Oct 16-25 visit with Lucy

Wednesday, October 16
I left Stillwater at about 9:30 and drove without stopping to Hays, Kansas and the Holiday Inn Express at just about the midpoint of my trip. It’s about a five-hour drive. I got to the Holiday Inn about 3:00. It's a simple route: Hwy 51 (which runs east-west at the foot of our drive) west to I-35N (I-135/81 through Wichita) and then Hwy 70 all the way to Colorado. Boring driving.

This morning the road was filled with semis, several doubles and one UPS triple. Passenger cars were few and far between until I neared Wichita. They were re-striping the road on Hwy 70 in several long stretches in and near Wichita—it looked to me as though an amateur or a drunk was doing it as they were laying down a crooked narrow stripe, not the wide one used on expressways. [On the way home on the east lanes of Hwy 70, they had blacked out the narrow crooked stripe and painted a wide, straight white passing line. Maybe the crooked narrow ones helped them paint the regular white lines??]

Lots and lots of wind turbines, cattle, fields—both plowed and planted—and the occasional group of red sumac to catch the eye . . .. . . not to mention the numerous anti-abortion signs, crosses and church billboards. I think of Kansas as the “Holier than thou” state. It should be the motto on their license plates. According to the Internet, as of this Sept, 3rd (2019), Kansas bans the following books in their school systems:

• · The "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling

• · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• · Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

• · The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

• · Animal Farm by George Orwell

On August 21st this year, Jeff Zmuda, the newly installed acting secretary at the Kansas Department of Corrections eliminated a list of 7,000 books and other publications banned in the state’s prisons. Wonder what these books are.

I plan on getting to Isabelle Farm after 12:30 tomorrow and then, after visiting with Lucy and others who work at the farm, I will have some “down time” at the house until Lucy and Laura get home from their jobs.

Will report Friday’s adventures on this Mutha/Dauta adventure Friday evening. We are going to spend  Friday shopping and doing things around Lafayette and will begin the New Mexico portion of the adventure Saturday morning with a drive to and overnight in Taos.

Thursday, October 17

I left the Holiday Inn Express in Hays, Kansas about 9:30 central time; out on Hwy 70 for miles and miles—arrow straight, same scenery. Finally I stopped in Limon, CO, and ate an apple/pecan salad at Wendy’s. I had only about 100 miles to go. I lost an hour in here sometime as I passed from Central to Mountain time zone.

As soon as I crossed into Colorado, I expected to see mountains but saw only the same wind farms, vast fields, etc. that I’d seen in Kansas. I did not see the Rockies—far off in the distance—until I was about 35 miles from Denver.

Was tooling along Hwy 70 when the car spoke to me. Told me that I was low on gas and did I want directions to the nearest gas station. You bet I did. I was down to 26 miles. Car told me that the nearest station was only 0.7 miles away so I relaxed and breathed a bit easier. Had this inattention happened almost anywhere else on 70, I would have been in big trouble.

Lucy had directed me to come to Isabelle Farm before going to the house, so I pulled in there and met Natalie Conden, Lucy’s supervisor, and Erika, Pam, Connie and others of her co-workers. I drank a ginger water while waiting for Lucy to finish what she and her crew were working on and then she led me to her and Laura’s cute little cottage on Emma Street where we brought in my stuff and I was greeted loudly by dog Smiles and her cohort cats Cheech and Tigger. Below their portraits painted by Laura and Lucy in a "Paint Your Pet" art class they took several years ago.

Smiles really does "smile"--shows her front teeth when happy. She lost her left eye at an early age and gets along well without it; Lucy's male cat, Tigger, is a big cat and the ruler of the roost; and Laura's cat Cheech is getting on in years. She is darling and always daintily crosses her wrists when lying down (see below).

Lucy returned to work. Laura was still at work, so I settled in until Laura returned home. She has been under the gun and had just that day completed the paperwork for her certification for LPC— Licensed Professional Counselor. After both women had gotten home and had a breather, we dressed and went to the Taj Mahal II where we ordered much too much food. Carried home two large “doggie bags.”

