From Pretoria to Trumpland: My Life's Journey

Mississippi River  in St Paul, Minnesota   Since 2006 I have spent a large portion of my life in the USA. During that time it has been my good fortune to have visited 45 of the 50 states that comprise the USA, and while doing so I have crossed and walked the banks of the great Mississippi River a number of times. This river is the second longest river in the USA. Its source is at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, and it flows 2320 miles from there to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. It is also divided into what is known as the upper Mississippi, from its source south to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth near New Orleans, Louisiana This mighty river   runs through, or along 10 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana, and was used to define portions of these states' borders, with Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi along the east side of the river, and Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas and Louisiana along its west...

We left Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam close to noon on Saturday 23rd May blissfully unaware that it was the Memorial Holiday weekend. Joan had not been to the Grand Canyon before, while I had visited this outstanding natural wonder in Arizona back 2003. So to enable her to cross this attraction off her Bucket List, we headed south. Our calculations showed that we could get to Tusayan, a village at the south entrance to the park, where we could find accommodation before nightfall. The total distance was about 130 miles.  The Colorado River wa.a..ay down in the canyon  Wild flowers on the south rim of the canyon A large part of the route was through the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Painted Desert. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is the most popular side. It has about 35 miles of paved roads, and there are many excellent observation points from where one can view the canyon.  While we were driving through the park a sudden rainstorm overtook us. But des...