Monday, January 02, 2006
Summary
Trailer miles 3,223; Truck miles 10,287
Parking $1463.01; Gas $2626.06
Parking $1463.01; Gas $2626.06
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Canyon Vistas RV Resort, Apache Junction, AZ - Dec 27-31
This is a Passport America park right next to Gold Canyon, and owned by the same company. Even at half price, it's more than we're used to paying, but it gave a chance to spend more time with P&D without having to drive very far. The short-term spaces are nearest to the highway, and they gave us the corner spot between the Dumpster and a security light, which we initially disliked, but it actually turned out to be nice & secluded, with lots of birds and a great view of the sunset. We even had a coyote pass by one evening.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Gold Canyon RV Resort, Apache Junction, AZ - Dec 20-26
By 12/20 we were both barely recovered enough to drive here. Our friends Pat & Dennis are work-camping here, and we found a coupon letting us stay a week for $10/night, so we jumped at the chance. We had been here once before, also with a coupon, since the regular rate is far to rich for our pocketbook. The park is one of the nicest we have stayed at, with large spaces, low-level lighting, pool, spa, even a small 9-hole par-3 course. 12/21 is P&D's anniversary, so a concert was on the program for the day after our arrival. Unfortunately, Willie was in no way well enough to go, so we went as a threesome and got a rain-check for Willie's ticket. The concert was only so-so anyway, rating only about a 5 on the ubiquitous 1 to 10.
Time spent with P&D is usually pretty special, and this was no exception. We all enjoyed eating, playing cards, and just being together. We also found time to play some duplicate bridge when they were working. We did well in general at our duplicate playing in Mesa, and we found the club to be as friendly as we remembered from last year. We were also able to get together twice with a bridge-playing couple we met at Chaco last May, who live in Mesa in the winter.Monday, December 19, 2005
Madison Driveway, Tucson, AZ - Dec 12-19
We attended three nice concerts while in and near Tucson. First was a Holiday Card to Tucson from the University of Arizona School of Music, an excellent free concert at St Augustine Cathedral, a truly gorgeous setting which, next to San Xavier del Bac, is the most recognized church in the area. Also, a concert by the all-male Reveille Tucson GMC. Just thinking how wonderfully the voices blended in traditional and less-well-known carols gives me goose-bumps. Lastly, a free concert at the University by the U of A Chamber Orchestra and Symphonic Choir. 
This got off to a strange start when, after the orchestra was seated and tuned, someone noticed the soloist for the opening work was ... incapacitated? missing? unable to perform for some reason at any rate, necessitating a complete rearrangement of the stage for what was the second work. The soloist was eventually found and able to perform (remarkably well) at the end, as a quasi-encore.
At the end of October, Doug's dad Gayle drove out to California to visit with JoAnn, his college sweetheart. They had been having a relationship by phone for about 15 years, and the reunion was so successful that she arranged to fly to Tucson. 
Unfortunately, her visit coincided with the flu epidemic in Arizona, which we both got in spite of both having had shots a month earlier, as well as Gayle (who also had a flu shot) and, thankfully to a lesser extent, JoAnn. Doug was practically unconscious for 36 hours, coming to just in time to try taking care of now-sick Willie. We still haven't fully recovered, with the flu hanging on as a maddening tickle-cough.Sunday, December 11, 2005
SKP Saguaro Co-op, Benson, AZ - Oct 22-Dec 11
We timed our arrival here to allow us to settle in a bit before flying from Tucson to Mississippi to visit Willie's mom for a surprise on her 86th birthday. Ann was delightfully surprised, and we were glad we could be there to make her so happy. We had several good meals at the home where she lives. It is a wonderful place, and it was nice to see how well she is doing there. When we left her there last November, she was the only resident. Now they are almost full. We were able to visit with several other relatives and friends who live in the area.
