Gaillo
18th September 2011, 12:20 PM
I got up early yesterday (around 5AM) and took a trip with Henny and a friend of ours to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. LONG drive, somewhat exhausting, but entrance was free (our friend has a disabled veteran's pass). We spent a few hours there, then drove back and returned home later in the evening.
Weather was perfect. Canyon itself was a bit hazy... due to recent wildfires in the area, but it was still interesting (I haven't been there in over 20 years, it was as impressive as I remember it being!)
Now for the interesting part... the people. I'm a people watcher, and here's what I saw.
There were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people there over the 2 hours or so we were there, not including the service staff. It broke down into the following demographics:
3 couples with children, all children were in the 6-ish to 12-ish age range, except for 1 infant.
About 40 Asians, Japanese being the dominant race from what I could see.
Probably the same number (~40) of European visitors speaking foreign languages, I recognized German, French, and 1 couple speaking Italian.
1 Interracial couple, a 50-ish distinguished looking black "professor-type" guy and his 60-ish NPR-lib-looking hippyesque wife.
ZERO young people traveling alone or as childless couples. :o
1 "New York Jew" looking/sounding older couple.
No blacks (other than professor guy), no mexicans, no native Americans, no middle-east arabic people, no "slavic/Russian looking" people.
ALL OF THE REST of the visitors were split almost equally between either late-middle aged weekend Harley-biker businessman/women with pricey bikes and new looking leather, and the other group... 60+ year old stereotype retirees - mostly couples with the occasional male loner. LOTS of gray/white hair. One scrabble board set up on the sundeck, and a group of 3 oldsters playing cards at the overlook chairs. More digital cameras than I could possibly begin to count - some people had more than one! ::)
I listened to what people were talking about, mostly the haze and weather, how BIG the canyon was, the usual national park drivel. The only political/economic comment I heard the whole time was one 60-ish year old IDIOT (who reminded me of Barney from the Andy Griffith show) who was spouting on about how taxation is the price of civilization, and how we NEED a big government to "give us" things like the national parks. Overall, the place was "Sheep Central" - with a lot of zombies who haven't yet started eating brains.
Draw your own conclusions from all the above.
Weather was perfect. Canyon itself was a bit hazy... due to recent wildfires in the area, but it was still interesting (I haven't been there in over 20 years, it was as impressive as I remember it being!)
Now for the interesting part... the people. I'm a people watcher, and here's what I saw.
There were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people there over the 2 hours or so we were there, not including the service staff. It broke down into the following demographics:
3 couples with children, all children were in the 6-ish to 12-ish age range, except for 1 infant.
About 40 Asians, Japanese being the dominant race from what I could see.
Probably the same number (~40) of European visitors speaking foreign languages, I recognized German, French, and 1 couple speaking Italian.
1 Interracial couple, a 50-ish distinguished looking black "professor-type" guy and his 60-ish NPR-lib-looking hippyesque wife.
ZERO young people traveling alone or as childless couples. :o
1 "New York Jew" looking/sounding older couple.
No blacks (other than professor guy), no mexicans, no native Americans, no middle-east arabic people, no "slavic/Russian looking" people.
ALL OF THE REST of the visitors were split almost equally between either late-middle aged weekend Harley-biker businessman/women with pricey bikes and new looking leather, and the other group... 60+ year old stereotype retirees - mostly couples with the occasional male loner. LOTS of gray/white hair. One scrabble board set up on the sundeck, and a group of 3 oldsters playing cards at the overlook chairs. More digital cameras than I could possibly begin to count - some people had more than one! ::)
I listened to what people were talking about, mostly the haze and weather, how BIG the canyon was, the usual national park drivel. The only political/economic comment I heard the whole time was one 60-ish year old IDIOT (who reminded me of Barney from the Andy Griffith show) who was spouting on about how taxation is the price of civilization, and how we NEED a big government to "give us" things like the national parks. Overall, the place was "Sheep Central" - with a lot of zombies who haven't yet started eating brains.
Draw your own conclusions from all the above.