Utah and Colorado

I can't believe how much beauty I missed when I drove through Colorado from Golden on through Utah in the dark a week ago.  Today, I spent so much time looking that I didn't get nearly as far as I expected to.  I'm in Eagle, Colorado, staying again in a motel - I guess I have spoiled myself.  I wanted to stop early tonight so I can prop my feet up to cure the swelling that doesn't want to go away. 

The best way I can describe today is to post photos - but I haven't downloaded the camera yet.  I traveled through all kinds of mountains and strange terrain and tried to take pictures of everything.  I stopped a lot, stopped in all of the rest stops and in several towns.  I had lunch in a very Mexican restaurant - wonderful chimichanga - the waitress and most of the other 5 customers spoke Spanish.  I haven't been able to practice my Spanish, I apparently put two cd's into the same slot and wrecked my cd player.  The town the restaurant was in must have been successful at one time, but now it was pretty much a ghost town.  There were many vacant houses and all businesses on the main street, except the restaurant, were vacant and looked like they had been that way for a very long time.

I stopped in a couple more towns, both in Utah and Colorado, where there were modern chain businesses near the freeway, but a mile down the road was completely different.  Lots of shacks similar to the deserted buildings in the Mojave Desert.  I couldn't figure out where the people who worked in those modern businesses could be living.

The rest stops in Utah had Native Americans selling jewelry and pottery, and one had a little Chihuahua that looked just like the one I took photos of last year.  He was chasing a lizard that scared the owner - I never saw the lizard, but I heard it hiss when the lady screamed and jumped into her truck- I never heard a lizard hiss before.  Anyway, to be polite,  I bought some earrings.

I did some more shopping miles further east.  There was a funny low log-style shop surrounded by pieces of driftwood with a name something like "The WOW Store".  The inside was filled with beautiful artwork - handmade pool tables, bedroom furniture, walking sticks and all sorts of things made from wood, even including a coffin.  The proprietor looked, with his Hemmingway-ish white beard, like a movie character.  He started talking about what he could do with some old hay hooks making them into towel racks, and then showed off a great yard sale find.  At first glance, it could have been a kerosene lantern, but it was very big, more than a couple feet high, with a metal bowl on top - filled with lead.  A closer look proved it to be a stove for melting lead for bullets - probably dating to the Civil War era and probably used by the army.  The man took it apart to show me how it worked and it was fascinating.  Then he started telling me about a woman he yard sales with - she has an 8th grade education (and is younger than I am - how did anyone in this country in this age miss out on high school?) and is a self-taught artist.  Her wood carvings and paintings were amazing - she is one of those people who can look at a piece of wood and see the things in it waiting to be carved out.  I wish I could have met her.

Well, I'm off to prop my feet up for a while...