Another nice thing about being here is being able to visit Doug's dad in Tucson fairly often. He is doing well, and we enjoy visiting with him a lot. We brought a lot of things from storage in our friends' basement in Boulder to put in our casita (shed) here, and it has been nice to get things somewhat organized. Doug brought back his digital piano, and he has enjoyed playing it here.Friday, October 21, 2005
Coachlight RV Park, Las Cruces, NM - Oct 20-21
We were able to meet up with our friend Jessica here. She is the one who was studying elk at Chaco. She is about to finish up her master's degree, and won't be in Las Cruces much longer. We spent a great evening with her, and hope to be able to attend her Master's defense next spring. We also were able to visit with friends Paul & Stephanie Bernhagen, who have decided to give up the full-time RVing life and build a house in Las Cruces. In between visits with friends, we were able to get in an afternoon of bridge at the local duplicate club, where we met some more nice people.Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Guadalupe Mountains Natl Park, TX - Oct 18-19
This is a place we have always wanted to visit, and now it's a place we will always enjoy returning to. It has wonderful & interesting hiking trails and some long scenic drives. The RV camping is a paved asphalt area (tent camping is more attractive), but the views are spectacular. The area has been described as "the most beautiful in Texas" and we have no argument with that statement. 
The Guadalupe Mtns are remnants of an ancient 400-mile-long, horseshoe-shaped marine fossil reef, the largest in the world, which also forms Carlsbad Caverns, as well as the Apache and Glass Mtns in Texas.An afternoon hike the day we arrived took us past the Visitor Center, along an informative Nature Trail to "The Pinery", ruins of a Butterfield Stage station.
The next day we took an all-day hike to Devil's Hall, a tall, narrow cut in the rock with straight vertical sides. The scenery and vegetation along the way were spectacular, and as an added bonus we saw a number of rufous-crowned sparrows -- a lifer for both of us. 
The canyon in which we hiked most of the way had many oaks and maples that were just starting to turn lovely fall colors.
Monday, October 17, 2005
SKP The Ranch Co-op, Lakewood, NM - Oct 10-17
This is another SKP co-op, located about 25 mi north of Carlsbad, NM. Some find the area "desolate", but we find it quite attractive with "a lot of sky" as they say. There is currently a low-lighting policy, so it is a good place for stargazing. If we spend more time here in the future we may buy a decent-sized telescope to enjoy some deep-sky viewing.
It's a fairly small co-op, and is very friendly. Our good friends Fred & Linda have a lot here, so the main purpose of the visit was to see them. We enjoyed the co-op so much in general that we put our names and a deposit down for a lot there. When we get the lot (which will probably be in the spring of 2006), we will still keep the Benson co-op lot and visit each one whenever we can. Someday we may decide to give one up, but there's no hurry. It's not expensive to have them and let them be in the rental pool for others to enjoy. We attended lots of social events in the 8 days were here. This place is big on group meals and has some great restaurants to choose from.Sunday, October 09, 2005
Cactus RV Park, Tucumcari, NM - Oct 7-9
The stop here was planned in order to meet up with friends Dave & Diane West. They were traveling east to work for Hickory Farms in Texas for the holiday season, and we were traveling west to AZ. It was a convenient place to meet. Other than that, we can't say much about Tucumcari. Its only claim to fame seems to be that old Route 66 used to run through it. All the cheesy, tacky motels & restaurants that once lined Route 66 have fallen into such disrepair that they no longer have any appeal, except perhaps for the most diehard 66er. The town itself never regained whatever it had at the heyday of Route 66 travel. We had a great time visiting, eating & playing cribbage with Dave & Diane though.Thursday, October 06, 2005
Boca Grande RV Park, Springfield, CO - Oct 6
Paying $17 to park in an empty field with full hookups is too expensive as far as we're concerned, but it was the only place in town. We chose to stop here so our trip to Tucumcari the next day would be under 200 miles. In retrospect, it would have been better to park for free at places near Lamar and have a longer drive!! Springfield has an equinox festival with trips to some nearby rock art with an equinox marker in September.Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Shady Grove Campground, Seibert, CO - Oct 4-5
This is a small Passport America park, located about 160 miles east and a bit south of Longmont. Our task here is to get the batteries well charged up, dump all that saved-up black and gray water, eat up some of the leftovers in our refrigerator, and maybe catch up on some emails.We will continue south, with stops in Springfield, CO; Tucumcari, Fort Sumner, Lakewood, Alamogordo, and Las Cruces, NM; and Fort Willcox, AZ. We'll reach the co-op in Benson around 10/24 and stay there about a month. After that, our plans are uncertain. We could stay longer at Benson, visit the Apache Junction area, or even travel to western AZ and eastern CA.