Our waiter was tops and had an understated sense of humor. He reminded both Lucy and me of Shia LeBeouf in both looks and smile/tongue-in-cheek behavior. When I explained that I could not do the milk in the Chicken Marsala they served, he suggested coconut milk substitute. We all ordered, and when it came to Laura’s turn, she ordered something with milk in it. “Ahhh she does not want to share,” he said softly. Laura changed her order to something milkless. I ordered an appetizer of shish-kabobs and asked how many hoping that there were three so that we could each have one. ‘Shia’ told us that there was plenty for the three of us. When the shish-kabobs came, it was just a platter heaped with big pieces of meat and sauces. “No sticks?” I asked. “Many sticks, but outdoors,” ‘Shia’ replied with a small smile.

After returning home we played Rummikub, and here the stress that we’d all been experiencing lately came to a head when we got into an argument over the rules. We got into it. Later we apologized to each other for being so pig headed, but the spat ruined the evening.

FRIDAY, October 18

Lucy at Coal Creek Trail

After morning coffee, Laura went to the gym, and Lucy and I drove to the Coal Creek Trail for a walk; we collected dried milkweed, teasel, burs, switch grass etc. for a fall arrangement took photos of mushrooms, and looked for owls, kingfishers, and other birds that Lucy and Laura had seen here before. But it was not a birdy time of year and we saw only a red-shafted flicker, several mallards, a perched sharp-shinned hawk at trailside, a mouse that skittered into the trailside bushes, and a raccoon snugged up high in the V of a cottonwood. When we returned to the trailhead, the Health app on my phone told us that we had walked 3.3 miles, 8,915 steps. 

Shaggy Mane fungi also known as Lawyer’s Wig (Coprinus comatus) These mushrooms are white when young and considered a delicacy.

We returned to 314 Emma and ate a delicious lunch of butternut squash soup that Lucy had made from scratch, toast/crackers, olives, cheese, yellow grape tomatoes. Like Jeff, Lucy loves to cook.

After lunch Lucy and I went shopping for provisions for our stay in Taos and Santa Fe and also bought a few things for  the house. In a kitchen store I “accidentally” bought a couple of Christmas gifts. We went into a candy store but (fortunately) bought nothing. I really love Lafayette and Lewisville. Each has many original and interesting shops and restaurants and few franchises.

After we got back from shopping, we all took a nap or enjoyed a bit of “quiet time.” Because I had decided that Alaska was the last time I would tent, and because Lucy and Laura are avid tenters and hikers, I had brought in a rolling duffel, the tent, sleeping bag, air mattress and other camping things I had taken to Alaska. After “quiet time,” the two looked at the camping equipment and were thrilled to get it, especially the tent and 0-degree sleeping bag.

Both women worked on preparing dinner that night: grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, and Asian salad. Raspberry sorbet and Oreos for dessert.

The two have a smart TV, so after dinner I rented Green Book from Netflix. I had first seen it at Sarah’s. I brought the DVD home on loan and watched it again with Jeff. Really liked it. Lucy and Laura liked it also. When Don Shirley breaks down and says something like "If I am not white enough and if I am not Black enough, where do I fit?" it's a tearful moment.

SATURDAY, October 19

Lucy and I loaded the car and left Lafayette at about 8:30 am. It was 31ºF when we left and warmed to 57ºF in Taos, which is at 6,969 feet.

Lucy drove the first leg, and she “accidentally” drove Hwy 25 through Denver. This because I’d asked Siri for directions and my car and phone Bluetooth overrode the directions on Lucy’s phone, which did NOT include driving I-25 past Denver at rush hour. After a few false starts to adjust the directions we realized the problem and I turned off the Bluetooth. Nonetheless, Siri kept asking, “I have found a shorter route. Do you want to take it?” to get us back on I-25.

