10/18-21/07: Dancing Between the Sunbeams

Update:
Today (Halloween) sees me at a Clarion Hotel in Binghampton, New York, on my way to Jan Wilcox's to visit for the night and then back to Annie Cooper in Brunswick, Maine, on the last leg back home.

It's been a while since I last wrote. Stan and his family are OK. Crestline, where he lives, wasn't touched by fire, which is wonderful. Hopefully this blue jay is still flying with its mate through the pines in their front yard.

I saw the lake on the right
on my way out of town -- the back way, through to Barstow and Arizona. I heard that this area burned, but don't know that for a fact. Dancing between the sunbeams this time, I made it to Arizona and stayed in Williams, just outside of the entryway to the Grand Canyon, where I met Pagent and Susan at their Battledress and Bodyworks shop, where I bought a tourquoise necklace made by Pagent. Evidently they had just opened and were willing to give me a really good price. Pagent (the one on the left) showed me where the ATM machine was in a restaurant next door -- very C&W, kind of biker, but with good steaks. Susan showed me photos of women who looked dressed in kind of medieval biker tattooed exotic dress (like sword and sorcery sci-fi art beloved by teenaged boys and young men). It was all paint, not a stitch of fabric to be had, so to speak.

When I walked in they suggested that I could try on any necklace or motorcycle helmet of my choice. In a way, I was kind of flattered and though that if I actually lived in Crestline, I might need a helmet, so that I could ride with Stan on his Ural, but I probably wouldn't get pink.

The next day, I did got to the Grand Canyon, as the pressure from my friend Sue Corning back in Halifax and Pagent in Williams was too great. I realized I'm not actually that much of a fan of on-purpose tourism. But, of course it was beautiful, hot, fair number of people, and of course, the requisite idiots (as can be seen if you look very closely at the top left of the photo on the right. At the very tippy top of the rocks are some dim-witted daredevils.)

I did get some pretty amazing shots though (like on the left), which, of course, you can see more of when I get back.

I stayed that night in Winslow, Arizona. I tried to stay in this really cool train station that I stayed in with Stan when we did our road trip in 2006 to bring my mom's car back, but it was full for days and I ended up staying at a Best Western, I think, at the same great expense as I would have done if I'd been able to stay at the train station. I ate dinner there though, but got kind of sick. I think it was the lime margarita. I was feeling adventurous, but I generally just drink wine or sake, not mixed drinks. Too bad.

The next day, I tried to see if I could stay at the Ritchies, where Stan and I'd stayed last time in Santa Fe, but, while I could have perhaps, it would have been in Halifax, as that's there home base now. Above and on the right is a pic of the border between Arizona and New Mexico. New Mexico has more mesas, though the colouring is a bit like the Grand Canyon, it's a bit more red.

So I made it to Las Vegas, New Mexico, instead and stayed at a sweet little place called The Lodge, owned by Latinos. It was cheap, simple, and clean. What more could I want. Then I listened to the weather news and heard there was a blizzard blowing up in the front range area of Colorado, just where I'd be going the next day, if I kept to my plan. You can see from the series of photos I took on my 100 mile journey to Raton, New Mexico (right on the southern border with Colorado) that the decision to stay at a Comfort Inn in Raton was a good one.

Turned out there was a high pass in about 15 miles that I would have to cross to get into Colorado that was snowed in. This is a picture I took outside the window about an hour after I got into the motel at Raton. The first flakes had begun to fall just as I pulled my car in. Frost was on the windows the next morning.