Mush! To The North Pole...

Seeing as this stands as the third chapter in the MAW trip and for those that passed remedial math and are saying to yourself that that must mean there have to be at minimum two other chapters... you would be correct, there are. I haven't yet figured how best to link this all together. To have you go to the first one, or to the second one, or give you the option to go to either. You can see the potential problem here, the beginning of future chapters will be chocked full of links.

Gimme a sec to think about this...

Okay, I've decided, this is going to be the way I go... following this link (Finally) Here Comes The Sun will take you back to chapter 2 which near the top of that post (7th line to be exact... 7th line with text that is) is another link taking you to chapter 1. Going forward, each subsequent MAW chapter/post will have a link back to the previous MAW chapter/post at or near the top; then at the end of each post there will be a link enabling you to go on to the next once the "next" has been written and posted. Notice how I getcha going backwards and forwards? I will leave it to you the reader... all 3 1/2 of you... to decide how far back you want/need to go. Whether you need to go back one... if you are in need of a refresher, or you are hitting the MAW trip for the first time and you want/need to go back all the way... the choice is up to you. I recommend starting with the first entry... it's all so (yawn) captivating... and read your way straight through every time to get the full effect of the 21+ day trip... by the time I'm done, it may take 21+ days to read it. Okay, to the nuts and bolts of this chapter...

Ahhhhh' Picking Up Those Good Vibrations...

Where were we? Oh yes... falling asleep at the Mexican place and getting a generously donated and free meal. Needless to say, we were exhausted and we crawled back to our tent and promptly fell asleep. It felt too good to be lying down first of all, and secondly, it was nice to not be in the Sequoia. One drawback to driving for the equivalent of a double shift (and then some) is the body tingle. You don't notice it when you're driving since... well... you're driving. It's not until you stop and do something like lie down that you feel it... all 1,109 miles of of it. We've had plenty of moments in our lives (Julie and I) since we've been married that sleep felt really, really good. This ranks right up there near the top... well for me anyway!

Location, Location, Location...

When we set about booking out our trip and securing our tent sites at the various locations, we knew that there was a better than good chance that the nights would be on the cold(er) side. When we spoke with the owner of the Duck when booking, he told Julie that he normally is closed by the time we were going to be there, but this year, he decided to stay open another month because of the warm weather. Turns out that the day we pulled out was the day they closed for the season. Anyhow... we're in a pretty good location being near things like The North Pole and Pike's Peak, which incidentally, the Cog Railway wasn't running anyway due to some fires that were occurring on the mountain. Good thing that we didn't bust our hump to try and make it on time anyway. Truth be told, I don't think we could've made it if we wanted... but it all worked out in the end.

The North Pole ya say?

Yup, The North Pole... seems we were a bit further north than expected. It's basically Santa's Village (for those readers from/familiar with the Chicagoland area) in a much nicer setting. It's not the first time we've been to the North Pole, we've been there once before and the kids (half of the crew we now roll with) really liked it. Jake didn't know how much he liked it yet since he was only a few months old at the time. This time around Emmah and Nick were quick to let him (along with Rachael and Lyndsey) know how much fun it is there.

Morning Already?

We wake to a sunny, but crisp, morning and fire up the camp stove ready for a hardy breakfast of Mexican leftovers... for Julie and I that is. The kids were having oatmeal (as did I) and eggs. Julie got the water going on the stove and... hey, we don't have any bowls... a slight oversight. We thought it a good idea to use some kids cups we had picked up for the trip. We really didn't have much of a choice, it was either the cups or our hands. Dad... I need a spoon. Julie... spoons? Hmmm... no spoons, another slight oversight. (If we chose in our hands neither would be necessary) You ever try and "drink" oatmeal? It kind of slides down the cup towards you in glob to which you kind of suck a chunk off of. Mmm Mmm Mmm chunky.

Feeling somewhat recharged and ready to enjoy the day, we finished up our breakfast and proceeded to clean up, but not before the bees started showing up. As the sun's rays made their way to where we were, taking us out of the shadows, so too did the bees come. It's like the sunlight was harboring the bees... it wasn't like a swarm or anything, but it was more than a few. After duking and ducking it out, we managed to finish cleaning up which included making a clothes line to hang some towels from Julie's shower... we can't remember bowls or spoons, but we remembered our clothes pins damn it! So a couple of towels as well as Ana's sleeping bag was hung... it was wet, but we think it was from her sweating... that would be the sleeping bag's wet from sweat, not Julie's towels.

