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Published: July 21st 2019
Beamer is feeling a lot better today. He is not fully recovered, however he has a lot more pep in his step. As a matter of fact, at the end of this day, when we arrived at Bob and Gloria’s ski lodge, he immediately started jumping up and down and running around like a little kid. He remembers this place and he likes it here. Perhaps he can detect the scent of his little friend Pierre. He is now laying in front of the fire relaxing and watching the flames. He still won’t eat his dog food, but that’s not because he is sick, it is because he got spoiled by the people food we fed him during his recovery. Did I say he was spoiled?
We hit the road this morning at 7:45 and 77 degrees and headed north to Colorado. The first leg of the trip was a repeat of two days ago, so I will skip ahead. We drove through Espanola and crossed the Rio Grand once again. That river seems to be everywhere that we are.
Espanola is a small town with houses scattered around at the bases of the rolling hills that I have
described so many times before. These had 4-wheeler tracks all over them. Someone is making good use of them and having a lot of fun doing it. One might think that it would get monotonous after a while, looking at the desert, but you must drive with your eyes outside of the car and allow it all to fill your senses.
As we drove on, the topography got to be more prairie like with sage growing thickly together, looking like a fluffy blanket. In some places, the fields were cleared and there were green crops growing. It looked to me like barley and hay in one area and perhaps soy beans in another. And throughout the area were big rugged rocks just bursting out of the foothills, angular, colorful and very interesting to look at.
At one point we saw thick black smoke rising into the otherwise clear blue ski and I thought, oh no, this cannot be good. Something bad is definitely happening. Well, I was wrong. When we got to the spot where it was all happening, it turned out to be an old locomotive, fueled by coal, followed by a short car full of the
black stuff and followed then by about 5 cars of people. It was the Cumbres & Toltes Scenic RR in Antonito, Colorado. What a nasty cloud this was sending up into the air that people breath. There has to be a better way to burn cleaner.
In southern Colorado I was surprised (though perhaps I shouldn’t be) that a lot of the architecture was strongly influenced by what we saw in New Mexico, the adobe houses with their calming earth tones. And again we came upon a river, a formidable river, with rapids and lots of people riding on rafts and we thought, oh, it’s the Rio Grand again. But no, it was the Arkansas River this time. I know it well, as I lived by it when I worked in Little Rock.
We passed the road to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and we remembered visiting it a few years ago. We kept on driving up the road. This is one park we will not be returning to any time soon.
For most of the way we were surrounded on three sides by mountains. And as we drove further north, they got taller and taller.
By the time we got to Lajara, we were looking at peaks 14K ft. tall, with sharp angular faces and adorning them, in the crevices, were the remnants of last winter’s snow and perhaps eons old glaciers. And we passed through them and over them and even under them, in a very long tunnel on I-70. And then suddenly there was the road sign that stopped us cold. It said lengthy delays due to an accident. And Map Quest identified it as a 1.5 hour delay, thought it ended up taking us longer. We crawled along at an average speed of about 4-5 miles an hour for over 2 hours. It turned out to be a semi fire. The accident scene was a real mess. The trailer had been burned into two pieces with one part still attached to the tractor, and there was fruit all over the road. I hope no one got hurt, though that is doubtful, since we saw two ambulances pass us through the traffic jam.
After exiting the interstate, we still had a half hour drive through the mountains, with many S turns and switchbacks. And we did that is a heavy downpour. So,
the sight of the lodge was a welcomed sight. I am sitting here in front of a warm fire and sipping on the rest of my glass of wine.
Tomorrow, we will be out an about, though I don’t know where.
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Sharon G Gauert
non-member comment
We love the Winter Park area
The mountains are beautiful in Winter Park and it seems to be dotted with unique and creative items that you don't have a clue why anyone made them! Looks like you are enjoying lots of sunshine.