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Then our can goods and drinks. We had not yet
begun to carry any wine or other booze.
The campsite looks good it’s flat, in a shaded
area. The blacktop where we parked is raised as
well as the picnic table which is on a cement
platform. The latter were indications of possible
high water from the river and ponds when it
rains. We therefore were always on the alert for
flooding in these flat, wet lands.
Even as we unloaded we began developing our
own exit strategy for high water.
The camp water was a little walk away from us as
well as the toilets, and it’s noisy with large RV’s
parked around us, running generators and little
space between the camps. Our nearest neighbor
was about 10 feet away.
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After unpacking we took a long walk along the
river for several miles. Lots of Oak and brush
filled the woods on our side of the river. On the
other side was a nice residential area. The river
should be described as a canal, but is probably a
Bayou, very flat with low shore lines.
On one side was the park, on the other were the
manicured lawns of homes with boathouses
offering a nice Southern living style.
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As we walked along we saw a number of small
animals, a couple of large gofer turtles on logs
sunning themselves, several mallard ducks, geese,
a couple of white herons, and two woodpeckers
we couldn’t identify. There were a number of
cardinals singing their lovely songs. We miss
hearing the song birds in Florida as they are
mostly water foul.
There were three strange things we observed.
First, the Muskrats, so many that we lost count at
10. These aquatic animals choose marshes,
wetlands, swamps and love rice fields. It’s a fine
habitat for them here in Lake Charles where
more rice is exported from their shores than
elsewhere along the Gulf. But, we may see them
anywhere in North America from here all the way
to the Yukon.
Second, was the squirrel population. There are a
lot of them, and they have a bravado beyond a
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friendly family dog. Arlene has developed a real
dislike for them, ever since she was attacked by
one in Hartford. She has a facial scar from it
when one jumped off an awning right onto her
face. There are so many that I felt we had to do
something. I’m always attuned to her feeling
about such things and as I feel somewhat
responsible toward talking her into this camping
trip so we stopped after Wright Lake to buy a
water pistol. By loading it with vinegar and
shooting for their eyes it would surely sting
enough to keep them away.
The worst incident happened when Arlene left
the side door open and one jumped into the van.
Fortunately it didn’t take much to get rid of it. I
immediately got the gun shut the van door, and
plopped myself as guard on the picnic table. It
only took a minute before one was up on the
table, it was much bigger than the ones from
other camps. I shot wildly over it, and again to
the side of it, then right on it’s chest.
To my surprise it didn’t run away. It seemed to
think I was feeding it. It acted like a cat when
given a squirt of milk from a cow. I then chased
it with a fly swatter. The battle over the squirrels
will take a little more thought and action. Maybe
I’ll have to get something like vinegar to shoot in
their eyes, if I could hit their eyes. But just as I
was becoming really aggressive about this issue I
noticed another squirrel sitting up on it’s hind
legs begging at the neighbors table. It was fed, by
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a woman that was proportionally as large as the
squirrel.
It then dawned on me that it wasn’t the squirrels
that needed to be shot with vinegar, but the
campers. They needed large bowls of salad with
oil and vinegar. I surmised they could be leading
the nation in it’s quest to become so fat they
would explode.
The Third of the strange things became clear to
us as all the animals, except the herons, and
muskrats were obese. They were so fat that the
ducks couldn’t waddle, the geese couldn’t fly and
the gofer turtles couldn’t swim. If they left the
rocks they sunned on they would sink.
Excuse me, but our camp rating system wasn’t
prepared for this issue. How could we account
for the people, the campers that obviously didn’t
know better. That were killing themselves as well
as their environment, and enjoying it.
Sam Houston Jones State Park your rating is 1
for many reasons, but the biggest drag and most
important is the campers and their life style.
We didn’t sleep to well last night, it was hot and
steamy. Too hot for our sleeping bags, I slept
directly on the air mattress, but Arlene found it
hard on her side. We’ll need to get a couple of
battery driven fans. My back is bothering me a
little. Arlene hopes between sleeping in the van
and driving that it won’t get worse. More
stretching should help.
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3 FAMILY, AND THE GREAT PLAINS
TEXAS, NEW MEXIO
Today it’s time to pack-up and head r to Houston
to see Alyx and Lindsey. Boy, will their bed be
welcomed.
Alyx had given us instructions one night and then
called back with some others. They were easy to
follow and we had no problem with the
Houston traffic finding her apartment. It was
really good to see her, they had made supper for
us, we ate and visited until late.
th
Lindsey’s birthday, her 6 , was Saturday and her
father had arranged a morning party at the local
Discovery Zone. It’s a Kid’s Marine obstacle
course, all padded and plastic, with towers, slides
and tunnels, hanging rope ladders, and beds of
plastic balls 3 feet deep. Lindsey and her 10 best
frantic friends loved it. So did Arlene and Alyx
after climbing to the top of a tower and sliding
down through a tunnel into a bed of plastic balls.
