Tag Archives: Airstream

Revisiting some old memories

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You may not know this, depending on how much you have read this blog, but I grew up traveling with my parents in their Airstreams.  They had 6 of them and gave us their last one, carrying on the tradition to us.  I remember going somewhere every summer during my father’s vacation.  Additionally, we go out on weekends, maybe 1-2 a month, with the trailer.  There were many things I have been fortunate to see in these travels and I am trying to share this with Roxie so we will at times do and see things that bring back memories for me.  Durango was one such location as my father loved trains and I must have ridden that train 3-4 times prior to this time but I could share this one.

This part of the country (the 4 corners region) has a lot of memory potentials for me.  My father really loved the desert and photographic locations.  Our next stop was Monument Valley (memories) but on the way was the true Four Corners.  Many, many years ago we stopped there as I was a child and a picture was taken.  I have remembered that picture for years and vowed to recreate it.  The Four Corners monument has changed quite a bit since my first visit.  The Native Americans are currently operating it, they have invested quite a bit with upgrades and they have many vendors circling it.  There was none of this back in 1967, and no admission charge.  Here are the two photos with about 50 years difference:

I noticed that 50 years made it harder to get up off the ground!  Notice I got the Airstream in the background on the new one also!

After the short flashback stop, we continued on to Goulding’s campground at Monument Valley.  The lodge has quite a history attached to it and the valley.  This is another place I am sure we stayed at during our visits here in the past.  Here are some campground shots:

Monument Valley has also changed.  Native Americans are the caretakers of the valley.  You pay admission to get to the visitor’s center which lets you also drive the scenic route through the valley.  You can hire guides that can take you on tours to the restricted areas of the valley.  We decided to utilize our truck and drive it ourselves:

The left and right mittens.

I vaguely remember some of these views but it was all new to Roxie and she got to see the beauty of the area.  However, there is not much else to do here.  We took a short drive north and back again to get a different view of the rocks.  On the way out, on a long stretch, I noticed a lot of people on the side of the road and IN the road ahead.  I looked out my rear view mirror and noticed we were coming up to Forrest Gump Point.  I remembered it was here but forgot about it.  On the way back we got an on the road photo:

As we were leaving I recreated one other memory.  Here is another then and now shot to leave you with:

Cortez CO

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Our next stop after Durango was Cortez.  A whopping 40 miles but such a difference from Durango in the towns.  Durango was very mountainous and touristy.  Cortez is not in the mountains and has some tourist stuff but is a basic little town.  It, however, has quite a bit in and around it.  We were staying for 4 nights so we had some time.

Just north of the town is Dolores, CO that is a historic area in its’ own right and part of the loop road that contains the Million Dollar highway.  On up the road are Ouray, Telluride and then Silverton.  Since we had already been to Silverton, we opted not to take that drive, this time.

Instead, we veered a bit west from Dolores and went to the Canyons of the Ancients Visitors Center.  It was a very nice center and had lots of information.  We found out about a nice circular drive to take to see some Native American ruins, but not that day, the next.

We headed north and down some nice county roads to see the Lowry Pueblo.  They had a Kiva that was in very good shape and you are even allowed to go in an look at it.  The inside walls were supposed to be plastered but that has long since worn away:

Here is a view of some of the overall complex:

We got back on some of the county roads and headed to our next stop, the Painted Hand Pueblo.  This required a bit more hiking than the first one as it was farther away.  There were many ruins such as a tower build on an overhang:

But this is where the Pueblo got its name.  You should be able to see in these two photos, one bigger than the other, the ‘painted hands’.  I think someone put their hand on the rock and blew pigment/paint on the hand which created the ‘negative’ image.  Can you find them?

Here is a picture of my traveling companion near another set of ruins.  She has her extra legs with her:

We trudged our way back to the truck and were very tired.  We continued driving the loop and ended up in Hovenweep National Monument.  Now we were in Utah!  Hovenweep has their own set of ruins but the day was running out of daylight and we were running out of steam so we did a short, paved walk and took a picture of them.  They have a campground there so we might be back!

Cortez and the area turned out to be interesting in a number of other ways.  We went to Dolores one day to walk their hiking trail that went along a river.  We saw a Galloping Goose at a museum there.  A Galloping Goose, of which 7 were made, was built from a car chassis.

At the local grocery store, I saw an interesting sight drive up.  I saw some guy drive up on his riding lawn mower towing a trailer that contained his old lady.  Here it is in a senior citizen spot:

We saw an Airstream as a coffee shop (The Silver Bean), with another one behind maybe for remote events?

And finally, this shows what a classy town Cortez is: