GRAND CANYON IN VIDEO – ABUELITO AND ABUELITA 1987

I had to add this video of a trip we took Deysi’s dad and step mother on in January 1987. We left Ogden Utah on January 23rd 1987 and drove down to the Grand Canyon and then onto Las Vegas before returning home. This was Deysi’s dad’s second trip to the USA and her mom’s first. Papi, as he was known, had previously travelled from Peru to California to visit us (remember the famous story where the Mexicans had tried to kill him on the plane with a hot pepper?). He always made us laugh somehow and this trip was no exception. It was bloody cold when we headed out for this trip and snow was everywhere. It was great to be together again and showing them the sights. I remember two instances of fun with Papi on that trip.

The first was at a lookout over the Grand Canyon where everyone stayed a respectable distance from the edge. Not so Papi, he walked around the handrail and stood with his toes out over about a 5000 foot drop into there Colorado River. He stood there rocking slightly back and forth and gazing out over the scenery. Once I could breath again, I managed to squeak out “Deysi tell your dad if he falls into the canyon, he’s gonna have to swim out, because I’m not going down there to get him”!

Geezus, he just stood there very serene and contemplated life. My heart was stopped. I had all sorts of bad visions going thru my head. I knew that whatever happened was going to be my fault, no question about it. Well he finished his look into the abyss and casually walked back to join us. I got that look from Deysi that said “you are just lucky that nothing happened to my dad”!

The next occurrence was in Las Vegas. It was safe to say that neither of them had seen anything like this place in their lives. It was overwhelming. We enter the casino and I try to explain how gambling works. You can see Papi is not taken with the idea of sticking his money down a hole and hoping they would give some back. Basically his opinion was “why would they?” “they’ve already got my money”.

I get him ten dollars worth of quarters just so he can give it a try. He sticks one in waits and nothing comes out. he tries again, same result. He now is giving me that old “I told you so” look. Anyway I encourage him to try a few more times while I give the video poker a beating. A couple of minutes later I see a flurry of activity over by his machine and go over to see what’s happening. Deysi is there helping him scoop quarters out of the bin. He has won and has a look of disbelief on his face, as if a miracle has happened.

Not only has he won the ten dollars back but he has an additional $25 on top. Deysi takes her dad over to cash in. He takes his $35 and by slight of hand it disappears deep into his pantalones, never to see the light of day again. There was absolutely no way that this money was going to be put at risk ever again. He never put even one more nickel into one of those machines. He took his whole stake and his winnings and wrote off gambling as a pastime, forever. Might have been the only one in history to walk away with some of their money, and never ever give any back!

The last fun thing I remember about this trip was our run across Arizona headed for Las Vegas. It was a flat, desolate, expanse of desert that we encountered. Deserted! Well almost, except for one big ol’ lard ass, doughnut sucking State Trooper who decided he would stop and offer me an opportunity to contribute to the State of Arizona. Of course I accepted and asked him to write me the biggest ticket he could come up with. Geezus $275.00 in 1987, something like about $10,000 now!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtkWdX-rqis[/embedyt]