Hi!

My name is Rendell Bird. You are now looking at a quick-n-dirty webpage thrown together in just about one hour (total) of my trip thru the "American West" during the summer of the year 2000.

Beware : most of the photos contained in this page were scanned by a machine, and the photos are of me or taken by me. In other words, they will take a long time to retrieve, and then you probably won't like what you see! Just Kidding!

Let's get started....

I have a friend, Phil Baudoin, (seen here standing on the north rim of the Grand Canyon) who drives to California every year for a convention. Last year he invited me to fly out to meet him and then drive back with him -- "and we'll go see something scenic along the way, like, Mount Rushmore!".

I quickly informed him that Mount Rushmore was a full two days drive out of the way. Its further north than Chicago! He went anyway.

So, the Year 2000 rolls around.
Nowadays, thanks to the Internet and PriceLine.com, one can at least TRY to get a decent deal out of the airlines. I bid $200 for a round trip ticket from Lafayette, LA, to the San Francisco "Bay Area". They said I wouldn't have a good chance of getting any takers at such a low price, so I upped my bid to $250, THEN posted it. Ten minutes later I was the surprised possessor of a round-trip ticket to San Jose Airport. Now, I wish I hadn't raised my first bid. I'd like to see if anybody takes-me-up on $200. Then I'll try $150, and finally $100.

On of the first day out there, it was phenominally hot, especially by THEIR standards. It was 105F. Fortunately, our friends out there have central air conditioning. There are PLENTY of multi-million dollars mansions in the Bay Area that don't have any form of air conditioning. You see, you only need air conditioning about 10 days per year -- and rarely any two of those days are consecutive.

I went roller coaster riding on the first day. Alone. ALL alone. Terribly Alone. Now I remember why I hate to go to amuement parks alone : there's no one to share the experience. I rode the coasters, and split.

The second day it was only 90F, and we went to an art museum. They were having a big showing of George Magritte. It was wonderful to see so many of his paintings in a single place.

On the third day we started our long drive home.

First stop : Sequoia National Park

If I remember correctly, there are three types of huge coniferous trees in the world : Sequoias, Redwoods, and Chinese Redwoods. Up until now, I had only seen Redwoods. Now, I've seen Sequoias as well. And I think, if forced to say which I like better, I'd go for Redwoods. The sequoias were nice, but they don't stand shoulder to shoulder (in any of the groves we drove thru in Sequoia National Park, anyway), whereas, Redwoods have a tendancy to block out all/most of the light, so they tend to be the only type of tree growing in the places where they grow. But the Sierra Nevadas Mountains are *gorgeous*. Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks amply demonstrate this fact. And they sit practically shoulder-to-shoulder about 1 day round-trip drive from either San Francisco or Las Angeles.

Second Planned Stop : Las Vegas We were supposed to spend the night in Vegas, but it was too hot to enjoy anything there. It was 117F! And as I said above, I don't like riding coasters alone, and Phil gets motion-sick. So, Vegas was a big bust for us -- and we drove on to the Grand Canyon.

Third Stop : Grand Canyon

Pictures don't represent it. Words fail to describe it. It simply must be seen to be believed, and even then, it doesn't particularly *look* real. Its too vast to be comprehensible. We went to the North Rim because I had heard that the crowds would be much lighter there. It was true. Therefore, we were at 9000feet above sea level. A thunderstorm was BELOW us down in the canyon throwing lighning bolts into the walls. It was like something out of a movie.

I usually try to take at least one picture of me sitting on a cliff face somewhere along the lines.


Fourth Stop : Zion National Park

Zion is a long thin valley carved by a river with incredible mountain peaks on both sides. The "trick" of visiting this park, we discovered a little too late, is that you have to park your car at the Visitor's Center, and take an electric bus to see the major sights of the valley. We didn't realize this fact. Five minutes after leaving the Visitor's Center, we found ourselves on a one-way street into a tunnel underneath a mountain, and on our way to our next stop. We drove past Checkerboard Mesa just outside the main valley, but still part of the National Park.

Fifth Stop : Bryce Canyon National Park

I had heard many good things about this place, but I had *no* idea what to expect. Well, it surpassed my expectactions. Its basically a long thin road down the spine of a mountain that has almost completely washed away over the eons on its eastern side. By the time you get to the southernmost edge, you are over 9,200 feet in height, with multi-color spires spread below for about as far as you can see. Additionally, Bryce is one of the few places where Bristlecone pine trees live. They are the oldest living things on earth -- although, the only one I photographed was only 3000 years old. I know there's one (?in California?) that's over 10,000 years old.

Sixth Stop : Arches National Park

Part of the drive from Bryce Canyon to Arches is along I-70. After driving for 106 Interstate miles completely free of use-able exits on I-70, we arrived in the quaint little town of Moab. It is located very near to *two* National Parks : Arches and Canyonlands. We decided we were *tired* of seeing canyons, so we headed for Arches . Arches was probably my favorite National Park of the entire trip. You could actually TOUCH the arches (yes, that's me leaning on the arch). You can't touch a canyon, you can't touch a valley (really). But those wonderous, delicate, improbable "windows" of rock were completely accessible. You just had to hike up to them. And we did. We hiked up the mountainface to see "Delicate Arch." We had been told that it was 1.5 miles almost every step of which was uphill. We grabbed two jugs of water, slapped on some sunblock, and hit the trail. An hour later, shaking with exhaustion, we arrived at Delicate Arch. It was very impressive.

Final Stop : Denver

I had plotted us a route thru the Rockies such that we ended-up driving thru Denver. I planned things this way so that I could visit my friend Felix who moved up there to be nearer to his daughter who lives in Kansas. The air-quality was particularly bad, but we had a great visit with Felix and Nicole. After Denver, the drive turned into a mad dash back home. Twenty hours of driving later, we were home.