Westward Bound: The Last Few Days

Where were we?  Oh yes, Friday!  According to plan, Friday was the day we transitioned from Telluride to Moab, Utah.  Now, I was really curious.  I had been in Moab before, several years ago, and when I was there, I absolutely fell in love with Arches National Park.  Granted, it was one of the first stops on my first trip Out West (capital letters intentional), and having devoured nearly every Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour novel available at my local public library, it was practically a pilgrimage - a time of deep emotion, to say the least.  So I wondered if, upon second sight, the place would retain its splendor, or if my slightly more experienced present self would be less impressed.

I need not have worried...

Arches is a lot of fun, especially for families with little people, because many of the really spectacular formations are very easily accessible - a matter of parking your vehicle in one of the [sometimes congested] parking lots and then engaging in a quick, maybe quarter to half-mile walk up to the point of interest.  In addition to that, this park offers the added benefit of being an unbelievable natural jungle gym, as, in many cases, the trails lead right up and onto the rocks, providing ample opportunities for the adventurous to clamber around.

Now, here's where I start a bit of a play-by-play, just so I have an excuse to post more pictures...

Our first stop was Balancing Rock, pictured above.  (I'll let you guess which formation that moniker refers to...)

We then proceeded to Double Arch.

Double Arch is in the middle.

 

I know this picture isn't particularly pretty, but I include it to try and give some sense of scale.  You can see Isaiah and kids there on the bottom right.  I have never experienced anything like the sensation of standing at the foot of one of these gargantuan structures and looking up.  You literally have no point of reference; you feel swallowed up.  I almost felt a little vertiginous at times.

This picture was taken [very gingerly] from the window of Double Arch, looking back over the road and across the plateau.  Again, it is nearly impossible to grasp the scale, but the little dots in the lower left of center are people, just to give you an idea.  (For the record, I was extremely proud of myself for climbing up here.  I'm not afraid of heights per se, but I do develop an extreme...slowness of movement.)

From here, it was on to the Windows (North Window and South Window), as well as Turret Arch.

 That young man on the right was in hog heaven, scrambling all over those rocks.  Nothing was too high or too precarious, to his way of thinking, and wherever he goes, his sister must follow.  Meanwhile, their aunt sweats bullets and sprouts extra gray hairs...

Climbing Buddies...

 (Let me go on the record as saying that boy's Grandpa was WAY TOO SUPPORTIVE of his rock-climbing escapades.  Sincerely, Gray-Haired Aunt)

We grabbed a quick picnic lunch, and then it was off to see Delicate Arch.  This is the iconic one - the one you've seen if you've ever seen a Utah license plate.  (The great disappointment of this trip is that I did not get a Utah plate for the front of my car...)

This is the view from the lookout point that the trail we took leads up to.  Notice the ravine between where I stand and the arch.

Now, see how much closer it is?  We weren't able to cross the ravine for obvious reasons (see next picture; approximate depth: a mile), but we did hop over the "Trail Ends Here" sign and continue on, hiking over the cliffs.  The view was utterly spectacular.  At the end, we were perched on a promontory overlooking afore-mentioned ravine, across which was Delicate Arch, surrounded by mile upon mile of red and green mountains, and overshadowed by black, threatening storm clouds.  Our shouts seemed to echo for miles and miles.  We did hurry back down, due to those storm clouds, but being up there, seeing and hearing and feeling that incredible landscape was one of those moments that burns itself in your memory.

These pictures are not great, my camera kept washing everything out really bad, but I am so desperate to try and capture a little bit of what it was like up there... This is looking down into the canyon.

Here, I am standing on the point, looking back and down at Dad; you can see Isaiah and Annistyn way off in the distance and the valley spread out below.

If this was in better color, it would be a good shot.  Parking lot lower left;storm clouds in the distance.

We made it to the car in the nick of time; just after we got on the road, the heavens opened and the deluge began.  Rain in the desert is a many-splendored thing.  I'm telling you, seeing those monstrous rocks standing there, water and wind beating against them, their red rock turned white with the water pouring off of them, surrounded by torrential rapids cutting ravines in the soil around them was awe-inspiring, to put it mildly.  There are times when the power of Almighty God and his spectacular creation comes before one's face and one is struck silent.