No, we did not want the shorter route. We were driving the scenic route on purpose. So, we traveled Hwy  I-25 to US-285 to Hwy 17 to US 285 again to Taos. On the first leg of 285, we drove through a beautiful valley between the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands, and the Gunnison National Forest with Mount Belford, Mount Harvard, Mount Princeton, and Mount Antero to our right. We had driven through this valley before when on our Durango/Silverton four-wheeler Mutha/Dauta vacation.

The mountains in Gunnison National Forest that were to our right; we stopped the car and I took this pic with my cell, but it was tiny and  looked poor until I enlarged it

Two women and lottsa coffee meant four stops for bathroom breaks:

• The first time, there was a sign on the door that said “Be back soon” Fifteen minutes later no one had returned and we were desperate, so we went around the corner of the building and found a jazz dance place. We climbed a flight of stairs and interrupted their routine by asking to use their restrooms. They were a little shocked, but obliging.

• The second time, we stopped, got gas and pulled up to and stopped at the main road, waiting to  turn right . . . and were rear-ended by a young guy exiting the gas station—did some damage to the rear bumper and the panel above it. Lucy took pix of the damage and of the guy’s insurance—State Farm like mine. He was very apologetic. I think that he got on his cell and probably was not paying attention. [I sit now with the Preliminary Auto Body estimate before me. It totals $3336.54. The back Lift Gate and Camera will have to be replaced as well the Rear Lamps and Rear Bumper. I am glad that is on his insurance policy.]

• The third bathroom stop was on Hwy 17. This straight as an arrow road goes on forever with nuttin’ on either side of the road. Lucy got on her cell and found that Granny’s Coffee shop was coming up in 5 or 10 miles. We stopped at Granny’s and I dashed to the bathroom ordering a cup of reg coffee and one of decaf in passing. This embarrassed Lucy, who was left standing at the counter with her mouth hanging open. The decaf had to be brewed so we had a bit of a wait.   
       A woman at the counter was friendly and said she lived just down the road (just 25 miles down the road we later joked) and stopped at Granny’s often. The young girl behind the counter was panicked because they were expecting a large group of 20. Huh? Where, why, and who in this small restaurant that was miles from nowhere? Maybe it was a tourist bus on the way to Great Sand Dunes National Park, a casino, or Taos or Santa Fe. Anyhow, the woman at the counter helped the young girl behind the counter set up some tables.
       The countertop was covered with pennies under glass and there was a small sign telling of an  1800s penny and other oddities to look for, including a Christmas tree shaped group of pennies with all of the owners’ and their children’s birthdates on them. I saw one of these "penny countertops" in Alaska and found it interesting. If I were to make one however, I would make it out of state quarters, silver dollars, or even bills of some denomination. Anyone want to donate hundred-dollar bills? Anyone?

• Our fourth and final bathroom stop before getting to our casita in Taos was at the Gorge Bridge. Here we found a clean restroom and then looked at the merchandise on the tables lined up along the parking area—jewelry, wood carvings, rocks/stones etc. a preview of what we would see in both Santa Fe and Taos. I collected a few fuzzy dried flowers (that didn't make the trip back to OK) and Lucy edged out onto the bridge and took a pic of the gorge 850 feet below.

Shortly after the Gorge Bridge we arrived in Taos. Curious I looked up the meaning of the name “Taos.” The Internet tells me that Taos “comes from the Spanish rendering of Tiwa, the name of the indigenous Pueblo people. An early Spanish settlement, Taos was the scene of the so-called Pueblo Rebellion (1680) against Spain. The Taos Trail was a branch of the Santa Fe Trail, and the town became an important trading center.”

We found our Airbnb, a stand-alone casita that had wonderful old-fashioned log-and-board ceiling and thick adobe walls. See photos right.

The casita was located close to restaurants etc. but a couple of miles from the Taos Plaza. We even had a new gas grill outside on a private patio, a very comfy king sized bed, full kitchen, and a smart TV, all for $100 a night.

Orlando's front door; Internet pic

After getting settled we consulted our cells and found that Orlando's was the best place to get southwest fare. It was just down the road so after dressing in fresher clothes for dinner, off we went. Orlando’s  had a too-small parking lot and  after we had finally squeezed the car in, we were told that the wait was from 30 to 45 minutes.

