Ahira's Hangar

For many years now, I have kept a travel journal for my family, to help my children remember our travels later on in their lives. Thought people might get a bit of a kick from the one for Elohimfest, since many members here are in it. So here are some bits and pieces.

Day One
Did very well getting up this morning, as I had worked until midnight the night before. We were on the road by 0830...we reached St. Louis about 1600. We met Damelon and Dave, one of my best friends from college, who now lives in the St. Louis area, at the baseball stadium to see the Cards/Cubs game. It was a great game with high scoring, and the Cards winning by one run that they scored late in the game. A great time was had by all.

Day Two
We got up early and had breakfast with Damelon. We then all walked to the Wal-Mart behind the hotel to pick up some odds and ends that everyone seemed to need. Bigredbulldog wanted to drive, and that makes me very nervous on the freeway, so I spent most of the day driving with Damelon in his car. He is unbelievably fun to travel with. We talked and laughed and he sang along with his IPOD for the ten or so hours we drove together. We took turns sharing our junk food and pointing out wild flowers and other beautiful things or funny things along the freeway. We all stopped for a snack in Oklahoma City, but other than that and gas stops, drove pretty much straight through to Amarillo. We found our hotel, and then ate some pretty good Mexican food in the restaurant next door. Then we went to our respective rooms, in time for a severe thunderstorm to move in and keep everyone awake.

more days to follow ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi  at: 7/11/04 11:28 pm
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Well, looks like the hacker attack wiped this out just in time for the first year anniversary.

Luckily, I think I can reconstruct most of it from my written journal and my blog.

What I cannot replace is the comments my tripmates made, but I tried to contact many of them so they can add any comments they wish now. Hope they do!

Since it is the one year anniversary, I think I will bring back as many of the original entries as I can (I copied and pasted a lot of them to my blog) but also comment on them, as things change after the course of a year.

For example, Damelon no longer has the car we drove across Oklahoma and Texas together in. It was totalled in an accident last winter. I wonder if he ever did get all of the nerds we spilled everywhere out of the poor Lordsmobile before it sacrificed itself to save him in the accident?

The main thing I can remember about that long, long drive across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle is how much fun it was. And Damelon was a joy to travel with. He is a gifted amateur photographer, and he sees things through the eyes of an artist. Where many people would see a flat and featureless plain, he saw many things of beauty, such as the endless horizon, the lovely wildflowers growing next to the road, and the building storm clouds hundreds of miles ahead of us. Its always pleasant to spend time with someone who is both happy and upbeat.

If you were to ask my older son about that day, he would probably remember a butthead guy who was driving on the freeway (I can't rememebr if we saw him in MO or OK) in a big dually pickup truck dragging along two huge pontoon boats. The boats wagged behind the truck like the tail of a big dog. My son still complains about having to pass him, as it frightened him. He was only learning how to drive then, and it really freaked him out! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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from my blog;

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Day Three
The shortest drive of the three days to get from Michigan to New Mexico. Got up a bit later, and went to breakfast with Damelon at the Cracker Barrell. I think he suggested it knowing how much the kids like to eat there. Hit the road thereafter. We stopped off at a little town in New Mexico called Santa Rosa at my request, as I felt a need to get out of the vehicle and move around a bit. We went to a little lake in the desert and enjoyed the clean air and pretty views. We also called Danlo to let him know we were getting close.
Drove the rest of the way to Albuquerque, found our hotel, and everyone collapsed.
Got up towards evening and headed over to Danlo and Lady Tam's house. She had some wonderful food ready for us to eat (she had this fantastic dip...droooooolllll). We got to meet so many wonderful people -- it was fantastic being able to meet Danlo and his Lady, Highdrake, Variol Farseer, and Birdy and her husband. We talked and ate pizza and all watched Monty Python together. A wonderful evening with friends.




Ah, it was wonderful meeting everyone. And Monty Python was a lot of fun! Danlo and his Lady were a perfect host and hostess. Fisty was a sweetheart, and he seemed to enjoy a joke I played on him.