This was taken from the window of a moving car.  Not so impressive until you understand their sheer size...

Annnndddd..... just like that, the rain was over!

We were pretty wiped out from our day of driving and hiking, so we were all up for some good, solid Mexican food.  (Word to the wise, for as much as Telluride is a super-hip, crunchy cool-kid town, Moab reeks of tourism.  Lots of "Helicopter Rides! One Hour Boat Rides! (um, yay?) Bungee Jumping! Ziplining! (I could not get any takers on this) T-Shirts! Pottery!  RV Hook-Ups!  You get the drift...  For as great as Arches is, when it comes to the town itself, I vastly prefer Telluride.)

Check out the rad decor... And the cute (sleepy) girl.

I do not do selfies.  Except for when I have one of my favorite seven-year-olds in the whole world to take one with.

Next morning, we were up early, for a last couple of hours in Arches, before it was back on the road; this time, home-ward bound.  We used our time in the park to hike out to Landscape Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Tunnel Arch.  The sun was out; the pictures responded accordingly...

Tunnel Arch...

The view through Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch in the background, cute kids in the foreground...

And a last few shots for the road.

And on that note, we aimed our compasses south and east and started the long, long drive back home.  Friday, we drove through the Rockies, passing through Glenwood Canyon (very beautiful) and the outskirts of Denver, before finally coming to rest in Limon, Colorado.  This was an absolute blast.  We stopped at maybe 7 PM in a little one-exit ranch town, dropped our bags at the Holiday Inn Express, trooped across the road for dinner at Denny's, chased by orange dream shakes and turnovers at Arby's, McCafe Frappes at McDonalds, and early bedtime.  Pure, junk-food, small-town America heaven.  I had so much fun, I bought a coffee mug to commemorate the occasion.  

Yep.

After that, the fun and games were pretty much over.  We spent the next two days covering thousands of miles, passing through Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and then, finally Florida.  Along the way, we saw empty ranchland, one lonely antelope, miles of railroad tracks, farms, small towns and big cities, storms and sunshine, swamps and rivers and bays.  And then, at long last, we were home.

Good going out, and good coming in.  All good.

Westward Bound: The Next Few Days

I write, seated on the floor of a Holiday Inn Express in Limon, Colorado, McCafe Frappe by my side, having just chowed down on a plate full of cinnamon-roll pancakes at Denny's... But more on that later.

First, we'll dial back to Wednesday.  After grabbing breakfast at Baked in Telluride again (two comments: First, it is tremendously great fun to be a "regular".  Even if it only means two days in a row.  Second, Telluride is a really, really small town.  Not only are restaurant options reasonably limited, making the whole "regular" thing not only possible but downright probable, you're highly likely to run into the same people over and over, all throughout your stay.  All of this in the best possible way, of course), we spent the day touring.  In a nutshell, we circled around, past Ralph Lauren's ranch, over to Ouray and back.  Let's just call the next few pictures a monument to my frustration at my camera's inability to capture the incredible beauty of what I saw.

 This is Ralph Lauren's ranch.  Upon viewing it, I decided that making lots of money was maybe a really good idea, as it would allow a person to buy a ranch like this one...

This is a bird's-eye view of the town of Ouray (pronounced You-Ray), captured from the lookout known as "Switzerland of America".  My paternal relative, who has been to the real Switzerland, informed me (rather tongue-in-cheek) that this was a bit of a stretch.  It was still pretty picturesque.

I could not get tired of the fresh green of the aspen trees.  I wanted to capture the mountain behind them...

We happened upon this old, abandoned mine.  Utterly fascinating to walk around the ruins and peer into the gated, locked mine entrance and imagine when this little ghost town was humming with activity.

Straight up, this picture does not even come close to capturing the beauty of this scene.  We went out on a hike across the snow, looking for an abandoned ruby mine said to be located here.  We didn't find the mine, but by golly, was it beautiful, out there on the snow.  