I should mention how Alyx has changed, her life
style and attitude after her divorce. We could see
it in the way she drove as she took off like a
banshee. She looked ahead a couple of blocks
while explaining how to get onto the interstate.
She was not as layback as before, more alert and
aggressive. That was nice to see.
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We were soon site seeing around town past ‘The
Summit’ a large mall, where the Pro basketball
team Rockets plays. I had seen them years ago
on a business trip.
We stopped at the Natural History Museum, and
Rose Garden.
Most of the roses were in late bloom and just
magnificent, outside of the Museum was a model
of the solar system. Alyx and Arlene stood in the
sun while Lindsey and I went on to Saturn,
Neptune and Uranus. We looked around but
didn’t find Pluto until we were about to leave,
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because it was so small. Inside the Museum we
tried different kid’s exhibits with circus mirrors,
hair raising static electricity, and wind machines.
We ended up at Whole Foods, the organic store
to die for. We got some more peppermint soap,
and bought dinner.
This morning we got up early, packed Lindsey a
lunch, kissed her and Alyx goodbye, dropped
Lindsey at school, and followed Alyx on to the
freeway. We beeped goodbye to her as she
turned off for work and we headed out of town
toward Austin and Lakeway. It was too short a
visit, but we had a good time, and it was nice to
see both of them.
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There were beautiful blooming wild flowers all
the way from Houston to Austin. They were
yellow and black, Black-Eyed Susans, reddish
Paint Brushes, and blue Bachelor Buttons among
others. Ladybird Johnson had replanted
roadways all over Texas with a program to
encourage indigenous plants that grow in local
areas.
It will be great to see my brother Joe and Mary
Ann, they are really hospitable. We have a rule
about staying more than 3 days. We feel after 3
days or nights we should be moving on.
Hopefully if we don’t over stay our welcome we’ll
and maybe invited back.
Joe and Mary Ann moved to Lakeway when his
company opened an office in Austin. It was
perfect for them as after a few years he retired
and has been here ever since. Their passion for
tennis, fishing and bridge fit into the community,
and made a nice retirement life style for them.
Lakeway was just beginning back then and
underdeveloped. Today it’s one of the wealthiest
communities in Texas, and across the US. It’s
development came from the triad of a booming
economy, the State Capital and Government, and
the University of Texas, both of which are solid
as a rock, and the home of Dell computers. The
latter has created a development in Lakeway of
Dellinairs, with homes so large they escape the
imagination, and are served by a private airstrip,
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with garages passing as hangers. The lake is the
Little Colorado River, damned and maintained
for 60 miles as it wanders between the cliffs and
hillsides of Texas’s famous Hill country.
Joe has always been a great fisherman, with the
patience of Job; he is also a really good teacher.
Here he has taken on one of the great challenges
of his life, to teach Arlene to fly cast.
.
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He must have believed his efforts paid off
because that very afternoon he took her out on
their ‘flattop’, an 18 ft run about, that they use
for fishing and camping.
See how easy that was, he’s a master. The next
lesson will be to get her to take the squiggling
fish off the hook.
Mary Ann had organized a trip to the University
Library for us. But we got back from the fishing
trip a little late and by the time we reached the
LBJ Library we only had 15 minutes to visit.
Like any Library or museum there’s never
enough time to see it all, so we looked around
and took a tour of the campus.
The University of Texas is in downtown Austin
and although it has art galleries, theaters, and
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stadiums for every kind of sport, football, tennis,
baseball and lots of schools it’s not a pretty
campus like LSU. It’s much more urban. We
drove around and saw much of it before heading
back to the Hill Country for dinner.
Dinner turned out to be on a cliff overlooking
Lake Travis, at the Oasis Restaurant. It was
spectacular. There were many layers of
cantilevered decks built out over the cliff like a
tree house, each having a magnificent view of the
Lake and the sunset. Joe became the designated
driver and the rest of us drank Margaritas ate
Frittatas, and talked the night away.
Today we had two objectives, first was to go out
for a spin on Lake Travis and the other was to
visit the State Legislature.
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We took the boat out first. It was kept at the
bottom of a cliff, which we took an elevator half
way down and walked the rest, noticing the high
water marks on our way down. The boat was
kept in a covered overhead floating dock,. They
had a vacuum motor that raised it out of the
water for storage. Boy, what a good idea that is.
We never docked in fresh water, but imagine if
those darned barnacles couldn’t grow on the
bottom of your boat.
The boat I’ve mentioned was an 18 foot flat top
run about. Instead of the usual pontoon flattop
design it had a twin hull that gave it more
seaworthiness than the pontoon. The amount of
space on deck was good, in fact the entire deck
was flat and usable. And overhead they had a
canapé that covered the entire boat, thus cutting
down on the sunshine and sunburn.