I knew that there was this one book he had wanted for a long time, which was out of print (The Dune Encylopedia). I bought one on half.com, and rubbed his nose in it for about a month that I had a copy and he didn't. I gave it to him at Elohimfest. That was a great joke! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Day Four

Got up early and headed to the bus station with Damelon to pick up Caamora. Then everyone met at this great bakery that Danlo told us about called the Flying Star. Besides Caam, our party was also expanded by Romeo and by Soulquest and two of her friends. The food was great, and Highdrake (Fist and Faith) certainly made a friend of my little son when he shared all of his pies and pastries with him.

After breakfast some of us got together with Danlo, the best tour guide in the world, to see a bit of Albuquerque and visit the Old Town area. We wandered around, checking out all of the pretty little gift stores and restaurants. It was hot to us Midwesterners, so Damelon and I snuck off for a bit and got huge glasses of ice cold lemonaid. We got a great laugh from the name brands of some of the hot sauces for sale in the place where we got our drinks, but I can't repeat most of them in a family oriented forum.

We all gathered at Danlo and Lady Tam's house for tea. Oh, Tam's cooking is to die for! And she and Danlo are wonderful, warm hosts.

Then dinner with Donaldson. He is a great public speaker, and gave us fascinating answers.

One bad thing did happen today. The food at the restaurant was very good, but also very spicy to people who are not used to it. Bill couldn't stop eating because the food was so good, even though it was burning his stomach. So he started feeling sick. I remembered that Damelon had make the mistake for going out for sliders (White Castle burgers) in St. Louis and that he had bought some Tums...so I asked if they were in his car. They were, and we headed out to get them. But it had been raining and therefore slippery in the parking lot, and my dress shoes don't have much grip on the bottom, so down I went and ripped up my leg. I did my best to hide it, as I didn't want to upset anyone, but man, did that hurt.

A small price to pay, though, for the dinner and interview with one of the greatest writers in the world!



I still have a huge scar on my ankle from that fall in the parking lot. marked for life by Elohimfest!

I loved visting Danlo and Lady Tam's home. It was so warm there, and I loved sitting out in the yard with the roses and the Tibetan prayer flags. It was so peaceful, so nice....
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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from my blog:
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Just a few odds and ends that didn't make it into the entries, but I would like to remember.

Danlo and Lady Tam have a lovely home and yard. She grows herbs and flowers, and he has Tibetan prayer flags on one of the walls of their backyard/garden. It is very warm and welcoming there. Jam is a VERY sweet dog, and their two kitties, Samkitty and Chanel, are delightful. It is a true home, not just a house. And their yard is home to many lovely little hummingbirds.

All of my playing with Fist's (Highdrake's) head with the Dune Encyclopedia payed off on Friday night. I will let him fill in the details.

Birdy is every bit as sweet in real life as she is on the web. She and her hub are a very cute couple, and both are very nice.

Caamora is drop dead gorgeous, intelligent, and very funny. She asked great questions at the Donaldson interview!

I haven't gotten to the day in question yet, but Danlo took us to a really cool store in Albuquerque, where I found what shall always be known as the Fist & Faith Memorial Socks. They have little chili peppers all over them, and also have the words "BITE ME"


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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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from my blog:
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Day Five

Got up early today to run Caamora to the bus station along with Variol Farseer and Damelon. We had dropped her off (and saying goodbye to people really sucks) and were driving back to the hotel, when the poor lady called my cell phone to say that her bus might be overbooked. I asked Damelon to turn around and go back, so back we went. There was no way that any of us were going to leave a possibly stranded person at a bus station. It turned out that the bus was also running quite late. But in the end, we saw her safely off (did I mention that saying goodbye to people really sucks?)

Then it was time to go find Andelain in the Jemez Mountains. We took three cars, me and my family in my baby Jeep, Danlo and Birdy and Leper Messiah in Danlo's SUV, and Fist, Variol Farseer, and Damelon in the Lordsmobile (two High Lords and their haruchai protector ) At this point, besides Caam, we had lost Romeo (who I didn't get a chance to talk to very much, but seems like a great guy), Markjeffrey (another I didn't get a chance to talk to much), Soulquest (yet another person I didn't get a chance to talk to very much), and Amok (who I didn't even know was there at the dinner until Danlo brought it up on another day!). (and did I mention that saying goodbye to people really sucks? )

Our first stop was to fill up on gas and at that stop we bought fresh, hot Indian fry bread. YUMMY!

