American Road Trip 1979 on Kodachrome

#USA09-02. Sunset from the South Rim, Grand Canyon, 09 May 1979
The image is a little soft because of the slow shutter speed due to low light, but it was too beautiful a moment not to attempt a capture.

U27021.1700286587.0.jpg
 
Amazing aerial photos. #144 is, to me, a masterpiece, one of those few "in a lifetime" images. How fortunate you were.

I knew about that flight over the canyon when I was there in '79, for reasons I've now long forgotten (probably my cheapskate upbringing) I passed on it. Now, almost a lifetime later, I kick myself for that. Wrong decision entirely. So happy you took it, and I've now seen the images I've missed. Burning up with envy, I is.

Your canyon photos brought back almost unbearable memories for me. At the time, I was madly in love (or maybe lust) with a winsome young Indian lass I met in Silver City (in southwestern New Mex) and fantasised over, who I suspect liked me about as much as I liked her but did nothing about. One of my many regrets. By now she is probably a grandmother. And here I am, half a world away, reminiscing about what could have been but never was. As we surely all do.

Everything in 'Merka' was so cheap then. The Ozbuck was worth like US$1.10 and the Canuck buck $1.30. Nothing was expensive. I stayed six weeks with friends of friends in Pinos Altos near Silver City, New Mexico. Several times every week I drove down to SC for a gala Tex-Mex buffet lunch, which cost all of US $6, with a $1.50 surcharge for chicken enchiladas, and I could eat myself to death if that was my way to go. Mex food unlike anything I've had since. Not for nothing was NM known as the State Of Enchantment. If anything they underplayed it.

I hope you made it to New Mex. Am fairly dying (slowly) to see your images from there. Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos. Espanola. A day trip to Abiquiu, where I stood at the front gate to the hacienda where the great artist Georgia O'Keeffe lived, hoping to get a glimpse of The Great One in person. Alas, I didn't. But one of her chow dogs came out and barked at me, which rates as at least half the value of the experience.

How I wish I could find the yellow box with the roll of Kodachrome I took of that day in Abiquiu. If I could, I would start my own threat and post it.

I wish. How I wish!
 
DownUnder said:
Amazing aerial photos. #144 is, to me, a masterpiece, one of those few "in a lifetime" images. How fortunate you were.

I knew about that flight over the canyon when I was there in '79, for reasons I've now long forgotten (probably my cheapskate upbringing) I passed on it. Now, almost a lifetime later, I kick myself for that. Wrong decision entirely. So happy you took it, and I've now seen the images I've missed. Burning up with envy, I is.

Your canyon photos brought back almost unbearable memories for me. At the time, I was madly in love (or maybe lust) with a winsome young Indian lass I met in Silver City (in southwestern New Mex) and fantasised over, who I suspect liked me about as much as I liked her but did nothing about. One of my many regrets. By now she is probably a grandmother. And here I am, half a world away, reminiscing about what could have been but never was. As we surely all do.
Click to expand...
This song sums it up for a lot of us.



But memory and optimistic imagination is almost always better than reality. Depending on how old you were, you may have become a very different person in the following ten years, as might she. Best to enjoy those memories as pleasant phases of life.

As for the Grand Canyon airplane trip, when we went to America in 1988, there was the option to fly over the Grand Canyon. I didn't take that option, but Dad did. He even took a few photos from the plane window, which we have the family collection. I regret not going now, but at the time, I was so knackered from all the sightseeing and just wanted to rest. The irony is that now, I would be far more eager to fill the day with sightseeing than I was as an energetic teenager.
 
Amazing trip and amazing photos, Lynn! What a great idea to scan them and share them with us.

I've traveled and lived in other countries, mainly Brazil and Portugal between 1973 and 1981, but I have seen very little of my own country, the US. After my trip around Latin America, Jan - June 1973, I decided that I needed to visit Mount Rainier in my native state of Washington. I've never been to the Grand Canyon, myself. Thanks for the chance to see it through your eyes.

- Murray
 
Thank you for all the Grand Canyon photos, they are so clear that I can imagine I'm in the plane, soaring above the canyon, 35 years back in time to when I could have gone.
 
CMur12 said:
Amazing trip and amazing photos, Lynn! What a great idea to scan them and share them with us.

I've traveled and lived in other countries, mainly Brazil and Portugal between 1973 and 1981, but I have seen very little of my own country, the US. After my trip around Latin America, Jan - June 1973, I decided that I needed to visit Mount Rainier in my native state of Washington. I've never been to the Grand Canyon, myself. Thanks for the chance to see it through your eyes.

- Murray
Click to expand...
HI Murray, thanks! I think that's a fairly common experience - most Aussies have seen far more of the rest of the world than their own country. I still haven't been to Western Australia or Tasmania. However in 1978 I did a trip around Central Australia with an OM1, 3 primes and some Kodachrome - something for another thread...

You owe it to yourself to see the Grand Canyon. If you want to hike down to Havasupai you'll need to book ahead. Note a friend of mine mentioned it was despoiled by a lot of trash last time he heard - hopefully that's changed since.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom