Tag Archives: Jane

DAYS 164 to 168 – Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Posted on March 2, 2013 | 22 comments

02/21/2013 through 02/25/2013

Millions of people from all over the world have visited the Grand Canyon. Billions of words have been written about it’s beauty and awesome-ness. So, we’ll try to limit our words and mostly give you pictures.

Here are some of our reactions to the canyon:

JANE: We arrive at the canyon’s edge as night falls. I’d been told that the Grand Canyon would be amazing, but I really didn’t know it would be beyond words! How to describe standing on the rim? (and you can stand right on the rim; there are few railings here) I’m crying now as I write this, thinking about seeing the canyon for the first time – and every day after. I have to stop and struggle for the right words. It’s beautiful. It’s breathtaking. It’s bigger than you could possibly imagine.  My soul follows where my eyes look and soars over miles and miles of the multicolored, impossible landscape. That such a thing could be, in this world, is awe inspiring. Looking at the Grand Canyon, you get the feeling that anything is reachable. My spirit was transported to the highest pinnacle, the lowest chasm. How could this small, fragile vessel of a human body contain a thing so huge? Wow! I have no other words to describe it.

Take a look at the slideshow. Make it big! Turn it up! These pics needed some music…

In such a place, it’s no surprise that we met some new, great friends. Eva and Robert. They were enjoying something that I have no stomach for: sleeping in the back of a pickup (with a cap) in zero degree weather and snow. And yet, as you’ll see in the photos, they were happy and beautiful! Stronger than me, they are for sure. We shared meals with them and a fantastic hike down into the Canyon with them. They were a joy! We hope to see them again somewhere, sometime.

The Grand Canyon belongs to all Americans. You should go and see it – soon!

DAVID:  One of my favorite things was watching families and couples take pictures of each other.  It looked trite at first, then I saw the beauty.  The beauty of sharing that first reaction that keeps hitting you for days and every time you turn around.  The light, ledges, shadows and sheer heights all grab you over and over.  Its hard to walk away.

I am a speck.  A speck in space and time.  The canyon is SO big, vast, as a barrier you must travel hundreds of miles in either direction to get around it.  You can’t see it all without turning or tipping your head.   Neither breadth, nor height.  It is not a spectacle, just to be stared at; you can walk in.  You can walk WAY in.  For hours you can walk down.  Then for more hours, you can walk back up and out.  Switchback trails go down for hours into millions of years of geology lessons and multiple climates and wildlife zones.  You HAVE to VISIT yourself!

Here’e the slide show:

– Jane & David

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Posted in DAY posts, Grand Canyon, Hiking, PEOPLE, Photos, RV Living, Strange Sights, Travel in the USA

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DAY 162 – 02/19/2013 – Mesa Verde, CO

Posted on February 26, 2013 | 4 comments

A long time ago, I was talking with a patient who was telling me about her extensive travels around the U.S. I asked “What was the most wonderful place you have visited?”. She said, without hesitation, “Mesa Verde!”. It was the most beautiful place she’d ever been.

So when our random travels took us near, we stopped to take a look.

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We toured Spruce Tree House ruins. One of 4,000 sites of archaeological significance in the park.

And Mesa Verde is beautiful! I probably would not go so far as to say it’s the most beautiful place we’ve seen. But it’s certainly way up there!

It’s interesting that the very best thing about Mesa Verde was – our Park Ranger guide! Ranger Sean Duffy of Rochester, NY was not only chock full of deep knowledge about the park, he gave us a really great performance of his informative tour. It’s as if he’d trained as an actor. He really animated what might have been a dry (no pun intended, it’s very dry out West!) talk. It was fun and funny and by the end, we wanted more!

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Sean Duffy gives us some background and insight.

Here’s something that Sean taught us, in his own inimitable way: Do you remember hearing about the mysterious Anasazi people? The ones who inhabited the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde and then disappeared forever into history? There was much speculation about who they were and where they went. Was it climate change? Disease? They vacated these beautiful villages long before Europeans arrived with their guns and germs and Manifest Destiny.

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Spruce Tree House ruins are in the bottom of this canyon. At the top is the ranger station where our tour began.

Now, however, anthropologists believe that, for whatever reason, they just moved elsewhere. That the Anasazi, now called Ancestral Puebloan, are the distant relatives of the Ute, Hopi, Acoma and Navajo people. Now these tribes live in the surrounding area; in Arizona, Utah and other Western states.

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Sean expounds at the ruins. Behind him you can see the remnants of yellow and red paint on the dwelling walls.

Sean was able to answer questions on any subject. Park history, natural history, geologic formations, botanical questions about trees and plants. He was quite the font of knowledge.