The cats don't seem too upset to be traveling again. They had good results from their annual exams. Rainbow had lost too much weight but seems to be gaining some now that she is on prednisone and having "snacks" of raw liver.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Leaving St Vrain State Park - Oct 3
We made it! We survived over 6 weeks of being "off the grid" (no water or electric hookups), using only electricity generated by our solar panels and water measured in the scores of gallons. We were campground hosts here in order to have a free parking space while visiting our friends in the area. They had no hookups for the hosts, since the park was under construction. When we were offered the position last year, and even as late as June of this year, they thought construction would be well enough along that we would have full hookups, but by the time we left Chaco it was obvious to them that we would not have any. The good side of this was that we only had to work a total of 20 hours per week. The down side was that the weather was "unseasonably warm" (ie 90s and high 80s) for most of our stay, and we cannot run our air conditioner on the power generated by our solar panels. We were able to use the nearby pit toilets and take showers at the office. Thanks to our friends who let us do laundry and take showers at their houses, too!! That sure helped a lot.
The park is fairly attractive but way too close to I-25. After the first 4 weeks, they closed the east campground where we were staying, and we had to move to the north campground -- even closer to I-25. The average camper at this park is a smoking, beer-drinking fisherperson, who throws all trash onto the ground or into the fire pit. Hopefully, when the park is remodeled with electric sites that are more geared for RVs, this will improve. When the weather cooled off and there were more RVers, there seemed to be a lot less trash to clean up.
It was good that we only had to work the 20 hours (which amounted to 2 hrs/day each for 5 days), since we were quite busy with our usual mad social whirl! It was very fun and very exhausting. We were able to see almost everyone we had hoped to see. The time flew by. Next time we'll try to stay even longer so we can visit the people we missed this time through.We played bridge with many friends and had great times doing it. There was also a lot of great talking and eating along with the bridge games.
Birding seemed to be bad throughout the area during the time we were there. We went out several times with friends Bill & Becky Eeds and also with the Boulder Bird Club. Luckily, almost every trip ended with an outing to a nice restaurant, so that made up for the bad birding. Two new Cajun restaurants in Longmont were discovered and enjoyed.We hardly ever go to movies in the theater, but we went to two here. The first was "March of the Penguins", a documentary of a year in the breeding cycle of penguins in Antarctica. It had wonderful footage of both the penguins and the scenery. The second movie was the opening day of "Serenity", a continuation of a cancelled TV show that we had enjoyed very much. We loved the movie and hope that it will either cause the series to be brought back on TV or a sequel movie.
Our most unusual activity was to "extra" in a movie being shot in the Denver area, called "Looking for Sunday" (look it up on the web). It may never be released, but if it is, you can bet we'll be there looking for ourselves in the various scenes. Sometimes we were just members of crowd scenes, but several times we got major walk-throughs or to wait in line in back of or next to the female lead. The most "famous" person in this film was Orlando Jones, most noted for his role in a Seven-Up commercial (wearing a T-shirt that says "Make Seven" on the front and "Up Yours" on the back). The shoot was actually in Loveland at a dog track. Earlier in the week our friends Mark & Susan noticed some of the streets near Susan's work in Denver were closed off, so Susan did some research & found that they were shooting this movie, and that they needed a bunch of extras Friday night in Loveland. So the 4 of us drove up & signed up -- there were quite a few college students from U of Northern Colorado there, dressed in jeans & t-shirts, plus a few young & not so young aspiring female actresses with various body parts hanging out. Doug wore his Hawaiian shirt. When the movie is released he plans to write Roger Ebert and ask who that guy in the Hawaiian shirt was. None of us had any speaking (or noise of any kind) parts, of course, since that would require $$ and listing in the credits. We didn't get out until just after 4am, and felt lucky to get out that early, since they had announced that they were expecting to shoot until 6 am. Most of the students had left by then -- they held raffles after each scene was finished to try to entice people to stay, but it didn't work too well -- mostly it was just an indicator of how many people were leaving, as it would take more & more attempts before they got a winner -- by the end they would have to draw 5 or 6 tickets before they would hit one who was still there. What was surprising to us was how disorganized it all seemed, and how little footage they actually seemed to film. This felt like a central part of the film, but they wound up with 5 or 6 scenes, each only a minute or two. We figure they can use those to splice in as fillers between scenes filmed elsewhere with just the stars. Weird.
A professor at CU who has done work at Chaco, Kim Malville, gave a talk on "Astronomy of the Ancient Puebloans" at Fiske Planetarium in Boulder. It was good, but not great. The main point we learned was that the rangers at Chaco once smuggled a cardboard Elvis into Casa Rinconada one summer solstice. Most of his material we had heard often (and better) at Chaco. We talked to him afterwards, but since we didn't seem to be in his clique, he wasn't very responsive. When we told him we volunteered at Chaco he said "Like what? Campground hosts?" the same as one might say "Like what? Slime mold?" When we said we were friends of GB he said "Well, everyone's friends with GB." All in all not a warm & fuzzy person. Willie was especially disappointed that they couldn't re-create what the supernova of 1054 looked like. They could create the shift in constellations but not the actual supernova.
