YABBA-DABBA-DOO!!!

Window Rock at Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

It framed Pikes Peak across the valley perfectly.

Good night, what a day!  We visited "a place right of history," rode a run-away mine train (well, sort of), and dodged some suicidal deer. 

The entrance to the park was a narrow road that wound
between this balancing rock and its twin.

Tuesday morning we set off early for the Garden of the Gods which is just outside of Manitou Springs.  My sister-in-law had fond memories of camping here when she was a kid, so we decided to check  it out.  It was fantastic!  So primitive!  So familiar... 

I couldn't figure out why the park seemed so familiar until I heard the theme song to "The Flintstones" playing in the back of my head.  "Oh!  That's it!"  Fred and Barney...Wilma and Betty...Pebbles and BamBam. 

We had a great time scrambling up the rocks, imagining dinosaurs walking among the rock formations, and shopping in the unapologetically, touristy gift shop.

Later that afternoon we set off for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.  If you ever get a chance to do this, DO It!  This train took us about seven miles up to the top of Pikes Peak.  Now, this isn't the tallest mountain in Colorado.  It is a 14er, which is local lingo for mountains over 14,000 feet, but Pikes Peak ranks 31st among the 54 mountains over 14,000 feet.  The views are stunning!  In fact, these gorgeous vistas inspired Kathy Lee Bates to write the words to "America The Beautiful."  I have to admit when our tour guide, Ari, showed the exact spot where Bates felt inspired to write the song, I got a big ol'  lump in my throat! 

We only had 35 minutes at the top of the mountain.  Sad!  They say that this is about as much time as most people can take before they experience some signs of altitude sickness.  I don't know about that,  but there was a very impressive storm coming up and it was COLD.  So we took as many pictures as we could before the rain started to endanger the cameras, nipped into the gift shop to warm up, and then piled back onto the train for the beautiful ride back to the station.
 

The cutest little chipmunk in the world
decided he would like a bite of
PB&J.

On the way down, Ari and Potsy our tour guides, stopped the train several times so we could get pictures of big horn sheep, marmots, and even a bear and her cub!  Ari told us that a female bear is called a sow.  I never knew that!  I wonder if the male is called a boar? 

When we got back to Manitou Springs, we had some supper and then set off in our two vehicle caravan back to the cabin.  It was pitch dark and very cloudy.  We were happily exhausted and ready for bed.  But the drivers couldn't put our minds into automatic like we would if we were driving home in the metroplex.  There were suicidal deer lurking on the side of the highway, just looking for an opportunity to say, "Good bye, cruel world!" and take out our cars!  Thank goodness my brother was leading the way.  The deer tried death-by-tourist at least five different times!  We couldn't help but think about the Allstate "Mayhem" commercials.  Sure enough, they already have a Mayhem commercial just about deer.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OH_gUt4Oww&feature=relmfu

Here's the Cog Railway link.  http://cograilway.com/

Garden of the Gods.  http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm?&Flash=0

Here's the Flinstones' theme song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8

One more song.  This is called Swervin' In My Lane 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOTcP1JVaes 
This song applies equally to the deer and the crazy Colorado drivers!

This poor hiker had the best spot in the park until we plopped down next to her on the rock and

started chattering like a colony of prairie dogs.

Window Rock!

Here we are practicing our best smolders.  We really are a strange bunch.

Wow!  That's some smolder ya got there.

Look, it's Thomas the Tank Engine!

"... for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plains..."

Ari, the tour guide told us that they call this the "Julie Andrews Meadow" because it looks so much like the opening sequence to The Sound of Music.

The last thing Ari said before we got off the train at the top of Pikes Peak was, "If you see lightening or you feel the hairs on your arms raise up, come inside the gift shop." 
But years of living in tornado alley have jaded us a bit.  Storms are gorgeous!

It really was like standing on the edge of the world. 

This is the kind of weather that usually only storm chasers get to see.

Big Horn Sheep. 
 They were so well camaflaged that we weren't sure if we got the picture of not.

Most of our family had never heard of or seen a marmot before, so when Ari mentioned
them on the train full of tourist excitedly chatting away, it led to one of those
 "who's on first?" conversations.

Person 1 - "Did she say varmit?"
Person 2 - "Marmot, not varmit.  What is a marmot?"
Person 1 - "It's just a generic term for cantankerous animal - an ornory creature.  You know, 'Ima gonna git ya, ya yella bellied varmit!'"
Person 2 - "Yea.  But what's a marmot?"
Person 1 - "A pest; a pain!"
Person 3 seeing what's happening and trying to restore some sanity-
"A MAR-MIT, not a VAR-MIT!"
Person 1 - Ohhhhhh.  A marmit varmit!

See art does imitate life!

Texans In Heaven

Is it any wonder that the columbine is the state flower of Colorado?



          "Texans in Heaven."

