Says the mechanic, “Needs a new battery I think. I’ll put one in and you should head back to the marina.” (Consistent with yesterday’s Walmart experience.) OK by me because the wind has picked up a bit and this little put-put ain’t the Kon Tiki.
 |
| Awaiting a Kodak Moment |
 |
| Approaching Telluride |
 |
| Resident Teluride Elk Herd |
 |
| Not looking forward to the ride out of the valley. |
 |
| An early evening stop at the Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde. There's one of these shots in a post a couple of years back. |
 |
| A VERY unflattering accidental selfie. |
Arrived mid-morning at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and spent the day conditioning with a 5-mile hike at this higher altitude. Because of all my youthful indiscretions we then took an afternoon nap. I’ll skip the dialog and just post some photos. You get the idea.
PS – We chose NOT to hike to the bottom.
Good night from Canyon of the Gunnison
Brad and Val
Sunday was an early start from eastern Colorado’s North Sterling State Park and we were on the road a little after seven. Our reward was to catch sight of an early morning buzzard on the way out of the park.
For those not experienced in seeking out early morning buzzards, they find a high perch in the evening so that in the morning they can just spread their wings in the morning sun to get blood flowing so they can jump off and fly (as opposed to jump off an flop to the ground like a dead fish - which is about what they smell like.)
Further down a back country road through the featureless east Colorado grasslands, we encounter an important historical landmark which says (paraphrased):
.
“Right nearby here in 18-something William Hadfield, the first crazy white dude to settle these parts, built a sod house right in the middle of featureless, Cheyenne infested, east Colorado. Rumor has it that he selected this spot because it’s where his horse dropped dead. Some years later, A new neighbor, Rufus McCord moved in a dozen or so miles down the road and hence setting the stage for a feud that would run for decades thereafter.”
The rest of the day was transiting through Denver to finally reach the beautiful southern Rockies, through which all Denver’s 5 million or so inhabitants were also transiting on their way home from a sunny mild weekend. (Fortunately they were all going in the other direction.)
On the way through the mountains we stopped to check out an isolated grave I had spotted during trip planning.
According to “Ruby”, from nearby Sargents Colorado (pop. 20-30) it’s said to be the grave of “Baby Girl” Sanchez, daughter of a late 1800’s railroad worker passing through.
We arrive at our campground near Gunnison Co in time for an evening walk to view the sunset.
Good night form somewhere near Gunnison.
Brad and Val
Day one of our trip to Points West starting with Illinois (obviously) which only took 10 hours, and then Iowa which took another 20, (or so it seemed). Only a couple of stops, the first near the Amana Colonies where I paid $0.40 a gallon more for gas than anyplace else I saw (so much for plain and simple life) , and the second at a rest stop named after Herbert Hoover (of vacuum cleaner fame).
