At a family reunion last year I asked my uncle Kevin if he had a bucket list.  Well, I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, he replied.  At age 82 and with a medical condition called macular degeneration threatening his vision, it was clear that 2014 was the right time for us to schedule a trip.  We booked air travel, rental car and hotel accommodations.  Today our journey begins.

Kevin Gaffey is a Roman Catholic priest, ordained in 1957 in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.  He’s been retired for 11 years but is still busy and beloved, baptizing babies, blessing the sick, burying the dead, offering spiritual guidance, celebrating marriages and saying Mass every day.  Yesterday he preached at an 8:00 Mass at Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park, CA and then celebrated a 9:30 Mass for the nuns at Sacred Heart School in nearby Atherton.

My brothers and sister and I have always had a handful names for our uncle the priest.  To us, he’s Fr. Kevin, Fr. Kev, Uncle Kev or Uncle Father Kevin.  One of his grand-nephews added another name, Uncle Priest.  To his parishioners he’s known as Father Gaffey and to some of his young parishioners he was respectfully called Papa G.  For the purposes of this blog, I’ll refer to my travel companion and co-pilot as Fr. Kevin, Uncle Kevin, Fr. Kev, Kevin, Kev, or the Padre.  With all of those passengers onboard, maybe we should hire a bus.

I’m Patrick.  Also known as Pat, Patricio, Patricious, and King of the Road Trip.  I get to handle all the driving and blogging.  The first leg of our trek is a flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas.  We won’t what kind of rental vehicle we’re getting until we land in Vegas.

The plan is to visit three national parks and three states.  First up will be Zion National Park and then Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  After that, we’ll see the Grand Canyon in Arizona, before heading back across the Colorado River to Nevada.  By the way, we won’t be taking any burro rides to the bottom of the canyon.  As far as we know.