Luck be a joy tonight - GAR Day #10

Magnet #93 - Sinatra in Vegas

So, today was Grand Canyon day on the GAR, and then driving into Vegas tonight.

We did the Grand Canyon when I was 12, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Well, to some. My grandmother nearly drove my mom crazy when she told mom that it was just a big hole in the ground. Whoops. Mind you, this was after we'd crossed the desert in a 4-door sedan with three young kids, a grandma...and yes, that priest.

Anyway, I'm using Sinatra in Vegas today, in honor of my dad. The fam dropped by for the weekend to do some sightseeing. But, instead of seeing the city today, my dad, a big Sinatra fan, literally spent about 6 hours reading the Easy Listening Music Choice channel.

What? He likes the artist trivia. So, MusicChoice channel programmer - if you're reading, take heart - someone actually reads that stuff to float across the screen!

GAR Track of the Day: Luck Be a Lady Tonight

Rollin', rollin', rollin' - GAR Day #8

Magnet #91 - Arizona

So I spent a good 10 minutes scouring my magnet boards because I couldn't find an Arizona magnet for the first of the two-day segment. Quelle horreur! Then, complete with a spotlight and a chorus of angels - at eye level, natch - was this jobbie.

Haven't a clue where it came from, but thank you to whomever gave it to me.

Today we're driving around New Mexico and Arizona. New Mexico for the Gila Cliff Dwellings - almost the Anasazi stuff of X-File lore, but not quite. And then a few ghost towns...where I pictured the four of us GAR roadtrippers as the Scooby gang, solving a mystery wherein the weird guy who owned the dilapidated inn was wearing a ghost costume to keep people from visiting (because there's a big secret hidden in the ghost town, of course), complete with glowing footprints and explanatory denouement. Hahahaha. Any. Way.

So, the rest of the day was to be Tombstone - dangit, I even re-watched Tombstone so that I'd be able to tell folks that the gunfight didn't really take place at the O.K. Corral, but down the street.

Well, it's not like I really liked the movie anyway. Val Kilmer was just too scary lookin' for my taste. Though, oddly, Kurt Russell and Sam Elliott were pretty compelling.


GAR Track of the Day: Rawhide. Again, probably just would have been belting it out. Oh, who needs a radio or cd player. Heh. b13 may have been right, the singing might have posed a problem.

eta:
Success! The great Doctor Who magnetwatch is complete! Received the magnet set yesterday...one day too late to be my Roswell entry, but can't wait for June!

The hand of God, man...or woman, apparently

Magnet #79 - Chapel of the Holy Cross

Picked this magnet for today, because, well it's Sunday, and also, because yesterday, I spent the day in Jersey for my cousin's Confirmation.

A friend of mine brought this magnet back for me from Sedona, and from the looks of it, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, is simply amazing. This church was built and designed by the wealthy Marguerite Brunswig Staude, who just wanted to build a place of worship to "glorify her creator" and give thanks for everything she and her family had received. And, depending on which sources you read - she was a sometime pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, or she worked with his son to design it. Either way, the chapel definitely has an FLW influence. It's built right into a thousand-foot cliffside - its message is "that the church may come to life in the souls of men and be a living reality."

I'm more of a traditionalist in my Catholic churches - the more old and ornate, the better. And, I'm not particularly religious, but I'm of the firm belief that some places of worship, you can just feel the presence of God. I'm betting the Chapel of the Holy Cross would be one of those places. For me, it's the Church of Saint Francis Xavier in Chelsea, NYC. Just a random side-street church that I go to every once in a blue moon...

...usually whenever I feel guilty enough to notice that I've almost missed Ash Wednesday, and remember in time to get to a mass.