Meteorite Crater - Arizona

Located 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, my family and I visited this meteorite crater in 1979. The crater is 550 feet deep and 4000 feet across. I beleve this makes the circumfrence of the crater around 2 1/8 miles! I remember the drive was long, and as you can see from the picture, the surrounding landscape on the way was barren desert. The metorite that crashed there, probably around 50,000 years ago, was full of nickel and iron, as evidenced from smaller meteorites imbedded beneath the hole.

We made this side-trip on our way out to Pomona, Ca. to visit my now deceased aunt Daisy. There were adobe brick houses, cactuses, tumbleweeds, big starry night skies, hot dry weather in the day, and cool, chilly nights once we got to Arizona.

I have often joked my family were the subjects for the Chevy Chase movie 'Vacation', wherein Chevy's family passes through St. Louis on their way out to 'Wally World'. This is the route we took as well, and yes, my dad made sure we all understood the Arch truly was the 'Gateway to the West'! And yes, we did go to Wally World (Disney).

Just as funny, we were driving in a 'not new' station wagon. Four kids and two adults, listening to eight tracks of Floyd Cramer and 1001 Strings and songs about the C.B. radio with nothing else to entertain ourselves but the view and each other.

As we were driving, my mom would offer interesting tidbits such as 'look kids, there's a house', or 'look out to the left, I saw a dead deer'! Basically anything to keep us from having to stop to use the restroom (again) or begin to nitpick at one another.

This was the longest trip my family and I took together. We spent three weeks driving out to Californa from Indiana. If there was a sign that said 'World's Largest Ball of Twine', we slowed down so we could get the directions to this wonderful roadside attraction.

The thing that still impresses me most about going out West is, you don't know just how big the Country is until you drive across it! Having been raised east of St. Louis, all I knew was farmland interrupted by towns and cities. I didn't know, until we drove out West, that you could drive for 500 miles and not see a thing except for the sun in the beautiful big sky and the incidental landscape, which always proved interesting.

I hope to someday take Dylan and Mary on a roadtrip out West so the two of them can see how big and beautiful the country really is!

Huber Winery and Twin Swamps Nature Preserve

Tomorrow, we are going to Huber Winery and Farm. We are going to pick out a pumpkin, buy some apples and tour the farmland. We might even pick out a seasonal wine to bring home.

They have a nice restaurant to eat at and the drive out 64 should be nice as it is supposed to stop raining and the sun is supposed to come out.

This will hopefully be a way for Mary, Dylan and I to kick off our Fall season together. We plan on attending North Huskies and Harrison High School football games. We will not have to rake leaves this year, as our maple tree bit the dust in a storm a few years back. Also, the mowing is more infrequent now, so the yardwork is winding down for the year.

We are concentrating on things to do closer to home, as we don't plan on taking any big vacations for at least a couple of years. One place, recommended to me by a friend, we want to visit is the Twin Swamp area in Posey County. It is home to 500 acres of protected land managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. In one swamp area, there are Bald Cypress trees, relatives of California Redwoods. The other swamp is home to the Overcup Oak, so named for the shape of the acorns it produces. We plan on doing this some time in the spring, as the land will surely by too flooded and muddy for our tastes this fall.

The image at top shows a field filled with Virginia Bluebells, just one of hundreds of wildflowers growing in the preserve.

Poem One

These are the times

The Sun has moved to the south
And the breezes are now winds
The Moon takes it's place in the sky
and the Stars move in their paths through the night.

These are the times
When I am separated from you
my mother, my father,
but now I am Father who has his son.

From six to three, my new family,
Husband Mother Son
The primal three who honor you in our Peace
Who remember you in the blood of our veins.

Over the piano your picture hangs
but most, your image is completed in our hearts
How could I ever forget your face?
Your loving arms, your kind advices?

I see the echos of mannerisms,
of words spoke from the fathers heart,
the son's soul,repeats your actions to me in time.
Is there any difference from son to father?

What you began continues in me
and in him and will continue on
from this generation to the next
the same actions, stories, myths and truths
transmitted by voices over the times

And I then will be grandfather,
one in the great chain
I will look to my son
and see the man you see now in me
And I will say 'it is good' and most,
will know it's good
And the memory will continue on in it's Peace.