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We raced around the lake into coves where once
there were no homes. These coves used to make
good camping and weekend getaways along the
high limestone cliffs.
We’d race along at 40 or 45 miles an hour and
then pull into a cove and drift for 15 or 20
minutes while Mary Ann would tell us about the
area. It was pleasant to listen to their stories and
just chat with them.
The sides of the lake are, as is the whole area
limestone. It’s striated, and you can see the level
of sediment that was deposited over a long
period of time. The layers were white, gray, and
yellow, with shells imbedded in them, portraying
the ancient shallow ocean that once covered all
of Texas.
It was time to go back into Austin and visit the
Legislature. As it was after lunch the Senate was
in session. No one would like to visit any
legislature, but I have my quirks, and so much of
my life has been spent around and working for
government. Legislatures, are just another part
of the puzzle in government and seldom
appreciated by the private business world except
as they might influence the politicians.
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I mention the headache most people get when
one talks about the Legislature, much less visits
one. Here you can see Mary Ann and Arlene
after 5 minutes of listening to the floor debate,
on a ‘Justice of the Peace’ bill. They were ready
to go; Joe had already left. I was able to hold
them off for another 15 minutes, but that was the
best I could do.
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It was strange to see so many men and women
dressed in black, mostly suits, following the old
custom of banker’s who were supposed to look
both important and knowledgeable. The Capital
itself was built with pink granite mined from
Texas, with marble floors and insets of different
colors. The doors were Oak, archways were all
carved as were the brass hinges and every door
knob had a single star carved in the middle of the
handle. It was pretty ornate and for me the
Capital was grand.
That evening after dinner we were discussing our
ancestry. Mary Ann was a member of the DAR,
Daughters of American Revolution, and had a
clear picture of her American heritage. She had
encouraged Joe to look into our forefathers
which he had done. This is a short story about
what he told us.
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About 8 generations ago Hans Michael
Zimmerman landed in the Promised Land in
Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1727. He named his
son John and for every generation after that there
had been a Michael and then a John until my
father was named John. My dad had enough and
when it came time to name is first child he did.
It was Joe. On his second chance he named me
Richard. I liked what my father did and with my
children I continued to name them without my
ancestral influence, while brother Joe returned to
the regiment, and called his son Michael.
We’ve talked about the trip across Texas to New
Mexico. It’s about 500 miles, from Austin.
People have a lot of ideas about how to get
across these Great Plains. It’s a really long trip
and often they start further east. Some stop
along the way, others go the entire distance,
which could be 1000 miles. Many folks’ favorite
method is to leave early in the morning, 2:00 AM
or so and drive all night and into the late morning
arriving in the Rockies around 9 or 10 o’clock.
We weren’t sure we could do 500 miles at once,
nor did we want to get up early and drive in the
dark. We settled on leaving before 9 and driving
until we were tired.
We said goodbye to my brother and Mary Ann.
It was a fine time, visiting, being spoiled by their
hospitality, eating good meals and seeing great
sites.
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It was a good choice to leave after breakfast. The
plains are an interesting and different part of our
country that we’ve never seen before. Out across
Texas, up and down the gently rolling famous hill
country. The fields and roadsides were filled
with flowers. Even more than around Houston,
yellow, red and blue. It was quite a site. Bushy
cedars groves, with thick blankets of color
beneath them.
It’s a strange feeling driving out on the plains
where there’s an occasional ranch house or an oil
‘bird’ dipping into the ground, to always have
your foot on the accelerator to make the invisible
grade. Several hours ago we were around 500
feet elevation. We drove along several different
roads heading for Lubbock, through Abilene and
Sweetwater, climbing all the way passing 3000 to
above 4,000 feet near Lubbock.
On the way we stopped at a bridge crossing the
Red River to take a few pictures. It was neat to
think that John Wayne had taken his movie cows
across this stream, and John Goodnight had
actually driven cattle to market across this river.
It was neat for only a couple of minutes, as the
swallows came out from their roosts under the
bridge and began dive bombing me. I ran for
cover, and fortunately wasn’t pecked or struck.
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It was along this desolate stretch, the Great
Plains of Texas, where for hours we only saw a
fence or gateway identifying a ranch. It started us
talking about our own imaginary ranch, and what
kind of symbol we’d use on our gate. We took
hours talking about it, configuring and designing
different letters.
We began by determining the letters to use. Z, or
A or R or maybe all of them. We tried AR, like
arrrr, and ARZ, like arrrrZee. The best was
ARRZ, which stood for AR for Arlene, R for
Richard, and Z for Zimmerman. It would sound
like ArrrrZeee.
The next step was to determine how the letters
would look. There were ‘lazy’ letters laying on
the diagonal, rippling letters, that show New
Mexico’s atomic nature and heritage, letters laid
on their side, letters above and below each other,
letters strung together and letters with bars.
