Winding down this adventure ...

We left Durango, but not before getting a flat tire in our BMW X5 ... probably a sharp rock.  We were quite impressed with the "run-flat" technology that allows for extended travel on a flat tire ... but the tire needed to be replaced before we re-connected and head out of town.  And, given that the tires already had 30k miles on them, Paul decided to get 4 new tires. Unfortunately, no run-flat tires our size were available in Durango (in fact, the tire shop had not ever seen this type, size of tire) ... so, an order went out to Denver and the tires shipped in (quite quickly) and we only had to extend our trip for an extra two days ... Paul became quite acquainted with the owner and staff at Firestone Tire of Durango as we awaited our new tire installation and was pleased with our support of a good group at Firestone ...

New tires ... on very road-grimed wheels ... Fritz has four new tires and is ready to tow ...

We left United Campground with promises to return ... there is much more that we want to explore in Durango ... but we had to leave because the upcoming Memorial Day weekend was the time for the Iron Horse Classic Bike Race ... a race between road cyclists and the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train to Silverton and everything in town was reserved for the weekend of racing and associated festivities.

A waterfall along the road through Wolf Creek Pass ...

And, on to Colorado Springs to Trudy's home where we cleaned up Bambi ...

And we returned Bambi to RV storage ...

All good adventures should end with a celebratory meal ... and this one was hosted by Trudy at her home as she made a German food fest for family ...

And, we returned to Tucson the next day ... well-fed and well-adventured.

Bambi awaits our return and more adventures to come ... but this wraps up this current adventure and we're already planning the next round of travel ... stay tuned for more exciting adventures with Bambi ...

Thoughts about "stuff" ...

Just a quick observation ... there are a few invasive species that have been unleashed across the West  ... self-storage companies and various forms of "dollar" stores.  

Almost every town, large and tiny, that we've driven through has one or more self-storage facilities.  Even in towns where it doesn't look as if the citizens have enough to fill one home, much less a self-storage room, there are thriving, new self-storage companies.  We're particularly mindful of self-storage companies because we are participants ourselves in the great self-storage phenomenon.  We have the remains of our Maryland household in self-storage and are constantly aware that we need to make the final steps in moving by dealing with our stuff.  Some things we long to have; some things we wonder why we bothered to store them; some things we just don't know what to do with them.  But, we are owners of stuff ... lots of stuff (despite what felt like near heroic efforts to donate, give away, sell our household stuff) ... we have a large (double wide) storage room filled with stuff awaiting our attention while we continue to support the growth of self-storage.

The other invasive species,  and they might be related, is the growth of "dollar" stores ... Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree ... filled with more stuff.  And, that doesn't include the growth of various big box stores that specialize in providing stuff on a large scale, Wal-Mart, for example ...

I don't have any particularly great ephiphany about "stuff" ... just the awareness that "stuff" seems to take up a disproportionate about of time, space and energy in our lives ... acquiring stuff and storing stuff ... and then eliminating stuff ... based on the number of self-storage companies and "dollar" stores ... "stuff" is the new boom economy.

Added note:  I mentioned Wal-Mart above ... and in an earlier blog posting about using their parking lot and shopping for food.  We do have an awareness of the challenges of the Wal-Mart employees to get a "living wage" that allows the employees to have a decent chance at a middle class life (without having to use the SNAP food stamp program or Medicaid to make ends meet).  We made a donation to Democracy for America based on an appeal from Robert Reich (former Secretary of Labor) to pressure Wal-Mart to address income inequality for its workers and provide them with a living wage.  (The six Wal-Mart heirs are worth more than the bottom 41% of Americans combined).   While the parking lots at Wal-Mart are welcoming for RVs, we also want the workers at Wal-Mart to receive wages that someday allow them to use those parking lots for their own adventures.  

How do we spend our evenings?

You'll notice that I didn't say "all of the ways that we spend our evenings" ... this is a "G-rated" blog.

But, we did get a question about our evenings ...

We haven't had the weather conditions to do the "sitting around the campfire" thing ... it has been either too cold, too windy or both ... and campfires are increasingly discouraged due to fire risk (we just don't want to be the source of the next major western forest fire).

Star gazing and night sky watching have been limited ... again due to the colder evening temperatures ... although the Dark Sky Initiative by the National Park Service has led to wonderful bright star-studded skies near national parks.  Park Ranger led evening education talks have not occurred because it is too early in the season ...

We have been surprised that some of the private campgrounds have cable television available at each campsite ... we didn't bring cable, but have been able to borrow cable at these campgrounds.  So, we've been able to watch the PBS Newshour and catch up on the NBA final tournaments, but just because we can get cable television doesn't mean that anything much is worth watching ... (and a DVR is not included in the cable television offerring, so one has to watch the commercials).

