"A couple of scribes" grantesmith's Profile

I am a retired newspaper reporter. I retired in May 2004 after a 44-year career. My wife Judith, shown in the attached picture, is also a former reporter who now works in public relations for Arizona State University. We met while covering a conference on computers.
My father was in the Air Force, and he was transferred to Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson in January 1953. I have lived in Arizona most of the time since taking breaks for the U.S. Navy and one for my newspaper career. As you can see, I have returned each time. I am a confirmed desert rat, but I am not happy about the explosive growth the state has experienced. Many picturesque communities, such as Sedona, Prescott and Sonoita, have lost much of their charm. Traffic in Tucson and the Phoenix Metropolitan Area is a nightmare. The drives from Phoenix to Tucson and Phoenix to Flagstaff used to be pleasant, now they are often hazardous. Those of you visiting our state may be appalled at the amount of roadside litter; I'm ashamed of it.
Judith was born in Orange County, California, about a decade before Disneyland. When we married in 1980, believe it or not, the population of the entire State of Arizona was less than Orange County. That is no longer true. She has seen much of the growth over here in Arizona and also in Southern California.
Judith just turned 65, but has no plans for retirement. She likes her work. A recent project started when she found a carillon in crates in a dusty ASU store room. She started a drive to raise money to restore it and get it installed in the Student Union. The carillon has been providing musical interludes for the campus for a couple of years now, and Judith is now working with a committee to select the first student to receive a Carillon Society scholarship.

The Chiricahua Mountains where Cochise roamed

I like history, archeology and good beer. I am sort of a Civil War buff. I got hooked on that when I decided to take an extensive look at my namesake -- Ulysses S. Grant. In history classes back in school, he was not highly regarded, but I found he was really quite a guy. I am proud to bear the name.
Judith is into architecture, art and music.
One of our favorite getaways is Calistoga in California's Napa Valley. We always start with mud baths and follow with a couple of days of wine tasting. It is a great stress buster.
We have traveled into most of the nooks and crannies of Arizona. Many of the small towns are treasures we are in jeopardy of losing. If you get a chance, you should see it now before we do lose it.
We have had several trips that have been memorable. We had a most enjoyable trip to Alaska riding the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. We have relatives and friends in England and have visited them a couple of times. We did a circle tour that included the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. We road Amtrak from Los Angeles to Seattle and then explored the Olympic Peninsula.
I hope to put together travel pages on these trips; I have tons of photo. Unfortunately, we took the trips before I got my digital camera, so I will have to scan pictures to get a format I can upload.

Friends in England we'd like to visit again

I am currently planning a trip to Yellowstone for June 2007. As part of that trip, I want to visit the Little Bighorn battle site and the Black Hills and circle down to Colorado to visit my son and his family.
In the future, we would like to get back to England for visits with our friends and relatives and maybe get down to Bueno Aires where another friend has recently retired. He sends me glowing reports from there.
Judith wants to go to Barcelona, and I would like to visit Rome.
I also hope to visit some of the Civil War battle sites; Vicksburg is of particular interest.