Richard E Kelly

My wife, Helen, and I celebrated our status as new Arizona residents by taking a 5-day, 1,300-mile mini vacation in order to feast ourselves on some of Mother Nature’s most scenic southwest canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rocks and monuments without going to the Grand Canyon or Sedona.

We started our journey on Sunday, June 13, and headed for Globe, a mining town so named because of a globe-shaped piece of almost pure silver found in the area in 1870. Several miles later, we were treated to a 30-minute drive through picturesque, 2,000-feet-deep Salt River Canyon. Here the colorful sedimentary rock layers are visible from the road for miles.

Then it was on to Show Low, elevation 6,500 feet, where Tucson Desert Rats like we’ve just become can escape the summer heat. Here you can bask under 100-foot-tall pine trees or fish for feisty trout in the pristine streams in the area, but this was not our destination for the day.

Our goal was the southern entrance—Rainbow Forest—of Petrified Forest National Park. And words can not describe the thrill of seeing so many brilliantly colored, petrified logs strewn over this first stop of what is a 93,533 acre park.

About 225 million years ago, these logs we could touch and see close up were giant trees clinging to an eroding riverbank before falling into a fast-moving stream that carried them to wet, swampy lowlands. They were finally submerged in water and buried under volcanic ash sediments rich in silica before time and Nature’s handiwork did its magic. Silica replaced the wood until the logs were virtually turned into stone, with iron oxide and other minerals staining the silica to produce rainbow colors.

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I started this blog with good intentions. I wouldn’t let two or three days pass without making a contribution. But then, my wife, Helen, and I left west Michigan on October 17, migrating south and west for the winter.

The first leg of our semi-annual migration took us 1,275 miles to Houston, Texas, where our son, Keith, lives. This is always a treat because we not only enjoy visiting with him,  we get to spend time with his wife Amy and our eleven-year-old granddaughters, (and twins) Hannah and Katrina. Some of the highlights of our visit with them were hearing the twins sing with a group from their middle school, watching climbers scale the Matterhorn at an IMAX theatre showing, a tour of the traveling 125,000-year-old Lucy exhibit and her Ethiopian birthplace, and being treated to one of the best movies that I have seen in awhile, Michael Clayton.

The last leg of our journey took us 1,100 miles to our Tucson home. And as we neared our high desert home in the Catalina Mountains, we were most grateful for books on tape. We had listened to and thoroughly enjoyed two unabridged books, His Excellency: George Washington, by Joseph Ellis and Wild Swans, by Jung Chang. Both books were well written and narrated stories about how a single man can and did make a significant difference to the history of his country, the USA and China. One was very good and the other was a disaster.

When we arrived back in Tucson there was much that needed to be done to make our house a home. And we had only a week to prepare for houseguests. Visiting with us for five days would be someone I hadn’t seen in almost fifty years. John Hoyle and I were only kids when we last spent quality time together. Ironically, my parents were instrumental into bringing his parents into ”the truth.” Oops. There I go again. I mean the Club. That happened in February of 1952 and we last played together in the fall of 1958. John made contact with me via the Internet in July when he heard about my book, Growing Up In Mama’s Club.

To make a long story short, we had a delightful time with John, his wife Sharon, and their adorable, less than a year old Maltese puppy, Lilly. While they were here, we explored nearby Sabino Canyon, drove to the top of 9,200-feet Mount Lemmon, and just talked and talked and laughed and reminisced.

Now it’s back to writing full time. And I’ve made a decision (gulp!) to dramatically improve the third printing of Mama’s Club, which I expect to have ready by January 2008. What changes do I plan to make? I will report that in subsequent blogs.

I don’t spend all my time marketing and promoting my book, Growing Up In Mama’s Club. One of those higher priorities was planning for a family vacation in Greece. At the moment, my wife, Helen, and I have booked a large villa on the edge of the Aegean Sea, in Schinias-Marathon, for three weeks in June and July, 2008. We will be joined by our children, granddaughters, and friends.  Life doesn’t get any better than that.

Interestingly, in 490 BC the Battle of Marathon occurred at Schinias where the Athenians defeated the Persians. The Greek army sent a runner to Athens (where will be flying into from the States), near the Acropolis, to announce the victory. This historical event gave birth to the modern Marathon Run. Today, a four lane expressway pretty much follows the route of the original Marathon Run of about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Schinias to downtown Athens. 

They tell me that if you only had a week to spend at this particular villa you would have to first go into the local town of Marathon for shopping and a taste of Greece’s famous cuisine with some of its great wine. Yes, Greece has excellent wine. They just don’t export much of it to the States. Then back to the villa to swim in the pool under the stars before retiring for the night. The next day could be spent in Athens, visiting the Acropolis with its Parthenon, the Temple of Zeus, and enjoying the people and food at the ancient market place at the foot of Acropolis. Before the week was over, a visit to Cape Sounion with its Temple of Poseidon would be a must. Next, a day trip to central Attica and Delphi. If one is attuned to the spirits of antiquity, he or she may hear whispers from the ancient oracles still echoing through the eons of time. Other sights to see would be ancient Corinth with its Temple of Appollo. Also at Corinth, the church that received Paul’s letters to the Corinthians still exists. And then, there still would be time to visit the quaint sea town of Nafplio, Epidaurus, Argos, Tiryn, and Mycenae.

Since we will be spending  several weeks in Greece, there is no end to the many spectacular Greek islands that we could visit. There’s the Island of Aigina with its well-preserved temple,  the islands of Mykonos and Dalos, the world famous cliffs and homes on Santorini Island, and the list goes on and on.

I plan to keep a journal on the trip. When you have a once in life-time opportunity to spend quality time with your spouse, children, granddaughters, and friends, in a country that sparked the fires of thought and freedom for people all around the world today, I want that experience to be put on paper. Photographers take pictures, writers write.

I would like to digress for a moment. Unlike Mama, I am not willing to sacrifice the opportunities afforded to me in this lifetime, hoping that I will be able to enjoy them in a new world, if I embrace the supercilious teachings of the Club. My new world is here and now. I want to enjoy and embrace every day of the life that I have been given. What a wonderful gift. And when I am in Greece with family and friends, I will be especially grateful.