Outside, there was a circle of chairs around a fire for guests waiting to be seated. So, we sat down at the  fire with others who were waiting. Then we discovered that there were two other heated waiting sheds and both were packed with those who were also waiting to be seated. We decided to find another place. 

So, we got back in the car, carefully extracted ourselves from the tiny parking lot, and checked out two restaurants that were listed on the Internet. Both were thumbs down, so we returned to Orlando’s after about 35 or 40 minutes . . . and were told that there were only four ahead of us! Thank goodness they had not already given away our seats.

The counter where we ate; we were sitting across from each
other next to the lighted cookie thingamabob to the right

We ate at a counter with a view into the kitchen where they were washing dishes and into the area where two men were handling all orders. Wait staff were grabbing the plates from a counter. They had to place hotpads on their wrists and arms in order to carry the hot plates of food. The place was chaos for the wait- and kitchen staff, and while our meals were good, it was certainly not a relaxing time. I had soft blue-corn chicken tacos and Lucy had fajitas.

Back at the casita we each spent a leisurely evening—I typing this up and communicating with Jeff, and Lucy communicating with Laura.

After a very tiring day of driving, we were early to bed in the casita’s king-sized bed. Neither of us even knew the other was in the same bed.

Sunday, October 20

The Plaza and stores/restaurants in Taos did not open until noon on Sunday—something we were not prepared for—so we enjoyed a quick casita breakfast of oatmeal and dried cranberries, and then took off early for Santa Fe.

We stopped several times along the way for pix of the yellow cottonwoods, the river and the mountains, particularly along CO-17 which ran up the middle of the San Luis Valley between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the west.

I liked the cliffs to the right with the three deep green trees at the bottom of the rocks but the shade was on this side of the mountain and all I had was my cell, so it did not turn out well. The river is the Rio Grande and the area we stopped along the road was a swift water race course for kayakers

Rubber Rabbitbrush a species of Goldenbushes (Ericameria nauseosa) andPrickly Pear

On arrival in Santa Fe, we drove  immediately to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum, first finding parking at a nearby lot for $10 for the full day.

The museum, top left and some of O'Keeffe's paintings. The bottom right one is of NewYork's Lake George. From 1918 to 1934, O'Keeffe spent many summers at Alfred Stieglitz's family estate located just north of Lake George Village.

The museum was packed, as was all of Santa Fe. I guess it was tourists enjoying the last day of a weekend visit. My favorite O'Keeffe painting at the museum was one in which she viewed the moon through the circle of a animal pelvic bone.

After the museum, we walked around town and the Plaza. I bought a fresh ristra for Laura and Lucy but Lucy thought I was buying it for me. The two of us bought a couple of  $2 bobbleheads, mine a beetle. I now have a bobblehead collection from all of my travels in the states, Mexico, and south America. 

Part of my bobblehead collection photographed on our scarred, pine, trestle table: five turtles, two armadillos, and my newest in the center, a bug with the requisite six legs. They are handmade of Tejoruco seed pods.

Cafe Pasqual's

We stopped at  Café Pasqual’s on the corner of Don Gaspar Avenue and East Water Street thinking to have lunch there. The wait was well over an hour so we decided to have breakfast there the following morning. The host told us that they took no breakfast reservations and warned us to get there before they opened at 8:00 because the restaurant filled quickly.

This was my fifth visit to Santa Fe, and I especially wanted to have Pasqual’s fried corn meal mush, something I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve been in Santa Fe and something we Schuyler kids enjoyed occasionally while growing up . . . but I was told that it was a specialty dish that they weren’t presently offering. They did have grilled polenta on the menu however, so I decided that I’d try that the next morning at breakfast.

Across from Pasqual’s on the opposite corner is a store called Doodlet’s. On previous visits to Santa Fe we had shopped in Doodlet’s because it sold kitchenware and interesting things, but on this visit it was crammed with cheap, touristy, uninteresting things.

