Have had a lot of things going on the past couple of weeks. Here goes with an update:
After Canyon de Chelly we continued on to another of the lesser-known National Parks (at least to us), Mesa Verde in Southwestern Colorado. Turned out to be another of those unexpectedly lucky discoveries for us - we didn't expect the park to be as terrific as it was. This area of the Southwest has a lot of old cliff dwellings dating back about 1,000 years, and Mesa Verde is the home of a high concentration of extremely well-preserved examples of the Pueblo culture. The park is just a pleasure to visit too - easy to get around on good quality park roads, lots of great scenery, plenty of parking, good hikes, and even an efficient tram system and guided tours of several of the ancient sites. Gotta return soon.
Looking down on one of the many cliff villages that dot the landscape here. It's assumed that the Indians built these sites as protection from enemies, but exactly why they were later abandoned remains a mystery.
Several of the ruins require pre-booking for a guided tour, mainly to keep the touristas (meaning us) from overrunning and possibly damaging the sites, but this one was easily accessible and, early on a pleasant summer morning, made for a nice side trip.
These little niches were all over the place.
Then it was on to Albuquerque to visit Mike, Jennah and the grand kids. They had just arrived themselves about a week earlier from Valdosta, but had already organized the household so that there was really nothing for us to help out with. It happened that it was the first week of school for Makenna and Shane, however, so Nana and G'pa assisted in getting them to and from their new schools the first week of the term.
Off to school with Makenna on her first day of the 3rd grade.
And a nice shot of Jennah with Makenna.
After a pleasant 10 days with the family we pushed on to Colorado Springs for a few days. We had been here during last year's Great Western Tour and sort of fell in love with the place. Fact is that the idea of maybe relocating here started percolating in our minds, and now that Mike & Jennah are only a 5 hour drive away really got us thinking..
One of the features we like about the city is the fact that the Garden of the Gods park is located virtually smack in the middle of it. It's a beautiful area of red rock sandstone formations with numerous hiking and walking trails all around...and access to it is free, thanks to the gift of the land to the city by a local philanthropic family many years ago.
The city is located in a beautiful setting, with the mountains of the Front Range framing it prettily to the west. The fact that there are several military bases located here didn't hurt either. The Air Force Academy is located just north of the city and certainly must occupy one of the most dramatic settings of any campus in America.
Long story short: we started looking at apartments, condos and townhouses - casually at first as we idly entertained the idea of how nice it would be to actually live here. After looking at a number of neighborhoods and finding nothing of interest we chanced upon an ad on a website specializing in military rentals, made an appointment with the owner... and found a place that was ideal for us. So...we signed a contract and will be moving to the little townhouse below on October 1st. It's been a bit of a scramble for the past week or so trying to sort all this out while we're in the middle of a summer trip, but Rita flew back to Vancouver the other day to interview movers for a prospective pack out at the end of next month. Once everything is resolved and we've contracted for the move she'll fly back to Denver (we're in Rocky Mountain National Park at the moment), I'll collect her at the airport, and we'll continue with the trip. We're supposed to get home around Sept 16 after a week in Yellowstone, and then will have about 10 days to gear up for the big move to Colorado.
Told you there was a lot going on.
Our new townhouse in Colorado Springs.
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