Author: Steve

Some mining reminders.

Tuesday This is a good rhythm. Every day Judy drives me to work; about five miles.
Some days we pass a car going the other way on the road. If we do, they
wave. Every time. Every day she comes to get me and we go home for lunch.
I go for a run while she prepares the food. Once a week, Judy goes to work
with me for half a day and does the test work. When Judy goes to work,
Annie goes too. My daily run here is challenging. We’re at high altitude, and my route
includes a serious hill. It’s not exactly the Leadville 100…… But if I
did it 100 times in a row it would be. The motorhome is oriented north/south. We can see the Big Dipper in the
dark every night, pointing to Polaris. Every night the moon shines in our
eyes through the bedroom windows. Drove to South Fork, twenty miles away, and found a cell phone signal so we
could talk to the kids and send/receive some email. Parked in the little
highway rest stop, standing at the back of the jeep, computer plugged into
the outlet in the back, cell phone connected. It works. Except for the
minor rain delay, while I waited inside. Drove back into the glaring sun, top open to admire the view straight up.
This drive, along the headwaters of the Rio Grande, through the canyon, the
open valley at the top; the old mining town of Creede six block long and
three blocks wide; the dramatic sheer canyon entrance immediately behind the
town with the old mining ruins strewn about. Of all the beautiful places
we’ve ever been, this is the most intensely beautiful place we’ve ever been.
Overload.
Got the assets finished and half way through the income accounts.

Monday I wish there were some way I could convey the view from here. Sitting at
the dinette, typing this letter, I get the most spectacular streamside, row
of cabins, robins beside me, mountains, trees, high country snow, clarity of
the high country blue sky, view you could imagine. There is no way to
capture this with a camera. Okay. Off to work. Let’s see if I can do this in three days. The Creede Repertory Theatre. The Leadville job was advocates for victims
of domestic violence. The Glenwood Springs job was a domestic violence
safehouse. The Creede Repertory Theatre is a well-worn turn-of-the-century
repertory theatre in a tiny town in Colorado, but it has a worldwide
reputation. They put on a whole season of plays all summer long. They
travel the country in the off-season, recruiting players for the next
season. Some very famous names have spent their summers here. There is a
lot involved in putting this on. They bring all these actors in for the
summer, but the town is too small to house them, so they have to provide
cast housing as well. They took care of that by buying the old Rio Grande
Hotel, known locally as The Bordello, and refurbishing it. They got it
fixed up nicely but couldn’t get rid of the last of the ghosts. There are
reputed to be some unsatisfied souls wandering the upstairs. Got the financial statements set up and got half way through the assets. Same as last year, we’re the first and only guests of the campground of the
season so far. We have partial hookups. We get full-time electric and
sewer, but it’s still too cold at night for water. It’s no problem for us
inside the motorhome. Our holding tanks are heated and stay plenty warm.
Their outside lines would all freeze if they turned them on though. We’re
parked just close enough to the one year-round faucet that is deep enough
and strong enough to not freeze. We can reach it with three sections of
drinking water hose. So once every day or two, in the middle of the day, we
stretch our hose across to it, fill up our fresh water tank, and disconnect.
We run all the inside water off our tank, with the pump. This is a good
thing. It will complete the de-winterization process for us. We have to
winterize the lines with that pink non-toxic antifreeze for the winter
months, and then flush it all out in the spring so we can use it again. The
pink color rinses out quickly, but that doesn’t complete the process. I,
mister sensitive, detect an aftertaste to the water after that. Every time
we use a tank of water and refill, it dilutes it more and even less of the
aftertaste remains. This week here will complete the winter water flush.

Antlers. Cabins along the creek.

Sunday It is a short drive from Crawford State Park to the town of Gunnison; forty
miles of breathtaking rim drive along the north edge of the black canyon.
From there, it’s another hundred miles through Lake City, over Slumgullion
and Willow Creek passes, and down (not very far down) into Creede. Creede
is not quite as high as Leadville. It is a little over a thousand feet
lower. Elevation 8,800 feet. Judy was still feeling a little woozy (like seasick) from yesterday’s
adventures, so we decided not to admire any more spectacular drop-offs. We
drove back through Hotchkiss, around though Delta, south through Montrose,
and up highway 50 toward Gunnison. It’s a good drive. Purple and white
lilacs in full bloom. We just keep gobbling up great scenery. It was a good day for spotting ring-neck pheasants and yellow-headed
blackbirds. And we saw a roadrunner, crossing the road, out in the valley.
As soon as we popped out of the hills an ultralight swooped into view, doing
a great impression of a crop duster over a freshly green field. No soaring
on thermals for this guy. He was a banking turning diving swooping machine. We ran the Navigator program on the computer for this leg of the trip. Judy
kept an eye on it while we worked our way there. We ran it on the
“motorhome friendly” option. While we were driving up highway 50, before we
got anywhere near Gunnison, the Navigator directed us to turn right on the
Blue Mesa Bypass. Our highway map didn’t show a Blue Mesa Bypass. We were
skeptical. We slowed down at the turn but didn’t commit. We looked to our
right and saw a dirt road as we went by. Thirty miles of dirt road in the
Motorhome? I don’t think so. Immediately, when you screw up, the Navigator
calculates the next best route, given your failure to act properly in the
first place. The next best route? Ten miles later. The Slumgullion
Bypass. We didn’t fall for that one either. We stuck to Highway 50, until
we got to Highway 92 on the map. Past Blue Mesa Reservoir to the Highway
intersection. We turned right onto a road completely covered by tumbleweeds
on our side. I made a wide turn. That didn’t seem like a good sign, but it
didn’t get any worse than that. We’ve driven some small winding steep roads this trip. It’s not very fast,
driving the motorhome towing the Jeep, but it has never been a problem. The
Bounder has plenty of power to get up the hills, and plenty of braking to
get down, and there hasn’t been any traffic on these roads. We get to motor
through the mountains at a convenient pace, with a pretty good view of the
road. We made an early afternoon arrival at the outskirts of Creede. We’re at the
Antler’s Lodge and RV Resort, right on the river. This felt more like a
trip. A two hundred mile day of slow driving. That’s more like it. Tomorrow. Back to work.