|
| |
4 July 2000 Click on the
pictures to enlarge them.
Greetings again from New Mexico.
ROBERT - VISITING SCIENTIST
Robert has made three school visits under the Visiting Scientist Program of the
New Mexico Academy of Science. He has visited Hondo Valley School, Tatum
High School, and Rio Rancho High School. Students at each school had the
opportunity to view the sun through a telescope and observe sunspots.
Viewing
Sunspots at Tatum High School.
Robert then talked to the classes about the sunspots, the solar activity cycle,
the solar system, and other topics of interest in astronomy.
LINDA'S EMBROIDERY CLASS
This winter, Linda taught a class in silk ribbon embroidery at our church's
women's ministry program on Thursday mornings. You can see part of what
she was teaching on
her web page.
SPECIAL CONCERTS
We were able to participate in two very special concerts this winter with the
Hoffmantown Church Celebration Choir.
In January we were invited to sing as backup choir in
the Albuquerque Twila Paris concert. Also featured on tour with Twila this
year is Fernando Ortega whom we have known for a long time. He was a
member of our church before he began his own performing and recording
career. We have several of his CDs. It was good to see Fernando
again, and an honor to be part of Twila's concert.
On 12 March our choir joined with cantor Josh Perlman
and the B'nai Israel choir and also singers from some other local Christian
churches for a special Sunday evening program at our church. It was a
challenge learning several songs in Hebrew! (L'dor Vador, Yeshecheyanu,
& Sim Shalom) Josh and some of his choir members also sang with us at
our regular 9:30 Sunday morning service. We all enjoyed the time together
as we honored Israel.
Our third special concert was one in which we did not
sing. On 5 February, The Chieftains came to Albuquerque from
Ireland. We really enjoyed their concert very much. We have several
of their CD's.
SAD TIMES
On 12 March, we learned that Linda's uncle Bill Baxter of Salina, Kansas, was
very ill and not expected to live much longer. He died on the 14th.
On the 16th we drove up to Colorado Springs to pick up uncle Fremont. The
next day we took him with us to Salina. The memorial service was on the
18th in Christ Cathedral.
Aunt
Sue and Cousins in Salina, KS.
We took uncle Fremont home on the 19th and then came back to Albuquerque on the
20th. We just missed some heavy snowstorms that occurred immediately
before and after we passed through Colorado.
CELTS LECTURES
We attended the University of New Mexico Spring lecture series at the end of
March. It was very interesting. The title was "The Celts in
Britain and Ireland". Subjects were: Celtic mythology, literature,
culture, music, and archaeological explorations at Tintagel,
Cornwall. Bernard Meehan, Trinity College, spoke about the Book of Kells.
We are hoping to be able to see the film that was made about the Book of Kells
and should be shown in the USA this year. Some students of Robert's
distant cousin, James Malseed, of Shankill, Ireland, are featured in the
film. You can read about it at their web site that James maintains.
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~kogrange/fourthclass.html
LINDA'S LECTURE
On 10 - 12 April we spent some time in Las Cruces, about 220 miles south of
here. We visited our friends, Kent and Julie. Linda was invited to
talk to Julie's class at Mesilla Elementary School about ancient New Mexico
culture. She showed many slides that Robert had taken on our trips to
historic sites through out the state.
NORTH ARIZONA & SOUTH UTAH
Our first trip of the year in our Safari Trek began on 15 May. We wanted
to attend a Safari motor coach owners rally in Arizona, and then visit both
sides of the Grand Canyon, and then visit south central Utah. We camped
along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona at the Greer, Lakeside and Christopher Creek
campgrounds. We hiked on some of the rim and on part of the old Crook's
trail. This trail was built under the leadership of General Crook in the
early 1870s. It connected Fort Apache and Fort Verde and became a major
road in Arizona. We were able to visit old Fort Apache on the White
Mountain Apache Reservation. Then we attended the rally of Safari owners
at the Thousand Trails RV resort near Cottonwood along the Verde River.
While there, we visited the Clemenceau Museum in Cottonwood, the Fort Verde
Historic site, the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling ruins, and Montezuma Well (a
natural sink hole that helps provide water to Beaver Creek). After that,
we headed north through Sedona and camped at Cave Spring campground in Oak Creek
Canyon. We visited Red Rock State Park, Red Rock Crossing (of Oak Creek),
(a popular place to view cathedral rock.)
Cathedral
Rock.
We also drove up Schnebly Hill Road for a great view of Sedona. Our next
stop was the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We camped in the park at
Mather campground. That evening we went out to Yavapai Point and watched
the canyon as the sun set. Pico went with us and was somewhat of a hit
himself with many of the other tourists. A Japanese family video taped him
doing tricks for their little boy.
Grand
Canyon sunset.