We then went to a secret place in the mountains that Danlo knew about. It was a place where they had carved tunnels in the hill, that overlooks rapids and waterfalls. It was lovely there -- so lovely, we all wanted to stay -- but Danlo told us even better things were coming, so we continued our drive up into the mountains.

Our next stop was something called a soda dam. Somehow (possibly elements released through the just upstream hot springs?) a big dam had naturally formed across the river, and the river had cut caves through it. This was a totally cool place. Fist climbed right up the side of the cliff barefoot! And of course, my little son decided to climb up right after his pie buddy. Birdy and her hub and my older son explored the caves. We all took lots of pictures. What a great place!

A lot of the national forest up the road from the dam was closed due to the horrible fire danger. But Danlo pointed out all sorts of places, like where he and his Lady like to go camping, and where to go to get down to the hot springs and a pretty waterfall. But the most awesome place of all was still ahead -- ANDELAIN!!!!!!!

We just stood there in the calderra in absolute awe. There are no words. (takes off Elohimfest baseball cap and bows head)

We then returned to Danlo's home, where we had a delicious dinner, and a costume party. And we talked and talked and talked and talked. About the dinner and Donaldson's answers to our questions, and we also had a great discussion going about The One Tree. We also all took turns talking to Joy on the phone. Wish she could have been there!!!!!!



That was a wonderful day up in the mountains.

New Mexico is an incredibly beautiful place.

Californiababy and I watched a movie a couple of months ago that had been filmed in New Mexico and there was a scene involving those tunnels!!

And saying goodbye to people really did suck.




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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Day Six
On Sunday night, we had made plans to meet for one last breakfast together. I got up early and snuck out of the room, trying not to wake up Calibaby and the kids...went down to the lobby to wait for Variol Farseer and Damelon, as we were going to ride to breakfast together. Before either of them arrived, my little son, Mr. Sunshine Stevie came trotting down to me. "I woke up and saw you were gone, Mom. I knew you were going out someplace to eat breakfast. Can I come, too?" So the two of us set out with the two High Lords when they arrived.

We met the remaining festers at the Copper Canyon Cafe, which had huge portions of good food at a good price. And then it was time to say good by to Fist and Birdy and Leper Messiah. Have I mentioned that goodbyes suck?? Saying goodbye to Fist nearly killed me.

Went back to the hotel room to pack up and collect the remainder of my family. Then headed over to Danlo's to pick him up. It was time for the Grand Canyon! It was also time to say goodbye to Variol Farseer who was to fly back to Canada that afternoon, and to Lady Tam for a couple of days, who would not be able to accompany us on our trip.

Danlo and Damelon rode in the Lordsmobile, and my family and I rode in my baby Jeep. The freeway passed near all sorts of interesting places, like Acoma Pueblo, one of the oldest continuously occupied towns in the US (over a thousand years), and some volcanic badlands (El Malpais National Monument). We ran into a huge rainstorm in northern Arizona...we were making jokes that the wet Michigan weather followed us everywhere we went throughout the trip.

We stopped off in Winslow, Arizona for gas, and so that Damelon could be


Quote: Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...


and then we headed to the Meteor Crater. It was HUGE. The horizon was endless, and you could see the huge storm we had driven through. It looked even bigger...and hey!!! It was heading our way!!!

We basicly raced the storm for the rest of the afternoon. Calibaby and I had planned on treating Danlo and Damelon to dinner at the historic Navajo trading post in Cameron, but the storm caught us so we didn't stop. We outran it for a bit, and briefly stopped at an overlook in the Navajo Reservation so Damelon and Danlo could see the canyon of the Little Colorado River...but as the storm began to catch us again, we drove on, hoping to get to the Grand Canyon before the deluge hit.

And we managed! We got to Desert View and its lovely Anasazi style tower on the Rim just a little before the rain came. Oh, I wish I could see faces so filled with awe and wonder as Damelon and Danlo's every day! Neither one had ever seen the Canyon before.