Continuing our sightseeing, Lucy and I walked the length of the Palace of the Governors, looking at the wares offered by the Native Americans there. Soon with all the walking I was puffing and panting. I began to worry about my health, but when we got home Laura reminded me that I was at 7,200 feet. Whew. I’m glad it was only the altitude, and not my heart or age.

Palace of the Governors

During our window shopping we stopped in many art stores before which I took the photos below of Lucy and the lolling cats.

And in some of these art stores, I took the pix below.

We stopped at a Baskin Robbins on the plaza: coffee for Lucy and a sorbet cone for me. In the Baskin Robbins, a very old lady, who wore a babushka and looked exactly like a witch, slumped in one booth and a raggedy homeless man came in and emptied the trash for a coffee. I briefly wondered if these two were Halloween tricksters but apparently they were for real.

Since all of the lunch spots were packed, we ended up eating a noodle bowl in a restaurant in a small mall off the Plaza. Lucy at the noodle place below.

Tired from our drive, museum tour, and walk about Santa Fe, we drove to our casita at 4:00, the earliest check-in. This Airbnb was about two miles out of town. It was not as “authentic” as our Taos casita but quite nice.

We found that the casita had a smart TV with Netflix on it, so we relaxed and watched Room an odd tale of a woman who is kidnapped, repeatedly raped by her kidnapper, and imprisoned in a garden shed. She has a baby who knows nothing about the world but the small room in the garden shed until he is five and they manage to escape.

We were both tired after so much driving, so Lucy went to a grocery, bought a few things, and made a delicious dinner of chicken/chicken and rice, and a salad with avocado and yellow grape tomatoes. We ate on the couch whilst watching Room.

Early bed as we knew we’d have to get up early to beat the crowds for breakfast at Café Pasqual’s.

Monday, October 21

Lucy waiting for breakfast at Cafe Pasqual's

Finally, breakfast at Pasqual’s. We parked on the street for $2.00 as opposed to $15.00 at one lot and $7 at another with no leave-and-return.

We got to Pasqual's just as the doors opened and in time to jump onto the tail of a long line of waiting people. Lucy had smoked salmon hash/poached eggs, and I had regular hash/poached eggs with a side of grilled polenta. We ordered but had a long wait for our meals because we had entered at the tail of the crowd. Our waiter kept our coffee mugs topped up and we drank copious amounts of decaf and reg coffee while waiting.

After breakfast we drove to Santa Fe Toyota as our low-tire light kept coming on; guy there put air in my tires, which are filled with nitrogen. The low-tire light went off and all was well again.Probably on because of the altitude and cold air.

From the Toyota place we drove to the Harrell House Bug Museum, something much more interesting to Lucy and to me than shopping. The museum was in Santa Fe’s DeVargas Center. Entry fee was $7 and we had access to a flashlight to see into the exhibits better. Near the scorpion exhibit was a black-light flashlight and each of the scorpion species glowed under it.

The museum is owned by Wade Harrell, a former Santa Fe chef and a lover of insects since boyhood, and Oliver Greer. Harrell shows and gives names to his living specimens. Greer collects and mounts dead ones. Harrell collected our entrance fee and answered our many questions. Before we left he asked if we’d like to hold a specimen. We politely declined unlike the man pictured left who held a tarantula.

The museum featured Greer's amazing Crawlywood Collection of more than 5000 mounted insects from around the world, including gigantic specimens and extremely rare creatures. These exhibits were huge and the specimens were placed to almost resemble modern art.

A small section of a large exhibit of pinned insects.

The museum is reviewed online by one who had been there: The "Best bug museum in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe region. It’s at a weird location next to Ross’s Dress for Less but still a respectable exhibit. I was impressed by their pinned insect collection. Their dedication and technique is unbelievable. Even to the tiniest mites. It was also quite enjoyable to see their two axolotls in person, one of them aptly named ‘Toothless’.”

