[TWA Flight To The Sun Country ]

and bright desert flowers what a country this is where nature just takes busy and man enjoys a peace friendly way of life this was a goal of our flight to the Sun country I'm Fred Jones that's my wife Martha we've just had a foot of snow overnight well outdoorsmen there's no need deep on the walk oh it's beautiful isn't it daddy sure is Nancy till you have to shovel it well shoveling snow doesn't take much start but I was just thinking wondering what they were doing in Arizona hey kids Martha Nancy just come over me no read this nasty weather goes to your head you're always saying that but you get over it before we can pin you down look I can take a little time off probably do us all some good no daddy my social life is just beginning a couple of real cool dance is coming up well there's Cowboys and swimming and desert sunshine it's a deal partner Arizona here I come GWA I'd like three tickets to Phoenix in return the first of next week Frederick Jim oh and we'd better have a rental car when we get there thank you but anyway laughs there was more snow I was glad that most of our trip would be high above it [Music] [Music] it was beautiful blue sky and the fleecy cloud of course it was about this time I wondered if we had forgotten anything but too late now thank goodness well anyway Nancy seemed to hand out a care in the world I was sure that she was fascinated by all that lovely beauty out there hey mom when do we eat well apparently lunch is third now dear [Music] looks like a delicious nail as Fred would say that takes organization these people know what they're doing I always get a new perspective on this wonderful country when I fly across it and here we are just a few hours some sleet and snow at the fine Phoenix Airport in the Valley of the Sun [Music] the first thing that hits you boy is that son after the gray winter days at home breathing that dry wonderful Southwest air now you feel as if the wide-open spaces were actually inside you [Music] just to show you how young you can suddenly feel in a few hours time we picked up a convertible but the rental people had ready for us as we started out to the ranch I thought of our own car all buttoned up in the parking lot at the airport at home and said to myself brother wouldn't it be tough to be an antifreeze salesman around here [Music] it didn't take long to get to the ranch grants did I say oh hell the place Jim Roberts has is more like a country estate in the desert there's a way of living out here in the southwest a casual sort of luxury the kind is you can relax with not have it way out Jim took us to our Casa a little Adobe cottage with all the comforts of home nup you over the rolling desert that we could barely break away from [Music] Jim got a settled so that we could really get this big Sun country vacation going when you leave water behind just out of sheer Vivaro the first thing you want to do is head for a swimming pool and practically everyone down here seems to have one and it didn't take steely courage for Nancy to whetted oh here this pool is heated to a comfortable temperature naturally I got shots of one of my two favorite pinup girls [Music] well here's the girl who was worrying about her socialite looks like a swimming pool and a lot of vitamin D sunshine took care of those words Phoenix is a regular mecca for tennis players and why not 70 degrees dry courts and fine shape all winter long snow under feeding Nancy and Martha the tennis courts I tried my golf game on as pretty of course as you'll find anywhere there isn't much rain here but irrigation keeps the Arizona courses in excellent shape naturally I was soon right at home in a trap [Music] now watch this [Music] besides golf tennis swimming and all-round loafing we also did some research into local customs and costume [Music] in a little town of Scottsdale for example we dropped into Porter's famous Western store now I haven't lived that one down yet but darned if I care [Music] first up was for some real Western duds [Music] Fred said oh that's all right for kids and I have agreed with him so we thought we'd get Nancy fixed up a day you know [Music] of course Fred didn't really want anything at all and certainly how would I look in a pair of western pants but Nancy had a field day then Fred saw shirt and then yes siree partner someone around here really went to town there's just something about this place that makes a man of you or something well one thing leads to another you know maybe it was the clothes but before long the head is down at the corral [Music] Joe the head Wrangler picked out the horses for us some non rodeo types were Martha and me of course [Music] hey Nancy looks pretty sharp up there doesn't see [Music] then we were on our way and believe me this is where the poet and a man comes out a warm Sun the tang of sagebrush and greasewood weird saguaro cactus embracing air [Music] I wonder what folks back home are doing while all this was going on shoveling snow or putting on tire chains [Music] the chuck wagon was already unloaded when we arrived at a notch in the hills wood smoke was drifting in the air as we tied off our horses like old hands [Music] there was more than one smoke in that air in a minute or two I wish you could get a whiff of this I wonder why things cooked outdoors always seem to smell and taste better eating those steaks was just no trouble at all now if you'll just excuse us we're live Alan won't you join us and listen to Rusty with his guitar I'm going to saddle up and ride the ferry together the steer that gone astray I'm going to saddle my favorite Broncos will not be back for 30 days after I sold my cattle now that I'm going to wear she doesn't want me to be a cowboy Wow be a banker instead now after we've moved to city outside to learn the city ways but I'll bet I ride down the Main Street open people form Adobe strange I'll open I every smarty advised to take my Galloway I'll do my best to make her happy the chibok wonder with the straight how long is been to a parade the old-time circus procession isn't seen much but in Phoenix when the rodeo comes along there's one thing a citizen wouldn't think of missing the hot Sun the clean air a friendly atmosphere makes you feel like a kid again