Paul was able to connect his Surface via HDMI cable to our flat screen television and we've been able  to stream material from Netflix and HBO Go when we have access to good WIFI connection or Internet connection.

And we do have an excellent sound system with radio, CD, Bluetooth audio options ... so, music is in our life ...

When we are without connection, we've returned to our mainstay, Scrabble ... Paul almost always wins ... but a couple of nights ago, when we were both brain dead and our words resembled a third graders attempt at playing ("your",  "wed", "the"), I actually won a game ... much excitement (by me, at any rate).

We have also had a couple of new entrants into the game world ...

One is a game, Road Trip, from Hilary, Paul's cousin's wife, who is a game distributor and found this game for us a gaming conference ... seemed wonderfully appropriate for travel in Bambi ... Paul won that game too ...

And, another word game from John, Paula and Max ... Zip-It ...

One might think that we are "word" people ...

Of course, we always have books, magazines, etc. to read (though we're both reading so much that we are nearly caught up on The New Yorker magazine).  And, there is a "lonely" research paper that has been hiding in a briefcase in the back cabinet of Bambi waiting for Paul to bring it out and work on re-writing it ... Paul frequently mentions that he should give it some attention, but he has rarely brought it out for any evening "entertainment" ... and my art supplies have remained in my briefcase (awaiting a rainy day) ...

And then there is always just the daydreaming, reminiscing, and other mental meanderings that occur  when one is free to allow oneself to wander ...

Heartwood Cohousing ...

We had the pleasure of visiting friends at the Heartwood Cohousing Community in Bayfield, CO for dinner (heartwoodcohousing.com) ... We had met Christine as a bridesmaid at Sander and Hillary's wedding and she had extended an invitation to us to visit whenever we were in the Durango area (note to friends: be careful if you extend an invitation to vist as we are likely to accept ...).  

Heartwood is about 20 miles east of Durango, on the edge of a town called Bayfield, and has 360+ acres of pasture and forested land for a community of 28 homes.   Christine introduced to her husband, Rob, and their delightful son, Hutch, who all proceeded to give us a tour of their community. My major regret was that I didn't have a camera to capture the charm of their rural cohousing community.  There was the weather insulated yurt (that looks like a community gathering place or yoga studio) near the sledding hill (Hutch was quick to point out the sledding trail).   Next came the woodshop (Paul was having workspace and tool envy), followed by the chicken house (Christine is co-leader for the chicken house).   Then to the greenhouse in a geodesic dome with beeswax controlled louvers and a solar heated koi pond ... Rob is the leader for the greenhouse which had a wide array of vegetables and herbs, including the lettuce that we had for dinner.  Hutch was eager to point out the garden snakes that live in the greenhouse.  We toured the community house with communal kitchen, laundry and game facilities and the "store" in which milk, eggs, meat where available for purchase.  Hutch showed us the play structure ... and his swinging and jumping skills.  We didn't  have time to tour the livestock, much to Hutch's disappointment, (although we did see some of their horses, cattle, llamas and pigs as we drove in) because we were treated to a delicious dinner ... and wonderful conversation. 

We had previously been introduced to cohousing by our friends, Dick and Karin, in The Commons on the Alameda in Santa Fe, which is more of an urban cohousing community.  Heartwood is represents  a rural or pastoral cohousing community with the capability of having more life outdoors, more connection to the natural environment.  The cohousing movement permits a deeper connection to a community of people and focuses the attention on "intentional" living.  By having the opportunity to spend time with Christine, Rob and Hutch, and to meet a few of their neighbors, it was rare glimpse into a unique community which exemplifies the term "community" through their commitment to living a mindful life connected to each other in the context of a beautiful environment.  

Sorry about the lack of pictures ... I am afraid that the "bloggist" has developed a severe hay fever response to  the cottonwood trees in our campground and I am in a bit of an anti-histamine fog ... so, if none of this makes sense, just write it off to hay fever (and the miserable drugs).

Our sincere gratitude to Christine, Rob and Hutch for sharing their life with us ... it was a treat!

Durango, CO - The Colorado Trail

The Colorado Trail is a 486 miles trail that runs from Durango to Denver traveling through eight mountain ranges, six national forests and six wilderness areas with low elevation of 5,500 feet and a high elevation point of 13271 feet.  Much of the trail is in sub-alpine and alpine terrain and rises and falls dramatically as one traverses the mountains and valleys.

We were not so ambitious as to want to do the entire trail ... instead we took off hiking from the southern terminus of the trail, just north of Durango beginning at the Junction Creek trailhead ... and wandered the trail for the better part of an absolutely beautiful day ... (I wonder why everyone feels that they must put their finfer on the "You Are Here" indicator on a map?)

