"The Valley Of The Gods..."

Monument 

Valley

Scattering Scooter... Day 5

There is an area in Southeast Utah/Northeast Arizona that the Navajo refer to as the "Valley of the Gods"... this encompasses the area of Monument Valley as well as up around Mexican Hat...

My favorite part is Monument Valley... but I also desire to get back out and look at the other areas... there is so much to be seen.

Mexican Hat

in Utah

(not my photo...)

I have been enthralled with this place ever since the first time I saw it fom the air... while flying back home from San Francisco, CA... although I had seen it many times in any number of John Ford / John Wayne westerns... my favorite is 'The Searchers'... I will watch it every time it is on TV just to see those fantastic mesas and buttes...

John Wayne... 

Merrick's Butte in the immediate back ground... 

One of the Mittens to the left..

One my first visit ever out there, I took some photos, and have them framed on my office wall... Scooter was visiting day and looking deep into the images...

His comment was something along the lines of... 

"Take me there..."

I told him that if he would get well, and able to travel, I would do that... I told him that I didn't need to be throwing his body out along the side of the interstate outside of Amarillo... 

So he and I had a deal... a commitment...

----------------------------

So... we set out from Farmington on Friday morning... and saw some spectacular scenery between there and Kayenta, AZ... and then you turn north on Hwy 163...

... and you start to see some amazing vistas... 

The most recognized buttes of that area are The Mittens...

Left and Center, The Mittens... 

to the right , Merrick's Butte...

(my photo)

... although one of my favorite buttes is 

Castle Butte

This is the most spiritual place I think I have ever been...

No matter how many times I've been, 

I always want to go another time.

Scooter knew this...

Maybe this was one of the reasons for his request...

knowing that it would get me back there one more time.

So, Scooter... we made it out there...

All 1,439 miles...

(at least 2,878 miles round trip...)

It was an honor and a privilege to do this for you...

~Jim~

"Scattering Scooter Day 4..."

Scattering Scooter...

Day 4

We spent the night in Taos... woke up the next morning... decided to have breakfast there, drive to Santa Fe and play some... and then head towards Monument Valley...

We found this fun little coffee house called 'The Coffee Spot' on the north end of Taos... had breakfast on its patio...

The Coffee Spot

... and this was our view...

After breakfast, we were on our way to Santa Fe...

One of my favorite places to visit there is the O'Farrell Hat Company...

This fellow makes western hats... 100% beaver hide... 

They are expensive...

and his work is unbelievable...

I don't own one of his...

yet...

... but I do have one of these!

Anyway... I digress...

We hit the road, heading for points West... as far as we felt we could go this day...

We made it as far as Farmington, New Mexico...

There is a nice rock formation near here called...

not my photo...

Ship Rock is a "volcanic plug"... it is formed when magma hardens in the vent on an active volcano... and over eons, the softer material around the plug erodes.

We found a neat restaurant in downtown Farmington where we could have dinner... and noticed an interesting building across the street...

If you will notice along the top of the building, there are swastika designs...

Prior to the use by the Nazi in World War II, this design had been prevalent for over 3,000 years... where the meaning of the design was about 'Life' and 'Good Luck'...

Who knows how old this structure is, but it may well pre-dateWWII.

~shoes~

"Scattering Scooter... Day 3..."

Scattering Scooter...

Day 3

Travel was rather uneventful... my plans had been to drive on through to Monument Valley, but we decided the night before to have a rather easier drive to Santa Fe and Taos... both in New Mexico.

Right outside of Amarillo... on the west side of I-40, one can see 'Cadillac Ranch'...

You can read about it HERE.  

Essentially, it's an art installation  consisting of Cadillacs buried nose first... and at angles equivalent to the slope of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Did you ever watch the TV series called "Route 66?"

I thought it had the coolest theme song... 

This music was performed by Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra...

Do TV shows today even have theme songs any longer?

Route 66 was established in November, 1926...

... and ran from Chicago to Los Angeles...

Prior to the development of the Interstate systems, highways ran through cities and towns... and brought a great deal to that locality's economy, especially as Route 66 became more and more popular.

As the Interstate system expanded, Route 66, especially from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles was replaced by Interstate 40 (I-40)...

One of the neatest places where Route 66 is still celebrated is in...

It's a damn good thing that my son was born and named before I ever came to know the name, 'Tucamcari'... I would have named him that...

It would have a nice ring to it, I think...