It could obviously take forever, which may have
been the point of our dreaming along. We did
have many more miles to travel, but finally we
decided upon a gatehouse name, one that we
both liked:
ARRZ
The Double ‘R’ Bar Z
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We were so excited about our ‘Ranch’ name that
we decided an adventure was appropriate. We’d
turn off the main road into the heartland.
Outside of Lubbock we turned onto a country
road without any identifying number or name.
The sign said ‘Needs More’ this way. It was
great, we drove out across the plains into a town
with only one building, the Post Office. It truly
needed more. What a name. Then back onto the
plains again driving until we came up on the town
of ‘Circle Back’. Another town with a single
building.
We were exceeding 500 miles as we entered New
Mexico on these farm roads. It was miles of flat
farmland with only a cow or two on the horizon.
It was dry grass, blue sky and a cow. Real
western.
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It reminded us of our trip last year across Spain,
where Spaghetti Westerns were filmed. There
Sandel, the distiller had four story high bill
boards. They were Black Bulls, without any text,
just a huge cutout on the top of the desert hills.
They could be seen for miles before we
approached on the highway. That was very
impressive, our cows didn’t quite match up, but
they were large.
We had also come past several ‘beef’ or ‘feed’
lots. Cattle by the hundreds were corralled and
fed before being sent to market. The interesting
part about a ‘feed’ lot is that the cattle industry is
so fast and efficient that a cow can be fed there
one day, slaughtered the next, and in 24 hours
parts of it can arrive in grocery stores all over the
US.
These feed lots belong way out in the plains, far
from any homes because they smell to high
heaven.
As we approached the Oasis State Park in New
Mexico we passed yet another of these lots. The
campground was a mere 5 miles away to the west.
That should have consoled me as the general
direction of the weather is toward the east, and at
sunset the constant wind that blows across the
plains would subside, but only for a while.
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be an ‘Eastern’ dude,
or tenderfoot, and not know what the local
weather was like. The wind did stop, for a while,
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but when it started up again it blew straight from
the feed lot into our open windows. It was
horrible. Need I say anything about the low
rating we gave this campground. We struggled to
give it a 1, the worst, the absolute pits.
Oasis State Park has about 15 sites. From it you
can see for miles in every direction, even beyond
the Feed Lot. There’s a toilet, a shower, and
water, along with a small Ramada over the picnic
table. It has a small pond whose clay white water
even keeps the birds from going near.
This photo shows how tired we were. We
unloaded as few things as possible, to have room
to sleep. None of our things were covered
hoping they would be as dry in the morning as in
the evening, and that a coyote didn’t want
anything.
It’s difficult to see but I’m sure Arlene has a
bandana around her nose. The State probably
thought they were considerate of us campers as
they planted the only tree within 100 miles.
The good news is that we will probably survive
the night and break a new world record for
packing to get out or here.
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We arrived in Clovis before 7 a.m. (This is the
home of Dan’s and Alyx’s great grandfather.)
Even for a town based on prairie agricultural it
was a little early as the streets were empty. Wal
Mart was open so we stopped for coffee and
pancakes. The Cannon Air Force Base must also
help the economy. Although we didn’t know it
we had been traveling on a plateau because just
outside of town we dropped into a canyon and a
flat area around 4200 feet. The agriculture
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changed drastically from irrigated crops and
cultivated ground to scrub and cattle.
We’re climbing again, on route 39 toward
Mosquero. This is our second day on the prairie
and it’s long enough for us to have adjusted to
the mostly beige and pale green colors, and
recognized how they’ve changed into the
wonderful soft colors of the southwest, the
lavenders, the dusty blues, oranges and reds, the
many whites, greens, and beiges. It really is a
beautiful place.
Entering Mosquero we felt we’d arrived in the
Southwest. The creek beds, called draws, flat and
dusty, had no water but full of promise. The
buildings as high as two stories, fat, and chunky,
were all stucco. Their earthy colors and rounded
corners were wonderful, dark brown, light
orange-ish tan, deep dark burgundy red. Each
simple and each a different solid color, standing
in the New Mexico grasslands with a solid,
Wedgewood Blue cloudless sky above them was
magnificent
We’re rolling into Colorado, half of the state is
prairie, or desert, and everything has a dusty
quality to it even the horizon is kind of dusty
blue. The puffy clouds make shadows on the
hills that cause us to think there are pools or
ponds, but are mirages. The landscape is still
wide open grasslands with a few trees and no
irrigated or cultivated fields. When we see some
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trees, it’s usually around a ranch house complex
with barns, stables, windmills and fenced corrals.
All the train tracks followed the roads. Even if
the roads have fallen into disrepair.
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However, the trains are still moving along. One
passed us and we counted the cars, it’s loaded
with coal, 118 carloads. Four engines pulled and
pushed this one. Two in front pulling and two in
back pushing. These are unlike the Northeastern
trains which are short in comparison. All of
these carry on a mile or more.
