Yahoo!!! A Super Jackpot Day!!!

Not only did I get a run in, but I also got in a shower!  Add to that the amazing family I already have and the beautiful scenery.  I am one fantastically lucky gal!

I only had my phone with me while jogging, so the views were way more spectacular than my phone camera could capture.  Our camping neighbor, Tom, who happened to be a high school science teacher, suggested I try the Knife Edge Trail which was only two miles long with only sixty-two foot elevation gain.  I was so glad he suggested the trail as it offered some great views of the Cortez  far below.  I was explaining to Tom when I returned from my run that I hit the views of Cortez about twenty minutes into the run.  It is usually about twenty minutes into a run when I finally remember why I love running.  I asked Tom if he felt the same way.  He agreed.  He offered that it might take that long for muscles to warm up or that it might in fact be hypoxia settling in.  The altitude has made me feel like I have lost all of my conditioning.  I am looking forward to going back home to around 1,000 feet elevation and being able to complete a moderate hike without being out of breath. I wonder too if it took me twenty minutes on my run to finally get over my fear of a bear popping out of every bush.  When I was finally able to lose myself in my running I could feel the tension slide off of me.  It made me think about how with most things, if we can just get beyond our fear we can finally allow ourselves to enjoy life. It reminded me of something a friend once asked, “Are you dying to live or living to die?’

At 10am we headed towards Cortez to drop Scott off for a bike ride. While Scott was biking we headed to Wal-Mart and the library.

While at Wal-Mart Cody found a quarter.  He kept rubbing it against the cart making music.  Since the kids were distracted there were no sibling “love” interactions involving injuries.  The sign at the library was interesting.  Actually there were many interesting signs at the Cortez Public Library.  This one in particular made me smile at the line about, “Children who are crying, screaming, or screeching in play should be subdued.”  Really?  They have problems with people not trying to keep their kids quiet at the library?  The sign got better mentioning about how the children will be turned over to the police if parents are not there within five minutes of closing time to pick up their kids.  The sign in the bathroom stated, “No alcohol allowed in the library. If you have been consuming alcohol you must leave.  Violators will be prosecuted.”  I have never been to a library with such signs. Apparently some people are having some wild times at the library. Oh my!

Brooke enjoyed the kayak and tepee in the library.  We went to pick Scott up and he called stating he was still out on the trail.  So…we went back to Centennial Park for a few minutes of play.

The pictures below are of Scott’s two and a quarter hours mountain biking trip on Phil’s World trail four miles east of Cortez, CO.  The trailhead was found off of Route 160 four miles east of Cortez.

In Durango we went for a family bike ride along the Animas River.  Two minutes into our ride we were sprinkled on, but only five minutes down the trail we were baking in the sun again.

There were quite a few kayakers playing in the waters of the Animas River.  We stopped and watched for a while.  I think I even saw a little envy in Scott’s eyes.  We saw a kayaker lose his boat, jump out of the water, run along the river, jump back into the river at an eddy and then swim a rapid in order to retrieve his boat.  We stopped to fill up our waters and the kids took the opportunity to start a water fight with me.

There were ice cream shops strategically placed along the pathway.  Scott suggested we stop at Burger King for 89 cent cones instead of spending over ten dollars on ice cream.  The smiles on the kids’ faces says it all.  Actually, they were so excited about the play equipment they didn’t even finish all of their ice cream.  It was hard to get them to leave BK because once again they had raided the brochures.  I told them no more brochures as we had already stopped at a Visitor’s Center along the bike ride and already filled my Camelback with brochures.  So the kids took the brochures and ran into the bathroom giggling all the way.  They came out walking stiffly because they had stuffed brochures in their shorts. We told them that wasn’t going to work.  They protested, but biked on.  So then we were happily biking along when I noticed Cody’s ankle looked a bit swollen. I was concerned at first and then it hit me.  “Cody, do you have a brochure stuffed into your sock?”  He didn’t answer, but I could hear his smile from behind him.

We arrived back at the library where we had parked to start our ride and Cody told Brooke, “She knows.”  Brooke was all proud of herself that she had told Cody to stuff the brochure they really wanted to keep into their socks and put the ones they didn’t care about into their shorts to distract us. Wow.

The brochure they just had to have was on locations of Native American art in the area.  They called it a treasure map.  While Scott was loading the bikes back on the van I heard a train whistle.  We were chatting with a local and she asked if I knew about their train, one of the last coal powered trains in the area.  She told us to run down to the tracks and we might be able to catch a glimpse of the train.  Cody was SO EXCITED.

We headed to Junction Creek Campground tucked in the San Juan National Forest site C-15 for the night.  The area brought memories back for Scott of when he was sixteen and he and his buddy decided to hike the area and depend on local streams for water.  There was only one small problem: all the local streams were dried up.  Scott tried to locate the exact location on the Colorado Trail of where he and his buddy were, but the mystery still remains.

After a dinner of Taco Mac, Brooke’s favorite, the kids gave Scott and I tours of their new clubhouse in the woods.  I was plugging away on the blog at the picnic table and then everyone disappeared.  I suppose I was excited for the chance to sit quietly with nature, sip some wine, and get some work done, but then it became dark and I started to wonder where everyone went.  So, I set up the sleeping mats in the tent to pass the time and the next thing I knew Brooke popped into the tent and so did an absolutely adorable little girl with blonde curls.  I asked Brooke who the little girl was as she bounced around and giggled.  Brooke said the little girl’s name was Sydney, but the little girl kept saying Grace.  Brooke looked at me and said, “Does it really matter her name mom? She’s fun.”  Good point. Then the little girl’s brother popped his head into the tent in a protective big brother fashion.  I popped out of the tent to greet Scott, Cody, and Sydney Grace’s dad, Doug.  Scott and the kids had wandered down to the Colorado Trail from our campsite and run into Doug and his two kids.  We had run into their family biking along the Animas River earlier in the day.  Doug invited us over for some wine and s’mores.  Yahoo!

We enjoyed some fantastic company, stories, and s’mores around Doug and Patricia’s campfire.  Patricia, Doug’s wife, was hysterical.  She was very similar to me in regards to my bear-phobia.  They actually had two cans of bear spray.  She was teasing about how she could sleep with a can in each hand.  Somehow we forgot our bear spray.  Scott actually commented that I haven’t been quite as nervous about the bears on this trip.  Which is true.  That still doesn’t mean I want to stumble upon one or snuggle with it in the tent, but I have tried not to let consume my thoughts.  We have camped quite a bit and only come across bears a handful of times.

Thanks Doug and Patricia for a great night!