Wall Spring, Smoke Creek Desert [note “Monk in Palo Alto” cd on the right],

early of a Sunday morning

and out the gate, a little late [9:23].  Bye bye to the boys on the hill, to Pyramid Lake and on

50 east, fuel in Fallon,

a hot lunch [the air, not the lunch] at New Pass Summit

wondering whether Aggie, 16 1/2, would, unlike the Mystery Shoes, who clearly hadn’t

survived, survive the trip.

We paused briefly at the Petroglyph Site and

again in Eureka

as well as, after gas in Ely, up from the Sacramento Pass Campground on the Osceola road

for dogs’ sake before speedily crossing the Western Desert for enchiladas and a night in Delta…

Monday morning, Utah, CR102 then

Salida behind the

attractive Northstar Apartments and

then, 98 degrees after noon, Colorful Colorado!

We pounded up 70 to the Minturn turn, turned onto 24 for the precipitous climb to Tennessee Pass, avoided Leadville but got popped trying to get past one of those ubiquitous Sprinters [ladder, bicycles hanging off the back, etc.] plodding down the Arkansas twenty miles under

the speed limit with twenty cars behind but finally made it to the safe haven of the Loyal Duke before heading out for a much anticipated dinner at The Fritz but as the stove at The Fritz was on the fritz we ended up down on the river at Boathouse which was perfectly great, lots of local

streetlife to observe as I, happily consuming the Norwegian Salmon Salad, became happily if inexplicably inebriated on a single glass of Borsao before it was off to bed at the Duke, still light.

Our last morning on the road was one of early grocery shopping all of which [and I] got utterly

soaked in a passing downpour while loading it in the truck after which Linda Got In Line* until

we could finally turn at Cotopaxi and make it to Westcliffe** where in the gas station a local

driving a most pragmatic pickup filled me in on all the unseen details [1989 Mitsubishi, 409,000 miles on a four cylinder hemi] to the point I was sure I wanted one…still do, but for what?

Jeeplike explorations around the Huerfano, perhaps, into which

Certain People then entered into with Great Expectations.  After a stop at the Gardner 

Post Office and up the hill to a lot of exhausting unloading we were treated to the coolest

of evenings in many a day…leaving the light on for ourselves we began to settle in,

though settling in may take some time.

*Back in the Recreation State!

**A Colorado touristic town even more inhospitable than Austin, Nevada.