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4 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
COLORADO
We arrived at Lathrop State Park this Friday
afternoon around two. All the electric sites were
filled for the weekend. Fortunately we aren’t
looking for one of them. So it was pretty easy
choosing a spot. There are a few trees around our
site but they don’t provide much protection from
the sun, and it’s hot at this altitude. Our view of
the Rockies is grand. To our north and west is a
rocky ridge which we should climb, south of us
are two snow capped mountains called the Twin
Peaks, and to the east prairie lands.
It seems that each time we come into a new
campground we think there’s new items we
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should add to our Campground Rating System.
Like in Louisiana the campers were so oblivious
to their environment that we needed to include
them. Here, at our first State Park we’ve
encountered a ridiculously high camping fee.
Our evaluations need to take these costs into
consideration.
For instance, State Parks as many public parks
are in beautiful locations, and are in high
demand. Their clientele are usually local. The
campers that fill the parks usually come from 50
miles around and sign up for 14 days. The whole
family comes for the weekend, but only the
children and an adult stay for the weekdays.
Weekends are very popular, and as we
experienced here at Lathrop, reservations are
usually in order.
As we are neither State citizens nor locals we fall
into a different type of camper. We are both
tenter’s and travelers, more on the ‘foot-loose’
hobo, migrant, side of things that the States and
their politicians think should pay more than their
share. We therefore get soaked on fees, and
Colorado is at the top of the States for their high
prices.
What we are learning is that if we have a choice
we’ll camp on lands and forests that are
maintained and managed by the United States,
not the State itself. The benefits are pretty
strongly in favor of the former. The beauty of
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the land and environment is similar, the cost is
always less, and the number of campers, which
we believe makes our experience more enjoyable,
is far less on Federal lands.
I’d say that we will adjust our rating system as we
go along. But, even before we settle into Lathrop
State Park, we should say that Colorado’s State
Parks are overloaded, over priced, and we’ll
dodge them if possible in the future.
Unpacking has become second nature to us. Our
ton’s of stuff is usually hauled out onto the picnic
table and covered. Here Arlene has put two
tarps over our things and put the small gas tank
under the table. It would be difficult to put up
our tarp over the table because there are no trees
to suspend it from. Our poles, which I thought
should be sent home may come in handy after all.
One of the advantages of being on the Prairie is
that you can see far enough to know when there’s
weather coming. It won’t be long before that
rain will be in our camp.
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We thought we’d stay in camp and do chores
today, but it seems we’re not as lazy or slow as
we thought. The car needed de-bugging. It
collected a lot of grasshoppers and other large
bugs as we came across Texas and New Mexico.
Scrubbing it down also became a good time to
polish it. It’s forest green color is now shiny and
looks really good. Arlene did more washing of
our clothes, and we both cleaned out the back of
the van. It needed airing.
After our chores, we had lunch, and headed for
the rocky ridge overlooking the campground. It’s
rough terrain, rocks, boulders, sand, pinto pine,
small cactus and cedar. There’s lots of cactus.
The prickly pear we stepped around, but the
taller fuzzy one called ‘Teddy Bear’ has thorns
that curl at the end like a fishhook and if you rub
it the thorns stick to you. These thorns actually
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jump out onto you. I got a couple on my shoes,
and had to remove them with pliers.
We climbed, ever aware that the fine hot, rocky,
loose gravel, craggy terrain provides any self
respecting reptile a chance to sun itself or
leisurely waiting to take a bite out of a passing
hiker. Today there were no snakes along our
path, nor were there any mountain lions or
cougars. Instead we saw a lot of birds. Our first
Mountain Blue Bird, it was large and dark blue.
A couple of hawks, a Northern Orioles with it’s
rich orange breast, Redwing Black birds, and a
Magpie which was strongly marked black and
white. Arlene saw thousands of striped squirrels,
13 by count, that looked like chipmunks.
Climbing upwards isn’t one of those things folks
from Florida do a lot, so we were really happy, if
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exhausted to have a hill to climb. The view’s
were extraordinary. These mountains could be
seen for a long time while driving here. It makes
one wonder how many days, or weeks our
ancestors watched them as they crossed the
plains in their covered wagons.
Lathrop gets a rating of 3, based mostly on the
cost of camping here at a Colorado State Park.
The rest of the campground was okay, good
scenery, and environment, clean, sites were open,
and the facilities were okay.
It’s Sunday morning and we’ve packed up washed
and had breakfast. We considered driving up
Interstate 25 through Pueblo, Colorado Springs,
and Denver to get to Boulder and our friend Sally
Daly. An alternative was to skirt around the
eastern front missing these cities and the
Interstate. We took the alternative and headed
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north on the winding route 69 that carried us up
along the valley. Into the Ol’ West with towns
like this one, Westclift, with run down wooden
buildings, facades, porches and covered walkways
between the country stores along the street. The
snow covered mountains in the background and
large tracks of land where we saw two cowboys
herding cattle, and ranches called ‘Southwinds’
and ‘Beckwith Ranch’. It was a great ride.