The angel Gabriel came to the Lord and said, "I have to talk to you. We have some Texans up here in Heaven who are causing problems. They're swinging on the pearly gates, my horn is missing, barbecue sauce is all over their robes, their dogs are riding in the chariots, and they're wearing baseball caps and cowboy hats instead of their halos."

The Lord said, "I made them special, Gabriel. Heaven is Home to all my children. If you want to know about real problems, let's call the Devil." 

The Devil answered the phone, "Hello? Darn! Hold on a minute." The Devil returned to the phone, "Okay, I'm back. What can I do for you?"

The Lord replied, "I just want to know what kind of problems you're having down there." 

The Devil said, "Hold on again. I need to check on something." After about 5 minutes the Devil returned to the phone and said, "I'm back. Now what was the question?"

The Lord said, "What kind of problems are you having down there?"

The Devil said, "Man, I don't believe this....Hold on, Lord." This time the Devil was gone 15 minutes. The Devil returned and said, "I'm sorry Lord, I can't talk right now. Those dang Texans done put out the fire and are trying to install air conditioning!"

Hoosier Pass just past the continental divide.

I thought about this joke the first morning in Alma. I woke up early that first morning.  I was mad, but then I realized that it was the sound of the heater coming on that woke me up.  The heating came on - IN JULY!  Bliss!!!   It was complete joy to sit out on the deck with a cup of coffee, wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and heavy jeans, and shivering because of the chilly air.  
IN JULY!   The whole state has central air!  Utter, utter joy!

That morning, we started taking pictures of flowers and picking a few as well.  They were gorgeous.  We kept seeing flowers growing wild that we have to buy at the nursery at home.  For instance, right outside the cabin door we found a patch of daisies.  A few feet away we discovered dragon's blood, lupins, something that looked like yellow blue bonnets, purple astors, wild roses, German bearded iris, and wild ginger.  The girls, young and not so young, spent some time with our noses to the ground looking for new wonders and collecting bouquets and photos. 


We also spotted a mag pie, a deer, and a strange little animal that looked like a prairie dog.  But we weren't in the prairie anymore. Maybe it was a mountain dog.  A local told us it was probably a pika which are related to rabbits.  When we consulted Wikipedia however, the pictures didn't match what we were seeing.  Mountain dogs it is!  They were adorable.   


The next order of business was food.  Alma was glorious remote, but that lack of people also means a lack of grocery stores.  The trusty Wal-mart app told us that the closest store was in Frisco the next town over from Breckenridge, so we loaded up the van and headed over the continental divide. 

The continental divide in our area was Hoosier Pass.  Beautiful!!! As we drove through the pass, we kept gasping for breath and saying, "Oh my goodness!  Look over there!  Slow down a little bit, I've got to get a picture of that!"  The locals, who get a little sick of tourists in the summer, just rode our tails and passed contemptuously in the no passing lane.  We couldn't blame them; they were just trying to get to work or to Wal-mart and these annoying out-of-staters keep snarling up the traffic. 

Breckenridge and Frisco were adorable, photogenic, and enticing.  I'd like to go back there and explore the little shops and restaurants.  They had that hippy chic, expensive boho vibe thing going on.  It would be fun to spend a day or two exploring the cute little shops and eating in the overpriced restaurants and coffee shops.  But that's for another trip.  This trip was about the great outdoors.

On the way back home we stopped to take pictures at the continental divide sign when something strange happened.  We had just finished taking our group shots when a truck hauling a trailer came to a sudden stop across the highway and then pulled off the road.  We looked over to see what was going on and to our astonishment we saw that the man was hauling a tiger.  A life size, ceramic tiger.  You don't see that every day!   

After lunch we hunted for more wild flowers and explored the dirt roads around our cabin.  Did you know that Garmans map dirt roads and even hiking trails, sometimes.  They are amazing pieces of technology!  We wouldn't have done half the things we did on this trip if it wasn't for Carmen the Garman. 

Tired out by the altitude and our explorations, we spent the evening eating excellent taco salad and watching the movie, Tangled.    That movie has one of the scariest characters I've seen in a long time, the witch who pretends to be the princess's mother.  She's a nightmare!  The best character, though, was the horse, Maximus.  I don't know how the animators managed to make a horse look like a German shepherd and a marine corp drill sergeant, but they did.  Maximus even had a 5 o'clock shadow.  Genius!

Here's a link for Alma, Colorado.  http://townofalma.com/

Here's your music link for today.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjohP7juqU8 
It's called "Something I Do" by Robert Earl Keen, and its a song about the joy of doing nothing.  It's a great vaca. song!

Wonder where he's taking Tony the Tiger?

Our little mountain prairie dog.  She looked at us for over a minute before she and her baby scampered off into the brush and down into a burrow.

"The hills are alive..."

