Off To Boulder ~ Not So Fast!

April 29 ~ May 1

Return from dinner last night, and the sky was starting to get a little funky looking.  The wind was picking up substantially and Tor is rockin' in the wind.  Go to bed and the wind is so strong, we close our bedroom slide that's being rocked about and making a dreadful noise.  Very little sleep that night. 

In the morning, we learn the winds are at a steady 40 mph with gusts to 80!  We needed no time to make the decision that we weren't going anywhere in that kind of weather.  You can barely walk, the dust storms have created accidents everywhere and the mountain we used to look at is totally gone.

Take the opportunity of the "bonus" down day to clean Tor and do the laundry.  Spend the rest of the day in the RV park's clubhouse reading.  So glad they have a comfortable facility.  You can barely tell there's a hurricane going on out there...the building isn't moving at all!  By the late evening, the wind is dying down and we think it will be possible to sleep, though we leave the slide in just in case.

Finally get on the road in the morning.  Everything is going just fine until we get to Colorado Springs.  It's almost May for heaven's sake and it's snowing!  Decide to stop in Castle Rock for the night and look up a friend we made three years ago, Ian Steyne, the owner of Castle Rock Campground.  Lo and behold, we get there and Ian's turned his facility into a Yogi Bear Jellystone Park. (Website is still castlerockrvpark.com) We love them because we've had such a good time with our grandson, Ian, at one in Maryland.

Catch up with Ian over coffee the next morning and he is very excited about the new franchise, the growth of his property and plans for further expansion.  Great to see him...admire his vision and energy!

Finally make it to Boulder about 1 p.m.  The big party is at 4.  We need to get Tor in Jim and Linda's driveway which turns out to be more of an adventure than we anticipated.....not the backing in part....Rick's really good at that....it's the low hanging branches part!  Rick gets out of Tor and surveys the situation.

He decides a little pruning is in order.  Nephew Jason keeps him steady.

One branch proves too much for Rick, so Josh, niece Theena's husband who is perhaps one of the buffest guys on the face of the earth because he's an Army Ranger, is called in.  Success.

Tor gets happily settled in the driveway.

The party, in honor of Theena and Josh just in from Savannah, is a roaring success. Crowds come to wish them well and to give Josh a send-off for his fourth deployment to Afghanistan next week. We give continuing tours of Tor, indulge ourselves in food and drink and hit the sack early.  We're staying in the driveway for a few days because the house is full!

The Road To Boulder & Santa Fe Redux

April 26 ~ 29

The first leg to Boulder is totally uneventful (that's a good thing) and boring (that's not a good thing). Stop overnight in Gallup, New Mexico in some "one night only" place.  Getting chillier and since we are still freezer diving, we haul out Chicken Provencal soup that I made early in the trip...add a salad and settle in for the evening. 

We look forward to the next two days in Santa Fe.  Takes us much longer to get there than we planned.  Tor is acting up again on the mountain climbs.  Spend four hours in Albuqurque having the transmission, oil etc. checked out.  After a minor fix, but with the knowledge we need to take Tor in for a "spa day" in Boulder, we plod on to Santa Fe.

Stay at the same place as last fall, Santa Fe Skies, (santafeskiesrvpark.com) and are able to get the space we like looking over the valley and out to the mountains. We were hoping to have dinner in town, but are too exhuasted to even think about it.  Freezer diving leads us to making "designer pizzas".  Have naan bread, remnants of chicken sausages....carmelize some onions, throw in julienned peppers, top with chevre and fresh basil.....plop in front of the tv, then enjoy the full moon.

We didn't make Los Alamos on our last visit and I know Rick will really love it...so that's our day tomorrow. 

Los Alamos is about 45 minutes from where we're staying....the drive is interesting. Some striking formations....

And some challenging roads....glad we don't have Tor with us.

Rick was, as expected since he's a nuclear engineer and computer scientist, enthralled with the Bradbury Science Museum (lanl.gov/museum). I, however, keep getting this feeling the whole thing is one big propaganda exercise for bombs and war.  I'm beginning to get a bit angry at the whole place.  Only later did I discover (see the website address) that it's been built by Los Alamos National Laboratory for exactly that purpose.