Ready or not North Pole here we come!

Everyone Knows It's Windy... I Mean Lesley...

For whatever reason, we had yet to make contact with Lesley.

< < < < < < That's (Auntie) Lesley... she's the old(er) one.

By the time we reach the Pole a gusty wind has arrived with us. As we press on against some pretty B I G gusts (we'll hear more about them later) we're left wondering if we're going to even see Lesley. Perhaps she will blow in on a gust ala Mary Poppins. She knows where the campground is located, after all she reserved a site. So our thinking is that if nothing else, if we fail to make contact, then we hope to see her at the campground come evening. After a couple of hours of walking around (all the while I kept pulling out the phone looking to see if I can get even one bar) we hold on to the hope that with any luck we can squeeze out one quick call... just one. For the record here... this is not the place to be a T-mobile customer... specifically the North Pole. I kept on waiting for an icon of a confused guy shrugging his shoulders with a bunch of question marks encircling his head to pop up.

The kids are throughly enjoying themselves...

No spinning the tubby thingy...

<<<<<<

First mate Lyndsey and Captain Rachael, or is that First mate Rachael and Captain Lyndsey?
>>>>>>

Like who's ever heard of a green ladybug?
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Hey! Who's driving this thing anyway?
>>>>>>

Not watching the road & one hand on the wheel, not exactly textbook driving.
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That's when I fell for the leader of the pack!
>>>>>>

After we break for lunch we press on... pressing on

Can You Hear Me Now?

As we do we come upon a spot that I have a signal (one bar) and I literally freeze in my tracks and punch the buttons... please stay connected long enough. This hot-spot is smack in the middle of a walkway intersection. I stop. Julie and the kids keep going. It took a second or ten to notice that I was no longer with them... lucky for me I didn't drop off a mountain. Anyhow, I manage to make contact which allows us to let her know where we are and where to meet us. Whew... glad that's over with!

Okay... Lesley arrives (see picture above) and now we are one big happy mixed up mass of people. She had mentioned to me on the phone that there are hurricane force wind warnings out for the area... no joke! It was insane. Now that we have Lesley, we have a phone that gets a signal and now have the ability to make contact with Scott.

Scott? Now who the heck is Scott?

Not only were we trying to reach Lesley, we were trying to reach another of Julie's friends... Scott. Scott also lives in Colorado and we visited him and his wife a long time ago. We were going to try and hook up with him as well. He (through email with Julie) was going to try and come down (with his kids) to our campsite for a fire and roasting of marshmallows. We did manage to make contact and plans were made for the evening.

North Pole

...check.

Blowin' In The Wind...

Knowing what I know about weather... I am an armchair weatherman after all... I know that winds like these are likely ushering a front through. They were. I am well aware of how fast the weather changes in the mountains having personally experienced it few times. This was shaping up to be one of those times. As the day wore on, the sun had given way to clouds and with that the winds had started packing a bit of a chill in them. By the time we were getting ready to leave, (the park closed at 5pm) we were all rosy cheeked as it was downright chilly... especially if compared to the weather from earlier in the day. Chilly with drizzle and gusty winds... a most desirable combination if I do say so myself. Fortunately, the campground is just down the road as it was no big deal making it back to camp... 'cept for the fact that Lesley still had to set up her tent. That and we realized as we turned on to the campground drive that the sleeping bag and towels were hanging up. Well, they were hanging up when we left them.

Now no one should have to set up a tent in the rain, so we were not about to buck conventional wisdom. I know, you all are saying... Jeff, what could you possibly know about bucking wisdom? I'd have to say that I don't have a bucking clue about bucking wisdom, furthermore I am not bucking wise enough to know how to bucking answer that. Meanwhile, as we were waiting it out... for it to stop spritzin'... some of us packed into Lesley's caravan for some munchies. Turkey jerky, pretzels and peanut butter, chocolate teddy grahams and peanut butter and some cherry tomatoes. Little did I realize that this was going to be what was to sustain me through the night or I might've had a few more tomatoes. The rain stopped and so it was time for Lesley's tent to go up. Done. Now it's time to figure out what we're going to be doing for the rest of the night.