When the rain started in earnest, we headed for Maswick Lodge, where we all had rooms and/or cabins for the night. We rested a bit, and the rain stopped, then all went looking for Damelon, who's room was not near ours or Danlo's (we were in a quad cabin together, with rooms in opposite corners). Somehow Danlo and I got seperatedfrom Calibaby and the boys, and we couldn't find them OR Damelon. So we said to heck with it and went in to dinner, and found Damelon already eating. So we sat together and enjoyed dinner. Dan and the boys came in just as we were finishing...Danlo and Damelon and I went outside to see the stars and smell the fantastic smell of the desert following a rain. When Dan and the boys were done, they collected me for bedtime, and Danlo and Damelon were planning to go for a beer or two at the little sports bar in the main lodge building.






The Grand Canyon is a place that cannot be described in words, or even in photos. The scale is too great, the colors too vibrant. I will always treasure the memory of the faces of Damelon and Danlo seeing the House of Stone and Light for the first time at the watch tower. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Well, today is the one year anniversary of the Elohimfest dinner.

Lady Caam and I have been exchanging a series of messages about how important it was to both of us.

Hopefully she will drop in and tell people what it meant to her, but I will go ahead and tell why it was so important to me.

A few months before Elohimfest, everything in my life seemed to start going wrong. My father got very sick, I got very sick, my older son got a serious concussion, my marriage, never good, was falling apart in a very bad way. After my father died, I went through a very bad place for a long time, with very little support other than from my younger son and a few friends. It was bad enough that I do not even like to think about it, much less talk about it. Let's just say that grief and shock are not pretty things -- they are raw and powerful and very ugly.

Elohimfest was the only thing I had to look forward to. It gave me something to cling to, it gave me hope that better things would happen someday.

The day I spent driving with Damelon, that kind and cheerful man, was the first day I had felt relaxed and happy in six months.

The kindness of people like him, Danlo and his Lady, Fisty, Caam, and Birdy and her hub meant the world to me.

Elohimfest was the first thing that started pulling me out of the worst of the initial grief and depression that claimed me after my father's death. It was the first step in a journey to healing.

I want to give my sincere thanks to all who were there. It meant the world to me. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Hi, duchess! Your Elohimfest journal is wonderful, and essential reading for those of us who couldn't be there. To me, the Elohimfest is a great example of the beneficial, human side of the internet: firstly, able to bring like-minded people together who might otherwise have never known each other's existence. And then, from that, having those very people decide to eventually meet each other in person--and to have a wonderful time of it! Like that Queen song says, "It's a kind of magic."

I'm very happy for all you Elohimfesters--happy that you all had such a joyous time with each other, and of course happy that you got to chat with SRD! For the rest of us, I'm glad that at least we have the Elohimfest interviews on video as a record of that momentous occasion. Seeing SRD talk and gesture in a small window on my computer will likely be the closest I'll ever come to meeting him!

And I was also very happy, of course, with those fabulous pics you and Damelon took of the natural wonders you visited. Ack, how I wish I was there at Andelain myself!

Ah, well. At least looking at the photos, watching SRD on video, and reading your journal allows me to partake a little of that "magic" of the Elohimfest. Truly, it's as if you and the gang went to the land of the Elohim and came back with wondrous tales to tell...

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Perhaps Mr. Donaldson will swing through Canada on a future book tour. You might get to meet him yet.

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Day Seven

Got up around 5AM or thereabouts to see sunrise over the Canyon. Tried to wake up/find the others, but was not able to, so set off for the Rim alone. I was pretty sleepy, and luckily Calibaby did wake up after all, because he found me wandering through the woods, heading in the wrong direction!

Enjoyed sunrise, taking tons of pictures. When the sun was well on its way up, headed back to Maswick, hoping to have better luck finding/waking up the others. Calibaby went to check on the kids and Danlo, and I headed over to try to find Damelon. The light was on in his room, but he wouldn't answer the door, so I was a bit perplexed and sat down for a bit (I was still somewhat groggy). After a couple of minutes he came walking up with an armload of shirts from the gift store. Apparently he had gotten up even earlier than I had, and we had missed each other at the rim. We sat together for awhile and quietly talked, then set off to find everyone else.