There was a general store at the cross roads,
Texas Creek. We stopped for coffee and a toilet
break. Every one is wearing blue jeans and
cowboy boots. I never thought they were very
comfortable, but considering the hiking we did
yesterday, it would be a good thing to protect
ourselves from snake bites cactus and the tough
brush. We expected ‘Chill Wills’ to come
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strolling into the store and order a couple of
horse blankets.
We arrived at Sally’s in late afternoon. She’s an
old friend of Arlene’s and her Maid of Honor at
our wedding in Connecticut. She has traveled the
world and decided to move out to Boulder to be
near one of her children, Malcolm. She now lives
in a senior citizen home on the outskirts of
Boulder. Our guest room was very nice, on the
th
4 floor where we could see the ‘Flat Irons’ out
our windows. These tall flat stones, 200 or more
feet high are the fault line that separates the
western mountains from the eastern desert.
Sally made dinner, a nice chicken salad with
apricots and oranges, potatoes and peppers. As
we visited and talked during the evening our
ancestry came up and Sally mentioned that she
too was a member of the DAR. Boy, were we
surprised, it’s such a small world. Sally is a quiet
woman and yet it took a little encouraging to get
her to tell her story.
Her brother had compiled a book of their
ancestry. They had arrived on the Mayflower, at
Plymouth Rock in 1620. She supposed that
among the scoundrels and ordinary folks was
‘Wild’ Bill Hitchcock, and possibly Abraham
Lincoln. She wasn’t sure about the President, but
she had several documents signed by him. It was
great fun. Maybe Arlene will look into her
heritage.
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We slept well. It’s so comfortable sleeping in a
bed. We adjust to mattresses and sheets easily.
By eleven we had breakfast and were on our way
south along the ‘Flat Irons’ and the Golden Fault.
We are right on the edge of the mountains and
the grasslands, they are rusty red. The Golden
Fault is the geologic fault that is named for the
city, not the color. It’s a shear cliff of these white
slabs that stick up out of the ground.
In Golden we went to Coors, the famous beer
company. Toured it and best of all ended up in
their tasting room. We then drank a couple of
beers from pilsner glasses. A Blue Moon Albie
Ale, a dark barley roasted beer, and a golden
roasted beer H.J. named after the first Coors,
Adolph H.J. Coors. I was light headed after one
beer, but continued to drink.
It reminded me of my high school days where I
was able to drink several draft beers and get a real
buzz. Then the beers cost .15 cents a glass, and
for .45 cents I was set; suppose you might say a
cheap drunk..
The Coors building was like an encampment,
with few windows, just huge slabs of concrete.
The cool fresh mountain water they advertise
must be specially treated as Sally says most of the
mountain water was used for gold mining and is
laced with arsenic. Despite the possibility of the
enriched water we enjoyed our visit, and left
feeling no pain and full of good feelings.
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We stopped for a western type meal, of green
pepper soup, black bean soup, well done
hamburgers, with pineapple cole slaw and steak
fries and then went off to find the US Geologic
Survey at The Colorado School of Mines.
There were two young ladies, jumping up and
down creating their own seismographic
earthquake disturbance as we entered. One says
‘nuts’ there’s no ink in the machine, but they told
th
us where we should go and led us up to the 5
floor where we met Waverly Person, the Director
of the Office.
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Waverly Person, quickly became our new best
friend. He was a graduate of American
University, and naturally a fine person. After
greeting us and before the students disappeared
he explained that the machines didn’t use Ink,
rather they burned a record into the rolls of
special paper.
Dr. Person told us about the instruments that
were buried all over the world, 200 publicly
known places, a few unknown, and one under
this building. His recording devices would report
earth quakes on them in minutes of any
occurrence.
For instance, if a little earth quake happened in
China or Iran….2 weeks ago. He would have
know about it, real time, but it might have taken
30 minutes before sharing it with politically
correct persons. The one in Iran is difficult to
report as we don’t have an embassy there any
longer, so there’s no official information passed
between us. Never-the-less there are Geologic
Survey people there that they do talk to.
We talked about several of the places where the
recording devices are buried. One was in
Blacksburg, Virginia, at Va. Tech, where I had
attended school for a couple of quarters.
Another was in Palmer, Alaska, a spot where they
raise Musk Ox, and I wanted to get a scarf of the
fine fur. He liked the idea and knew where the
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farm was, and thought we should take a lot of
money, because the wool was very expensive.
We surveyed about 20 seismographs recording
machines that were collecting data from around
the world. They weren’t doing much as it was a
quiet day on planet earth. There was a little
action on two, which Waverly Person explained
that some miners were doing a little blasting,
‘That’s all’.