Well, we knew Scott was on his way and that we were going to be having a fire... in spite of the wind. Yeah, but what are we doing for dinner? How about some pizza? Okay, but getting pizza away from Chicago is a risky proposition at best. Well, the Duck Dude did all right by us last night, let's tap him again. So it was off to see the Duck Dude! He recommended a couple of places based on what we were looking for in a pizza. He let us take his menu book back with us... like this was going to help us!

Decisions, Decisions... Say Goodnight Gracie.

Figuring out where from and what kind of pizza to get proved to be too much for our soggy wind battered brains to figure out... so pizza was losing out to time. Graham crackers... check. Chocolate... check. Marshmallows... check. Fire...? Fire...? Fire... check. Dinner...? Check!

By this time night has fallen and I'm working on getting the propane lamp going so we all don't have to look like a bunch of misplaced out of work miners walking around with all our headlamps on. Hey... Scott's here! The trick to getting the lamps to work is to burn the mantles first... it's not really a trick per se, but more like a tricky necessity. You have to tie the mantles on, (I needed to replace the old ones since they were torn) put the lamp together, strike the match, get it inside the glass (before the winds blows) and get the mantle to ignite. Actually, that's not the hard part, getting the damn mantle to stay lit proved to be the trick. For those that don't know, the mantles have to be pre-burned (without gas) before they will work... kinda crazy if you ask me. About a box of matches later... we have light! Now we can look at each other without squinting at the light being shone at each other in order to see. It was like talking to a light beam.

Boy this bundle of wood burned really fast... time for another bundle... you would think that at the higher elevation (around 7500') it would burn slower due to the lack of oxygen. I will attest to the lack of oxygen as I huffed and puffed pushing the stroller around the North Pole... it's rather hilly, some fairly steep. Old(er), fat and grossly out of shape... the last place you want to go and push a stroller around is at around 7500'. Anyhow, the wind is really becoming more constant with the gust intensity increasing. It's like placing a jet turbine on one of the tornado siren poles. You know how the sound gets louder as it, the siren, is facing you? The wind was like that... semi-moderate wind, then W H O O S H... big sustained gust. As the gusts would hit, they would blow embers towards the tent... not the kind of thing you want being rolled toward your tent. "Daddy, my sleeping bag is REALLY warm!" Fortunately nothing was burning that wasn't supposed to be burning.

After several hours of talking, laughing, roasting and eating the gooey concoctions, it was time to say goodbye to Scott and his kids. After all, we were pulling out in the morning making our way to Durango with a short stop at Garden of the Gods. We cleaned up and I waited until the fire was out (out enough that there was no danger of us going up in flames as we slept) before turning in. Funny how an air mattress and a sleeping bag can feel so good. I turned off the tent heater and went to sleep.

Gudemans Gudemans Let Me Come In...

Not by the graying hairs on my chinny chin chin. About 3am we were awakened to the sound of some light (but heavily wind driven) rain on the tent. Julie recalled thinking "great, now we'll have to pack a wet tent". Well mother nature took care of us because the winds that started earlier in the day actually saw the gusts persisting well into the night. It's just a guess on my part, but the tent was dry within seconds of the rain stopping. That night was one of the windiest I have ever experienced. Perhaps it was because we were "in it" as opposed to being in a house. It sure felt like we could have been blown away. I wasn't worried that the tent was going to fail as much as I was afraid that the wind might topple one of the trees that was towering over us... I could kind of hear them creaking. It was THAT windy! Adding to the uneasiness of the strong winds was the air had chill in it... it was quite coldish and I imagine the wind chill was in the 20's. Since I couldn't sleep, I played with the notion of getting the heater going again... I figured that it couldn't hurt. I'm not sure that it helped, but at least this way if someone were to complain, I could say "heater's on".