The museum had several tailless whip scorpions but none as gigantic as the one I saw in Ecuador. . . on the wall of the jungle outhouse. Yeeeecch! Also the museum contained many pinned and living insects and a couple of non-insects such as an Asian Water Monitor, second largest lizard after the Komodo Dragon. The Water Monitor was quite active and liked to periodically bathe in its water trough and then climb up a log in its enclosure. Also many amphibians: red eared sliders, poison dart and other frogs, small lizards, and, of course the Axolotls. Tubs of tarantulas, suitcases of  spiders both live and pinned, bushels of pinned butterflies, wads of pinned walking sticks, milkcrates of pinned moths, and barrels of pinned and live beetles, not to mention crocks of live cockroach species from all over the world. We passed these last with only a brief glance.

Gecko--can't remember its name or species

Pink-kneed Mexican Tarantula

The two of us spent several hours at the Bug Museum which, as the review above attests, was in an odd location in the back left quarter of a huge Traveller’s Market—sort of like an antiques mall with various vendors’ things but this was vendors’ booths from different countries—Africa, India, Thailand, Nigeria, etc. I bought three Nigerian greeting cards and a small intricately painted wooden cat at the Traveller’s Market.

After our insect and Traveller’s Market experience, we stopped at an adjacent Subway shop and bought a foot-long turkey subway sandwich on whole wheat. We had them cut it in half, and returned to the casita to eat it while watching only a small part of two awful movies—Walking Out and The Laundromat. Eventually we threw the movies over and took naps. Why Meryl Streep agreed to act in the Laundromat I don't know.

After our naps, Lucy worked on her felting and I tapped out notes on this computer. Then we decided to simply take the evening off and not spend a further fortune on an expensive restaurant meal. So, we drove to a Wendy’s and I bought a large apple/pecan salad and Lucy bought a Caesar salad. She ate it and the leftover chicken and rice from the night before.

We returned and found a movie called Red Sea Diving Resort, a movie “loosely based on the events of Operation Moses and Operation Joshua (jointly referred to as Operation Brothers), in which Ethiopian Jews were covertly moved from refugee camps in Sudan to Israel during the 1980s. The actual abandoned resort, the Arous Holiday Village on the Red Sea, was located roughly 70 kilometers from Port Sudan and was managed by Mossad operatives until 1985. The existence of these operations was first revealed in Gad Shimron’s 1998 book Mossad Exodus: The Daring Undercover Rescue of the Lost Jewish Tribe, though the film is not associated with the book.“

Though the movie was panned: “The astonishing story of a real-life rescue mission of Ethiopian Jews by Israeli Mossad agents, this liberally fictionalized Netflix thriller plays the ‘white savior complex’ to shameful extremes,” Lucy and I found the movie not particularly well acted but tense and quite interesting.

After the movie, we packed up our things to be ready for an early exit the next morning.

Tuesday, October 22

After a quick breakfast of oatmeal and dried cranberries, we packed the car and set off for Taos with me driving. We had arrived in Taos late on a Saturday night. Sunday all was closed until noon, so we really had seen little of it and wanted to stroll the plaza and do some window shopping, in this town where Lucy’s partner, Laura, had once lived.

Hotel La Fonda in the Taos Plaza and some lights in one of the plaza stores. They were very artful and interesting. 

Just this side of Taos we found a typical roadside shop for this area—Casa Cristal Pottery—selling painted tin cacti; rusty roadrunners; a whole life-sized painted, stylized tin band; rusty yettis; zillions of urns; gadzillions of kachinas and glassware; and . . . the painted Mexican tiles we had looked for to no avail in Santa Fe. Here we each bought some tiles. I bought our house number (left) but there were no frames to fit these tiles so I plan on making a frame when I get home. 

A fraction of the wares at Casa Cristal Pottery

After this stop we arrived in Taos where we each got a cup of coffee. I put mine in the car for our later car trip home but eventually threw it out. Horrible tasting decaf! We walked the Taos plaza (see below) visiting its many stores. Compared to Santa Fe, the place was nearly empty when we arrived, but filled up rapidly.

