Springtime in the Rockies!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spring doesn't really come to the high country until June, as you can see in the picture below. As I arrived home for summer in the San Juan Mountains, this view greeted me just 35 miles north of Silverton---the Dallas Range and Mt. Sneffels, still covered with snow! The breath-taking beauty of this "every day" sort of scene still fills my prairie heart with joy that this is now home. Up the river from Silverton, my friends Doris and Dick, from Dallas, and I found lots of snow in June! Here is their vehicle parked in the roadway that leads to Animas Forks, a ghost town at the head of the Animas River northeast of Silverton.
Snowbanks and snowballs are reality here in June after a deep winter such as 2008. Here are the Underwoods enjoying the snowcut left by the plow.
So, just how high do you think THIS cut really is?
It is still amazing to me that there can be this much snow and the daytime temperatures can be so comfortably warm. If you haven't been here to visit in June, you should plan to come in 2009 just to experience this sort of thing. It really is amazing!

There still is lots of snow in the high country, even in July. I went fishing over the continental divide a few days ago and we saw wild flowers blooming right beside six-foot-deep banks of snow! Come see me and we'll fire up Scarlet (my red Dodge Durango) and head for the high country and the snow! Meanwhile, thanks for visiting my post. PDM

Meandering About Minnesota with Marie

Sometimes computers are annoying, are they not? Serious efforts have been made by this writer to post details of a delightful journey in May to Minneapolis and my computer has always opted to dump the pictures or lose the text---so I shall try again! Here is my friend, Marie King, with whom I toured China a year ago. She is standing on a balcony at the Guthrie Theatre, overlooking St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River. We enjoyed touring the theatre as well as seeing "Midsummer's Night Dream", easily the best theatrical production I've ever seen!
Minneapolis is a wonderful city, with lots of cultural features and events, enough good restaurants to keep one eating for days (the Greek brunch Marie took me to at Santorini's took me right back to Greece!), and, blessedly, mild traffic.

Marie took me along the North Shore of Lake Superior into the part of Minnestoa the locals call "The Arrow" where we saw lots of lovely, wild, lakeshore country. The waterfalls were abundant, the forests were lush, and the air was crisp and clean. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the great iron shipping harbor at Duluth, toured interesting old lighthouses, and even saw a wolf one morning, crossing the highway, headed for the lake for a drink...just as if he went there every morning!
The little blue lady is Marie by Gooseberry Falls, formed by water rushing out of the north Minnesota hills (mountains---a little difficult for me to say, comparing them to the Rockies!)
headed for Lake Superior. (photo below by Marie)We had a wonderful hike through the woods to an area with waterfalls and a swirling pool called "The Devil's Cauldron", which is misting away in the background and I am obviously enjoying!

One overnight was at a charming Scandanavian lodge on Lake Superior---seen here at twilight. Once again, the food was wonderful and we enjoyed the breakfast as it reminded us of our travels in Norway and Sweden forty years ago.
Split Rock Lighthouse is one of Minnesota's signature places. We spent an afternoon there, touring the buildings and climbing around on the rocks along the lake front.
Of course, no trip to Minneapolis is complete without going to the Mall of America! Above you can see a view of the indoor amusement park at the Mall. Pick out the people in the foreground for perspective, please.
A lovely spring afternoon called for margaritas at one of Marie's favorite spots, "Psycho Suzie's", a sort of Polynesian bar with plenty of outside seating. (You don't have to just eat in Minneapolis---there are plenty of places to bend an elbow, too!)

Back to the Mall of America---the Lego display was astonishing! (Travis must go there someday!) Look for the man above the Gap sign to establish the size of the thing---all built with normal-sized legos.)
Last of all---here I am with a dinosaur built of tiny little legos and don't miss the green tail of another dino nearby---how many thousands?

Marie---I thank you for a great visit and I am hoping that this posting won't vanish into cyberspace as have my other attempts! I am looking forward to visit #2 in Minnesota!