Mesa Verde National Park included lots of landscape around the ruins. This beautiful mesa is sacred to the native people of the Southwest.

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The beautiful Visitor Center, with the sacred Mesa Verde in view.

The gorgeous, brand new (it opened 7 weeks before we visited) Visitor Center was built to be as environmentally friendly as possible and highly respectful of the places Native Americans hold as precious.

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We climbed down into a kiva, a room with a fire hole and a sipapu, a portal where spirits rise from one world to the next.

Mesa Verde manifests, for the visiting Easterner, compelling echoes of the past while presenting the spirituality of one of the most gorgeous places in the American West. Does that sound a little like a National Parks brochure? Maybe, but it’s all vividly true!

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A modern metal sculpture in the desert near Mesa Verde.

– Jane

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DAY 158 2/15/2013 Farewell Friends and Monarch!

Posted on February 18, 2013 | 20 comments
Rolling down off the site

Rolling down off the site

Today we packed up, hitched up and rolled out.  This was a near daily event on the Voyage until Heart of the Rockies where we’ve been docked since January one.  Here we skied.  Here we met our hosts, Hollly, Gayle, and the ever-so-happy Aiden.  Here we met The LivingstonFamilyAdventure!  Gabe, Marci, Mason, Adin, Asher, Mark, Niko.  We met Jeff and Snoogins.  And all have found their way into our hearts.  We were a community surviving the cold with the common Mountain interest.  Living in the venturi above Salida we all braved the scouring high winds.  We cooked out apres- ski at 10 degrees as the sun went down.  We opened our door to the wind ripping it out of our hands more times than not.  Double dates, potlucks of Gumbo, Curry, Ribs and laughter will not be forgotten or taken for granted.  Gathering those joys is truly life’s bounty.  Warmth in the cold of Winter.

Bye Bye Monarch

Bye Bye Monarch

Another odd thing for David to do is leave a ski area just as the season gets rolling, all trails opened and the backcountry getting deeper.  But this is not a ski trip.  This is not JUST a ski trip.  It is longer, deeper and open to a tomorrow with whatever it brings.

We have left family, new friends and new places before.  Sometimes just a few days after meeting them.  Its hard, but the road calls…the next adventure hides around the corner.  This time it was much  harder.  Climbing Monarch Pass to cross the Continental Divide felt like leaving old friends again!  Unprompted, I looked over at Jane once and knew she had the same lump in her throat.

But here we go.  Yup, another milestone driven.  Colorado DOT webcams to give a limited idea of road conditions.  Four new inches of snow at Monarch was not “EPIC” enough to delay leaving.  The roads below the pass were dry, and above 10,000 feet looked like just a little snow pack.  Ice too would have kept us safely parked at “home”.

Poor Marfa (the Faithful 4Runner, as you’ll recall), strolled up the pass with her 3400 lb load, going only 25 mph on the steeper sections.  Coloradans have no hesitation to pass, but I don’t put myself in a ditch for their convenience.  Hazard lights flashing and a caution triangle emblazoned on the spare should be enough to send ’em around.  Even the downhill!

Rolling down slowly

Rolling down slowly

Especially the downhill gave me caution.  30 mph caution signs at cliff-edged curves, a “runaway truck ramp” and snow packed surface combined; I went 25-30 downhill too.  Never have I driven a rig that demands attention like this.  Adrenaline is usually served only for sports, not just driving!

We pulled a big “hundred mile day” and found a National Forest access road to the Cimarron River.  A peaceful night capped off our dusky walk seeing an eagle and nice herd of elk!  Quiet, 0 degrees, cozy.  Off we went again in the AM.

Off West past Gunnison, Wifi’d our safe departure to family and the Colorado community and on we went.  South on 550.  Had I known Red Mountain Pass I may have gone another way.  It was dry, clear and sunny;I definitely would have detoured if it weren’t…but wow!

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Jane peers out the window into the abyss (note small piece of road in right corner)

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Nice scenery-NO GUARDRAILS!

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The Valley Looms 500-1000 feet below!  Did I mention NO GUARDRAILS?

Sometimes a glimpse of the road ahead has you wondering where it squeezes through?

Sometimes a glimpse of the road ahead has you wondering where it squeezes through?

 

Coalbank Pass' road as an engineering marvel stretches out below

Molas and Coalbank Pass’ road as an engineering marvel stretches out below

I had heard Monarch is one of the higher passes, but had no idea normal cars would be routed over anything like Red Mt (and it’s requisite partners Molas and Coalbank) year round.  Poor Marfa, her transmission started to overheat as indicated by a little red warning light.

Removing ALL cardboard from radiators and checking transmission fluid!

Removing ALL cardboard from radiator, trans cooler and checking transmission fluid!

