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For Want Of A Boxter...

10/17/2010

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_17 October 2010 We have found ourselves enjoying so many new and exciting places as we continue to travel.  The only problem with this is my keeping up with this journal.  Today’s journal will have a lot more pictures and far less script.  Today we stop at Mesa Verde National Park.  This park is the premier archaeological wonder of America.  Known as “The cradle of ancient civilizations” and shows the crumbled villages

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_ on rocky ledges sitting high above the floor of the canyons.  Some of the sites we saw from a distance across a deep canyon, and then there were others that we were able to hike too,

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_climb handmade ladders,

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_or squeeze through rock formations to wonder within. In this picture you'll see a "Kiva".  As you can see, it's a round structure with a fire-pit in the floor.  It did have a roof with a hole in the center for the smoke to exit AND, it held a ladder for those family members to enter.   Notice two things, the square hole in front of the pit and the small wall.  The hole is to let air from the outside in, and the small wall is to keep it from blowing directly at the fire and creating a problem with the blaze and smoke...pretty neat. 

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_It’s amazing to think that at the peak of the population here at Mesa Verde there were over 6000 Anasazi people residing here over a 100 year span.  It’s also interesting that the life span for the Anasazi was only 35 years, so I guess it must have meant they lived here for 3 generations. 

We found a campground at the base this magnificent plateau (see the picture above) and drove the 20 miles up to the top and the Visitor Center/Museum.   I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed the fall colors as much as I’ve enjoyed those of the surrounding hills...they are magnificent !!!



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_We drove the mesa twice over two days easily felt we could do it many more.  My only wish to make this drive better would have been to have my son in laws Porshe Boxter to do it in as the roads were FULL of 15-20 mph turns climbing at a 8 to9 percent grade on a freshly resurfaced roadway…(wishful thinking on my part…).  Oh yes, I've found my thing...the Native American flute and I MUST play it while here in this magnificent place and sitting high above the canyons floors below.

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Colorado Has A Lot Of Beauty...

10/14/2010

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_14 October 2010 As we tried to leave the driveway at Sol and Carol’s, we found our tires frozen to the ground… I guess it was time to continue heading south.  It’s always hard to say good-bye to friends, but on the other hand, we’ll see them in 2 weeks as we join another couple in heading to Mexico again.  Our journey took us west from Steamboat Springs to Craig and then south towards Grand Junction, Colorado.  This day will take us about 200 miles and into the Colorado National Monument, which sits high above Grand Junction/Fruita.  As we pulled up to the kiosk at the park we were met with a road construction flagger.  It seems that the whole park has been getting a new road surface and we’ll be following a lead car all the way up to the Visitor Center/Campground, or about 15 miles.  In a way this is “all good” as everyone will have to go slow, and with the steepness of this roadway,


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_we wouldn’t have a chance to make it above 25mph towing with the coach.  With it being late Friday afternoon when we got up to the campground we were hoping that there would be a spot for us to stay the night.  Well we got there early enough, but before dusk the whole campground was full with hikers, bikers, and those of us that just came to see the wonderful sights of nature.  I thought you might like to see what our campground looks like from the other side of the canyon…

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_After unhooking the car from the coach, we drove over to the visitor center, saw a couple of videos covering the history and beauty of the park, and took a hike down to view the Pipe Organ formation and get a little “flute time” in. 

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_Then with the sun showing its last sun beams of the day we decided to drive the 23 miles of the Rim Rock Drive.  First off I’d like to compliment the bikers that ride the 23 miles from base to summit to base…amazing !!!  The rim drive was advertized as having breath taking views and with enough pull-offs for us, we took advantage of it to see all this beauty.  One of the stops was to view Independence Monument. 

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_As we were enjoying this monolith our eyes caught sight of 3 climbers that were just about ready to top-out…another “amazing” !!! 

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_We watched them for quite awhile but as time and sun were leaving us we decided to head on.  As the sun disappeared and darkness arrived we found ourselves pulling into Grand Junction just in time for dinner.  Tomorrow we’ll start early and see as much as we can before heading further south. 

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Falls and Eats...

10/13/2010

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_13 October 2010 With our last doctor’s appointment behind us we are planning to get back on the road again tomorrow.  But, let’s stay with the present…  Steamboat Springs has without a doubt, one of the finest, best tasting, Italian restaurants I’ve ever had the chance to eat at !!!!  EVERYTHING we ordered last night at Riggio’s was superb and it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg to eat there either.  Unfortunately with the economy the way it is, there just wasn’t a full house to enjoy the tastes with us.  Now maybe it wasn’t the food after all that made it so wonderful…maybe it was our HAT’S !!! 

