Down the Rabbit Hoel

Jones himself had been an officer in the army and had been stationed in Europe. He had a huge gun collection – many of the guns he’d brought back from Europe. He had a machine gun – intact, dueling pistols, etc. Carl visited with him while Fran and I attended church the next morning which was Sunday. That was another unusual experience. The priest gave the sermon in Spanish, read the gospel and said the prayers after mass in Spanish. After the sermon, he came down from the altar and passed the collection plate himself.

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Left Gallup, N.M., the next morning and stopped at a trading post on the Continental Divide where I finally found a ring with a Nevada turquoise, something I’d been searching for the entire trip. Then we drove on to see the Chaco Canyon National Monument.

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Left Flagstaff the next morning and drove to Winslow through Winona, Two Guns, Rimmy Jim’s, Leupp Corner, Joseph City and Holbrook to the Petrified Forest where we looked at all the points of interest. 

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The next morning we went to see the Grand Canyon. Spent a lot of time looking at the exhibits and looking down into the canyon through field glasses. Drove along the rim and stopped at all the points of interest. Stopped at the Indian Watch Tower at Grand View for coffee and gas and saw the view there of the canyon and the Painted Desert through the huge picture windows. It was so beautiful it looked like a picture even though you knew you were seeing the real thing. When we left the rim we saw our first hogan and were quite curious.

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Left Las Vegas the next morning and drove to Boulder City. It is a very pretty, clean looking town as all the buildings are new – the entire town was built when Boulder Dam was being constructed.  Were amused by a restaurant sign “the best food by a dam site.”

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Carl and Georgie with some Joshua trees.

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Left Indio the next morning and drove across the desert to Desert Center where we stopped for gas and water. After we got in the desert, we gave up buying anti-freeze and drained the car every night as we spent the days cooking out our anti-freeze and at night it froze and we needed it.

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Left there the next morning and drove through some very rough, rocky mountainous desert to Jacumba then to Coyote Wells, Seeley and finally to El Centro. There was a lot of lettuce, grapefruit and lemon growing down here. Went to church in a basement. The building had been condemned and torn down. Everyone seem poor here and there were a lot of Mexicans.

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Drove to Oceanside and Encinitas where we stopped and got some pralines. Drove along a boulevard here with eucalyptus trees on both sided and in the parking. Went to Solana Beach and then to San Diego. There was a lot of camouflage there left over from the war.  There were large nets across the streets and in some places they were covered with canvas painted to look like trees and vegetation. Stopped to see an old sailing boat “Star of India.” Spent several hours on board – it was very interesting.

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The next morning we left Ventura and drove south on highway 101 through Oxnard, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Long Beach. Saw many oil wells in operation here and could smell them too. Came through Huntington Beach and Newport Beach where we stopped to see some beautiful boats. Had been considering the idea of a deep sea fishing trip but the calm ocean didn’t look calm enough to me so we didn’t go.

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