14 miles uphill at 20-28 mph, no guard rails, thousand foot cliffs, very few pullouts, warnings not to stop secondary to avalanche areas and more than a few ice chunks falling on us while we crawled!  WOW!  Did I say Monarch was stressful?  We pulled into a small passing area and I pulled all of the cardboard that had been shielding the shivering radiator and transmission cooler from the Winter’s air for the past months.  Poor gal, she needed all the air we could give her on THIS climb!  We made it.

Arriving at Durango Mountain Resort (formerly Purgatory) we knew the right move.  Pull in, stay, ski!   (hee hee)  A great dinner was had and improved immensely by visiting across tables with two new friends from Tucson, Angelo and Debbie.  Plus there was a torchlight parade!  Could  it get any better with careful planning?  (As you know, “Serendipity is often our guide!”)

-David

(Fast Wifi allowed lots of pictures today courtesy of Durango Joe’s Coffee)

20 Comments

Posted in Barriers, DAY posts, Tramper pictures, Travel in the USA, Wildlife

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DAY 157 – 02/14/2013 – Arf, Arf, Valentine

Posted on February 16, 2013 | 9 comments

We saw an ad for dog sled rides at Monarch so we signed right up. A few years ago, I took a dog sled ride in Snowmass. And it was fantastic!

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Sled dogs in their travel kennel

Before taking that ride in Snowmass, my initial impression of dog sled rides went something like this: “Oh, the poor doggies! Made to pull fat Americans through the heavy snow!” But, Olivia and I needed a break from skiing so we decided to try it and see just how bad it was for he dogs.

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Well, of course I soon found out how wrong my initial impression was. That’s what happens when you make a judgement without any real facts – it’s often way off the mark! The dogs absolutely love to pull the sled!

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The outfit we used here is called Monarch Dog Sled Rides. All of the pictures on this post are from our ride at Monarch. Down from Alaska, Caleb Hathaway started the business here last year. His dogs are not Huskies; they’re mostly wonderful Alaskan-bred mutts. 

Caleb Hathaway

Caleb Hathaway

David and I were given time to meet and pet every one of the beautiful dogs before we loaded into the sled. The dogs are so friendly! I got lots of doggy kisses and love. We even got to put on a harness or two. Wow, those dogs were so excited to be hitched up for a run!

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Our musher was Chad. He spends winters with the dogs and summers kayaking white water. Speaks French, too. Such a life!

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Chad – dog musher, river rat, adventurer

Chad chatted us up during the ride, explaining about the dogs and what their life is like. These are happy dogs! They live to run and pull the sled.

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Caleb brought the dogs as puppies from Alaska. He had experience training teams for the Iditarod and decided that Monarch needed a dog sled outfit. They were lovingly raised to do what they were born to do – run!

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We’re so glad he did for we loved our ride through the winter woods with the beautiful dogs! They took off joyfully, with ears bobbing, tails bouncing and tongues flapping.

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Thinking about the Iditarod maybe?

David was wondering how many dogs it would take to pull the Tramper??

– Jane

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DAY 156 – 02/13/2013 – Goodbye, Sweet Book!

Posted on February 13, 2013 | 10 comments

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I think it’s safe to say that I read the heck out of this book! Now, I will do something I try not to do, which is, throw it out. I try not to do this, ever. Except for old college textbooks that no one will  buy or even be interested in for the next hundred years, I pass books along so that someone else can read them.

On the Tramper Voyage, I search for books at Goodwill or other second-hand stores. Sometimes, someone I meet along the way will give me a book. When I’ve read the book, I give it away or leave it someplace. There’s no room for extra weight in the Tramper!

The place I leave it varies. Lots of RV parks have “libraries”. Junk stores always take donations. Once, I left a pile of books at a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.

As for The Once and Future King, well, it was picked up in one of those junk stores, already well-loved by countless readers. Plus, it’s just a cheap paperback, printed over 50 years ago. My handling wasn’t rough – I promise! As I turned the pages, various leaves would pop out. Then, entire sections would separate from the binding. When I needed a rubber band to hold the book together, I knew it was doomed!

This post isn’t meant to be a book review. I’m not qualified! But, I really enjoyed it. I’m a fan of the play and movie versions of this story, called “Camelot”. It was fun to recognize parts of the book that were incorporated into the movie. Other movies, too. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” lifted concepts and entire lines of dialogue from The Once and Future King!

The movie took off in flights of Hollywood fancy, though. The story of Arthur, Guenever and Lancelot was a lot longer and more mature, according to T.H. White. Imaginative recreation of the whole of English history was described by White. Lots to ponder; fun to read.

– Jane

 

 

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