Playing in Portland

Portland, Oregon was my next stop on my Spring Tour of the West, 2008. I flew there from Denver to visit my dear friend, Cynthia Francisco, who was the judge for whom I clerked in the San Juan County Courts. Here is a view from one of the city's hills, with Mt. Hood in the background. (You will have to sort of scruntch down and pretend you can see a very white mountain peak behind the skyscraper!) Cynthia had lots of delightful activities planned, and one of the first things we did was head for the coast via Ft. Clatsop, Washington, where Lewis and Clark spent the second winter of their journey. I was very happy to go there, as several years ago my students and I did an exhaustive study of their travels, including learning many details about this woodsy fort. Here I am, at the fort, with one of the trees which was being readied for demolition---it had fallen across one of the footpaths. The journals of L&C indicated they had only six days without rain, that winter, and I could better understand, after being there, what a wet, soggy existance they must have had.

Before we left for our coastal trip, we toured the Rhododendron Gardens where I saw flowers that surpassed anything I have seen before. They were utterly gorgeous! The blooms were great lush bundles of color---even one named Cynthia!
Here are some azaleas that were slipped into the garden...
Here are two more "beauties" found in the gardens that day:
Not sure why I have such squinty eyes here but you can see we were having fun!
Now---back to the coast. We went to Canon Beach, one of Oregon's most famous beaches. Here is the rock that always shows up on postcards and calendars. Our hotel was right on the beach just a few minutes from this scene and we enjoyed walking on the beach---even braving the cold Pacific breakers with our bare feet.

For some reason, this photo appears again!
Back in Portland we enjoyed shopping, sipping icy cold wine in Cynny's backyard where there were more beautiful rhodies, eating out (you could eat yourself to death in good restaurants in Portland), shopping for quilt supplies for Suzie's baby, going to see the opera "Aida", and enjoying a day at the Japanese Gardens.

Waterfalls and mist at the gardens...
It was a wonderful visit and I look forward to returning to my friend's comfortable house with the lovely flowers and a backyard that has blueberries and strawberries! Next stop: Minnesota!

Casino News From Devils Lake, North Dakota!!!

North Dakota visits included seeing Patti and Butch Goodall, long-time friends. We enjoyed a day trip to Sydney, Montana, to visit cousin Bill Davis and his wife Jennifer at their Rollin' Rock Black Angus Ranch at Sydney. (Hey Bill and Jen---a little free advert here!) Goodalls and I paused at an overlook for the North Dakota Badlands en route...

^^^^^^^^^^^^

While I was in North Dakota I journeyed to the eastern part to visit a long-time friend in Cando. Peggy and her husband, Gary, took me to the Spirit Lake Casino one evening for a sumptuous seafood dinner and a few hours of gaming. Never having played penny slots before, I was very cautious with my wagers, much to the amusement of my companions! Sometimes I bet all of nine cents!!! However, my caution worked out as eventually I had quadrupled my starting stake! Here Peggy and I are, seated at the machines...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


When driving across North Dakota's prairies, I was pleased to see a number of "wind farm" windmills. They stand out on the horizon for miles and miles and are often single mills, appearing to be providing energy for a well or irrigation system. Go North Dakota farmers!

Being welcomed home to North Dakota is always special. Thanks to all of you who made it such a great visit and come to Silverton!!!!

"Having a Ball" in North Dakota, etc. etc.

This magnificent bison bull was grazing beside the highway near the Roosevelt National Park the evening I arrived in North Dakota. I always think this animal beautifully represents the prairiesof the old west and, seeing him, I felt I was home in Dakota!


^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Visiting the Hellings (cousins) in North Dakota on their ranch always offers new insights into the business of farming and ranching. Calving was in full swing while I was there which means checking the cows several times a day. Horses have been replaced by four-wheelers with cabs, which allows the "checker" to be warm and dry as well as to get close to the individual cows.

