end up being so dang similar.

And see her hair - curly? I didn't know - I thought she had straight hair - it's curly! And while you will always see me with straight hair - my hair is curly! I spend a lot of timing making it straight.

Are genetics amazing - GOD is so amazing. Life is amazing.



We went out to my dad's grave site and brought flowers - I had never seen where my dad was buried. She did a great job. My dad and mom died the same day -opposite coasts - within an hour of each other. So while I was burying my mom she was burying our dad. Weird huh? (Don't worry though - things are okay - just writing about a mystery in life I may never get understanding of).


So do you have anything like this or know any stories? Are you like your sister or brothers? Do you have any strange happenings? Would love to know.

Happy Birthday to Paul Newman!

Anyway it was Paul Newman's birthday today according to Wikipedia. His father was Jewish and his mother Christian Scientist. As an adult he had no formal religious ties. He was a great actor, good husband - married twice - I believe 5 children/good dad - and Philanthropist.

When I was younger my mom worked at Woodward Elementary School in Dekalb County, GA. It was named after the Woodward Family and I remember when Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward came to dedicate the school - many years ago.