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Grand junction

Monday. Quiet day. Hung out. Did some chores. Annie got a bath in the sink in the
campground laundry room. Took a drive to find Judy’s friend Sally’s new
house. Sally still lives in Lafayette, but owns a very nice new house out
in the country here. Seven acres. A pond. Geese. Ducks. Trees. Wild
birds. And a house on the top of the hill overlooking it all. Nicely done. Then we drove up the side of the cliff into the Monument. The swifts go
away for the winter, but they’re back now. We sat in the sunshine getting
buzzed by white-throated swifts and violet green swallows, and rock doves.
That’s right. There were pigeons(rock doves) flying in formation, imitating
the swifts. I’ve never seen pigeons look that aerobatic before. They still
look like pigeons, though. They’re not going to be mistaken for swifts. Dropped my birding binoculars. They made a big thud. They don’t focus very
well anymore. Maybe it was time for new ones anyway. We’ve had those for a
long time. We can share Judy’s in the meantime, but we’d better be on the
lookout for some replacements. We got Judy’s at a Sam’s Club store last
year. Maybe we’ll pass another Sam’s club somewhere along the way. Back at camp. Fished a little. I love this new light fly rod Judy got me
for Christmas. Rinsed some of the Leadville snow and road muck off the Bounder so it will
look nice tomorrow. Rags the cat made an undetected escape. When we close the screen door, it
latches tight, so he can’t get out. We have to remember to close the little
slide door that goes over the handle, though. If we don’t, Rags jumps out
through the handle-hole when we’re not looking. We didn’t realize he was
gone for about half an hour. Then we got to go outside with flashlights and
watch him do that stupid-looking bounding run all around us in the dark.
Then he let us walk up to him and pick him up. Every trip he has ever been
on, he has escaped at least once. We try to keep him in to keep him safe,
but I’m glad he gets his occasional adventures too. Tomorrow we’re off to the Western Colorado Conference at the convention
center in Grand Junction.

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Sunday

Sunday. We’re within a couple hundred miles of Canyonlands National Park, so we were
going to go there for the weekend, but then we decided to go to Capitol Reef
National Monument, because we haven’t been there in several years and we
always like it. Then we got to thinking that it was a four-hour drive to
Capitol Reef, and Moab is only an hour and a half away, so we’d just go to
Moab and hang out there. Got to be lots of four-wheel-drive roads to check
out from Moab. Then, since it was such a nice morning, I decided to go for
a run while we thought about it some more. Then I went to the Park office
to sign up for one more night here, while Judy made lunch. We took a nice
drive up north, in the Jeep, along some roads we’ve never traveled before,
to Rangely. From there it was only twenty miles more to the town of
Dinosaur. From there it was only twenty miles more to the Dinosaur quarry
at the National Monument. It was a good sightseeing trip. It was a very
steep winding road over Douglas Pass. It would be a very slow trip in the
motorhome. The rest of it was 65mph through brown dirt clay rolling hill
brushy desert canyon country. Desolate. Spectacular. We need to spend a
lot more time at Dinosaur National Monument. While we were at the visitor center in the town of Dinosaur, we had to get
the binoculars out to check out some birds in the surrounding trees.
Robins, starlings, house finches, goldfinches, brewers blackbirds, and
cassin’s finches. Cassin’s finches! A new bird for us. One more for our
list. We started this trip with 292 on the life list. No new ones since
the Texas trip in January. Now we’re at 293. The drive to 300 continues.
We’re counting on getting some black swifts in Ouray, when we get down to
Southwestern Colorado. Tomorrow. For tomorrow’s adventure, I think I hear a lawn chair calling.
We’re right next to the canyons of the Colorado National Monument. Maybe
we’ll wander up there and see if the white-throated swifts are in town.