In order to be able to play music while at the co-op in Benson, we are taking Doug's digital piano (full-sized keyboard with stand) and Willie's violin back to AZ in the trailer. It's amazing that the piano is tucked in with only a bit of inconvenience. Willie got to play quartets with her chamber music friends twice and enjoyed it a lot. She hopes to find a chamber group in Benson. Doug will be playing in a 5-piano concert on 11/19 at the co-op.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
St. Vrain State Park, Longmont, Co - Aug 20-Oct 3
So now we're here!! The park is under massive construction, revamping the campground and adding electric and nearby water to all the sites, plus making them generally more attractive, with concrete pads and shade shelters. When we first agreed to try our hand at being hosts here, they were sure they would have a full hookup site available by mid-August, so we planned accordingly. As construction often goes, they are quite far behind schedule, so we will have no hookups for the entire time we are here. The good news is that they have a shower & laundry we can use in their hq building & the pit toilets are still open. We have an attractive site and will be "roughing it" for the next 6 weeks. If we make it, this will be the longest we have used solar only. We can't run our air conditioner on solar, so we are hoping that it continues to cool off. The cats like it hot, so they aren't complaining. In fact, they are glad we are in one spot again for a while. Wait till they learn they have to visit the vet for their annual checkups here!! Friday, August 19, 2005
The Junction RV Park, Ordway, CO - Aug 18-19
We found this RV park by calling the Ordway Chamber of Commerce. It is located behind a service station at the intersection of CO 71 and CO 96 in Ordway (which, we suspect, IS the Ordway C of C). With lots of trees and good-sized sites, it's a great place if you need to stop in this area. Sure beats the KOA in La Junta for price! There were two reasons for this stop, one being we needed a stop no more than 200 miles from St Vrain State Park in Longmont (our actual destination) that was not on I-25. We don't like traveling the interstate through Pueblo, CO Springs & Denver, preferring the route north via the plains to Limon, then I-70 to Bennett, and to Longmont via CO 79 and CO 52. This is much less stressful on driver, navigator and cats!
Bent's Old Fort in La Junta was the second reason for this stop. We had read of it often but had never been able to visit. Bent's Old Fort was basically a fortified trading post, built by Charles & William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain on the Santa Fe Trail near a ford across the Arkansas River, the boundary between the US and Mexico at that time. It was built and located to take advantage of trapping, hunting and various trade routes. It was the only place between Independence, MO, and Santa Fe, NM, where travellers could refresh themselves and their livestock, repair wagons and replenish supplies. The old fort was active until 1849, when it is thought that William tried to burn it. He constructed Bent's New Fort about 40 miles downriver in 1853. In 1920, the DAR was given 4.5 acres that contained the fort ruins and erected an archway near the site's entrance. In 1954 the State of CO purchased the land for the CO Historical Society, and in 1960 Bent's Old Fort was designated a national historic site. After much research into the old fort, reconstruction began on May 27, 1975 using a custom built machine capable of producing 4,000 adobe bricks per day, creating a total of 160,000 bricks, each measuring 4x9x18 inches. The site was completed and opened to the public on July 25, 1976, just in time for the Colorado centennial. When touring the fort, there are costumed docents to answer questions and give guided tours.The town of Rocky Ford, famous for producing cantaloupes, is located between Ordway and La Junta. We found many stands open and were able to purchase a freshly picked delicious cantaloupe. Unfortunately, it was enjoyed by only Willie, since Doug detests them.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Log Haven RV Park, La Veta, CO - Aug 17
This is another Passport America park which was pleasant enough for $10/night. The RV parking was basically a large grassy backyard with some trees and full hookups. It might have been crowded if there had been more RVs there, but it was fine for us with only 3! La Veta is either a town with past success or a town whose time has not yet come. A lot of businesses were either closed or for sale. Both Passport America RV parks in town were for sale as well as at least one other. With the Highway of Legends (CO 12) heading south through the Spanish Peaks & the San Isabel Natl Forest, it would seem this would be a pretty desirable area. Unfortunately, with just a one-night stop, we did not have time to check out this drive, said to be very scenic.Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Buffalo Pass USFS Campground, Saguache, CO - Aug 16
This is a small gem of a campground, run by the USFS. With a full price of $5/night, we were almost ashamed to take our 50% Golden Age discount! It has no hookups, water or dump station but is located at 9000 ft, and is a lovely stop for a night or two. Unfortunately, since we were now "on a schedule", we could only stay one night. We enjoyed the solitude, wonderful forest smells, some interesting birds, and acouple of thunderstorms. Monday, August 15, 2005
Lake Fork RV Park, Gunnison, CO - Aug 11-15
This is a small (12 sites) RV park located on a bluff overlooking Blue Mesa Reservoir. The views were great! It was a Passport America park that allowed us to camp for half price on weekdays but full price for weekends. Our first order of business, as we often do in new areas, was to visit the Gunnison visitor center for information on the area. This helps in deciding what to do and also gives us an overview of the town. We found some interesting restaurants & shops and also a motel with WiFi that we could use from the parking lot.