The fun thing to do in Los Alamos is a visit to The Black Hole (blackholesurplus.com).  This is shop,while bizarre to a lot of us, a treasure-trove to some, of used scientific equipment, electronics, lab supplies and about anything else you can think of.  Rick was in seventh heaven.

I love the things that were totally counterintuitive to the whole area.

And some things that are cross-bred...like a huge sunflower made out of missile casings.

Dinner at the Catina at Coyote Cafe (coyotecafe.com).  Coyote Cafe, opened in 1987,  is a restaurant that has been credited with creating modern southwestern cooking.  We opt for the open rooftop, casual Cantina that shares the same kitchen.  It's fun, lively and the portions are ginormous.  You have to order chips and salsa though and I'd recommend not popping for their signature, Silver Coin, margarita....no flavor, all ice.  Rick's Navajo taco is good and would serve about 4.  My fish tacos, also good, could round out a table for at least 6!Way too much to eat and they must have this happen all the time.....the waiter comes to the table with boxes and containers that are perfect for keeping everything in place.

We will head to Boulder in the morning and join the Cunningham clan in what I know will be a very festive weekend!

Hermit's Rest & Dinner at El Tovar

April 25

It's our last day at the Grand Canyon and we've seen pretty much the whole of the South Rim except for the Hermit's Rest trail.  It's finally a beautiful day..I want to walk...Rick's feet hurt and he wants to take the shuttle.  We make a plan to meet at the first shuttle stop about a mile up. Just before the bus comes, we spot two California condors resting on a cliff. Notice they've both been tagged.

I start out lovin' my walk.  It's steep, but the views are terrific. 

And we've finally got good enough light and a little less pollution haze to get see some really striking colorations.

I see the mule train heading back up top.  Think I would have loved to do this a few years ago...but somehow the idea of a seven hour trip on the back of a mule down to the floor and then seven hours back again doesn't seem so much fun to me anymore!  Would love to see the canyon floor and overnight at Phantom Ranch, but I don't know if either one of us could ever walk again after 14 hours on a mule!

The path is getting steeper and steeper and while there is no earthly reason I should stumble or fall on a path that's about 4 feet wide, I'm beginning to get creeped out.  There is no wall, there are no rails, there is just a bit of shale and a crevice just big enough to fall through between me and the floor a mile down..  Not lovin' this anymore!

Meet Rick at the bus stop and he's off on the edge of a thinly railed point.  I can't even make myself go down there anymore.  When he surfaces, I just want to get down...either we take an hour's bus ride up and around the loop, or we walk...we opt for the latter....I look like Tim Conway doing his old man bit. 

We are constantly atonished at the lack of safety barriers around the canyon.  In the village there is a knee wall, most places nothing at all.  And so many people seem either totally unaware of the potential hazards or are so stupid as to keep testing the limits.  We see people sitting or standing on walls and ledges that are clearly not stable.

 Some are a bit more careful and have climbing ropes...but yikes!

Rick bought a book called Death in the Grand Canyon.  We learn there are several deaths a year here.  Some are sliders, other are jumpers, others are pushed and a few stepped back too far while taking photos. The lack of fencing makes the canyon look ever so much grander.  Still a wonder to me though, that in this litigious society it hasn't been over surrounded.

Yavapai Observation Station is the one place every visitor to the Canyon should go.  It is a glassed enclosed museum perched right on the cliff over the Colorado River suspension bridge.  The views are fantastic and it feels non-threatening. (It's not just me....I overhead a ranger say it was the only place in the Canyon she could work because she is afraid of heights!)

Dinner at El Tovar at sunset is a fitting end to our Grand Canyon stay.  The food at breakfast was far better, but it was fine and looked good.  Rick had Chicken Cordon Bleu.

I had a grilled salmon with corn/citrus salsa...could have been quite good...they needed to leave off the bed of tortilla chips...they get soggy.

Five days at the Grand Canyon was perfect for us.  You could get a good look in a couple of hours.  But being able to see it in all sorts of weather in all sorts of light was great.

Kind of deadheading to Boulder for a reunion with Rick's family.  Pretty much everyone will be there. We'll take several days 'cuz it's nearly 700 miles.  Have to go "the low road"...that is the longer, southern route because some of the elevations we would need to take on the more scenic and shorter route, seem a bit too much for Gigantor.  We'll stop in Santa Fe for a couple of days to break it up...really looking forward to that...loved it when we came through in November.