... anyway,  we exit I-40 onto the Scenic Route 66 highway at Tucamcari... and stopped for coffee...

here...

... so we can say we did drive and have coffee on Route 66...

"Get Your Kicks On Route 66"

The Late Great Nat King Cole

... and after the coffee, we headed on West bound...

We made our way to and through Santa Fe and headed towards Taos... there was a place that I recall from previous trips there... as possibly being a wonderful place for some of Larry's ashes...

This is the scenery to the West...
this is the upper Rio Grande...

Yes, that one...

This is the scenery to the North...

towards Taos...

the Sangre de Cristo Mountains...

... and it's here where I  first Scattered Scooter.

It's beautiful...

... and I had to remember the number of times that I had threatened to pull to the side of the road and throw his ass out of the car....  it honestly didn't happen this way, but, hey... I get to tell the story... no?

It was difficult... leaving behind the physical remains of a friend... and I realized then, that is really IS ashes to ashes... dust to dust.  I had read that the cremains will break down less than a week and will seep into the soil...

I had some words and thoughts that I shared with him... 

and I left.

Later, while looking around in a really cool antique shop in Taos...

I spotted these...

A pair of old silver cuff links that spoke to me...

There is a passage that I have read in some book  I have on my book shelf... it mentions that the pain we feel when someone dies and leaves us exists... because when they left, they took a little piece of us with them... that IS our hurt... that IS our pain...

... and eventually we get to the point where we can smile and laugh about them, and that is when we realize that they have left a little bit of themselves with us.

So there is a give-and-take... I've always felt that Life had a great deal of give-and-take to it... so my thoughts were... if I am going to leave Scooter's ashes there, the cuff links would come back home with me. I've always liked Native American motifs any way...


Taos, New Mexico... this was home for Dennis Hopper... I would like to imagine that the spirits of these two guys might hang out together from time to time... discuss movies and booze and such...

I hope Dennis takes it easy on Scooter...

I wouldn't...

Rest Well, my friend...

~shoes~

"Scattering Scooter..."

Scattering Scooter...

The first of May arrived... and it was time for me to get serious about something I needed to do.

My good friend, Larry Magee, died on March 4th... and had requested that I scatter his ashes in the Monument Valley area of Arizona/Utah... 

How does one say 'no' to the request of a friend?

I finished the semester... turned in my grades... packed up my truck... (and Scooter)... and headed Westward... one of my great fears was that I would arrive at the destination and realize I had left Scooter on the shelf at home... YIKES!!!!

Day 1

I asked a  good friend of mine with whom I have traveled... to go along with me.  He lives in Conway, AR... so my first day of travels took me there.  It was a rather uneventful trip... Scooter didn't have a Hell of a lot to say... he just sat there...

The most amazing thing I did see was the damage done to Mayflower, AR by that tornado of a few weeks ago...  the destruction I saw was much worse than any thing I saw on television news reports...  and this was two weeks AFTER the storm.  It seems that after the storm hit Mayflower, it intensified as it moved towards Vilonia, where 18 people were killed.  

Photo of Tornado that hit Mayflower

Damage from that tornado

I wish I could have stopped and taken some photos, but the traffic was too heavy...

Day 2

On the second day, we made a serious attempt to get out West... we drove to Amarillo, TX before we gave out...

... it was a rather monotonous drive... we did see the remnants of a rather severe auto crash... it appeared more that the driver lost control of the vehicle and trailer rather than a collision with another car... yet, I am glad we weren't driving through there earlier...

We were dragging ass into Amarillo... and Keith sees this place...

There were cars and trucks with license plates from all over this country parked out front...  and this place's claim to fame is that if you can eat a 72 ounce steak, it's free...

That is a butt-load of meat...

No pun intended...

Once inside, it felt like a scene from one of National Lampoon's 'Family Vacation movies... We couldn't decide if it was more like a circus or a zoo...  the employees, dressed in western garb, evidently are suppose to be in character... as if they were working at a theme park...

Things started to get a bit 'iffy' when Keith ordered a beer... and 'Tex' started trying to talk him into the next size... 

Tex:  "For $2 more, you can get twice as much..."

Keith:  "No, Thanks..."

Tex:  "You sure??  Twice as much for $2 more??

Well... Keith didn't say anything, but if you have seen any Clint Eastwood movies... you know that expression he gets before a much of people die... or bad things happen???

... Keith made one of those faces... and Tex picked up on that form of 'non-verbal communication.'  He started backing away... 'ok ok ok'...