Our first day trip was to Crested Butte and some of the surrounding area. There is very much development, of course, especially further into the mountains. Thank goodness for the National Forest land or the houses would probably go on forever!! Instead, the wildflowers, which were at their peak, seemed to go on forever. 
Crested Butte seems to have more flowers than any other town we have visited. Gardens and flower containers were everywhere! There were lots of great restaurants & shops and beautiful, quaint houses. It was a place that made you want to sit on a porch and read a book and people watch.
Our other day trip was through Lake City and over Slumgullion Pass to the top of Spring Creek Pass, where we had a picnic lunch. The road we drove on is called the Silver Thread and is part of the National Byway Road System. The Byway offers spectacular scenery and has informative signs at pullouts explaining the history & natural resources. Much of the land we drove through is part of the Gunnison and Rio Grande National Forests, plus a small amount of BLM land. Lake City is where Alferd Packer, the famous "Colorado Cannibal" was tried and found guilty of murder. It was believed he survived being stranded in a winter storm in 1874 by killing and eating his companions. 
He was sentenced to be hanged, but won a new trial in Gunnison and was sentenced to 40 years in the state pen. Parolled in 1901, he spent his final years in Littleton, CO. We visited a monument in Lake City which honored the victims.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Centennial RV Park, Montrose, CO - Aug 4-10
Centennial is another surprisingly nice RV park, with WiFi available for a fee. It is a Passport America (half-price club) park, which usually has a 3-day limit in the summer; however, we called ahead to find out their weekly rate and were told we could stay a whole week at the PA rate, quite a bargain for the area. When the skies were clear (which they weren't a lot of the time) we could see the fourteeners near the towns of Ouray & Telluride on the southern skyline. It was quite a dramatic view. Also dramatic was the breathtaking drive from Cortez to Montrose, over Lizard Head Pass, surrounded by lovely mountain meadows and high peaks the whole way.
We began our time in Montrose with a visit to the local Chamber of Commerce in order to get information on local activities. We also walked the historic downtown area and had the lunch buffet at the new Nepali restaurant. The food was much the same as an Indian buffet. Saturday was the annual Olathe Sweet Corn festival, which we all wanted to go to. We pictured a typical small-town festival, but this is a much bigger deal, with a crowd of over 15,000, over 200 vendors, entertainment by Randy Travis (winner of 5 Grammy awards, etc), all the roasted corn you can eat, and a fabulous fireworks show. Not bad for the (somewhat elevated) price of $12 ($7 for seniors). The fireworks were some of the best we have seen, with many flares going off at the same time.
We visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison for most of a day, mainly visiting overlooks and gazing into the depths below. The Gunnison River is often visible and is quite lovely. Occasionally rafters & kayakers can be seen camped along the shore. We saw some rappellers who went down the steep walls of the North Rim via an extremely strong & long (over 2000') rope (& heavy -- they said it took 4 people to carry it). Apparently, they just do it for the thrill of rappelling down, because they use climbing aids to return to the top. We enjoyed the canyon, and did about 3 miles of hiking just visiting most of the overlooks.
Telluride was about 55 miles away, and we went there for another day trip. None of us had been there for years. At first the multitude of shops was overwhelming, but after walking around a bit, we began to enjoy it more. We saw some of the back streets and rode the free (in summer) Gondola to Mountain Village, a newer development that they are pushing for rich ski people to buy into (sort of a mini-Vail).
