The Kerr Construction Company Read Online Free PDF Page B

“but we should make it in about four hours, if we don’t stop much. It’s a great drive, and even if we don’t hike down, the view from the canyon rim takes your breath away.”
    The thought appealed to me, but I studied the map to see what other options we had. I had never been to this part of the country and everything excited me.
    “My grandma lived in Pueblo,” I commented as we looked things over.
    “Pueblo Indians or Pueblo, Colorado?” she asked. “You have to be more specific in this part of the country, you know.”
    “Colorado,” I said, approving of her request for detail. “I spent parts of some summers there. Grandma lived on a farm with no electricity or plumbing. My grandpa, actually step-grandpa, plowed by mule. I felt like Daniel Boone when I was with them. We could see Pikes Peak from their log cabin.”
    “Is she still alive?” Carmen asked me. “We’d be pushing it to get there and back in one weekend. It would be basically drive up, say hello, spend the night, and drive back.”
    “She lives in Denver now that Grandpa died,” I explained. “That’s okay. I’ve been there. Let’s go somewhere new.”
    My thoughts perked as I zeroed my finger onto a spot on the map, then gleefully looked at her.
    “Monument Valley’s not much farther away than the Grand Canyon,” I said. “Just a different direction.”
    “Everybody wants to see the Grand Canyon, and the object of my affection here, meaning you, goes the other way,” she said, shaking her head. “Why Monument Valley?”
    “Haven’t you seen those John Wayne movies? They’re eerily spiritual.”
    “Spiritual?” She scoffed. “Monument Valley is spiritual to you? It’s desert. We have that around here.”
    I nodded. “It’s like ghosts live there. It has soul.”
    “Ghosts are spiritual to you?”
    “It’s this wide open setting,” I tried explaining further, “with sculptures carved by God. Sacred. And not only that, John Wayne had this special style. While the rest of Hollywood was making B movies, he had depth and setting. Command. At least his better movies did. Like at Monument Valley. And on top of that he’s the one who took up for the serviceman during the Vietnam War.”
    “A lot of people took up for servicemen during the Vietnam War,” Carmen corrected.
    “But he stood up for us. He went out of his way to do this. He challenged those that were down on us, those burning the flag, and making Marines out as baby killers.”
    She studied me for a moment. “You seem scarred or something. I heard of guys coming back from Vietnam being scarred, but you seem scarred and you didn’t go.”
    “I wanted to go.” I struggled for the words. “I believed in the war. So, no, I wasn’t scarred from the war. I was scarred, if that’s the word, from the mindset. From our generation. And even though I think people have a right to dissent, they were burning the flag, and taking up for Communism, and making us out to be the aggressor. We talked European powers into giving up their colonies, but were accused of holding on to them, just because we were trying to keep the Communists out. Did you see what the North Vietnamese did when they took over South Vietnam? And everywhere else?”
    “I don’t want to talk politics,” she said meekly.
    “Me either,” I answered, apology in my voice. “I just appreciated John Wayne for his stand, and somehow there’s all this about Monument Valley, too. It represents something to my psyche somehow. I want to find out more why it does. It has character. Let’s go. We’ll go to the Grand Canyon next time.”
    Carmen rubbed my upper arm affectionately. “You said the magic words, Dalhart. You said ‘next time.’ There’ll be a next time, and we’ll go there then.”
    “Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon look the same distance on the map,” I said refocusing my attention on how to get there.
    “It’s not direct, though,” she explained. “But I think we can get