On our way out we too stopped at the ‘Make
your own Earth Quake’ seismograph. After
jumping up and down and stamping our feet
Sally, Arlene and Richard registered our own
tremors.
Now we’ve really warmed up to this Colorado
visiting and tours. On the hillside above Boulder
and just below the Flat Irons is the Center for
Atmospheric Research. It’s a stunning group of
rusty red buildings that the famous I.M. Pei
architect designed in the 1960’s. It’s his rendition
of the Indian home at Mesa Verde in
southwestern Colorado.
This building is marvelous It’s earthly red brown
color blends with the flat plates behind it that
define the earths great fault. It’s window’s are
large rectangular slates, that are inset 2 – 3 feet to
protect them from the wind. The flat surfaces
blend together, buildings and earth surrounded
by the green grasses and pines on the hillsides
and the brilliant blue sky above.
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The Research Center is a serious place, but does
have it’s toys, and they were grand. I like toys.
Here were a few of my favorites.
A tornado, that you watch develop, and as it
does you can put your hand into the swirling
wind and it changes slowing down. Then by
taking your hand away it begins to develop again.
A lightning chamber. Try sticking your hand in
it and see what happens. Oh! Yea! Fat chance.
A vortex machine, where the coins go around
and around faster and faster until finally they
disappear into the center. It’s an example of a
Black Hole in space where everything is
devoured.
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Light prisms, and different blocks, mirrors,
colors, sheets, convex and concave prisms to
separate and bend light and it’s colors.
The toys were lots of fun to play with they
explained wind shears, thunder clouds and winds
flowing off the Rockies headed for the plains.
Sally says the people in Boulder, Colorado, and
generally the West are naturally friendly, unlike
the ‘Cave’ people of the Northeast and
Connecticut, who are too busy to spend much
time with you. We surely have seen that to be
true, just in the last day, when the student’s took
us up to meet the Director of Geologic Survey or
the time he took to talk and explain the recording
devices, or the scientists at the Research Center.
All of them took time to talk with us. They
seemed happy with their jobs.
Sally’s home where 300 seniors live is another
group of people that are very friendly. They
come from every part of the United States, are
highly educated, have worked in many places
throughout the world and have lots of different
interests. They are a lively bunch, and a bit
different than our Florida neighbors who have
more narrow interests, are less traveled and focus
more on their waning health than lets say the ‘Joy
of Life’.
We’ve had a big day, yet still had time to go to
dinner down in the middle of town. Downtown
is filled with students, lots of young folks. These
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folks help to give Colorado it’s outdoors,
exercising, healthy image. It was interesting to
hear that along the front wall the weather was
much less severe than in the mountains. The
snow here is less than in Connecticut. It’s dry
and fluffy, where as 3 to 5 inches may fall here,
just west, over the mountain it could be 3 to 5
feet.
Arlene started the day with our laundry. What a
good idea that was, as it’s been a while, since
Texas and we were running low on clean clothes.
nd
Today is Sally’s 72 Birthday, and she would like
to do a couple of things. First, to see a Saturn
Rocket lift off from Cape Kennedy, and second
to see the volcano erupt on the Big Island in
Hawaii.
Those wishes may not come true today, but we
will go see Malcolm, one of Sally’s sons and their
family. He has a mountain climbing business
called Travio, which makes climbing equipment,
and leads expositions around the world.
This was a pleasant visit, his wife is a school
teacher. She told us about class rooms, high
school students and curriculums. Despite being
out of the school and classrooms for a long time
I still have an interest in education and how it’s
being conducted.
Malcolm told us stories about climbing, and
Alaska. As we get closer to Alaska we find more
folks that have been there.
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At breakfast yesterday we heard a story from our
waitress who lived in Barrows, Alaska in a Quivit
hut with no windows. There were months where
there was no sun and the temperatures ran about
150 degrees below zero. She helped deliver
goods to Indians in a twin engine plane, an Otter.
She said the Indians drank a lot during the winter
and didn’t like white people much. She had been
beaten by some on one delivery trip.
These were not tourist stories, we were hearing.
Malcolm told us several, but one stood out. A
story that also captured the type of rugged and
adventurous life he lives.
He was driving on a gravel road, with fist size
gravel in Patagonia, South America. The road
was a single lane, hardtop, but very narrow, with
only room for a single car or truck. On the side
of the hardtop was the gravel, a lane itself. As he
drove along, at highway speeds, another vehicle
came toward him. A little game of Chicken
insued. At first he was pleased to see the other
truck head for the gravel. But, then he was
showered with gravel. So guess what? The
chicken stayed on the road, but the thing to do
was to get off on to the gravel.