When I woke to the gentle wind slapping at the tent, I discovered that nature was calling from within. I was not about to walk across the campground to the office building where the bathrooms and showers were to take care of my business... not with the chill and the wind. The tree right outside the tent will do for me. I collected myself, got my boots on and made my way outside the tent... and that was bad enough. The sky was clear as a bell... there was almost a full moon out (not mine) and it was actually quite bright and quite beautiful outside, in spite of the cold wind. I'm sure me relieving myself along side some tree in the moonlight was only enhancing the splendor.

It's 6am now and nature's calling again 'cept now the lights are on outside which meant this time I was going to HAVE to walk to the building to go. After TCB... I sat on a couch that was in there to warm up a bit. As I did Lesley walked in with a look on her face like was the heck was that? I asked her if it was windy by her, to which she laughed and then replied that she had to go since 3am, but was afraid to get out of her tent for fear that it would be gone when she got back having been blown away. To put it another way and perhaps in perspective, when everyone was up and moving, including the owner of the Duck, he mentioned that that was the windiest he's ever seen it there. He said that he's never seen anything like that since he's been there. It's us I tell ya... it follows us, we are the bad karma team. It's like those ugly extra pounds... no matter how fast I move, no matter how fast I turn around, they are still there.

Wagons Ho...

Now that everyone is up and moving, it's time to get this show on the road. Eat, break camp, pack up and roll on out. It's a difficult task to pack up if you have to spend better than half your time looking for and watching wandering kids... to say nothing of how long it's going to be to pack up in it's own right. Lesley being a single traveler was done and ready.

We were not.

Three air mattresses to deflate, fold, roll-up and pack. Eight sleeping bags to stuff. Six pillows to pack up, three blankets to fold and roll and pack. When we travel, we allow each kid to take a "friend" if they want to, some decided that they needed to take several... they too needed to be packed. This was just what was inside the tent itself... there's still the matter of breakfast clean-up, cooler and so on. To help ease the strain of keeping an eye on the little kids, we thought it a good idea to sit them down in the truck and pop in a DVD for them to watch as we packed. This naturally requites the truck to be "on" in some capacity... not running, but on... which means the keys (my keys) were going to be inside the truck.

In my haste to get on the road when we were leaving home, I perhaps didn't pack wisely. That is to say that in order to get to the tent, the bags and mattresses and such, I was going to have to literally unpack the entire truck. A new order had to be put in place since I didn't want to have to do this every single time we set-up and broke camp. Setting up and breaking down... even in the best of conditions/situations was at minimum one hour. Breaking down this time wasn't one of those times. Like I said, keeping an eye on the kids prompted us to toss 'em in the truck and throw in a DVD. The ones to get "tossed" were Lyndsey, Ana, Rachael and Jake. Emmah and Nick were helping best they could. We went about trying to re-pack as swiftly as we could... as we really need to get on the road since we still had a bit of driving ahead; imagine that.

At some point Rachael and Jake had had enough of Blue's Big Musical and opted to get out leaving Ana and Lyndsey behind. I went to get something out of the truck, or needed to put something in the truck, I can't recall which. Anyhow, I went to open the door and hmmm... locked. Hey Jule, where are your keys... the truck's locked. A bit of a contemplative pause follows. You don't know where they are do you? No, I do... they're in the truck. Hahahaha, Hohohohoho, Hehehehehe... Waaaaaaaah! We're never getting out of here.

Is There A Locksmith In The House?

Seems that Lyndsey had grown tired of sitting and watching the movie and in the process of moving about in her boredom, locked them in and us out. She was moving about in there like a monkey in a pen... moving from front to back and back to the front again. Lyndsey... Lyndsey see that button? Yes, that one... put your finger on it. Push it. No, Lyndsey, push it harder. No the other side of the button. "I can't!" This wasn't working. Lyndsey, can you open the door? She put her hand on the lever and, well gave a half hearted yank. Nope... Now Julie and I are pressing our foreheads to the window of the truck trying to encourage her to open. This was not working and I wasn't having a good feeling about this. Julie then had a divine manifestation. Lyndsey, you want some juice? And with that the door flung wide open. Behold the power of juice.





At long last, we are packed and ready to roll... yes, later than planned. Say good-bye to Cascade and the Lone Duck... look out Garden of The Gods and Durango.





