Playing Catch-Up Again

I realize it's been about a week since I posted anything to our journal. We've been busy with work and with fun stuff, but that's no excuse. I'm finding out that after a week, the days begin to blur in my memory. It's especially hard to remember the small things that make travel (and life) so interesting. I'll try to do better.

The highlights of this past week have been a hike in the Carson NF, Lois' Birthday, our trip to see the Lindigs and work on the guest cabin.

On Tuesday, Lois and I drove a few miles up Taos Canyon from here and turned on an unpaved forest road. We wound up into the mountains for about seven miles to a broad meadow called Garcia Park. Although there was no altitude posted, it had to be between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. From here we hiked across the meadow and into the woods on a trail called the South Boundary Trail. We hiked for a couple of miles to another meadow called Paradise Park. We were completely alone on the trail, the weather was perfect and the forest was lovely. There was even a slight breeze stirring the aspen leaves. At one water hole, we did notice in the mud a sizable bear track that looked relatively fresh. We were glad we didn't encounter this guy on our hike.

On Wednesday, Lois celebrated a milestone birthday. I won't say which milestone, since, God willing, I'll be reaching the same one this fall. Tuesday afternoon Lois had visits from UPS and FedEx bringing greetings from Emily and Elizabeth. She also had picked out some shoes a few days earlier in town as her gift from me. I know that's not much of a romantic gift, but it's what she said that she wanted.

Thursday, we left early for our trip to Mancos, Colorado, to visit our friends Nicky and Trina Lindig.

The drive to Mancos was stunningly beautiful. After leaving Taos, you drive across the high bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge. Most of us picture the Rio Grande as a placid stream that forms the border between the U.S. and Mexico. In northern New Mexico, it is much more.

It's a mountain stream that has a carved a magnificent canyon. It was also site of the first whitewater raft trip that I took when I came to Taos with Lois in 1975.

After reaching the small town of Tres Piedras, the road rises from a high desert to an alpine landscape and continues to be a mountainous road all the way into Colorado through Pagosa Springs and Durango to Mancos. A highlight of our trip was a stop in the small town of Chama, NM, the origination of the Cumbres and Toltec narrow-guage railroad. The Cumbres and Toltec runs from Chama to Antonita, CO, and bills itself as Americas highest and longest narrow-guage railroad. (http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/) We happened to arrive in Chama just as the engine began its once-a-day trip to Antonita. We saw the smoke from the engine as we arrived in the little town, and followed the train to a crossing a few miles outside town where we were able to take some pictures and wave at the passengers. For thirty years, Lois and I have been saying that we were going to take a ride on the Cumbres and Toltec, but haven't done so because it's relatively expensive for a one-day outing. However, it's not getting any cheaper and we're not getting any younger so we've resolved to do it when we come back to Taos in September.

We arrived at the Lindigs in mid afternoon and were given a grand tour of Balcony House. Nicky, who was my boss when I worked at Grand Canyon, has been retired a little over a year. For several years before he retired, he and Trina worked on building their dream retirement home on a hill overlooking a lake outside the little town of Mancos. And what a wonderful place it is. I had seen the house shortly after it was completed, but had not seen it since they moved in permanently and completed the interior decoration. It's now a home that reflects Nicky and Trina's varied interests and talents and the life that they have lived. They christened their home "Balcony House" after the two full-length balconies across the back of the house and in recognition of the cliff dwellings at nearby Mesa Verde NP where Trina's father worked and where she spent much of her youth.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting on the upper balcony, chatting, reliving old times and catching up with what has been happening the last couple of years. After a delicious dinner, our talk and our laughter continued, as is usually the case when good friends get together. It's quite an unusual treat to be able to do this while at the same time enjoying one of the most spectacular views in the Southwest. Our conversations were interrupted a couple of times--once to look through a spotter scope at a bald eagle that had returned to its nest in a treetop down by the lake, and once to admire a double rainbow which developed over the mountains to the south.

After dark, we decided to send greetings to the exchange student who had lived with Nicky and Trina and with Lois and me while we were at Grand Canyon. After I consulted my camera's manual about how to take a time-delayed picture, we took a picture of ourselves and e-mailed it to "Earn", the young Thai girl who we all enjoyed so much when she was our "daughter".

The next morning, Nicky and I walked the grounds, he filled me in on all his landscaping plans, and he showed me his partially completed workshop. The workshop is huge and well designed. I jokingly told Nicky that if it doesn't work out as a workshop, he could use it as a skating rink. Nicky and Trina plan on using the workshop to commercially produce beautiful and functional bird feeders that Nicky designed and has built for friends and family for years. You can see one of the feeders in the foreground of the Balcony House picture.

The evening before, Trina found out that our friends Steve and Charlene Bone were at their cabin about 50 miles east of Nicky and Trina's. Steve was Chief Ranger at Grand Canyon, and he and I worked together on scores of human resources issues while I was there. Trina called them and asked if she and Nicky could drop by for a visit Friday afternoon. She didn't tell Steve that Lois and I would be coming. She left that for a surprise. So, a little before noon, we left in two cars headed toward Durango and Pagosa Springs. We stopped in downtown Durango and had a tasty lunch at Francisco's and stopped again at Home Depot to pick up a few supplies for the cabin and for Nicky's workshop. While there, we had the unexpected pleasure of running into Jacob Fillion, who is the Environmental Education Branch Chief at Grand Canyon. Jacob and his wife Mary Killeen also have a cabin in the area.

We left Durango in a major thunderstorm and drove most of the way to Steve and Charlene's cabin in heavy rain. Steve and Charlene had just opened their cabin for the summer the day before, but were still glad to see us and surprised that Lois and I came along with Nicky and Trina. We spent a couple of pleasant hours chatting with Steve, Charlene and their family. Then we had to say goodbye to all and head back to Taos, a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive.

The time spent with Nicky, Trina, Steve and Charlene was great. It is such a blessing to have worked at Grand Canyon when these dedicated and talented people also were there. Lois and I are so grateful that we are able to call them friends and look forward to being able to see more of them now that we are people of leisure.

On Saturday, I got up early and started laying carpet in our guest cabin, in preparation for the arrival of a king-sized bed, which our friends and neighbors Fred and Vicki Zutavern were getting rid of and asked if we could use. I finished a little after noon, and around three o'clock, Fred hauled the mattress and box springs down the hill on top of Vicki's mother's car. Fred and I muscled the mattress into the little cabin and it's now filling up most of the floor space. As soon as we get some king-sized linens, we'll have a bedroom with a private bath to accommodate visitors. So, journal readers take note, and let us know when you would like to come.

This morning, we attended church and picked up some groceries. This afternoon, I'll be installing some trim around some of the windows on the front of the cabin which have some water leakage problems.

The next couple of days, we'll be busy getting ready to leave for the rest of our road trip. We plan to leave here on Tuesday, spend the night at John and Ferne's in Santa Fe, return our rental car in Albuquerque on Wednesday and head west. We plan to spend one night on the road and then arrive at Grand Canyon on Thursday.

More later.