We finally collected everyone, and ate breakfast at the lodge. Then we walked over to the rim, found a quiet place, and had our memorial service for Stephen C. and Shadow Lurker. Danlo read one of Stephen's journal entries, and I read Variol Son's tribute to Shadow, breaking down in sobs through the entire thing. It was fitting that we had this at the Canyon, such a sacred place to the native peoples of the area...

Then it was time to say goodbye to Damelon, and that did kill me, as it always does.

After the departure of the High Lord, Danlo, Calibaby, and the kids headed down the Bright Angel Trail into the Canyon. They were planning on going down to the first of the three rest houses on the trail and then come back up. I walked along the rim for a bit, watched the birds and the tourists, and went shopping at the gift store.

When the fellows came back up, I treated them to ice cream. In the meantime, the rain had started up again, but this time it was good, because it made their climb back out of the Canyon much cooler.

Then it was time to head on out...and we saw a herd of elk grazing along the side of the road on our way out of the park.

Our next stop was Petrified Forest National Park. We got there at just about the time the heavens opened up with yet another big storm. We drove the scenic drive, and did pull over once to see a large concentration of the petrified trees. We took shelter under a picnic shelter sort of thing from the rain and the hail! Some of the trees had mineralized with semi precious gem stones, and shone wonderfully in the rain.

Our last stop for the day was in Chinle, closest town to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. We checked into our hotel, ate dinner, and crashed.



When I was up on the Rim waiting for the guys to get back, huge birds were gliding around. Everyone in the area got all excited and were yelling about look at the California Condors!! That began a teasing match that danlo and I continue to this day -- they were condors! no, they were hawks!

The weather was pretty wild when we were in Arizona. The day we drove to the Canyon, there were fierce thunderstorms.At Meteor Crater, it felt gloriously windy! When we were at the Petrified Forest, we got hailed on!

Driving with danlo is very cool. He has travelled so much, and done so many things in his life. He is truly fascinating to talk to. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Day Eight

It is great being able to travel with Danlo, that soft-spoken, gentle, sensitive, and intelligent man. He is so knowledgeable, and has done so many very different things and had so many experiences in his life.

The sun woke us up a bit on the early side today. I opened up the sliding door of our room so we could experience, the cool, clean desert air. The door opened up on a lovely courtyard with a swimming pool. In wandered a darling little black kitten with green eyes. We took turns cuddling with him and making him purr his little head off. Danlo dropped in after awhile and he and Dan went off for some coffee and a bite to eat. The kids and I weren't quite ready to get moving yet (and besides, there was the kitty to pet...)

When the men came back, we all moved out to the pool area. It was a pure joy being able to watch Danlo and Dan and the kids swim and have so much fun. I wasn't able to go in, as the worst of my scrapes from the SRD dinner night (on my left ankle) was still bleeding, and I did not want to stick it in the chlorinated water (I was really paranoid it would sting like crazy). So I sat in the morning sun, breathed the clean, crisp air, and watched the guys have all of that fun in the pool and cuddled the little black kitten.

We then all ate breakfast (or second breakfast as the case might be ) and headed out to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The Grand Canyon is an infinity of rock and light and shadow...hence its alternate name of the House of Stone and Light. Canyon de Chelly is very different, with mazes of side canyons, and with the bottom filled with farms of Navajo families. You cannot see the bottom or the Colorado River in most places from the rim of the Grand Canyon. You can see the bottom and the green farms, beneath the towering red rock cliffs at Canyon de Chelly. de Chelly is filled with ruins of the Anasazi people, hundreds of years old, which you can see from the overlooks. The overlooks are also places where artists come to sell their wares. I bought a little black ceramic bear, with red geometric designs on him. Dan bought jewelry for his mother, and more surprisingly, for me as well.

And at the end of the South Rim Scenic Drive we found Kevin's Watch!!!!!!!!!!!! It is called Spider Rock, and is a sacred place to the Navajo, home of Spider Woman, the benevolent spirit who taught them how to weave...what an awesome sight it was!

We returned to Albuquerque via Window Rock, capital of the Navajo Nation. We stopped to see the rock formations there, including the lovely one that gives the town its name. We dropped Danlo off at his home, then checked into our hotel (we got the room right next door to the one we had had previously. ) And then we ate dinner, at Danlo's recommendation, at a great steak place called the Cooperage.



