The Road Trip Continues

 Hello, everyone.

In the last post, the road trip arrived in Pueblo, Colorado. We resume there, with our drive into Denver.

This was a relaxing trip, so we didn't just dash up I25 to the big city. We drove to Colorado Springs on the freeway, and then went along smaller roads. 

(We didn't visit Garden of the Gods park, as we had done that in a previous trip some years back. It's very pretty, but we wanted to see new things. Garden of the Gods is a collection of very interesting rock formations in Colorado Springs.)

We drove west on US24 to Manitou Springs. There are various things in this area, as well as the lovely mountain views while driving. We visited the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwelling attraction. This is privately owned and is much more dog and family friendly than we expected a park service cliff dwelling site would be. 

Apparently each family had one
small, low-ceilinged room.

This is the photo of the nine family townhouse. 

The houses had door-blocking stones to seal the openings at night, both for the doors and for the small windows.

This apartment was unusual because of the 
carefully created lintels on the openings.

The information signs included some interesting information about winters in the area; the cliff dwelling apartments--low ceilinged and one roomed mostly--had no fireplaces in them. The thought is that when the door stones and window stones were in place the family would all snuggle up together under their animal skin or woven blankets (I don't know if these folks had the impressive weaving culture that later Indians have) and would stay warm enough together.

The apartments were visit-able, and the one that retained a balcony was reinforced so (one at a time!) a person could climb the ladder and see what it was like to view the valley from the balcony. 

The little village had what appeared to be a community cooking arrangement and also a community granary.

Upper story apartments were accessed by notches formed in the wall--surely there must have been more than these bare dips! like a rope?--or by wooden ladder. I would have hated to have to run like crazy with children to get ahead of a Blue-Norther type blizzard coming over the mountain if I had to get into one of those upper story apartments!

The pup viewing the parking lot,
photo taken from the balcony of
one of the aparments.

There is also a shop with many interesting things to buy, like books about the Indians who built the cliff dwellings and the natural plants of the area and so on. Plus of course the usual jewelry and tee shirts, etc. The shop is also dog friendly, though we kept our pup outside as we were concerned that she might wag her tail in the wrong place. The shop also included a museum.

We continued west along US24 and took the turn on US285, which went through Fairplay, and then through Breckenridge--pretty place, with dog-friendly restaurants (picnic tables on patio allow your leashed pup) and a war memorial honoring the 10th Mountain Division.

The skiing soldier has a pack on his back, which doesn't show well at this angle. I do wonder if the sculptor forgot to ask for photos of the men rigged up to fight when making this, the pack doesn't look large enough to hold a rifle and I didn't notice one slung over the shoulder either. But it's a lovely memorial anyway, and conveniently in town so it can be viewed while strolling between restaurants and parking spaces. 

A sharp-eyed reader will note that the mountains in this area still had snow on their tops. (Behind the statue.)

After visiting Breckenridge, we took I70 into Denver. As interstate highways go, this is quite scenic. 

More on the Road Trip

 Hello, everyone.

I found some more photos of the road trip.

After leaving Albuquerque, we took the back roads north through the San Luis Valley area. These went through lovely farming country. We found the Tourist Information Center in Alamosa and picked up a map and some brochures, then continued on to US 50, where we turned east toward Canon City (with its amazing rock shop) and into Pueblo.

There were a lot of pretty sights along the highway.

A view of the river at a roadside pull-out. These were small "pocket parks" where people can fish or just relax. Our pup enjoyed the break here. 

The pup all rigged out with her car blanket and pillow.

We slept in Pueblo--this was after all supposed to be a relaxing trip, not a rush-rush deal.

A little travel accessory

 Hello, everyone.

Taking a break from road trip notes, because it looks like I need to track down more pictures.

There was a short rest at home before running up to Houston for a family event. A chance to relax by doing a little embroidery project! I was looking at the Hatch free embroidery designs, which like a number of other free assortments help me to learn new techniques for my embroidery machine.

This was the result:

The patchwork design is one of the Hatch freebies. It's a sample design from LindyG, a bit of Victorian style "crazy quilting." There was an open spot for a monogram, I put a flower there. It came out a little too big, next time I try this I will think ahead and pick something else.

The original was for a notebook cover, very pretty, but I don't have much use for them. I used it on a lingerie bag for travel instead. Call this a trial run for Christmas giving!

It's important to think about balance when choosing the applique fabrics and placing them. The method is in-the-hoop applique, like many of the blocks in the Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt that I attended a Block of the Month class to make. (Actually, the JATW quilt isn't quite finished yet. The top is done, except for the decorations that go on at the end, but it needs to be quilted and bound.)

Printing out an extra copy of the template is recommended, so you have an example of how they will go together even after you cut out pieces of paper to label your fabric chunks with. This is a good pattern for non-busy scraps.

I used a poly duck fabric and backed the embroidery with Polymesh for stability. (Removed the extra Polymesh at the end.) There is a lining as well, some quilting cotton, to cover the stitches.

Zipper was from stash, as well as the various colored bits of quilting fabric for the applique and the threads.

Returning to road trip notes

Hello, everyone.

The last post about the road trip showed the Magdalena Driving Way information sign.

After the drive north on the back roads from Quemado, New Mexico, we took a right on the US highway into Albuquerque.

This was convenient as our hotel was on that side of the city, anyway. Our hotel was also convenient to the Petroglyphs National Monument, which after vigorous city growth is now actually inside of the area of Albuquerque. 