From the South Rim we made the 213-mile trip to the North Rim. (We had
been to the South Rim twice, but never to the North Rim.) We spent two
nights in the campground there. We both enjoyed the North Rim. The
drive down there is through miles of forest and meadows at an altitude of over
8000 feet. On the second day, we drove out to Cape Royal on the Walhalla
Plateau and went through some areas that had been burned in the fire that was
still being fought. As we returned to the campground that afternoon, we
were stopped by the fire fighters as an area that had been smoldering in the
morning had been fanned by winds during the day and had burst into flames along
each side of the road. They finally let us through the burning area.
The next day, we continued on northward. We stopped to see the Coral Pink
Sand Dunes State Park in Utah, and then went to Bryce Canyon National Park.
Erosion
creates the Bryce Hoodoos.
We had been there for a day 20 years ago. That was in our tent camping
days. The campground is much larger now. We fortunately found a
great site. They fill up every night. We stayed four nights.
We hiked some of the trails and traveled the park from one end to the other.
The
Poodle at Bryce Canyon.
We went to hear several ranger talks at the Lodge. We saw deer each day,
and a wild turkey the first day. Bryce Canyon lies between 8000 and 9100
feet in altitude. It was very pleasant with cool nights. We very much
enjoyed a relaxed time there. Bryce is really only half a canyon. It
is the eastern edge of a plateau that has been eroded into many colorful columns
of rock.
Looking
back after hiking up out of Bryce Canyon.
While there, we also drove down off the plateau to visit Grosvenor Arch and
Kodachrome Basin State Park. The park is known for its colorful rock and
the stone "chimneys" that are found only there. Our next
destination was the town of Escalante. We checked in at an RV park then we
drove down Hole-In-The-Rock road to a point where we could hike into a slot
canyon. It was quite hot and the hike down a couple hundred feet wasn't
too bad, but the hike back to the parking area was pretty tiring, especially
since some of it was up sandy slopes. Down in the bottom of the wash area,
we walked up the narrow dry fork slot canyon until we met a rattlesnake.
 Rattlesnake guards his
canyon.
It was small, but the sign at the trailhead warned about midget faded
rattlesnakes. The canyon was only a few feet wide at this point, so there
was no chance to get by. From the slot canyon area, we drove over to a
place called the "Devil's Garden". It is an area of unusually
sculptured rock formations, as you can see in this photo of a small arch.
Small
arch in the Devil's Garden.
This entire area of Utah, east of Escalante stretching to Capitol Reef and Lake
Powell and down south to Arizona is the Escalante - Grand Staircase National
Monument. The "staircase" refers to the series of cliffs that
you encounter as you travel north from the Grand Canyon. (Vermillion, Chocolate,
Pink, White). The next stop on our trip was Torrey, Utah, near Capitol
Reef National Park. We were at Capitol Reef six years ago, but at that
time the road into Capitol Gorge was closed. This time, we were able
to go down there and to hike further into the gorge and see the Pioneer
Register. That is where the early pioneers carved their names on the
sandstone walls. We also hiked up to the "tanks" - natural water
containment areas. From Capitol Reef we drove to Canyon De Chelly where we
stayed the last night. We arrived back in Albuquerque on 1 June. As
usual, this area of the southwest is full of foreign visitors. Many
Europeans rent motor homes and travel throughout the area visiting our national
parks. We even saw a couple motor homes that had been brought from
Germany.
RESEARCH IN SALT LAKE CITY
We spent 13 to 22 June in Salt Lake City at the Camp VIP campground. On
the way up and back we spent a night at McPhee Reservoir in southwest
Colorado. On the 14th, we were joined by James, Norma Jean, Chris, and
Stacy as they were on their way back to Albuquerque from Montana. They
have a 24-foot trailer that they tow with a Suburban. Most of the other
days in Salt Lake City we spent at the Family History Library. Linda spent
most of her time trying to figure out where the Baxter family came from -
without much luck. She did look through a lot of English records.
Robert was much more successful. He found the record of his maternal
grandfather leaving the city of Sangerhausen in Germany in 1894.
 Wilhelm Sichardt leaves
Sangerhausen.
Robert also found the ship's passenger list containing the name of his 3rd great
grandfather, John Malseed. He left Londonderry, Ireland, and arrived in
New York City aboard the Brig Agnes on 12 April 1821. There were six
passengers on the small ship The ship sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, and
must have picked up its passengers in Londonderry. Robert also discovered
much information about his 2nd great grandmother Eliza Malseed's family -
especially her brother Garrett Shubert and his descendants. We will be
visiting where they lived in Missouri on our RV trip in August.
BACK TO SCHOOL
This August, Linda will be returning to the classroom. She will be
teaching 8th grade English and 6th grade Math and Science at Hope Christian
School. Our niece, Stacy, and nephew, Chris, are students at Hope.
Their brother, Mathew, graduated this year.
THE BOTTOM LINE
We continue to be thankful for the Lord's provision for us. We trust in
Him, and pray that you will do likewise.
Love,
Robert & Linda
& Pico
Return to top of page.
Page last updated:
14 March 2007
|