Canyon de Chelly was wonderful. It is located inside the huge Navajo Reservation, so Navajo artists come there to sell their wonderful artwork. The red rock canyon, with its high cliffs, and green farmland bottom, is also beautiful. Spider Rock was awesome to see.

New Mexico and Arizona are the land.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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A bit more about Old Town Albuquerque:
It is sort of centered around the old Spanish town square/plaza. While we were there, in fact, a wedding was taking place on the grassy plaza. The oldest church in Albuquerque is there, as well as what appear to be some very nice museums. The area is filled with all sorts of alleys and courtyards filled with pretty little gift stores and restaurants. One of the restaurants had this wonderful smell of roasting, spicy meat...I thought we would have physically restrain Fist from going in there, as tea time was rapidly approaching...

Day Nine
We all slept in late. In fact, we slept in so late, we missed the free breakfast the hotel supplies. But that was OK, because we headed over to the Copper Canyon Cafe, the place where we had to say goodbye to Fist and Birdy and her hub...the food is good there...

We then visited the University of New Mexico campus. My older son will be heading to college in a couple of years, and is interested in studying either architecture or engineering, so he wanted to check things out...

Afterwards, we visited Old Town Albuquerque. Dan and the boys had not visited it on Saturday with the group (they had headed out to the waterpark, which turned out to be rented by a huge private party that day, but that is all a whole different story). We went to the restaurant where Damelon and I had gotten our lemonaid and got some of the hot sauces with the naughtiest names to send to some people in Dan's family. And we went to the cat store and bought catnip goodies for Danlo and Tam's cats, and to bring home for our own.

Then we retuned to the hotel. Dan and the kids went swimming, and I slept for most of the afternoon. When I woke up we went over to Danlo and Tam's house, and he led us to a beautiful, shady park where he and the kids, and some kids from the neighborhood, all played soccer. Sweet, sweet Jam came with us, and didn't want to be separated from her Daddy. She kept coming on to the field so she could sit next to Danlo. Unfortunately, Danlo appeared to step in a hole, and hurt his leg. He was in so much pain that I wanted to cry. It was still a beautiful night, with a huge, full moon shining on the horizon, the mountains purple in the distance, all of the happy dogs running free through the huge trees, and the cicadas calling out into the twilight.



It turned out that Danlo had pulled his hamstring playing soccer. Ouch!!

One of the biggest changes in the past year has been one I have been reluctant to refer to, as I am afraid the reminder will hurt Danlo. And that is his losing his sweet doggy Jam. The two of them were very devoted to each other -- a lot of love there.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

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Day 10

Woke up in a more timely fashion today and got breakfast at the hotel. The called Danlo to see how his leg was doing. He said it was doing OK, and to drop by in an hour to go up to Santa Fe.

I am so glad he felt up to going, because you could not ask for a better or more knowledgable person to have with you. (Besides the fact that it is great to spend time with him, period.) He knew just where to go to find street parking near the very congested historic area. He led us through the warren of narrow streets right to the Plaza and the Palace of the Governors (seat of New Mexican government for hundreds of years, beginning in Spanish colonial times). He knew the history behind the lovely, historic buildings, and took us to one of the oldest churches in America. He knew just where to go to get a reasonably priced lunch in that rather expensive place. And he took us to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.

Previously, I had only seen pictures of her work in magazines and books, and always of those huge flowers. The museum had an exhibition of her New Mexico landscapes, painted in the most vivid colors you could ever imagine. Believe me, those books and magazines do not even begin to do justice to her artwork. One painting was The One Tree, complete with the stars...Danlo and I stood there with our mouths hanging open. I need to try to find that painting somewhere on the internet and post a link...

We also drove around Santa Fe for a bit, looking at all of the mansions (some with their own private heliports), and Danlo pointed out the turn to go up the mountain to what had been Roger Zelazny's house.