The two of us quickly grew tired of seeing the same turquoise and silver jewelry; artfully painted and very expensive urns and vases of all sizes, many of them Zuni; shells, rocks, fossils, red pepper ristras, kachina dolls, story teller figurines, etc. so decided to hit the road and return to Lafayette early. Ha!

I had driven the winding mountainous road to Taos and now drove over the 850-foot-high Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos so that Lucy could look down and get a bird’s eye view. Built in 1965, it is the fifth highest bridge in the U.S. The first highest is the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado at 955 feet. The Royal Gorge bridge spans the Arkansas River, which just so happens to flow through the northeast corner of Oklahoma and through Tulsa. 

On the way to Taos we had stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge but we were both acrophobic about walking out on the bridge, which was crowded with people and shook when cars and trucks crossed it. This time, on the way home, after driving across the bridge, I stopped and Lucy took over the driving on nearly arrow-straight Highways 285 and 17.

On the way to Taos we had promised ourselves that we would stop at Great Sand Dunes National Park in the Sangre de Cristo Range on the way home, so when on CO-17, we could see the dunes in the distance at the foot of the mountains, we hung a right and drove for about 15 miles. Lucy was sure we had made a wrong turn because she didn’t think the mountains and dunes we could see in the distance were 15 miles away . . . but distances are very deceptive in these valleys between mountains.

I had stopped in this NP on my way to California and Sarah’s in 2011, and remembered these dunes as being very beautiful, high (some 750 feet tall), and interesting. Lucy was impressed, too. We walked a distance toward the highest dunes—a true calf and ankle exercise—looking at the many animal and insect tracks on the sand and at the ripples in the sand created by the wind. We picked up a few stones and water washed sticks. In the spring during snow melt, the wide and shallow Medano Creek runs before the dunes. The creek’s peak flow runs late May to early June. From July through April, the creek is usually no more than a few inches deep, if there is any water at all, and in the fall, when Lucy and I were there, the creek is dry.

Though I wish they were mine, this pic and the one below with the man on the crest of a dune are Internet pics. The cottonwood trees were yellow, not orange when we were there.

Ravens flew the skies above and rested in the leafless trees along the edge of the creek area, their tracks everywhere in the sand (right).

The best shot I could get with the cell of a raven and a shot of a raven's tracks in the sand

When we exited the Park, it was 1:30 or so and we had already driven about 175 miles, so when leaving the dunes we both said that we craved a hamburger and something to drink. Now, though US-50, “The Backbone of America,” stretches from coast to coast and the stretch of it in Nevada is called “The Loneliest Road in America,” Highway 17 in Colorado might also deserve this “Loneliest Road” designation. For most of its miles CO-17 is stick straight and there is very little in the way of amenities on it.
     Our hamburger craving grew mile after mile. We stopped for gas and asked the attendant if the little restaurant next door sold hamburgers. “Yes, and very good ones . . . but it closes at 3:00.” It was 2:59. By the time we hit Hwy 285 again, it was getting dark and hilly. Not a single hamburger joint, or any place to eat, had we found. 

     To avoid I-25 through Denver, we headed up Hwy 285 to Golden. We could have found a hamburger in Golden but did not feel to drive the crowded roads into it, so we circumvented Golden on Hwy 93 . . . no hamburger or other restaurant. By this time, it was after 7:00 pm, we had been in the car 7 hours, and we decided to push the remaining 26 miles and eat at the Wendy’s in Lafayette, which we did. Ahhhhh, finally. Both of us had the car trembles after being on the road for so long.

I fell into bed that night sometime after 8:00 and did not awaken until 6:30 am. Rare for me as I generally have to get up several times a night. Lucy said I was out and snoring before she and Laura hit the sack.

Wednesday, October 23

Spent most of the day with Laura, Smiles, Tigger, and Chich, and most of that on the computer trying to catch up on the news and my reports. I started this mutha/dauta report on the road before I’d finished the report on my Texas birding trip that ended only three days before the beginning of our mutha/dauta. My TX birding report is still in the works. Though I had the keys to the house and could have walked into town during the morning when Laura was at the gym and shopping, it was bitter cold and windy and I felt to do nothing more than rest and recover from all the driving and walking we’d been doing.