The Lone Duck
< < < < < <

Okay, one of the only reasons we were going in the first place (it's not like there was time to get out and see any sights) was so that we could get a picture on the bench in front of the Trading Post... aka the gift shop. The few times we've been here, in our varying stages of children, we've sat on the bench and had snapped a photo. We now take up the whole bench! Tensions started running a little high since we were taking W A A A A Y too long in the gift shop and with the photo shoot. Time was running on by with daylight hours burning.

Garden of The Gods... check.

And You Run & Run To Catch Up With The Sun, But It's Sinking... Racing Around To come Up Behind You Again...

And in this case we were driving trying to catch up with the sun. As stated in an earlier post... you can't outrun the sun... you can't catch up with it either... in case you were wondering.

The sun's not sunk yet... rolling down the highway on the fly car photography.

< < < < < <

We are way behind now since we left the campground so late and then added to our delay with taking too long at the Garden of The Gods. So we press on and on and on and on. We are doing exactly what I didn't want to be doing... heading on to and into mountainous roads with heavier timber chasing a fading sun and fading temps. Knowing that another tent set-up is looming.

By now it's getting on dinner time and well, it's a Sunday and we are in the middle of neither here nor there Colorado. Upon looking at the atlas, we saw some towns that we thought that might be large enough to support some type of food place. They were not and did not, besides, I don't imagine that here's much call for staying open late... let alone staying open late on a Sunday. So when we came upon the Junction Restaurant in Pagosa Springs it was like a beacon calling and drawing us in. The light was on and it was open, SOLD! I believe they went to the school of "taking creative liberties" with their descriptions of the meals, but don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it just was midland at best. The reality was that we were in a pinch and it saved our butts cuz by the time we were going to be pulling into Durango, there was going to be no making of anything but sleep.

A Marvelous Night For A Moondance...

Not so marvelous if you were in the cabin next to our tent sight. We arrived at the Durango KOA late... like after 11 and bordering on it being Monday.Toyota in their infinite wisdom designed the Sequoia so that you can't turn off the headlights unless you turn off the truck.

Ladies -n- Gentlemen I give you the Durango KOA upon our arrival.
< < < < < <

Well, you can turn off the headlights, but the daytime running lights remain on and the only way to get them off is to turn off the truck. It's never been a problem per se around home, perhaps more of an annoyance than anything but this design flaw was brought to light (no pun intended) when our neighbor in the cabin wasn't too thrilled with the light that was entering his cabin. He actually came to the door in his robe and looked to be a bit perturbed. It's not like the cabin was totally awash in our light, it was more of an indirect lighting effect. Nonetheless, he didn't appear too chipper about it. Setting up our tent at this hour with a disgruntled neighbor was not going to happen. It was around this time that we decided that it would be best to car camp... something that was discussed earlier at dinner, but now was being put into action.

Lesley opted to set up her tent since hers set up like in five minutes... her site was across the road from ours and not in any danger of cheesing anyone off. We still needed to pullout blankets and some sleeping bags though. I slept in the drivers seat of Lesley's caravan with Lyndsey sleeping on the little middle bench seat. Emmah slept in the passenger's seat while Nick and Jake both slept in the back on the floor of the van. Julie slept with Ana and Rachael in the truck. I was the only one to sleep without any kind of bag or blanket, I slept in my hat and gloves and layered up. It's about 6am and my legs are COLD... I need to start this van up for some heat. Hopefully, I won't be pissing anyone off... actually too bad if I do, I'm ch-ch-ch-chilly!

Grub rustlin'...

< < < < < <

It's all good with Lyndsey... as long as there's milk in the cup.

> > > > > >

Time to do some grub rustlin' and then hit the shower before we head on out to Cortez... merely a short hour away. It will be nice to just drive next door and have all kinds of time on our hands. We were going to go to Mesa Verde, which was en route in between Durango and Cortez, but that plan was abandoned once we found out that the backpack carrier (for Ana) didn't make the trip to Durango and got left behind at the Duck. Arrggg...

Whew! That was a long one... lemme ice down my fingers here.

Next up... Cortez and Four Corners (and about that backpack)

Next Chapter ---> Aiming For A Corner...

KUIYTAP