Arlene, Dean, Corky (dog) and I made such an inspection one blustery afternoon on the prairie.
While at their ranch we also celebrated my Aunt Ethel's 90th birthday! She is still in good health, uses her riding lawn mower, and loves to announce that her waist is the same size as it was when she got married, much to the chagrin of the rest of us!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My sister-in-law, Corinne Davis, has a gift shop in Medora, North Dakota, which is the gateway to Roosevelt National Park. She organized a group of us (employees, relatives, friends) to attend a costume ball which was celebrating the birthday of the town. It was a costume ball and we went as: THE WALTONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Corinne and I were cast as the Baldwin Sisters, peddling "Daddy's Recipe." We had a great time with our Mason jars, filled with a weak bourbon/water mix. People actually accepted samples and then came back to ask how we made the mix! Here we are in our lovely Baldwin garb---you've got to love the hats!
Corinne took me for a tour around the Roosevelt Park where we saw many buffalo, deer, wild horses, and prairie dogs. En route I received a much-enjoyed Mother's Day call from Travis and Maggie, reporting that Australia continues to be good. (Figure this out: They had just returned from a vacation in Fiji! Check their blog at http://www.mooresgo.blogspot.com/).

How to Get to North Dakota From Silverton...

Because there are many people who believe that North Dakota is a Canadian province, I thought perhaps a few instructions about how to get there would increase the number of visitors that might find their way to my home state, where the chokecherry is the state fruit, the people are friendly, the women are all beautiful, and the children are all above-average! (Do you listen to Prairie Home Companion?)

I loaded my car with the usual travel stuff (clothes, etc.) plus water, snacks, and enough opera CD's to take me the 1172 miles to the Flickertail State. The first trick is to map out, in your mind, the route out of Colorado, planning it carefully so you approach, enter, cross, and exit the Denver-Boulder-Ft. Collins-Greeley area in the middle of the day. This worked out for me as I spent the first night on the road with my good friend, Karen Timbrell, in Poncha Springs, CO. From there it is an easy drive to Denver and I was able to breeze through the mass of humanity on the Front Range will relative ease and confidence (this is quite a statement for a country lady who used to be white-knuckled the entire time I drove in Denver!).

Upon crossing the border into Wyoming the wind began to blow (I don't know of anyone who has ever been to Cheyenne when the wind wasn't blowing!), cities and towns virtually disappeared, and the scenery became quite bucolic, as below. This is the land that fostered the title of my favorite childhood book, The Green Grass of Wyoming. The population seems to be primarily cattle and pronghorns plus a variety of oil tankers and trucks hauling drilling rigs, rushing too and fro. However, there didn't seem to be ANY other traffic...none, zippo...just me!

It is always an adventure to stop for lunch in a small town in Wyoming. Everyone in the cafe' checks your feet first, to see if you are wearing cowboy boots. If not, they know right away you are a stranger to the area...needless to say I wasn't wearing boots! They still have those roast beef sandwiches---you know the ones? (Roast beef on white bread covered with gravy?)

After a pleasant but uneventful overnight in Custer, South Dakota (unless you count an unexpected snowfall!), I ventured over the Needles Highway in the Black Hills, thinking it would be lovely to see some of the sights our family had always enjoyed during summer camping trips. Now, you need to know that our parents honey-mooned there in 1934 so my brother and I had to endure the typical "Honey, do you remember when we..." (I suspect we did not have the good grace to be decent about my parent's recall but probably groaned as each new story began!)
Anyway, on this trip I seemed to have the area to myself, making the first tracks through the new snow on the winding road and enjoying wild turkeys, deer, and the narrow tunnels...I realized with glee that I had chosen the right vehicle when I purchased Scarlet, my Dodge Durango, with the great tires, four-wheel drive, and easy handling on icy roads!

Mt. Rushmore always gives me a thrill and this time I saw a view that was new to me: this profile of George Washington. I believe I like it better than the full view of the four guys.
Next I arrived at Sylvan Lake, where I had my first-remembered boat ride as a small child. My dad rented a row boat and we went for a ride. The boat had water in the bottom (maybe it was leaking a bit or maybe it was just there) and in my small-child way, I panicked. Screaming and sobbing, fearing we were to drown in the "huge lake", I was deposited on the shore with my mother. You can imagine my surprise, when, upon returning to this lovely lake, to find it look so small! I actually wondered where the rest of the lake was! A copy of the photo below is going in my journal where I can look at it when problems seem huge---it will remind me that they are never as large as I once thought!
Finally, the road into North Dakota from South Dakota appeared---long, and straight, and good for singing along with the operas. Nothing else was on the road---just Scarlet and me--- headed back to my roots. Do you know that old cowboy song, "There's a Long, Long Trail Awinding..."?This trail does not wind....it just goes and goes and goes...