This is Ouray's main drag.  I've decided that it makes the most sense to build my fantasy vacation home here instead of in Telluride.  Property is cheaper, the town is still pretty adorable (as demonstrated here), the surrounding scenery is spectacular, and it's centrally located between Telluride and Durango.  Win!

Sigh.

Pretty spectacular, no?  We rounded out the day with another drive into the hills surrounding Telluride in search of elk.  Found another 150 or so (this after spotting 300 last night).  

Thursday was a chill day.  We grabbed breakfast at Maggie's.  (We gave up our "regular" status at Baked in Telluride.)  Fun place - we gathered on a couple of sofas perched underneath a sunshiny window to eat our eggs, toast, oatmeal and the like.

Oh, and milk bottles.

We spent the day in town... some of us explored the Telluride Historical Museum (a small affair, which meant we were able to chat up the guy who designed and built the exhibits, and which meant Dad was able to actually handle a 30-caliber M-1 rifle, circa WWII.  For those who are unfamiliar with WWII history, this is a Very. Big. Deal.)  We grabbed lunch at the Butcher and the Baker, and then spent the afternoon following our own individual pursuits - Zay took the kids on a hike, my folks headed back to the lodge for an afternoon of catching up, and I browsed the shops.  We rode the gondola down for dinner at the Sheridan Hotel (for the record, elk short loin is very tasty), and then called it a night.

I LOVED the vibe at the Butcher and the Baker.  Here, my lunch plate: curried cauliflower, udon noodles and watermelon, mint and feta salad.  All local and sustainably sourced, eaten at tables equipped with random silverware and bright cloth napkins, under original art, in a bustling, wonderfully chaotic atmosphere.  Long story short, Carrie was very, very happy.

Not a great shot, as it was taken through the window of the gondola, but this gives a person a bit of an idea as to how Telluride "works".  In essence, it's a little town situated in a box canyon, surrounded by mountains.

My dinner buddy.  She ate her macaroni and cheese, so she got M&M's.  

I'm running out of time, it's late and I have to get up at the unholy hour of 5:00 AM tomorrow morning (we have a LOT of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Vicksburg, MS tomorrow night), so I'll continue with the next leg of our journey shortly.

Westward Bound: The First Few Days

As of Saturday afternoon, I am officially out of town.  The schedule this week looks a little something like this: fly into Las Vegas, spend two days there on business, drive to Telluride to meet some of my family members and spend three days there, drive to Moab, spend two days there, and then wend our way home.  Great plan, no?

I'm actually going to skip Las Vegas for now; I'll devote a blog post to that later.  (I have a few thoughts that will take more time to verbalize than I have at the moment.)  For now, we'll stick with the abridged version, which states that I arrived in Telluride last night around 2 AM after a morning spent in meetings followed by a 10-hour drive.  Yes, long day, indeed.

It was worth it all this morning, though, when I awoke at 6:22 AM to the sight of two small faces peering at me, one from each side of the bed.  Oh, it was early all right, but curling up with two precious little people and getting to hear all about their adventures over the last few days was heaven on earth.  I think I actually managed to catch another couple of winks in there, but it wasn't long before the general hum of activity in the house required that I rouse and join it.  In all of my solitary (ish) ramblings over the last year or two, I'd kind of forgotten about the logistics of moving a larger group of people from place to place.  A certain amount of patience and overall mellowness stands a person in very good stead.  (It also helps to really love the people you're with.)  

After much ado, we were finally loaded up and off to breakfast.  Now, being I arrived in the dead of night (having dodged various deer, elk, rats, porcupines, marmots, and bunnies on the road, and having failed to dodge two police officers, ugh), I had absolutely no idea what type of surroundings I had driven into.  (I will say that those last few miles gave me a definite sense of being surrounded by cliffs and sharp, plunging drop-offs, a sense that later proved to be correct.)  It turns out that I had driven into a little U-shaped bowl of a valley, completely surrounded by majestic, snow-capped peaks.  I've never seen the Alps in real life, but this is what I picture.  

