Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Howdy from Lake City, Colorado. We arrived today at 5 p.m. after a few sightseeing side trips. We stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, fairly close to Alamosa. It’s not the largest but it is the highest sand dune in the U.S. Winds blow across the high-mountain valley picking up sand particles from a river plain that changed its course thousand of years ago. The mountain stopped the blowing sand, and the dunes were formed. A group of 20 French teenagers on tour also stopped to see the dunes. I have always loved listening to their language. They seemed very well behaved but I did notice some handholding and a few hugs. Ah, the French!
Something happened to me that never happened before when I got gas for the car this afternoon. I’m too embarrassed to discuss it now. Maybe when I’m a little older…
At
South Fork, we took a 25-mile side trip up a spectacular mountain road, crossing
the Continental Divide. There’s still a little snow in the mountains; some
of the cars were pulled over, and the passengers got out to walk in the snow.
Edith and I thought of our boys on trips such as these and could picture them
having an old-fashioned snowball fight and then lobbing a few at their dad. We
stopped at Treasure Falls and walked the 200-foot rise to the top. We recalled
our boy’s behavior on trips such as this and pictured them spitting off the
bridge at the top of the falls. I would like to report that these two boys are
now responsible young men who no longer would do such childish things. Yeah,
right!
We then drove about 80 miles to
Lake City, traveling along some of the most beautiful mountain scenery that we
have seen so far. Much of the road followed the Rio Grande River (the start of
the Rio Grande is only a short distance from Lake City). We saw lots of aspen
trees mixed with the pine and I pictured myself fishing the mountain streams. We
crossed the Continental Divide once more. A certain passenger was a little tired
and a little short-tempered and wanted to be finished with the driving and get
to the cabin, which we did in due course.
A small, friendly woman, who lives in El Paso during the winter months, checked us into our cabin. When we walked inside, Edith very politely told me that that the cabin was nice and that we would enjoy our two-week stay here. Her words were spoken like those of a stranger. You know, like when a friend tells you that that the food was “interesting” after they half-finish eating that special dish that you prepared for them. I’m sure that we’ll have a great time (hey, we’ve got cable)!
We ate supper in a little restaurant in town and had our first Coors Light beer. Edith had to keep her eye on the payphone outside to see when no one was using it so she could call her mom. I forgot to mention that although our cabin has cable (with TWO movie channels), it does not have a telephone. We are still not sure how we are going to send our email. Could the Information Superhighway have passed Lake City by?
It’s about 10 p.m. Wednesday evening and it started raining about 20 minutes ago. I love hearing the sound of rain falling on the roof of our cabin.
We plan to lay low tomorrow to get used to the altitude.
Goodbye for now,
Carl