The ride in the gondola was lovely, but Mountain Village has nothing to recommend it. We did find 4 more painted pumas in Telluride, and they were all lovely. We found the most wonderful bakery here called Baked in Telluride. Nothing we purchased was less than delicious. They serve meals in addition to yummy baked goods. We were sorry we had lunch somewhere else, but at least were able to have dessert & get great things to take home. After 2 pm they have many of their baked items at BOGO -- a real deal!Wednesday, August 03, 2005
La Mesa RV Park, Cortez, CO - July 28-Aug 3
Still traveling with Pat & Dennis, we picked out several areas to concentrate on in SW Colorado. We stayed in Cortez for a week because of the many local attractions that we either hadn't seen or wanted to revisit. We didn't know what to expect from Cortez, but we all had fairly negative expectations; however, the RV park was quite nice, with lots of shade and a view of open fields behind it, not at all like being right in a city. In addition, Cortez itself was quite charming, with many community activities.
For a short day trip, we visited Four Corners Monument, located about 35 miles southwest of Cortez on tribal land, and the only place in the US where four states (CO, UT, NM, AZ) meet. In addition to the marker where everyone lines up for photos, local Utes, Hopis and Navajos sell their wares & food in shops at the site. It was especially interesting to see how much traffic stopped by in the short time we were there. We spent another day visiting Hovenweep Natl Mon, located on the border of Utah & Colorado about 45 miles from Cortez. Hovenweep includes 5 prehistoric Puebloan-era villages, each located at the head of a separate canyon within 16 miles of each other.
The Square Tower Unit is the primary facility with a visitor center, campground and the houses of Little Ruin Canyon. One of the most outstanding features at Hovenweep is the many towers. The earlier ones were round or square but as time went on they became more elaborate. There are many theories offered to explain the purpose of the towers. Some even think that there are more theories than towers! The two-mile loop walk at Little Canyon takes you past many structures, including Hovenweep Castle, Square Tower, Round Tower, Boulder House and Twin Towers.
We then took the unpaved road to Cutthroat Castle, one of the outlying units, about 8 miles northeast of the visitor center. From the parking area, it was just a bit over a mile to the lovely ruins, also located beside a small canyon. Near the beginning of the trail, we were able to overlook another tower, Painted Hand Pueblo, located on BLM land in Canyon of the Ancients NM. The small tower was all we could see from above, and we were too tired after our previous hikes in 90+ temps to hike further. Back near the paved highway to Cortez (US491), we visited Lowry Pueblo, also managed by the BLM in Canyon of the Ancients NM. Lowry Pueblo is a fairly large structure constructed around 1060 and inhabited for about 165 years. When the last families left to migrate further south, the pueblo consisted of 40 rooms, eight kivas and a Great Kiva.
Next on our agenda was a day at Mesa Verde, which included stops at many overlooks, a drive on Chapin Mesa, Far View Community, and hikes to Spruce Tree House and back via Spruce Canyon Trail. This was much too little time to do the place justice, but it was great seeing the lovely structures again.
August 2, Willie's birthday, we relaxed and did household chores. Pat & Dennis made us a delicious dinner, complete with gifts & surprises. In the evening we went to an outdoor drama in the park, "Black Shawl". Writer, performer & storyteller Sharon French tells of her Native American
ancestry through the relationship between the elderly and wise Navajo woman, Black Shawl, and her granddaughter, Sarah Mara-Boots, a half Navajo and half Paiute girl raised by white settlers after her parents are killed. This was a wonderful presentation, and the story was totally amazing. If it wasn't a true story, it would not have been believable.
On our final outing, we visited McPhee Reservoir and the town of Dolores. At the visitor center in Cortez, we found our first "Puma on Parade", a collection of painted pumas in the southwest Colorado area. Unfortunately, several were located in Pagosa Springs, and we hadn't known to look there. We did find the two located in Cortez. In Dolores we found two more, one in a very lovely new library. We had hoped to visit the Anasazi Heritage Center, also in Dolores and with a painted puma in its lobby; however, when we got there, we found the visitor center closed due to roofing work. We could only tour the two outside excavated sites. McPhee Reservoir is a large body of water that unfortunately flooded over more than a thousand unexcavated sites. As a "reward" for allowing this, the COE gave the land for the Heritage Center and created several campgrounds in areas along the shore. In our opinion, this was not enough price to pay for so much destruction. The main campground does look like a nice place to stay in the future.