Ash has been raving about Baked in Telluride since she was here last year, so, of course, we had to eat there.  My salt bagel with butter was really delicious but gosh, it was salty!  And I had to have chocolate milk to match Annistyn..

Check out the size of those donuts!

After loading up with more water and victuals and dropping my car off with the lady vacuuming a car at the Hertz shed out behind the Telluride airport (small town, folks), we took the jeeps we had rented out for some off-roading.  I don't know if this is something that is hard-wired into the DNA of the male species in general or if it's unique to the males of my family, but something about driving a vehicle with four-wheel-drive into impossibly tight situations replete with mud, snow, fallen trees, creeks, and four-foot-wide roads next to two-mile-deep sheer drop-offs (I am exaggerating only slightly) makes these fellas come ALIVE.  To be honest, it is a lot of fun, except for when they decide to turn around on afore-mentioned four-foot-wide roads next to two-mile-deep sheer drop-offs, at which point I sit in the back seat, gasp for oxygen and try not to audibly express my complete and utter terror.  

The view was so beautiful, though.  And, just as a side note, if a person ever wants to bring an entirely new level of joy and discovery to an experience, bring a seven and four-year-old along.  Seeing the world through their eyes adds an entirely new layer of life and color to everything we do.

We stopped for lunch next to a little brook.  It was so much fun to be able to just relax a bit.  Colton and Isaiah explored a little cave, Annistyn and I tossed some pebbles into the creek, Grandpa built a dam, Colton practiced his slingshot and bow and arrows.  At one point, listening to the stillness, I thought to myself about what a rarity such quiet is in our modern-day world.  Noise and chaos is everywhere, and yet, if you think about it, the world God created in the beginning was one of peace.  I have several friends who often tell me about their inability to focus, their short attention spans.  I thought of them today, contrasted the worlds they live in, with all of their devices and appointments and running here and there, with this hushed and tranquil landscape, and wondered...  How could a short attention span survive here?  What would happen if we were to lose all of the commotion that seems so easily to create a barrier between us and our Maker?  And what must the Lord think of the gulf we've created between how we live and how he created us to live?  One of those things that pass through one's thoughts when one can finally slow down and hear oneself think...

I will confess that, by now, my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me, but even though I was seeing everything through a haze of exhaustion, I could still absorb that I was in some beautiful country.

We even spotted a beaver dam...

And I could still wonder how the heck those miners got up there...

I did get a nice, long nap in once we got back, which made dinner so much more enjoyable (and probably made me much better company).  We ate at Rustico Restaurante in downtown Telluride.  I will tell you that I have longed for the opportunity to eat truly great Italian food for a very long time, and I have had a very difficult time finding it.  It seems like everybody and their mother claims to serve the best-a spaghetti-a, and to be blunt, nobody ever, ever does.  Tonight, my luck finally changed.  I finally got to experience a taste of Italy, the way I always imagined it.  Adorable, heavily-accented waitstaff with just the sort of manners one would expect to find in the mother country (what is it about real Italian gentlemen, anyway?), the pretty little girl turning cartwheels outside the plate glass windows, and, best of all, a plate of spaghetti capable of inspiring passion.  Simple and light, spaghetti al salta, just tomatoes, garlic, basil and some good olive oil, but the stuff of dreams.  I wouldn't have wanted to doze through it, let's put it that way.  

My American little self got all happy with the lighting and the green glass and bare tables and all...  I can be so easy to impress...

Polenta with mushrooms and Fontina 

Very likely some of the best pizza I've eaten.  The crust was wonderfully blistered and full of flavor.

The spaghetti.  I feel an emotional bond with this spaghetti.

An expert noodle-slurper, right there.

Now that I'm actually awake, I'm starting to pick up on the whole Telluride vibe, and I'm liking it, quite a lot.  An awful lot of bicycles, artists, flowing dresses and vehicles with Thule racks on them...  I imagine I may be elaborating on this a bit more over the next couple of days, but things are looking very, very promising. (As my more conservative friends groan...)

And with that, I leave you, for now.  Until tomorrow, a good night to all.