US/Canada 2018

Grand Canyon - Arizona Friday, June 4th. 1982. This is a day late, so I'11 recap on Thursday June 3rd before I talk about the 'humungous Canyon'. We left Phoenix at 8:30am, after rising about 6:30 I think. It was about 75deg F when we left and heading for 100. Heading north from Phoenix you climb into the hills, still stark and barren. The vegetation is low desert bush and cactus until you get up a bit higher. We stopped at a rest area and saw a 40' cactus, with some more in the distance. As we went higher, the desert vegetation disappeared and low bushes were on the south side of the hills, then at about 4,000’ there was nothing in particular. We turned off the freeway onto the Oak Creek Canyon Road. About two miles down the road, we came across red, desert type mountains, the ones with the sides cut off, leaving exposed flutes and buttresses. Like the pictures of the G.C. The town of Sedona and outlying areas were built around the mountains. A church, St Peter's C

Phoenix - Arizona Wednesday 2nd June 1982. Today we saw the town of Phoenix, or should I say the city of Phoenix. It was like any other big city, except for the palm trees and the occasional glimpse of the hills, barren and brown in the distance. The architecture of the build­ings varied from the modern 'glass tower' to the older 'western' style with solid brick construction and looking very strong and dignified. Like most modern American cities, the main shopping areas were not downtown, there, there were only banks, hotels, and insurance companies and hence not too many people. Those that we did see were dressed in business suits and looked as if they would be right at home behind banking and insurance desks. There seemed to be less 'sleaze' than San Diego, perhaps the western city doesn't have those same sorts of problems. The city area, buildings and people ends fairly quickly, giving away to residential areas, some of which are obviously very expensiv

Between September 1981 and June 1982, we spent 10 months in San Diego in California. Martin was on a Rotary Scholarship studying Film and Television at San Diego State University. At the end of his course, we hired a motorhome and traveled through four states with Andrew and Nathan. Forty years later I have just transcribed our travel diary to digital. Enjoy

Halifax 15th September, 2018 Today is our last full day in Canada as tomorrow we head to the airport to start the trek home. (Halifax to Toronto to LAX to Brisbane to Sydney) We spent the day in Halifax, visiting the Halifax Citadel on the hill overlooking the city and then to Pier 21 - the Immigration Museum and then hanging out round the waterfront. It was the large hill overlooking the easily defended harbour below that led the British military to found the town there in 1749. Among the first buildings constructed was a wooden guardhouse on top of what would eventually be called Citadel Hill. Today, the Halifax Citadel continues to watch over the city although now its role is as a reminder of Halifax’s past and not as a military fortification. The present Citadel, completed in 1856, is officially called Fort George, named after Britain’s King George II, and is actually the fourth in a series of forts to sit atop the hill. Pier 21 commemorates those who ca

Bay of Fundy 14th September, 2018 Today we headed north to the north west coast of Nova Scotia which is the southern shore of the Bay of Fundy. The bay is quite big and along both shores, there are smaller bays and beaches where the huge tides that happen in this part of the world can be seen. Why big tides in the Bay of Fundy? The most important effect is resonance - the tides are high in the Bay of Fundy because the size of the bay is just right to match the natural gravitational pushing cycle of the Moon that causes the tides. Many accounts on the web attribute the high tidal range to the shape of the bay. Before got to the actual Bay, we crossed the Shubenacadie River which flows towards the Bay of Fundy but is also affected by the tides. As we crossed it, there were the remains of old supports for a bridge which certainly showed the signs of erosion. The tide was right out and it was hard to imagine that the water would rise by up to fifteen metres over the ne

Halifax 13th September, 2018 Today we set off to the Halifax waterfront, which has lots of restaurants, tourist outlets and the Halifax Maritime Museum. Halifax was the closest North American port to the United Kingdom and Europe to be used to provide support for World War 1. Conveys of ships would assemble behind submarine proof nets in the harbour and then set sail for the battlefields of World War 1. In December 1917 - a ship loaded with TNT collided with a smaller vessel. The TNT exploded, killing 2,000 people on the water and the shore and injured 9,000.  It was the biggest man-made explosion in the world, surpassed only by the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The museum commemorates those who died and those who came to their aid. We then set off west to visit Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenberg. All of them are fishing villages on the shores of the Atlantic - yes, we have crossed the continent from the Pacific and now to the Atlantic. There is