The view from the deck of our cabin.  The mountains framed the clouds beautifully.

Our desert rose holding a wild mountain rose.

"Country roads take me home to the place I belong..."

They're called the Rocky Mountains for a reason.

"Snowin on Raton"



The Arkansas River seen from downtown Salida, Colorado.



When I'm traveling, I seem to have a sound track playing quietly in the background of my mind.  This day I kept humming the hauntingly beautiful tune of Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin on Raton."  Here's a link if your interested.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0JWdsm5jJg&feature=related   I like Robert Earl Keen's version, too.  There wasn't any snow in Raton; it was July after all.  But I've always loved that song.

Since it had been quite a long day and a late night, we decided to take it slow Sunday morning.   Around 9:30 we aimed the van northwest on Highway 87.   Dumas is right in the corner of the Texas panhandle, so before long we had passed all the circle irrigators and enormous grain elevator of the vast Panhandle farms and drove into New Mexico. It was amazing how quickly the terrain changed.  As soon as we were in New Mexico, the scenery and the architecture transformed and looked New Mexican, not Texan.

The circle irrigators that make farming
 in West Texas possible.

The first mountain appeared just north of Clayton. Someone consulted Wikipedia and discovered that it was called Rabbit Ear Mountain. It didn't really look like rabbit ears unless you held your head just right, but it was a small mountain. Pretty soon we saw the first of the snow fences. It sure didn't seem like those flimsy fences
could hold back a load of snow, but they must work. They were everywhere.

New Mexico through the front windshield.
It's a long, lonesome highway.

It was a bit of a quiet drive.  The mountains through here are not remarkable and the New Mexican plains look lonely and windswept even at the height of summer.  At one point I looked around the van and noticed that everyone was using some sort of electronic device.  The kids were watching a movie or listening to their I-Pods, my sister-in-law was checking her e-mail via her phone, and my brother, the most techie of us all, was using his Garman and his I-Pad to chart our progress and look for a Walmart to fill up the gas tank.  Technology has certainly changed the way we travel.  I remember when there was nothing to do but fight with my brother during long road trips.


We stopped at the Visitor's Center in Raton for bathroom break, and this was where we had our first taste of cool mountain air. It was 84 degrees. Blessed relief.  Today, as I write this, the temperature in North Texas is 110. One hundred and ten degrees! This is why soooo many Texans flee to Colorado each summer.

Rain!!!

The true mountains started after Raton. We turned onto Highway 69 at Walsenburg and took a two lane state highway through some long, skinny valleys.  In the distance we could see five or six rainstorms.  Now it's almost impossible to explain what a beautiful sight a storm can be to draught stricken Texans.  One September, after a very long dry spell, we had a thunderstorm in the middle of the afternoon during a school day.  It's stopped my class dead.  Everyone of us bounced in our seats with glee.  My students begged me to let them go outside to run around in the rain.  I must admit, I was tempted! 


At Texas Creek we turned west onto Highway 50 which follows the path of the Arkansas River up higher into the mountains.  On our left were the barren, red mountains of Southern Colorado, almost devoid of trees, and on our right raced the ice cold Arkansas River filled with rafters, fly fishermen, and gold panners.  Yep!  That's right.  There are several active gold mines in this area.

By the time we got to Salida, we needed gas and a stretch break.   Somehow or other we got off of the highway and found ourselves in "historic downtown Salida."  What a delightful town!  The Arkansas runs through the downtown area where we saw kayakers and dogs jumping in the river to fetch sticks and even a guy surfing on the river.  The town was hosting a cycling competition so it was filled with interesting characters from all over.  We played down by the river for a while and then strolled around the downtown area before deciding to have an early dinner.  My sister-in-law, who never met a stranger, got a recommendation from a local couple for a good restaurant, so we ate at Amicas.  They had wonderful pizzas and salads, pasta, and paninis.  They were packed, too.  That's always a good sign. 

A horse trough full of petunias. 
Who woulda thunk it?!?

Revived, we got back into the van for the final leg of the trip, Alma, Colorado, the highest incorporated city in the U.S.  The web site said the town's official altitude was 10,578 and a population of 275 people.  That's about 10,000 feet higher and four million fewer people than the Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex.  How's that for a change of pace? 

Finally!  At last!  We pulled up to our cabin around 8:00 P.M.  The grandparents gave us hugs all around.  We carried all the luggage and supplies up the steep stairs.  Gave a sleepy recap of our journey.  And then, stumbled off to bed.

There were some great old Victorian buildings with restored details and wonderful faded advertising.

Want to rent a kayak?

The gang's all here.

When we looked out of the window Sunday morning in Dumas, we saw a wind farm.

Traditional wind mills like this one pump well water for stock tanks. 
There's almost always one tree close to the well.

"I Saw Miles and Miles of Texas." Bob Wills

Two pretty fillies greeted us at the gates of the Palo Duro Canyon amphitheater.

