Visiting friends near Telluride Colorado!

We spent 3 days at this gorgeous home of our friends, Joanna and John. We met them sailing in Florida and cruised the Bahamas with them last winter. They have a beautiful Hans Christian named Kachina. When we were cruising together, they encouraged us to visit them this summer in Colorado, so we did! Their home is near Telluride - what a great location!  

This is what some of the countryside looks like near Joanna and John's place. I think Lots of beautiful aspen forests and meadows and mountains.

This is their kitchen - a real kitchen to cook in instead of just a 2-burner camp stove! We had a lovely time making breakfasts and dinners together and chatting over coffee or wine on the terraces outside.

We had a cosy, charming room under the eves - John and Joanna built this home (and much of its stunningly beautiful furniture). It's so welcoming and peaceful that it's hard to leave it to go explore the surrounding sights.

But explore we did...Telluride is a very special village tucked into a box canyon. It's a fun place, and spectacularly situated in the mountains with a gondola that takes you even higher up and plenty of shops, restaurants and other things to see and do. It seems to be a very successful 4-season village with a vibrant population- lots of kids and people of all ages around. Beautiful homes, great architecture, interesting history. We had a wonderful time there with Joanna and John - superb guides!! 

A little river runs alongside the village and kids and adults have fun tubing and fishing there. 

One day we hiked up to a waterfall. What you're seeing here is snow, which we passed along the way.  I think we hiked less than 4 miles, but at the highest elevation we've been at so far, I got pretty winded! I was walking with Joanna and she was kind enough to do mot of the talking! I've had more trouble than Jim getting used to the high elevations here (like over 9,000 feet).  I'm going to post this while I can (we're now at Mesa Verde in the campground with wifi) and post the rest asap, with more photos from the hike and Telluride. 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Last week we spent 3 days camping at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  No other canyon in North America combines the steepness, narrowness, depth and eerie darkness of this canyon. 

Another view of the canyon, to which I can't do justice with my IPhone camera. You really need to rise at 0-dark thirty and catch the sun rising on these canyon walls.

This is the Painted Wall. At 2,300 feet it's the highest canyon wall in Colorado. The lighter diagonal streaks of rock were formed when molten  rock was intruded between layers of non-molten rock. You can barely see the Gunnison River, which is far below in the lower left part of the photo.

One evening we tried to reach a place on the south rim called "Sunset Point" but didn't make it quite in time to capture the sunset on the walls of the canyon. Shoot. 

This mule deer and her cute fawn frequented our campsite, which was fine except that one day they ate our sun shower, which we'd left hanging on a tree. There are lots of instructions around to avoid leaving out food, drink, bug spray, scented tissues, cosmetics etc. to avoid attracting bears and mule deer, and we were being really careful to follow instructions. But no place mentioned plain water in a container. Oh well, live and learn.

Here we are at the bottom of the canyon.  See caption below...

We drove down the 6+ miles to the bottom of the canyon, where there is now a dam to control the flow of water. The narrow road has a 16% grade the whole way. You have to drive it in low gear to avoid burning out your brakes.


I have to leave the spot I'm picking up wifi, so will leave you here for now. More to come as soon as I can get to another place with connectivity - the bane of my existence.

Cripple Creek and Crested Butte, CO

On our way to our next destination, we sort of stumbled upon the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Serendipity! What a find! The town is located in the valley shown to the left, which was an epicenter of US gold mining in the last century. I think it had something like 300 gold mines at one time.  In fact, some gold mines are still in operation here. Now however, tourism reigns and a lot of money and effort have been invested in making the town a haven for tourists.

The original town was almost completely destroyed in two fires that leveled all the wooden buildings, so almost everything was reconstructed in brick. This is part of the main street. Interesting facades. I can't begin to tell you all the stuff we learned about gold mining while there, but this is a place worth visiting.

In a town built very quickly for thousands upon thousands of men who arrived seeking their fortunes in gold prospecting or working in gold mines, brothels were numerous and did a roaring business. One is now a museum. It was run by a series of women, each with a very keen business sense. This "Parlor House" that became a museum was the classiest place in town. An entire night with a girl there cost $250 - about $10,000 in today's currency. Since the town had at least 27 millionaires, these prices were apparently no deterrent.  This little table ornament dispensed cigarettes for customers hanging out in the parlor. We learned a lot about this side of a boom town!!!

Before reaching our next campground, we took a brief detour to see Crested Butte, CO. Mostly because it was raining and cold and we didn't feel like making camp in that weather :-(   I'm sure Crested Butte is lovely on a sunny day, but we were pretty miserable along with a lot of other people we saw on the streets there. ...

 Luckily we found a wonderful place to hang out and stay dry. It served great food.  It was an odd combination bar/restaurant that was decorated in very western US style,  combined with strongly Eastern overtones. Like lots of heavy wood and cowboy stuff next to low tables where people sat on floor cushions to eat Indian/Asian dishes. Buddhas on the wall and swagged draperies hung from the ceilings. Indy music. Odd. But nice.... 

One art alley on the main street had a small, beautiful grove of aspen right out front  - see the rain running down the bark?

Despite the rain and cold, the flowers along the main street of Crested Butte were lovely!

Next, on to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park!!!

2.5 miles in the sky at Pikes Peak :-)

While in Colorado Springs, we drove to the top of Pikes Peak - elevation 14,500 feet. That's 2.5 miles up, with 40% less oxygen at the top. Despite that, we saw half a dozen guys riding bikes up to the peak.  Even more insane were the groups zipping DOWN the steep grades and around tight switchbacks as part of a tour operation. It was pretty chilly and breezy at the top. The winds can reach 120 mph and the temperatures range from a high of 64 degrees to a low of -60 degrees.

