No trip lately

That's right, we've been at home, with nothing but non-scenic day trips, since July. This year's trips planned - PAII in Austin in March, Big Bend and Armed Forces Skeet Shoot in San Antonio in May, and (weather permitting) a little jaunt north of the river for Sandra's birthday.

Day 13, Home in Warrensburg

Well, we made it back last night, after a 500 mile drive from Guymon. Despite the long drive, we did make a couple of "sightseeing" stops. First one was at Mullinville, KS, home of a folk artist who makes what he calls "totem poles" out of various pieces of metal. They mostly have a message of some sort, and he doesn't like politicians very much. I'll post a few pictures after I recover.

Next stop was in Greensburg, KS - the place that was hit by the massive tornado a couple of years ago and is rebuilding "green." Almost all the debris has been removed and new houses are going up, but the landscape is still barren. Dillon's has opened a combo supermarket/C-store on a major corner, and the new school is going up.

Hit Warrensburg about 4:30 PM, ate dinner & shopped a bit, got Quicken caught up and crashed. Still need more sleep - and to free up some memory on the laptop.

Our slightly-used '09 Malibu performed very well and was comfortable. Here's the stats:
Total miles: 3809.
Gas Mileage: 31.3 mpg
Avg speed: 50 mph

Day 12, Guymon OK

A long day, today. En route to Taos we stopped at an overlook for the Rio Grande gorge bridge outside of Taos. Then we walked around, bought t-shirts, sat on the plaza & looked at art. Then it was up the hill, down the hill, up the hill and down again to Cimarron, where we visited the museum at the Philmont Boy Scout ranch. We had been reading about Lucien Maxwell who put the whole property together in the 19th Century, then the area of the ranch ended up under the ownership of Waite Phillips (same guy whose Tulsa house is the Philpott Art Museum). Yes, he was the brother of the man who started Phillips Petroleum and an oilman in his own right.

Drove through a lot of empty space - not a single town for over 90 miles from Springer & Clayton, and not many between there and Guymon. We did run through the edge of a thunderstorm - yes, the 4-cyl Malibu runs easily at 85 mph on level ground as we tried to get through the hail we were caught in. One dent in the roof. Damn!

Tomorrow, who knows. We may drive straight through home, or we may take an extra day. Depends a lot on how I feel in the AM.

Day 11, Alamosa

Today is Friday, and we're in Alamosa CO. The prime purpose of today's journey was to visit Madge & Larry Harrah at their 'cottage' in Platoro, CO, elevation 9760. But first, we stopped in Chama NM to take a look at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR making up their daily train. Then it was up a long gravel (speaking generously) road to Platoro. This was a gold/sliver mining community off and on from around 1900 (I think) until 1970s, when the mine flooded.

Platoro Reservoir is America's highest man-made lake, not real big but very scenic. They bought us lunch at the local lodge - rustic indeed. When we left, another long drive on gravel roads past 12,000 ft mountains. Scenic, of course. The San Juan mountains are volcanic in origin so Sandra picked up some rocks. I hope that's the last of the rocks as we're running out of space for them.

Tonight in Alamosa we ate a Mexican buffet dinner at Cavillo's. We're stuffed. Highly recommend it if you ever visit Alamosa.

Tomorrow, it's on to Taos, Cimarron and after that I'm not sure.

Day 10, Pagosa Springs

Here we are in Pagosa Springs, CO, after another day looking at rocks. After a real breakfast (bacon, eggs, toast & hashbrowns) at the Moab Diner, it was off to Arches NP. Did I say looking at rocks? Red rocks, yellowish rocks, rocks in spires, rocks with long crevices, rocks with holes in them (big holes, naturally). Last time we were here in 2002 our visit was cut short by a violent thunderstorm - felt sorry for the people out hiking who didn't watch the skies. This time it was dry, not even clouds for photographic background.

Then we took a two hour drive back to Monticello and on into Colorado to Dolores. Big surprise - lots of farming in a relatively flat area between mountain ranges; some wheat & alfalfa, but they were harvesting a cereal grain while green - maybe oats? The stop was Anasazi Cultural Center outside of Dolores, the BLM's only museum. A big dam was put on the Dolores River, and the ancient sites were excavated and/or documented first. It also had an art display by the Plein Air Artists of the Four Corners and a display on the Old Spanish Trail trade network from Santa Fe to California.

Next stop, Durango. Traffic was terrible and the train was not in the station. Skipped the tourist traps and went to Walmart to get some things for Madge & Larry Harrah, who we'll visit tomorrow. Then to Pagosa Springs, home of the Fred Harman Art Museum. He was a self-taught artist and illustrator, western subjects. He also did comic strips - ever hear of Red Ryder? I had a Daisy Red Ryder bb gun and broke my glasses just like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story." He was good!

Tomorrow it's on to Chama, through some 10,000 ft passes, and up a forest service road to the old mining town of Platoro (from the name, can you guess what they hoped to find?) & a visit with Madge & Larry Harrah. Madge wrote the award-winning children's book on Blind Boone, and many others. We'll end the day with a Mexican buffet at Alamosa.

Day 9, Moab Utah

Here we are in Moab after another full (& hot) day on the road. We left early without breakfast and took a look at the Goosenecks of the San Juan State Park - river meanders entrenched in a deep canyon. Then we climbed the side of a high mesa using the Moki Dugway, a set of gravel switchbacks, and went on to Natural Bridges National Monument. Lots of nice views, but little contrast in rock colors.

We hit Blanding about 10:30, so visited Edge of the Cedars State Park - one room displayed horse pictures by a couple of sisters, another had photos of various rock art around the region - with stories of each. Upstairs showed artifacts as well as historic interpretation. They had panels describing how local people had made outstanding finds and had reported them for preservation instead of looting (Hillerman book, A Thief of Time). Then we had lunch.

Drove on to the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park. It's a long drive into the park, but the route takes you by Newspaper Rock, a panel full of rock art (the pictures is a small portion). More red rock. Sandra "rescued" a lady left at the visitor center (with two lapdogs) by her husband who was helping someone who got stuck in sand. The rescue? Giving her a cigarette.

Got into Moab about 4:30 (early for us) and had a good Mexican dinner. Then caught up pictures and the blog, and get ready for tomorrow - Arches NP, and drive on to Pagosa Springs CO.

Day 8, Monument Valley

Gee, I'm not posting this until Wednesday evening - the motel in Mexican Hat had very limited bandwidth, hard to even check email. At Page, we took a Navajo-guidedd tour of Antelope Canyon slot canyons, really something. Needed more time and a better tripod to take really sharp, focused pictures. We rode in a contraption with 11 other people in the back of a pickup truck, which turned into a really bumpy ride; Sandra loved it. The big excitement was a baby rattler in the canyon.

Then, it was off to Monument Vally. We stopped in Kayenta at the Blue Cup (I think) for a Navajo Taco, really outstanding. When we got to Monument Valley, a Navajo woman offered us a tour of the back country for $65/person. No thanks, we'll drive the open area ourselves (maybe I should have offered her half that). It was definitely picture time, trying to get better versions of what we took in 2004. We met some folks from Germany who were on the same trip as us, as well as a Navajo who was originally from the Lukachukai area & knew the people at the trading post whom we met on previous trips (& whose daughter waited on us at a casino buffet near Phoenix). Small world revisited.

Spent the night at Mexican Hat Motel, in Mexican Hat (naturally). It overlooked the San Juan River gorge, which we could have walked down to if we hadn't been worn out from previous adventures. The only drawback was the terrible bandwidth problem; they were on dish which can't handle the kind of traffic they had. Dinner? A Navajo taco.