In Patagonia many vehicles have cages on the top
of their cars and trucks that can be lowered over
the windshield. These cages were made of fence
wire and metal tubing, and protected ones
window from the gravel. Malcolm said he
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learned fast, and when another truck approached
he headed for the gravel, and behind him the
gravel flew while the other motorist reached out
and flipped his cage.
He has never seen anything like it in the world.
Yet in Alaska he has heard stories about home
made cages. Little is substantiated, yet it’s well
known that the heavy trucks along the ‘Haul
Road’ to Barrows, and other gravel roads travel at
high speeds, never slowing down and kicking up
enough gravel to bury a car. It would be worth it
to have a cage to protect your windshield.
We were off again to Celestial Seasoning; they
import and blend tea, which is shipped and sold
all over the country. The tour was fun,
everything smelled good. They also had a tea
tasting room, but it didn’t match Coors.
Late in the afternoon we went back into the city
and it’s park. It was a bright sunny day in
Boulder, and there were lots of people out
walking and exercising their dogs. We saw
several Labradors, which caused us to reminisce
about Sheba, our own special Lab. There was a
little creek that ran through the park. It attracted
several white water kayakers. They were gathered
around a 4 foot drop in the creek. Each would
take their turn paddling over the falls into the
pool, where they would stand the kayak straight
up in the water. I suppose you could do anything
with these small, 6 foot, light boats. They act like
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a bubble around you, and if you have a wet suit
you may easily become as buoyant as one. If you
were strong enough and know the water well, you
could do anything. We watched them for an
hour or so before moving on.
It was time for a Birthday dinner and we went
into town to Zolo’s for Margarita’s and a Tex-
Mex dinner party. It was another great day with
Sally.
We were up early the next morning because we’re
going up into the snowy mountains to the town
of Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National
Park. The drive was swift, as she was driving and
some westerners are known to drive according to
what the road will bare. We didn’t know where
we were going or how far it was, as neither of
these places were on our list. We just kept
climbing, up the valley, into deeper and deeper
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forest and wilderness. The water in the creek was
running full, like a river, and the sides of the
valley were getting steeper and steeper. The
thought occurred to me that this small winding
road could easily be washed out and we’d go with
it. After an hour or so of these steep valleys we
came out on a semi flat, hilly plain. Here was the
community of Estes Park.
Sally kept on going, right through town and up to
the National Park’s headquarters and entrance.
Arlene, jumped at the chance to use her Golden
Age Pass, which covered all of us in the car, so
we went in heading toward Moraine Park. We
passed the campground, and turned onto Bear
Lake road up to Sprague lake and picnic area.
There were a few people around, and a group
celebrating a wedding.
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Along the roadside was a creek, filled with large
round granite boulders. It also was over flowing,
and foaming over the rocks. If you were a
kayaker, like those guys back on Boulder Creek
Park, you’d rate this stream as a Class 9 in a 6
Class system. It would be impossible to traverse
with crashing white water rushing down over the
creek bed.
The temperature was surprisingly comfortable as
long as you stayed in the sun. There were only a
few tables taken so it was easy to choose one that
was in the sun light and pretty near the parking
lot. We carried our lunch to the table and
enjoyed it. There were several Magpies around,
behaving themselves. The large blue jays, were
not, they squawked and circled. Sally told us they
were ‘Robber’ Jays, a much larger bird than we
know.
After lunch we walked around the picnic area and
through the parking lot to the Bear Lake
pathway. We were held back there because of
the snow. It was not cleared and so we took a
picture and I left the ladies to climb through the
snow to the Lake.
The snow got deeper as I went, by the time I got
to the Lake it was over 5 feet, with each step I
sunk beyond my knees, and at 8,000 feet I could
hardly breathe. The Lake, was smallish, about
the size of couple of football fields, and covered
with snow. There was no way to tell how deep it
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was nor how much ice was still covering it, and I
wasn’t about to test it. I looked around for 10
minutes, long enough so I was getting cold, and
more importantly long enough for me to catch
my breath. Then I headed back toward the ladies
and safer grounds.
We stayed around the picnic area for another
hour before packing up our table and driving
back into Estes Park, for a short tour. It has a
main street that during the season is probably
packed with souvenirs and visitors.
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It’s been several years since we’ve seen Sally. We
miss many of our friends from Connecticut, as
we see less and less of them. It was a difficult
decision to move away from a place where we’ve
spent so many years, to begin another life. We
believe we did the right thing, to change our life
style, to begin another chapter that may last as
long as 30 years, but it’s not easy. We spend lots
of time talking about it, and how we will adjust.
It’s always difficult, when we leave these friends,
or Alyx, or my brother Joe. For a while we feel
lonesome, and sorrowful. It is however, easier to
leave them than to stay behind when they leave
you. Our feelings last much longer then.
It is now time to pack up and leave Sally. She has
won the hostess of the year award by us. What a
time we’ve had, visiting with her, and seeing
things here on Colorado’s eastern front that we
never would have with out her.
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