We discovered where Park Rangers are sent to learn how to make rock cairns ...

We encountered countless mountain bikers and runners (who all made the hike look much easier than our hiking boots and poles) ... but had the beauty of a creek (with water ... unlike Arizona creeks) along the way ...

A thoughtful trail runner took our picture crossing Junction Creek ...

Then we made our way up the other side of the valley before having lunch and turning back around ...

Our return trip, largely downhill, probably took us 1 1/4 hours ... the mountain bikers did it in 20 minutes ... (at least that is what they said, but they didn't show us the data like we did ...

This may serve as an inspiration to tackle more of the Colorado Trail ... but I remain a bit daunted by the mere thought of some of the high mountain passes ... We did enjoy these lovely fir, pine and spruce covered valleys with running water always in the background ... and the wondefully friendly mountain bikers, runners and their dogs who shared the trail with us (even if we had a bit of "youth" envy) ...

These are a few of my favorite things ...

With apologies to Mary Poppins ... "these are a few of my favorite things"  ...

My Ugg slippers ... Paul gave them to me for Christmas ... warm sheep's skin with the ability to slide on and off easily ... and rubber lug sole for walking outdoors ... with the temperatures that we've experienced camping early in the spring, these have kept my toes warm and comfortable with the ability to slide on and off and to go outdoors ...

The Verisimo coffee machine ... expensive coffee capsules and a bit hard to find (might have been better to try a Keurig machine) ... but wonderously easy to make a fresh cup of coffee (or two or three) in the morning (when we're connected to electricity ... draws to much to use when we're dry camping and running on battery) ... and so easy to clean up ... a real joy when compared to dealing with coffee grounds from the French press ... however, Paul does not feel that it makes a "ballsy" enough cup of coffee, even with dark roast ...

John and Paula gave us this spice collection ... it is a bit like having a spice cabinet in a single metal container ... gives Paul all the spices he needs for culinary creativity (except the bottle of fish sauce) ... and travels so well, so compactly ... and, they gave us a backpacking spice container for all of the other spices that we might need ...

We've nicknamed this device "Jeti" ... it is a portable Verizon hotspot ... the carrier for our mobile phones is ATT (not the greatest coverage in the West) ... and we both have iPads and laptop computers ... this little MIFI allows us to connect up to 10 devices ... it is lightweight and easily portable ... we can turn it on in the car if we need to look up something (like a camp ground) ... and we can use it when our campground (or hotel) doesn't have WIFI access ... we do purchase an amount of data per month, and there have been a few months when we've not used our allocation of data (unused data does not "rollover" from month to month) ... it has made posting of this blog possible when we did not have WIFI through the campground ...

Perhaps the most amazing technological achievement has been Paul's effort to connect his Surface (portable computer) via HDMI cable to our flat screen television with an integrated sound system (surround sound in our speaker system) so that we can stream HBO Go and Netflix directly to our television.  Yes, a luxury, but one must keep up with the intrigues in Westeros (Game of Thrones) ...

I am sure that there are many other items for which I should have an "attitude of gratitude" ...  and many other people who have in part supported this trip ... but I wanted to take a moment to recognize some things that have made this adventure a bit more delightful ...

Durango, CO

After leaving Mesa Verde National Park we rolled on down the hill into Durango, CO.

And found an RV campground, United Campground, just 4 miles north of Durango, along the Animas River ... and along the trolley route into downtown Durango (with the trolley stop just across the street from the campground).

We took the trolley (actually a bus designed to resemble a trolley) into town and walked with all of the other tourists up and down the downtown section ... catching dinner at a Himalayan restaurant and some ice cream afterwards before heading back "home".

Picture of the Strater Hotel in downtown Durango ... there were just too many pictures to take of buildings ... and the Durango Visitor's Center does a great job of publicizing the town ... I was more interested in the eclectic range of people strolling the streets, but felt that it might be a bit strange to be photographing the strange assortment of folks strolling the streets of Durango on a Saturday night ...

Picture of a post-gustatory smile on Paul's clean shaven face ... he did as he had promised to shave his grizzled face ...

This morning we rode our bikes from our campground down to the Animas River Trail ... the trail now extends much further south than it had during our last stay in Durango ... and the overcast sky kept the temperatures moderate ... just a wonderful experience to cycle alongside a robust river ... (yes, we have friends, Bob and Linda, who would wonder why one would cycle when one could kayak, but that may be for another trip).  It is just great to see a river that is really a river (not our Arizona dry river beds that only become "rivers" during monsoon season when the river beds flow with water).

Ending the ride with data, of course ...

