We arrived at my daughter Annie’s house in time to celebrate her 25th birthday at the 29 Palms Inn in 29 Palms. Both Annie and I, as well as Jake and Robby, had their grilled salmon, which was as good as any I’ve ever had. Annie is tall and pretty and married to, as she likes to say, The Man, a tall, handsome Marine Corps sergeant named Erik Tuttle. They were high school sweethearts and now have two little grandkids, Olga and Gavin, for Lenie and I to enjoy.

Keyboardest and singer Beverly Derby and trumpeter Bill Church performed at the Inn, as they have done twice a week for the several years we have been coming here to visit, and they sang happy birthday to Annie with the poolside crowd joining in. Very nice! Beverly and Bill are an extremely talented duo and I bought a copy of the lone CD they have produced as a present for Annie.

Annie will ultimately take over the editorial duties of Backwoods Home Magazine, after I am so old and senile I sound like an idiot when I write my libertarian editorials. She is a very good thinker and writer, also libertarian, and keeps a sewing and knitting blog, as well as an online store. She’s the perfect person to eventually succeed me.

Annie and Erik have already packed much of their belongings in anticipation of their early August move to Erik’s new station at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. I think they’ll enjoy the break from the 107-degree heat here and the endless miles of desert, but they’ll have to get used to North Carolina’s summer humidity.

On the way here we visited Meteor Crater in Arizona and the Grand Canyon, two sites everyone should see at some time in their lives. Meteor Crater was caused by an iron-nickel meteor hitting the earth about 50,000 years ago. It is 4000 feet wide and 700 feet deep.

Grand Canyon gives you instant religion. Even an agnostic like me is left wondering about this majestic unfolding of the earth’s crust. Its oldest rocks are 1840 million (1.8 billion) years old. (The earth is only 4.5 billion years old.) But the Canyon carving itself, which was created by the relentless flowing of the Colorado River, is only 5 to 6 million years old. The Colorado drops about 4600 feet as it travels the 277 river miles through the canyon. The canyon width ranges between 8 and 16 miles. Words cannot describe its immensity. I’ve posted a few photos, but they don’t do it justice either. You just have to come here to understand.

We’ve travelled 5419 miles now. I’m ready to drive the final 1000 miles home tomorrow. Time to do some salmon fishing in the Rogue River, and catch some blacks in the Pacific. Not to mention do deadline for next issue.