Francis the rodeo performers the Cowboys all get into the air and there's credit of that well-known Southwest scenery [Music] the Indians have given up the TomTom for the snare in the snap room but there's a good share of the old shul lower left for the winter visitor to see and of course some modern American lore - not necessarily India the Phoenix show is one of the national championship rodeos tops in the winter circuit and drawing the best writers in the West one of the writers explained this event to me it's a calf roping and it springs directly out of the old ground up days when Cowboys sorted out the calves born during the winter and roped and branded them [Music] [Applause] [Music] right against the robot then he has to tie up three kicking legs it's a race against time and watch how this point he keeps his last suit tight on the calf the horse actually teams up with a man in this one next comes the brown fray like most of all sports they drew out of impromptu contests at the end of a round of wild horses have to be chained to be useful on a ranch it isn't the easiest way to acquire transportation but it works [Music] [Applause] a writer has ten seconds to ride if he can't these burrs the horse uses a single rain can't change his hands the free hand fans the air that show he's using only one to ride he's just unformed and the winners collect a cash prize [Applause] [Music] and that's good why prize money the clowns are always a big feature of any rodeo [Applause] and other acts around out the show [Music] one of the regular Championship events is bareback riding who said get a horse [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] bull ready whoops let's have gotten it start when the old Cowboys had run out of regular events and still had some energy left over if so this took care of that as you can see the animals in these events can take care of themselves and the Cowboys will get the broken bones but then they get the money too [Applause] [Music] after the rodeo we drove to some of the scenic spots of the southwest and Tucson we saw the famous mission of Santa beer which states back 300 years to old Spanish days thus not a ruin but a church maintained by and for the Papa Joe's Indians around Tucson [Music] was going on over the southwest Cheyenne's from Oklahoma their dances are an expression of the old Indian Way of life is almost this is the eagle it's entirely different in the West they live on wheels apparently and touring is really enjoyable when you can stop at a motel like this along the road [Music] we met a young couple who flew out from the and rented a car right at the airport by taking the tourist flight and staying at motels they got a lot of vacation for their money heading north what got May was trout fishing in beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and apple blossoms and midwinter as a contrast of the country around Phoenix north Arizona was all hill in Pine Country the mountains still have snow [Music] then suddenly we came on one of the greatest views in the world the Grand Canyon of the Colorado it took our breath away we just had to get a closer look at this so we gotta board those famous Grand Canyon mules and joined a party on the Bright Angel Trail riding down to the bottom the canyon is a mile deep and 12 miles across at this point the Colorado River riding in the Rocky Mountains has cut through Rock of many colors for 200 breathtaking miles [Music] more geologic formations can be seen here than in any other spot in the world on these walls you can read the history of the Earth's crust for the past 500 million years below the Grand Canyon 200 miles down the Colorado is Hoover Dam which in a way rivals a Canyon is a spectacle only 45 feet thick at the top it is 660 feet thick at the bottom it holds back the mighty Colorado and turns the brute force of the water into electric power and farmland irrigation behind the dam is Lake Mead a largest artificial lake in the world over 200 miles long and ocean in the midst of the raw desert it's a regular Navy out here in the desert strange as it may seem unlike me and Lake Mohave below the dam there are big boats and little boats out 40 cruisers but this is one of the fishiest places in the world and it all belongs to us it's run by the United States Park Service and it's open to all and some of these coves and hidden canyons lurked some of the finest largemouth bass in the country they'll go up to 13 pounds and the important thing is they're here in plenty outstanding ankling experts come here regularly to study write about the habits of bass here's Jason Lucas for example the famous angling editor of sports a field magazine he likes the Lake Mead area someone says he stays here for months that ought to be worth a paragraph or two mr. Lucas bass caught about 50 feet above what used to be bone dry desert and our ass all away from the lake there's another kind of life entirely if I just say Las Vegas you know what I mean a town of the Old West that's been brought up today and that's dedicated to the American idea of a big time on the town we got a whale of a thing out of other things too far the claims of this day that I came through them thar swinging doors looking like Wild Bill Hickok expecting a mite of trouble from a bad man well man how you talk there is something for everybody at Las Vegas including the kids if you want to see how it was in the gold rush days here's a couple of well-preserved miners washing gold needless to say Las Vegas is a pretty lively town daytime and nighttime [Music] there's legal gambling here and you can take your choice and your chances on everything from five cents slot machines to roulette next day we took the plane at Las Vegas for the flight home as the hostess greeted us we thought back over everything we had seen and done swimming and golf the rodeoin brain Canyon and the bright lights just the place I thought were a quickie vacation on a trip to the coast now we were flying over the mighty canyon and in a few hours we would be back home again what a wonderful way to travel the great trip me dad was a peach to take us I think it did us all a lot of good he was fun too yes it was frankly I feel like a million silver dollars thanks to our TWA flight the Sun Country