The afternoon gave us the opportunity to drive from Durango to Silverton ... there is actually a bike race, Iron Horse, next weekend which involves cyclists racing the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge railway engine from Durango to Silverton ... we wanted to see what it would be like (not enough to ride our bikes, but from the comfort of our car) ...

Durango Mountain Resort (formerly Purgatory) was a stop along the way ... these are the mountains overlooking the resort ... the resort was empty ... the summer season doesn't start until after Memorial Day and even the ski lifts were not running for a touristy run up the ski slopes ...

I had been looking for big horn sheep in all of our remote hike locations only to find one hanging out on the road (rather oblivious of all the traffic on the road ... creating a bit of a "ram jam") ...

We crossed Molas Pass (10,900 feet) on our way to Silverton and realized just how slowly spring comes to the Rockies ...

And, after a quick tour of Silverton, returned home ... incredibly glad that we did the trip by car, not bike, and are quite glad that we'll not be a part of the Iron Horse Bike Race next week ... 

Thoughts as we leave Mesa Verde National Park ...

We did do a hike yesterday, the Knife Edge Trail, which is actually part of the historic road built into Mesa Verde National Park (in use from 1906 to 1957) ... the road is under-cut by slide areas and was eliminated as a road once the tunnel was built beyond Morefield Campground.  It was a bit ironic that most of the hike appeared to be threatened by slides from above, huge boulders cracked and ready to have gravity play its role ... but, by the time that we got to the end of the trail, the NPS determined that we should stop because of the danger of slides ... guess we were lucky to not have any rocks decide to become unbalanced as we were passing by ...

It was very dry ... even this early in spring with few wildflowers still blooming.  The Ranger mentioned that while much of Colorado got a good snow pack this winter, unfortunately Mesa Verde did not ... and the NPS is concerned about the fire season ahead ...

Paul wanted photo-documentation of his bearded visage ... (it is rumored that he'll shave it off when we again reach the land of full hook-ups ... )

And our hike ended ... with data, of course,

Mesa Verde is not a hiker's national park ... the NPS specifically prohibits backcountry hikes fearing that hikers may happen upon archaeological sites and may interfere with ongoing research or cultural concerns.  The few hikes that are available are focused on directing hikers to scenic overlooks, but some of the beauty is lost in pine bark beetle ravaged forests that have repeatedly been burned over with only limited regrowth. 

We opted in the afternoon to head to Wetherill Mesa for more cliff dwellings, but it was closed until Memorial Day (have I mentioned that we pushed the season a bit?)  So, we went to the Far View sites ... setting for approximately 50 villages with thousands of people at its height ... 

 

Several villages have been excavated ...  and all have a kiva or kivas with tunnels that connected the kivas in winter ... the shape of the kiva had essentially remained unchanged over the hundreds of years that these villages were built and maintained ...

There was a reservoir that helped preserve water resources for the surrounding villages ... In fact, the fires helped uncover many of the dam breaks and channels that were dug to bring water to the crops.  

Interestingly (perhaps only to me), Mesa Verde is not actually a mesa (which would be a flat topped land formation) ... it is more accurately a cuesta (slope) which allows water/snow landing at the higher elevations to flow downward toward the areas of the mesa/cuesta that were used for dry farming ... and the fact that the underlying stone is sandstone, the remaining water percolates through the layers of sandstone and comes out as seeps near the cliff dwellings ... in addition, there is water in the valleys below the cliff dwellings, but it would have been quite difficult to bring much water up to the mesa/cuesta tops to water plants ... this was dry farming.

The average life expectancy for a woman was 24 years ... died of hemorrhage in childbirth with fractured vertebrae in the neck from carrying jugs of water on the head and arthritis in the knees and ankles from kneeling over grinding stones (manos and metates) to prepare corn ...

The average life expectancy for a man was 30 years ... died of infected teeth/gums passing the infection to the heart ...

Alas, a woman's work is never done ...

And, as we prepare to leave Mesa Verde, I pondered the difficulty encountered by these ancestral Puebloan peoples ... they were, in the final 100 years of their occupation of this area, concerned enough about each other that they came off of the mesa tops and built elaborate cliff dwelling villages to protect themselves from those who would threaten from above ... they suffered 23 years of drought ... scarce resources with growing population led to conflict ... and, within two generations, they completely abandoned an area by 1300 AD that they had occupied, farmed, built upon since at least 550 AD.

It leads me to wonder where do we think that we're going to be able to go when global warming and increased global population leads us to scarce resources with growing population and the inevitable conflict ... this failure of ours, as a world community, to adequately address the impact of global warming, not just on the West, but on the world leaves me with grave concerns about the future of our humanity.