May 2, 2011
Taking advantage of the continental breakfast, we woke up and ate in front of the T.V. in the lobby of the Econolodge. Osama's face is all over the screen, and I think I might be alone in my adversity to celebrating death.
We pack up quickly, and soon, we're heading out of Pagosa Springs. 160 crosses Wolf Creek Pass, and soon we're in another high alpine plain. The mountains are gorgeous, and the blue sky tries to pretend it didn't just crap snow all over us yesterday.
We keep driving, and in Del Norte, we take 112 to 285, heading North. After Saguache (how in the hell do you pronounce that word?), we hit Poncha Springs, and before we know it, we're back on the road we took to Buena Vista. Up above the clouds rush in and out, letting loose rain and then sunshine.
We listen to music and talk about our new state. We agree that, as far as states go, it doesn't get much better than this. We think we might stay for a while. Plus. I'm dead sick of moving. We go through another lesson in Pimsleur, and as we pass Fairplay, I begin to fall asleep.
At Kenosha Pass, Joshua pulls over, and we go for a run up along the ridge. Birch trees line the path, and every once in a while, we get a view of the wide plain below. It's gorgeous.
We run up for half an hour, and then we run straight back down. At the trail head, we realize that we're at 10,000 feet. No wonder we feel so exhausted.
Back in the car, we drive for another hour and a half. Coming out of the mountains, we see Denver sprawled out before us. It's a little smoggy, but hey. The mountains, and all this - Buena Vista, Arkansas Valley, South Park - are less than three hours away. Once we get off the highway, we can't see smog anymore. Instead, we see our neighborhood. It's a nice place, and in front of our house, the tree is blooming. It smells sweet, and Oscar is ecstatic to be home. He runs to the front doorstep and turns around and around, jumping for joy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sa-watch.
ReplyDeleteEric believes that living in Colorado means that your children will either never leave or always return. He might be right.
You didn't go to Alamosa, the raison d'etre that you can drive around the state with "native" license plates. Oh, well, it's not going anywhere.
It sounds like a fabulous birthday trip. I am slightly (maybe more than slightly) envious.
You are not alone in your distaste for death, but blood-curdling cries of "USA! USA!" make for better television. There a lots of people out there who feel similarly. No great loss, glad it's over and behind us, cost us 1000s of lives and billions of dollars and a more divisive political landscape than anything since Vietnam . . . I'll keep my USA! chant for Olympic hockey games.
Hey, thanks for the picture-and-word postcards, El. It's great fun reading this.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're not alone. I feel the same bad taste that's come up several times in the past few days. I was reading a food blog post about a hummingbird cake yesterday, and came across this:
ReplyDelete"The simple act of Cake means celebration to me. And indeed, there's a lot to celebrate right now: May Day, the full-blown coming of spring and the imminent arrival of summer, my friend Kashy's birthday (happy birthday, Kashy!), the OBL news-- the list goes on. So much happiness to celebrate at the beginning of May!"
Is "the OBL news" really that happy for her? Ridiculous. I quit reading at that point.