At the start of the ascent is a series of reservoirs, from which Colorado Springs gets its water. This area is technically desert, so the reservoirs are critical for the city.  

Near the top above the treeline, there were still some small places with snow

From the top the 360 degree view was magnificent, especially on such a sunny day 

Here we are near the top. Had shorts on but it was pretty chilly!!

After making the loooooog descent we went exploring in nearby Old Colorado City. Found a friendly outdoor place for pizza and local beer. Old Colorado City apparently has a reputation as a place where brothels thrived in the good old days. Rumor has it that many gentlemen entered the brothels via tunnels from the more respectable parts of town.  We didn't see any houses of ill repute, but roamed in and out of lots of little shops of all kinds. The town has lots of art galleries and stores selling jewelry, clothing and cowboy stuff. 

Back at the campground a woman at a nearby campsite had set up a wading pool for her two dogs. It was a really hot day with no shade trees around. This dog looks pretty pleased, don't you think?

Garden of the Gods. Wow.

We're in Colorado Springs for 2 days, camping at a gorgeous place called Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We're tucked right under the mountain, overlooking the town.

We went to see the Garden of the Gods first.  Just as we arrived, a storm came through.

Great sky, though!

This is a famous part of the Garden of the Gods called Balanced Rock

After a quick detour to wait out the storm in a coffee shop in Manitou Springs (a cool little town in and of itself) we returned to Garden of the Gods in clearer weather. Beautiful clouds!

This is part of the main street in Manitou Springs.

Some of these rock formations are crazy. There are lots of hiking trails and we really enjoyed exploring at the end of the day, when lots of the other visitors had already left. 

As we left the Garden of the Gods it began to rain again - it's rained on and off every day for the last several days, but the sun always comes out again eventually. 

The next day we road to the top of Pike's Peak - 38 miles trip round trip, up to about 14,500 feet. Those photos still to come... Gotta go for now!

AK, OK, TX!

Now we're in Texas. Can you tell?

The last two days we spent crossing Arkansas and into Oklahoma, where we stopped for the night in Oklahoma City.  We stayed in a motel since the temperatures have been hovering around 100 degrees each day for about 5 days now and camping would be tough.  Apparently this heat wave has hit further north too.

After Oklahoma City, we spent some time tracking down relics on the old Route 66, well-known as the road travelers took across America in the early days of travel. Route 66 doesn't really exist anymore except in short stretches, but some landmarks have been carefully preserved.

This is Lucille's Diner 

Inside the tuquoise upholstery, formica tabletops, glass block walls and black and white checked tile floors are pure 1950s. 

If you're old enough, you may remember car hops that brought food on trays to your car and hung them on the window. Sometimes they were wearing roller-skates. Not rollerblades, roller-skates :-)

This is Lucile's "filling station". Lucile's family lived over the station.  She and her husband raised 3 kids here.

Fuel cost less than 30 cents a gallon.

Now we're in Amarillo Texas. This is what the Texas Panhandle looks like. Sometimes you see some cattle, or a few miles of wind turbines, but not much else.  

Last night we went to the Kwahadi Museum of the American Indian.  There were impressive displays of Native art,  jewelry, clothing, tools, etc. We were treated to an incredible display of dancing by the Kwahadi Youth Dancers.  

Each of these kids has made his or her own costumes and they are beautiful. The Kwahadi Dancers have performed all over the world and received many awards for excellence.  

Last evening there were a lot of boy scouts in the audience and many  of the dances were done especially for them to demonstrate virtues scouts should strive to uphold.

This guy was amazing!

The performance is called Song of the Eagle and this costume is an eagle costume.

Another view of the eagle wings on the arms of the dancer.


This morning we leave Texas. Although Texas has lots of impressive stuff (like waffles in the shape of the state) it's time to seek cooler temperatures at higher elevations. We will camp tonight in Cimarron Canyon State Park in New Mexico, then head for several more days of camping in Colorado.  We may be out of touch for a few days without much connectivity. Catch you later next week!
  

 

Memphis - Music and Motorcycles!

We got to Memphis TN yesterday and visited the Gibson Guitar factory first. This photo is for our good friend Dave Enos! 

We got an amazing tour at Sun Studio, where Elvis, Jonny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and others got their starts in music. This is a fuzzy photo of a photo of Elvis at age 18. The tour guide told incredible stories about the lives these musicians led before and after they became famous. 

Every Wednesday night is motorcycle night on Beale Street. There are hundreds and hundreds of 'em. All kinds, many tricked out in amazing ways. Lots of flashing colored lights and music blaring from huge Harleys.

Of all the motorcycles we saw, only ONE was driven by a woman on her own bike. That says something. Won't speculate as to what.

Today we visited this museum - it was amaaaaaazing. If you're in Memphis, you have to go there. It's actually a Smithsonian museum. I didn't realize the Smithsonian had museums outside DC.  

A great quote on a t-shirt in the gift shop. Sam Phillips was the founder of Sun Studio and Sun Records in Memphis. 

We also took a tour of Stax Recording Studios - another institution in Memphis. It's hard to get your head around the massive influence Memphis has had on American music.

This is the gold and blue Cadillac (with white fuzzy carpeting) that Isaac Hayes' bought after getting an Oscar in 1972 for the theme for "Shaft"

In addition to soaking up tons of Memphis music facts and fiction, we have managed to eat BBQ ribs 3 times in 2 days. And delicious pecan pie. Tomorrow is a long-trek day across Arkansas to Oklahoma City. We hope to catch some of the famous sights along sections of Route 66 along the way.