Well, I’m a standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. And I’m not alone. With me as I'm taking a photo of Jim is a woman who is shivering in the winter chill in a light-green jacket, who didn’t say where she’s from.
But it’s no secret why she came. We are among the estimated 100,000 people who will visit this same spot annually, drawn by nostalgia to a town whose best days ended decades ago.
People are in such awe of the place.
For that we can thank Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey and “Take It Easy,” their 1972 rock song about women, the open road and salvation, which included a verse about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
The song was the first single for a struggling L.A. band called the Eagles, who would become the best-selling American rock group of all time. And yes the song helped propel the band and Browne into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame.
Winslow has tried to hang on to a sliver of Fame it brought the town. I for one, am glad I can come and stand on the corner of Winslow, Arizona.
On down the highway we found the most spectacular hole or in other's word the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon National Park just celebrated it's 100th birthday last year. I can say it is as astonishing as ever. A walk to it's edge and the earth falls away into an expanse of peaks, plateaus, and gorges so vast it can be disorienting. I am told descending below the rim, and the sense of awe only grows. The canyon is essentially an inverted, 6,000-foot, 277-mile-long mountain range, where you are dwarfed by sheer stone walls stacked to the sky and vistas that multiply with every turn. It is true in the desert landscape, the water can be the most astonishing sight. Turquoise streams rush out of rust red cliffs and cascade through travertine pools.
At the bottom of the canyon, of course, lies the engine of this great geological conundrum, the persistent the roaring Colorado River, which carved the gorge over millennia. If there’s a better place to gain perspective on our own relative insignificance, I don’t know it.
Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it. A flower is beautiful. But this is beautiful in a way that can't be described with mere words.
A perfect finale to a Grand Day!
Nana
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