On the way back to Albuquerque instead of taking the freeway, we took a surface road called the Turquoise Trail. It led through charming old mining towns that have been taken over by artists and turned into art colonies. We stopped off at a lovely place called Madrid, where we stopped for ice cream and cold drinks at an old fashioned soda fountain. I have never had anyone mix up my root beer from scratch before. I just stood there on the front porch for a long time, soaking in the sunshine, the beauty of the mountains, the pretty town and its art galleries. (sigh)

We came back into Albuquerque from the east (a stunning way to come into town, through a gap in the Sandia Mountains, as Damelon pointed out. ) I had mentioned that I would like to buy some New Mexican goodies to take home with me as gifts, so Danlo directed us to this great store, called the Chili Addict. That is where, besdies goodies for my friends, I found the Fist and Faith Memorial Socks.

www.chiliaddictstore.com

www.nmpinoncoffee.com

When we were finished Danlo and his Lady came to the hotel for a little while to soak in the hot tub. His poor leg definately needed that, and she had had a tough day at work and needed the relaxation, too. I stayed behind and printed out some pics for them in the room, as my ankle was still bleeding.Then it was time to say goodbye. That one just crushed me.


Day Eleven

Got up, ate breakfast, packed the Jeep, and got ready to go. There was a lost toddler at the front desk of the hotel. They had found him wandering the hallways, and had called every guest room, but no one would admit to having lost him. He was obviously terrified, and his diaper was soaked through with urine. Poor baby. I can't imagine how afraid I would have been if one of my sons had gotten lost, even for a moment or two, as a baby...

We drove through the desert on a main highway up to Colorado. It was beautiful, as nearly every part of New Mexico we had seen was.

We stopped off at Aztec Castle National Monument to visit the ruins there. People had lived at that site for about 2000 years, though the Pueblo ruins dated back to Chacoan times. The people who live there must have been tiny, as even Mr. Sunshine, age 11, had to duck to get through the doors (I had to crawl to get through some of them, and I am 5'6" . They had a reconstructed great kiva there, and that was really interesting to visit.

We then drove up to Durango, Colorado. This is my second visit to Durango, and both times I have had the same weird and overwhelming feeling I have never had any place else I have ever been -- that I have come home, that this is the place I was born to live in. We are only a couple of blocks from the train station and downtown, with a room that faces the river and its pretty biking/hiking trail. We walked downtown and ate at a good Mexican restaurant. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and the fireworks will be over the river, right outside of our room. And we will get to ride the train through the lovely, snow crowned mountains.

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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Day 12 (Fourth of July)

Got up early and ate the French pastries we had bought at a bakery in downtown Durango the night before. Then walked the two blocks to the train station and boarded our train.

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad follows the Animas River the approximately 40 miles between Durango and Silverton. It goes through some of the most rugged and beautiful snow capped mountains in America, right through the heart of the San Juans. For a while it follows the river canyon, with precipitous vertical cliffs on both sides of the track, straight up on one side, straight down to the river on the other. It passes old mine ruins and waterfalls, through mountain meadows, and crosses rushing streams. It is an all day trip if you take it in both directions, which we did, stopping off for lunch in the lovely historic town of Silverton, high up in the mountains at about 10,000 feet in altitude. We had lunch in a building that is one of the oldest standing historic brothel buildings in what was once one of the wildest mining camps in the Wild West.

After our wonderful day in the mountains, we went to the grocery store and picked up a picnic dinner. We found some comfortable boulders next to the river and settled in to watch the fireworks, which were lovely.

Day Thirteen

This is why four wheel drive vehicles are made.

We drove up to Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway, then took some Jeep trails up into the high peaks from there. We found an old ghost town at the timberline called Animas Forks, where we ate a picnic lunch on the covered porch of one of the old buildings, as we watched a winter mix of rain and snow come down. The meadows there were filled with gorgeous wildflowers, and fat, funny marmots which ran around and played.

We also visited the beautiful historic mining towns of Ouray, famous for its hot springs (called the Switzerland of America because it is nestled in a bowl surrounded by high, snow capped peaks) and Telluride, famous for its skiing and music festivals. Telluride is where a headwaters of the San Miguel River come plunging down some 300+ feet in a waterfall at a rock cliff where the valley ends...gorgeous, just gorgeous. The drive back to Durango was filled with snow capped mountains and meadows filled with grazing elk and deer...

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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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