We sometimes forget just how big Texas really is until we get in the car and set out on vacation.  Saturday morning we packed up the van, cranked up the air conditioning, loaded up Carmen the Garman for West Texas, and set off for vacation in Colorado.  We left Fort Worth at nine o'clock all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, singing songs, and chattering excitedly.  A little after midnight, still in Texas, we limped into Dumas, sleepy, but happy.  That's a lot of driving! 

Somewhere on the road, since we were headed for Amarillo, we started talking about Cadillac Ranch.  The idea that some rancher would buy ten old 1960's Cadillacs and bury them nose down in the middle of a field is preposterous and never fails to capture people's imaginations.  I still remember the first time I saw them as a kid driving through West Texas.  The land was mesmerizingly flat and hypnotically boring.  Suddenly ten tail fins appeared, literally out of nowhere, pointing towards the sky like a Salvador Dali mirage on the plains.  If you don't know about them, it's easy to think you are suffering from some sort of delusion perhaps brought on by the heat.

Well the kids had never seen Cadillac Ranch, so how could we NOT not stop.  After supper at Rosa's,  (Mmm!  Mexican food!!!)   we drove west a few minutes and there they were, ten iconic cars half buried in the dirt like automotive dinosaurs.  When we got there, about twenty people had already trekked out through the blazing hot field with paint cans in hand to add their artistic touch to these behemoths.   We wandered around for a while admiring the bones of the cars, some of the more creative embellishments, and the endless blue sky.  There is absolutely nothing in this part of West Texas to stop your gaze - just vast blue sky and little white clouds.  No wonder West Texans are so much taller than average.  There's nothing to stop 'em.

Pop Art on the Prairie  

Cadillac Ranch is truly in the middle of nowhere!  Just earth, sky, and Cadillacs.

A little later, we drove out to Palo Duro Canyon. It was about 7:30 so the sun was hanging low in the sky and the worst of the heat was slowly dissipating.  We had reservations to see the play Texas which is performed every summer in the Palo Duro Canyon amphitheater.  The three adults had all seen the play when we were kids on family vacations.  Now it was time to initiate the next generation. 

The drive into the Palo Duro Canyon was beautiful.  The sun reflected off the canyon walls in front of us creating a beautiful dance of light and shadow.    A slight breeze started to cool us down and ruffle our hair.  Just a perfect Texas summer night.  My sister-in-law spotted a pull off and we got out to take pictures. To our delight we found a trail that went along the rim of the canyon. We followed it for a while snapping picture after picture.  The kids scurried down the boulders like prairie dogs, and their mom had to grab their attention quick before they climbed out of sight.

We almost forgot about the play, but remembered in time to join the line of cars entering the amphitheater. An authentic cowgirl and her horse greeted us at the gate with a friendly Texas smile. It was very idealic - until her horse sneezed and shot horse-snot into my ear!

From the parking lot we rode a tractor trolley to the entrance where the band was playing the "Cotton Eye Joe." We stood under the misters for a while and watched a brave group of volunteers flapping their wings and promenading in a circle to the "Chicken Dance."

Texas, the play, has changed a little over the years, but it has retained it's essential Texas-ness! Horses, cowboys, pretty girls, boy-meets-girl, pull-yourself-up-by your own-bootstrap, rugged individualism.  Who can ask for more!?!  Like thousands before us, we walked away with a deep respect for our pioneer ancestors who were made of pretty stern stuff.  How they braved the heat and the wind, had babies without doctors, fended off rattlesnakes, scorpions, and bears, and farmed and ranched with almost no water is an amazing picture of determination.

But the play was fun, too.  The best line from the play was, "West Texas, where you can look further and see less than anywhere else in the world." The audience erupted into huge  belly laughs at that line. It's sooooo true.

The play finished around 10:30 and we joined the happy pack of SUV's and ranch trucks in the winding line out of the canyon. There were no street lights and Amarillo was far enough away that we could truly see the stars.  We saw The Milky Way! Impressive.

 

Standing on the edge of Palo Duro Canyon framed by Mesquites and limestone.

Apaches, mountain lions, and settlers used the canyon to escape the heat and find a little water.

Just imagine what the thunderstorms were like!

The best Caddie on the Ranch!

Here we are being ferried by the Tractor Trolley from the parking lot to the entrance to the amphitheater.

Here's the crowd enjoying the band and the pre-show.  Look!  Even the birds get

 a little western architecture.

Come on girls!  Let's see you do the Cotton Eye Joe.  No?  How about the Chicken Dance.

Please!!!!!

Friendly greeters pointed us down the mesquite lined path into the ampitheater.

P.S. If you want to hear Bob Wills' "Miles and Miles of Texas" here's a link to a rendition by Asleep At The Wheel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgLl3y_jX4