Boy was it cool last night.  It wasn’t only cool but we lost our electricity to run the portable heater with so we just dug our way a little deeper under the blankets and survived to another day.  This afternoon we (Carol, Louise and myself) took a hike.  Our hike took us to Fish Creek Falls.

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_Carol and Sol have shown us a lot of Steamboat Springs and as always the hike to Fish Creek was striking.  The falls sit in an area that was once where two glaciers came together.  The waters come from Long Lake, which sits far above at an altitude of 9850 feet.  The falls start out at 9500’ and fall 2150 feet to the rocks below… Someone had told Carol that they had spotted a black bear there earlier, but we weren’t so lucky.  Carol and Sol suggested that we go to a local restaurant tonight that specializes in Asian soups.  They also invited some friends of theirs to join us, Kay and John.  We had a really good dinner together and really enjoyed the company of John and Kay.  It seems that we’ll see them again soon…they’re going down to Puerto Vallarta in November and enjoy their time-share.
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Dinosaurs and Steamboats...

10/11/2010

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_11 October 2010  (pic: Dinosaur NM) A few days ago we found ourselves heading to the hospital in Vernal, not once but twice.  It was amazing how many tests that they gave Louise and it’s also amazing that they really didn’t find what her problem was.  Yes, she had a lot of pain, and yes it did get a lot better for a couple of days but as far as being “healed”…not.  Louise felt that maybe we should head on to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and getting back on the road might just be the answer (and also give her mind something else to focus on).  Just after crossing the state border and into Colorado, we made a side trip to Dinosaur National Monument.  At this location we were able to visit their visitor center and go through the artifact displays that they have uncovered from the local hills.  Then after gathering material and soaking up all the information on the dinosaurs we hustled out to the waiting bus that was going to take us into the “fields of bones”.  The bus ride lasted about 10 minutes and took us to the base of the volcanic hills from where our hike was to start.



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_The trail wasn’t too long either but short or not, we did find some petrified dinosaur bones embedded into the rock outcroppings.

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_(both pic: Thigh Bone)

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_Thank God there was a volunteer at the end of one of the trails that took the time to point out the elusive bones, otherwise we may not have found them at all.

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_(Pic: Dinosaur Backbone)

 After getting back to the coach, we saw that the rain clouds were dropping the rain heavily in the close hills to the west, and coming our way.  Well it was lunch time and it didn’t look like we stood a chance of out running the inevitable so we stood our ground and let it come.  The rest of the ride to Steamboat Springs was wet, wet, wet, and the clouds were so low that we didn’t see any of the famous Steamboat Mountains as we arrived in town.  Fortunately Carol gave us good directions in finding their home so we had no problem getting right to their driveway.  Now let’s talk about the “driveway”… I saw that Sol had backed their 5th wheel down their narrow and steep downhill drive so I thought I would be able to follow.  Well first of all, I couldn’t park next to their 5th wheel so I had to take another course, park up next to the front porch.  This meant to either back down the narrow drive blindly or drive down and make a sharp right while still on a heavy slant.  I won’t go into details but we did get it down and set-up, but now let’s wait for getting it out…


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_the rest of the afternoon and evening we stayed close, ate a lot, and had a couple of drinks before heading off to bed.  I must admit, I was really tired and slept very well.  First thing in the morning we had Sol knocking at the door and telling us that the “bagels are hot and fresh so hurry in for breakfast”.  Well we were mostly up and ready, so I went over and Louise soon followed.  We were sitting down to a breakfast of Lox, Bagels, Cream cheese, Sliced Onion and tomatoes…absolutely wonderful !!!   Following breakfast we joined in Sol and Carol’s car and headed off for a tour of Steamboat Springs, and all the time enjoying a sunny sky and a cool day.

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_Carol had planned a dinner party for that night so after our tour we headed back to prepare for that.  Besides us, Sol and Carol had invited Tom and Kelly, some close friends of theirs and we really had a great evening of fun, dining, and conversation with all.  Very early the next morning we made another trip to a hospital, only this time we pretty much knew what the problem was.  Unfortunately it took an overnight stay before we got the OK to “check-out”, but we feel confident that all is well now and we can look forward to continuing on with a healthy body. 

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