One  really couldn't do anything more than laugh... of course, unless you were Tex, it was pretty funny...

The steaks were SO tough... that we figure that the beef was U.S.D.A. Rejected...

I think that in one sitting, we had consumed at least a month's worth of roughage...  when Tex came back by (in character) and asked about how thing were, Keith told him that was possibly the worst steak he had ever had... how tough it was... 

Tex offered to have them make him another, but I think Keith had given up on it... and declined... Tex's spirits were crushed... he was defeated...

Our steaks...

As if that wasn't bad enough... Tex came back around later... and asked Keith if he could take his plate... Keith looked at him and said... 'yeah'...

As Tex walked away with the boot plate, Keith said to me...

"I should have told him, Hell no... leave that plate of crap in front of me..."

HAR!!!!!

~shoes~

"Moms..."

Mothers’ Day…

This weekend is Mother's Day...

I am biased...

I am of the opinion that I had the best  Mom in the world...

My Mom has been gone 34 years...

I was 27 when Mom died...

She's been gone from my Life for a period of time

longer than I knew her...

That seems so impossible...

Mom was an amazing woman...

She raised two families, really...

The first litter and the second litter...

What a dysfunctional group

we all turned out to be...

But she loved us anyway.

Mom

I love this photo of my Mom...

I assume she gave this photo to Dad...

and she gave it 'affectionately'...

She said so...

I look back at the wonderful times we all had...

Our family in general...

and I realize it was Mom that kept us all together.

Our family started to fragment when Mom died.

She was the glue.

What a tough job it is that Moms must have.

Mom...

Because I had such a wonderful Mother,

 I assumed that everyone had the same kind...

... but that isn't true.

There are 'absent' Moms out there...

There are emotionally abusive Moms out there...

There are verbally abusive Moms...

There are physically abusive Moms.

... and I got one that loved me...

...cared for me...

...cared about me.

I realize I am so fortunate.

Evelyn Ruth Ohl Brown
Mom, the later years...

I look at these images of my Mom...

and I hurt so.

The hole in my heart that was created 

when she died hasn't healed over.

The hurt is as bad today 

as it was then...

Of course, there are two other Mothers involved...

Mary Jane Coles Brown

This is my Grandmother Brown...

At the time when  women didn't go to college,

Mary Jane Coles was a graduate 

of Southern Illinois University in

Carbondale, Illinois.

She was a school teacher...

My Aunt Winnie is on the left side of the photo... 

... that other character is my Dad.

GrandMother Brown died on January 10, 1929...

I feel a very strong connection to her.

Dad loved his Mother...

He told me what a wonderful, 

loving woman she was.

He told me that the loss of his Mother was one 

of the most difficult things he ever endured.

Ann Elizabeth Helfrich Ohl

This is my Grandmother Ohl...

My Mom's Mom...

They were from Mascoutah, a small German settlement just outside of

East St. Louis, Illinois...

My Grandmother Ohl died on January 13, 1929...

Just a few days after my Grandmother Brown.

Dad said that they had just returned from the cemetery... 

that it was SO bitterly cold that day...

and that they had only been at the house for a few

moments when someone came to get Mom...

Her Mom was so ill...

My Mother adored her Mom...

I was with my Mother at home, the night before she died...

Mom sat up in bed and reached out...

calling for her Mother...

I do believe that her Mom came to take her Home...

So... I had a wonderful Mom...

Mom had a wonderful Mom...

Dad had a wonderful Mom...

Sometimes, things do work out...

Don't they?

I love you, Mom...

I miss you each and every day...

~Jim~

"Scattering Scooter..."

It's the first of May... and it's time for me to get 

serious about something I need to do.

My good friend, Larry Magee, died on March 4th... and he had requested

 that I scatter his ashes in the Monument Valley area of Arizona/Utah...

Larry Magee

aka

Lurch

MaGeever

Lorenzo Maggiore

Scooter

I want this to be done right... with a degree of honor and integrity... yet, I want it to reflect the nature of the friendship that 'we' had... 'we' being Larry,  Jerry Kandies, and myself.  

I have been reading... searching... looking at what others have done... 

so I have somewhat of a format to consider...

Have any of you ever been involved 

in the scattering of ashes?

I want it to be done right...

I am checking into the legality of doing this... 

I want everything to be above board...

Right now, I am leaning towards readings 

such as Ecclesiastes...

If any of you have any suggestions,

I would appreciate you sharing them with me...

~Scooter~

I miss you, my friend...

~Jim~