Suffice it to say we have dragged the Bambi through seven states and halfway across Canada at this point without anything more dramatic than Fred realizing he had not renewed the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius radio (for the briefest of moments the clouds did part and the angels did sing, for me anyway) and have had as much fun as two people of a certain age can have without purchasing tickets to an amusement park.
As with all our adventures, we drove from Austin to Santa Rosa, NM which is about as far as I will allow Fred to push it for one day. Santa Rosa, if you didn't know, is a little town on old Route 66 that is a little worn, ok a lot worn, around the edges but it does have one great thing going for it.
Blue Hole
We always stop here, Fred always jumps in, immediately gets out and immediately remarks "Man, that's cold!", it's our thing.
The other place we always stop is Taos, New Mexico at a little trailer park that looks out on the distant Sangre de Cristo mountains. It also looks out on the microbrew place right next door, each view has it appeal.
Makes you wonder why they stopped here on the great migration west, must have lost a wheel or lacked ambition one
I usually entertain myself by crafting assemblages of sticks and twigs and Fred usually entertains himself with the art of crafting brews.
About two days in Taos is all you really need especially if you have had your fill of New Mexican chili enchiladas and kokopelli flute playing merchandise shipped directly from China so off we headed to Ridgeway State Park in Colorado.
Ridgeway is near Ouray and it's always fun to go the hot springs pools there which are teeming with about 100 adorable, squealing, just-let-out-for-summer-vacation kids all of which I'm sure would consider peeing in a warm pool the height of bad manners.
Fred contemplating string theory or string beans hard to say with him
Dutch oven taters and sausage just in time because right after this gourmet meal was prepared...
Nope, that's not snow it's the weather phenomenon most likely to induce anxiety in any Airstreamers heart.........hail
Lucky for us it didn't last long and did not impede my eternal quest the next day to bring home the perfect rock.
Honestly, is that not one damn fine rock?
This one covered in lichens also stole my heart but I have learned that in Austin they simply roast to death in about a day
I think what Fred would like me to mention about Ridgeway is that it's the gateway to the San Juan mountains, that the hiking is beautiful and trails meander through grassland and pinyon/juniper forests, that there are 140 species of migratory and resident birds.
Dipper
Rare black swift nesting in a box canyon in Ouray
Talk about angels singing
Teton Canyon and Red Cliff, Wyoming
Teton Canyon is a mere 500 miles from Ridgeway but since Fred has some deep seated desire to be a long-haul trucker distance between places pretty much is meaningless. This is usually when I start to whine about these long drives with short stays but it is hard to complain about the views once we settle in.
Caliope hummingbird
Red Cliff, Wyoming
Sandhill Crane
Red-tailed Hawk (juvenile)
Oh sure, you have your spacious skies, your purple mountain majesties above the fruited plains but after a while what you really want is to ramp it up. There are only so many times you can look up as you're trudging down a flower-filled valley with snow-covered mountains and exclaim "Wow, that's pretty" before you want to look up and exclaim "Holy Shit, this is amazing!".
Which is what we did, because next up was one of those places - Glacier National Park.
