Why Two Consecutive Trips to America?
Having set foot on the North American Continent in 1977, I was thrilled! Only a year or two earlier, I couldn't have imagined such an achievement. Credit goes to Freddie Laker, an airline entrepreneur who, in the mid-seventies, opened the way for commoners, such as me, an opportunity to fly over the Atlantic Ocean at a price so reduced that I found to be within my budget.
During the seventies, I was an employee at a precision engineering company and had already "flown the nest" to set up a home for myself, with overtime, a good income, and plenty of patience, I saved up enough to pay for such a trip, itself inspired by the weekly detective drama, Starsky & Hutch. However, the difficulty in getting a US Entry Visa has ironically presented an opportunity to visit Canada and the USA, visiting Niagara Falls on one side of the continent, and Southern California on the other.
After arriving home, as a committed Christian, I became interested in historical geology and the long-established dispute between Charles Lyell's Uniformitarian Geology—a theory on which Charles Darwin built his evolutionary concepts—and pre-Abrahamic Holy Scriptures, especially on the Noachian Deluge, a subject I always found intriguing. One area of study was the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River cutting through the Kaibab Plateau of North Arizona.
Textbook pictures show how the stratified rock layers of various limestones and sandstones formed a "sandwich" of bedding planes, indicating that the whole Kaibab Plateau was once underwater. Each rock layer lay smoothly and horizontally on the layer beneath. The bedrock on which the whole strata rests is of schist, a variation of granite that forms the lower cliffs of the Inner Canyon and through where the underfit river flows. The bedrock is of uneven bedding, together with millions of years of geological layers "missing", this bedding plane is known as the Great Unconformity.
But reading books and looking at photos taken by someone else wasn't enough. Having already visited the States, I had a desire to return specifically to see the Canyon for myself. After counting the cost, I returned to the US Embassy in London to get an up-to-date visa stamped on my passport. This time, I walked out of the building on the same day with my passport stamped with a multiple-entry visa to last the rest of the passport's life.
And so, in 1978, I arrived at the Grand Canyon after landing at New York's Kennedy Airport. My initial intention was to look across the vast chasm while standing on the South Rim, and taking advantage of the facilities at the Village before returning to Flagstaff on the same day. At that time, I knew nothing about any trails leading to the Canyon floor, let alone hiking. Now, everything was about to change.
Due to a last-minute cancellation, a bed became available for one night at Phantom Ranch on the Canyon floor, near the Colorado River. I was offered the bed which I gladly accepted with excitement.
As I descended, following the switchbacks of Bright Angel Trail, storm clouds were gathering, and the environment became eerily dark. It was when the 110 Instamatic, which I bought in Toronto a year earlier in 1977, failed the test. Many of the Inner Canyon photos were under-exposed, causing the side cliffs to appear as silhouettes. I have included one or two examples here. Therefore, a second hike into the Canyon was called for to build a proper photo album, but I had to wait 17 years until 1995 before I had another opportunity.
All pictures were taken in 1978 using the 110 Instamatic. However, instead of prints, back then, I decided to have slides instead. With a compatible slide projector and a large white screen, I put on a spectacular show in my apartment for visiting family members, church members, and secular friends alike.
Unfortunately, the projector had a short life with the bulb constantly blowing and needing to be replaced. Therefore, I don't have it anymore. As such, I attempted to transfer the relevant images onto this laptop using a slide viewer, pictured below. Since each slide is only 15mm x 10mm, reproducing them here was very difficult. Therefore, pardon me if each image looks slightly out of focus. On a laptop, each image should be discernable. But if expanded by clicking on it, the blur will become more obvious.
Nevertheless, I hope you will still enjoy looking at the 43 photos presented here. Initially, there were meant to be more, but these will be displayed on the 1995 blog which will be posted later.
You can go to the Index by clicking here for the main Biography relevant to these photos.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photos of USA 1978.
 |
| Viewer and slide size used in this week's display. |
New York.
 |
| "The street was blocked by fire engines and red cars." |
 |
| At Downtown Manhatten, 1978. |
 |
| The World Trade Center as it was in 1978. |
 |
| Manhatten seen from Liberty Island. |
 |
| Approaching the Statue of Liberty. |
.JPG) |
| Inside the head. It felt like a sauna! |
The Grand Canyon
 |
| The first view of the Canyon, 1978. |
 |
| I gaze into the chasm. |
 |
| The Bright Angel Trail is seen from the Rim. |
 |
| Preparing for the Hike to Phantom Ranch. |
 |
| The view as I begin the Hike. |
 |
| I stop a rare passerby in this lonely desert. |
 |
| Entering the Devil's Corkscrew. Ghostly Orbs? |
 |
| Photo failure. At the Colorado River the next morning. |
 |
| Indian Gardens, on my way back up. |
Los Angeles.
 |
| Downtown L.A. as it was in 1978. |
 |
| The Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles. |
 |
| Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland. |
 |
| Goofy? Or Pluto? |
 |
| At Long Beach, California. |
 |
| At Long Beach. Although breezy, I got sunburnt. |
 |
| Tomorrowland, Disneyland. |
 |
| At Disneyland. |
San Francisco and Sausalito.
 |
| Union Square, San Francisco. |
 |
| Panorama of Downtown San Francisco. |
 |
| San Francisco palms. |
 |
| Golden Gate Bridge touches low fog. |
 |
| Oakland Bay Bridge passing Yerba Buena Island. |
 |
| I cross Golden Gate Inlet to Marin County. |
 |
| On a ferry to Sausalito, passing Alcatraz Island. |
 |
| At Sausalito, a town in Marin County. |
 |
| Oakland Bay at Sausalito. |
The Route from San Francisco to Miami, Florida.
 |
| Salt Lake City. I didn't stay this time but passed through. |
 |
| A bus service stop allowed me to revisit SLC. |
 |
| A pause outside the Alamo, Texas. |
 |
| Sailing on the San Antonio River. |
 |
| Miami Beach, Florida |
 |
| Posing at Miami Beach |
 |
| Among the coconut palms at Miami Beach |
Back to New York.
 |
| Last day in the USA, on the roof of the World Trade Center. |
.jpg) |
| Present Facebook Avatar, Visitors Center, WTC. |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In composing this photo display, I apologise if these pics appear amateurish, as converting tiny slides into digital images was a difficult job with just a camera and a slide viewer. But in the past, I had better results using the same method, such as the two of me at the Grand Canyon with one of them carrying a rucksack. However, from a projector, all the images thrown onto the screen appeared sharp and more professional.
Also to note, over time, some of my slides have gone missing, including those I took of the French balconies gracing Bourbon Street in New Orleans French Quarter. Having said that, I hope you still enjoyed what I managed to present.
Next week, I'll still be using the slide-in-viewer method to compile images of Italy in the eighties. However, these slides are 35mm, thus it's most likely that I'll get better results from using the same method. I have done this before. The images appearing in the main Biography covering the eighties are from these slides.
Finally, these images are from 1978. A more detailed album of pics of the 1995 hike down the Grand Canyon will appear in a few weeks.
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