We looked into the site and discovered that it has three walking trail with petroglyphs. (Plus a fourth recreational area with none.) One allows no pets. One only allows pets on the portion of trail that doesn't actually allow viewing of the art. (That seems rather pointless for a traveler that wants to see the art and walk the dog.) The third one is very welcoming to your leashed dog--bring the little bags in case he/she gets the mood to make a deposit alongside the trail--and is also easy to access. 

We parked the vehicle at the little parking lot and headed to the trail. It split very soon and we had to decide whether to go left on the flat sand or right up onto the lava ridge. We went right. (This may be backwards to what a lot of folks do, but it was very much the right thing that day.) 

Walking along the ridge gives a lovely view back toward the city and across to the Sandia Mountains.

The sun was out when we parked the car. The mountains across the way seem to have generated this rain.

This may actually have been from later in the walk--but it does show the view of the Sandias and the oncoming weather.

The weather was why going up onto the ridge first and then returning by way of the mostly-flat sand was so very much the right plan. If the rain is coming, having it hit when you're walking on level sand is infinitely preferable to having it hit when you are trying to descend on a mix of black lava rocks and beige sand.

Our walking companion was also interested in viewing the various plants and rocks. She was very good about staying on the marked path!

Looking back toward the top of the ridge

The way down from the ridge was marked by convenient cables, which were sturdy to grasp if one felt nervous going down the sand and rocks. There were already some petroglyphs to see during the descent. 

There were a lot of petroglyphs to view after reaching the level sand area. In fact, I felt like by walking the less-traveled trail that welcomed dogs we hit the jackpot. There were a lot more petroglyphs to see than we had expected. (No I'm not going to upload every single photo!)

This is a sample of the interesting artwork:

I liked this image of the bird. Is he pulling something out of the water?

The present-day city of Albuquerque has a river. The people who made the petroglyphs seem to have been very interested in water birds, as well as snakes and leaving hand prints and such. 

They made these artworks by using a pebble to chip away the black, weathered surface of the lava stone and reveal the paler underlayer of material. Their art has survived for hundreds of years.

When we saw the first few of the petroglyphs I wondered if this was another way of demonstrating status, based on how difficult the first ones we saw were to reach. Later on we encountered many more that were easy to get at and I had to revise my theory. 

If y'all should find yourself in Albuquerque, this is a very interesting and worthwhile walk. (You can take other interesting walks in the Sandia Mountains on the other side of the city, too, but I think this one is unique.) As far a walking goes, it's not very long (around 2 miles) and the climb is not very great. You can expect to get some good practice at stepping over and around various rocks and then some practice at walking on loose sand. All very good for maintaining conditioning! 

There are no facilities or concessions at this path, but there is a visitors' center which has a flyer with the trail information and a restroom. We understood that there were displays with more information inside the building also, but since we had the pup with us, we moved directly on to walking the trail.

 

Low-carb breakfast, again

 Hello, everyone.

I keep putting up these food pictures to encourage myself.

Today's photo is 2 eggs over-medium, with a big scoop of guacamole on top. Yum.

It looks simple and it is. But it tastes good, and by making it at home there is no hassle of trying to figure out what in the selection is edible and free of sugar, flour, other grains, and other sugars. Not to mention the various forms of altered fats!

I didn't photograph a more recent one, a three egg omelet with some broccoli bits and cheese in the middle. (Dog got the last three bites of it! Two eggs are not quite enough for a whole day and three are a bit too much. Happy dog!)

Something we found west of Socorro

 Hello, everyone! 

We took the highway west from Socorro toward the village of Magdalena.  This is a small town with some scattered houses in the area as well. We learned later, see picture below, that Magdalena was a fairly important place around the turn of the last century.

Magdalena was the trail end and railway connection for a whole bunch of sheep and cattle ranchers.

The ranchers and their hands would stage a "drive" (just like the famous cattle drives from Texas to Dodge City Kansas) with a herd or flock of licestock. The creatures were encouraged to graze and move in a relaxed way. That way they would be in good condition when they reached the corrals in Magdalena for counting and pricing. It would take weeks to move the herds, with the cowhands or shepherds in tow and bringing the chuck wagon and spare mounts and so on.

I had not known of this smaller, west-to-east driving way.

While we were stretching our legs at this historical marker, we found ourselves--in 55F degree air--being snowed upon. 

We drove farther west, seeking the connecting northward paved road towards our lodging place for that night, and came to Pie Town. 

Pie Town is a small hamlet, but people who have an interest in hiking have probably seen references to it on Continental Divide Trail discussions and videos. We of course stopped to talk with a hiker we saw. The CDT through hikers like to stop at Pie Town for a hot meal or some pie. (When you're walking all day with your house and water and rations on your back, you build up an appetite! ) Just so you all know, we saw a sign on the food store that they're closed on Tuesdays...possibly as warmer weather and vacation season arrive they might be able to provide food then, too. I personally recommend that someone wanting to walk through there find a way to ask ahead of time if it looks like they'll be in Pie Town on a Tuesday. 

This was a really neat spot, and when we went west to Quemado and drove north we saw a lot of interesting scenery. (Take this as an advisory that the road, while good, is not a fast drive. Just enjoy the lava flows, the rock formations, and so on.) 

Two pretty flowers

 Hello, everyone. 

We were recently in Socorro, New Mexico. It's a small place, with a very pretty mission church. We parked near there to walk the pup for a bit and I saw some little wildflowers. 

I think they might be some kind of phacelias because of the curl their flower stalk forms.

At this time in Socorro it is early spring I think.