So---if you want to get to North Dakota from Silverton (or somewhere else), take parts of three days, and plan to enjoy the trip. It is amazing to be where there seem to be more animals than people, good roads with few people using them, clean air, and places with nifty names like Trotters, and Chugwater, and Rosebud...signing out for now...Penny

The Joys of Arizona/Texas Friends and Sunshine

Never in my life (up until now!) had I ever thought I might have a streak of "snowbird" in me. However, when the snow continued to get deeper and deeper (see previous post) I happily accepted invitations from friends in Arizona and Texas to head south so I could dry out my feet and get warm. Just before Easter I loaded Scarlet (my bright red car that takes me wherever I need to go) with clothes for a month, my swimming suit, some books waiting to be read, some maps, and my camera.

My home base was with long-time friend, Sandy Weaver, at her new winter home in Surprise, Arizona (west of Phoenix). The Easter Bunny found me there! We had a great time at a spring training baseball game, shopping and framing pictures for the house, soaking in the backyard spa under a full moon, and walking to this great coffee house when we needed a little joe! She and Tom have created a very attractive winter haven and I felt priviledged to be their first guest!

Suzie joined us for a long weekend which was really special. Here we are, sunning with the flamingos at the zoo! Pennsylvania had a long, cold, and icy winter so Suz was glad to come get warm! She had recently been released from crutches after breaking her leg in December so we enjoyed a celebration of her restored mobility.

Time to go to Texas! In Houston I enjoyed a reunion with friends from the early days of our marriages---foty-one years ago to be precise. Skip and Cindy Young were great companions when Charlie and were at K-State in school---Skip and Charlie fished, Cindy and I car-pooled to teach, we all played bridge on Friday nights, etc. etc. We enjoyed two days at their house on Lake Conroe, joy-riding in Skip's great bass boat when he wasn't fishing!Here are Skip and Cindy with Cindy's mom, the great dessert-maker, and daughter, Julie, a school librarian. Cindy and I had such fun while Skip worked (you see, he isn't retired, yet!).

We toured the Houston Space Center, picked strawberries at a berry farm for pie and jam, and visited endlessly about things we love to do, our families, and life in general. We discovered, that even though so many years have passed, we still are very much alike and have a great time together. I loved staying in their guest house, which they have dubbed "The Outhouse." What a fine place for escaping the cold of a Colorado winter! It came with regular meals, cocktails at five, and great entertainment!
One of the reasons for going to Texas was to see the Texas Bluebonnets (state flower) in bloom, after hearing about these gorgeous flowers for years. We saw fields of them, looking much like water from a distance. Often they have patches of bright orange paintbrush within the fields of blue---when I suggested they looked like Bronco flowers the Youngs frowned! They are true Texans and love their home teams.

One day we drove to the bay east of Houston to purchase fresh shrimp for dinner. While there I was amazed at the homes right on the bay which are built on stilts so the big storms and hurricanes that blow in from the Gulf of Mexico do less harm. Some have garage doors on either end of the house so the water can just roll through. Talk about a wild way to clean and scrub your garage!

Cindy and I went to an Antique Rose farm on the Blue Bonnet day---here we are in the lovely flowers. We had lunch at Tex's Bar-B-Q where all the locals eat; delicious!

I also went to Yuma, Arizona which is about as close to Mexico and California as you can get and still be in Arizona. It is where the Colorado River rolls through carrying water to all the farming areas of the southwest. While there I visited Mel and Marilyn Davis, with whom I lived when I was in high school. We determined that was a cool fifty years ago! We toured a date farm, which was most interesting and tasty---have you ever had a date milk shake? Delicious!

So, my friends and family, I need to report that I feel most fortunate to have such wonderful long-time friends (I no longer feel I can say "old friends"---that would be the pot calling the kettle black, wouldn't it?)---we seemed to pick up our friendships so easily and comfortably.

Cherish your friends---and many thanks to mine in Arizona and Texas, ESPECIALLY Sandy who allowed me to flow in and out for a month!

Over and out---I am off to North Dakota, Portland, and Minneapolis for the northern version of my southern trip. Shall post a report the end of May when I return home. Bye!