Bryce Canyon is “looking down”, and Red Canyon is “looking up”.  It’s amazing to see what nature has done to create these rock formations over the years.  Zion National Park is nearby, and the Grand Canyon is about four hours east of Las Vegas.  Speaking of the Grand Canyon – one of our favorite characters is “Chubbs”, a fat, overfed squirrel who obviously likes to be fed by the tourists.  That was years ago, and he’s probably dead and buried by now.  He could hardly move around because of his weight.

My fascination has continued to this day through the space shuttle program.  Hard to believe also that there are only a few flights left before the three ships in the shuttle fleet will be retired.  The Constellation project was set to pick up from there, but that has been slashed and diminished by the current administration.  I would have thought that a “bloated government” mentality would love to throw more money into NASA.

I trust that America will continue to press forward with space exploration.  That is one of the things that has kept the US ahead of everyone else in the world.  We need to continue to do great things for us to continue to be a great nation.

"Where's Reggie? I need another Bush-Push"

The college football events of June 10, 2010 brought back some memories.  In every odd-numbered year, USC comes to South Bend in mid-October to play at Notre Dame Stadium.  Since we schedule our road trip vacation to Indiana in mid-October, we see this game every two years.  In 2005, we drove to South Bend to see the ND vs. USC game.  This would turn out to be another “Game of the Century”, like so many Notre Dame football games are labeled.  When we arrived in town the day before, we could feel the electricity and excitement in the air.  On that Friday night, the pep rally was moved from the usual basketball arena to the football stadium to accommodate the increased numbers of fans.

ESPN was there to cover both the pep rally and the football game the next day.  On Saturday, as we walked through campus, we saw celebrities who had come to town for this extraordinary game.  Justice Clarence Thomas was there, and Jack Nicholson came up to Joyce underneath the stands to ask how to get to his seat.

The weather was perfect for football.  Like many afternoon football games, it starts in mid-afternoon and continues into the dark.  ND was leading at the end of the game, and the victory celebration had begun on the field as time ran out.  USC had driven down to the goal line at our end of the field, and for some reason, the (PAC-10) officials gave them one more play.  The field was cleared of the fans, and the last play was run.  This was the famous “Bush-Push” play where the quarterback would run the ball, aided by Reggie Bush pushing him from behind.  USC scored, and they won the game.

Of course, pushing your own player from behind is illegal according to the rules, but USC didn’t get called for it.  The victory was theirs.

Back to 2010.  Check any online sports page today to read about the sanctions that were laid upon USC because of gross “lack of institutional control” and other violations.  USC victories are being taken from the previous 2004 season, as well as the 2005 season, in which the above game was played.  Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy in 2005, and who knows – that may be taken away because of violations.

Sorry, but that’s too bad.  The rules are made for everybody, and whether they are broken on or off the field, the consequences will catch up.  USC was getting a little too big for their britches, and now they are reaping what they have sowed.

Here’s a little golf trivia:  on Friday nights back when we were all living at home, Mom and Dad would go out to our country club and play “mixed doubles”…..golf.  Mom comes up to #9, a par 3 hole.  She tees of, and sinks it for a hole-in-one.  Dad was in another foursome somewhere way behind her.  Having not heard about her hole-in-one, he comes up to the same #9 tee, hits it off, and sinks it the same way for a hole-in-one also.  They were both written up in Sports Illustrated and had all kinds of publicity because of that event. 

Some years later, my sister Nancy was browsing in a bookstore, and she opened up a small book of sports records.  Sure enough, there was the above event documented in that book!

Harold Leyes Skydiving in 2004

Here’s a link to a video that was shot of my first skydiving jump back in 2004. What a blast this was!! It’s something that I had always wanted to do, and I finally went ahead and did it. We jumped from about 13,000 feet where the air was cold, clear and clean. There was a freefall of about a minute, and then we popped the chute when we were in the cloud layer. I could smell the clouds as we traveled through them. After the chute was out (which was a big JOLT), we had a few minutes of floating and gliding down back to the airport. During that time, I could see the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and Lake Okeechobee to the east. When we were coming in for our landing, the instructor told me to raise my legs and land on his. We hit the bulls-eye in the circle of small stones.

http://www.haroldleyes.com/videos/2004-HLSkydiving.wmv

From left to right:  Harold Leyes, Tim Brooks, Gary Loderhose, Dean Schreiner, and George Slay.