Laura had gone grocery shopping that morning, so made a delicious dinner of baked salmon, baked cauliflower, and a chopped salad. When Lucy arrived home from work at 6:30, we three enjoyed this dinner. After dinner we cleaned up the dishes and then played several games of Rummikub, this time a fun endeavor. Lucy and Laura liked the Charley Harper “Birducopia” jigsaw I’d given them last year for Christmas, so put another good one by Harper on their Christmas 2019 wish list. . . even loaned me the original because it was such fun to work. If I can find a large enough hole in my schedule I will set it up. And who knows what Santa will find in the Charley Harper puzzle world? He (Charley, not Santa) is most famous for his birds.

Thursday, October 24

It snowed four inches in the night, but it was a wet snow that did not stick to the roads. L&L have a large backyard that ends at an alley, and because the street in front of their cottage is narrow and car lined, they park at the edge of their property off this alley. Lucy braved the weather (morning temperature 21ºF) and managed to transfer stuff from her car to mine, defrost the front and back windows, and drive the car around front for loading. We loaded and loaded. Anyone would think I had been visiting for several weeks, but I needed all of the dried weeds we had picked, the Christmas and other gifts I had bought, and the pumpkins (future spiced pumpkin) and Hubbard squash Lucy was sending to Jeff. Lucy read some instructions she had found on the Internet for preparing a Hubbard 
squash. It instruct-
ed the user to place the squash in a bag and to drop it on a hard surface rather than cutting or stabbing oneself while trying to pierce its hard skin. We plan on doing the squash drop after Jeff’s wrist has healed (he is now in a hard cast after they found mild infection). He needs both hands to make pie crust and do a lot of slicing, chopping, pot lifting and cooking.

After loading the car, I programmed my phone for Hayes, Kansas and started off about 9:00, after saying goodbye to L&L. Lucy had to be at work at 9:30 and Laura was set for a day off. Just before getting on I-25, I stopped at a gas station, filled the tank, and took about 15 minutes to brush all the snow from the hood, mirrors, lights, and rear of the car. I figured the pile on top of the car would blow off. Then I drove endless Hwy 70 to Hays, KS, again. There was snow on both sides of road for first 70 miles or so and then wind, and eventually rain.

I again spent the night in the Holiday Inn Express in Hays, KS. Ordered a small pizza from a local place. The guy who took my order was beyond rude, but I managed to get him to take the order. When it was delivered to my room, I wondered whether the delivery guy was the same guy who took the order, but not wanting to create a stir, I tipped him anyway.

Talked with Jeff, texted Lucy, and talked with Sarah twice before taking a long, hot shower. Then I wrote up the day’s notes — sky sky sky; wind turbines, wind turbines, wind turbines; drive, drive, drive; grain silos, grain silos, grain silos; grain train, grain train, grain train—and hit the sack about 9:00 pm.

Friday, October 25

Long day of driving, particularly with sun in my eyes in the early morning. Just before Wichita the sky looked eerie. See below.

Top left pic from the internet just to show boring CO-70 stretching to the horizon. top right pic I shot from the car north of Wichita when the sky was weird. Of course with my cell pic you cannot see the forming wall cloud and the patches of light streaming from it. The two bottom photos show empty highway, cloud-filled sky. It was snowy or rainy all day and very windy near Wichita.

I stopped three times each day for gas when the tank got down to 100 miles or close to it because there are few places to get gas and I did not want the car to talk to me as it did on the drive out.

Got home about just after noon at 12:30. It was raining hard at the Stillwater exit from I-35.

And so ends the saga of Susan and Lucy’s fifth Mutha/Dauta adventure: 
1) Silver Dollar City, Missouri 
2) Heifer International, Arkansas 
3) Weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma
4) Durango/Silverton/Mesa Verde, Colorado 
5) Taos/Santa Fe, New Mexico