5/18/2018 Celebrating our Engagement Anniversary

We left Angel Fire about 8:45 am and rolled into the concrete campground at Walmart in Alamosa, CO about 11:30 am. Along the drive after Taos, NM we went past Earthship Biotech. The name Earthship Biotech kind of freaked me out and since its right in the middle of thousands of acres of prairie land it was just downright strange. There are unique shaped homes with the majority of the home being underground. You can’t miss it the pictures. It was so random in such a desolate area that I couldn’t help but hit the ‘ole Google. Had we known you could take tours we probably would have signed up. Please check it out https://www.earthshipglobal.com/.
We had four elk in our backyard in AF last night and today on the drive we saw alpaca, big horn sheep, elk and hundreds of nasty prairie dogs. They are digging up NM and CO and apparently they carry disease and just nastiness. Our friends from AF said they never miss an opportunity to hit one. Literally, they are everywhere.
I’ve included some pics from Taos, NM which is a neat little artsy town with adobe architecture that I thought people would find interesting. We have a GoPro video and Jeff and I will try to figure out how to upload it to You Tube. We are going to create a link to upload all of our pics too, the good the bad and the ugly! This blog just doesn’t support the number of pictures we are taking. Had I been traveling without the big blue bus, I would have stopped and stayed a while.
After arriving in Alamosa (the blue and white water tower with the mountains in the background was taken there), we took a drive over to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Truly an amazing site, as they are the tallest sand dunes in North America over 750 feet tall and covering 30 square miles. The fact that sand collects in that area at the base of the Sangre de Christo Mountains is phenomenal. We walked about a mile up the dunes and a mile back down because after all, what comes up must come down. We were shoe deep in the sand at times and our skin was being exfoliated the majority of the way. I kept trying to figure out where the helicopter was going to land if I passed out. It was an experience of a lifetime to say the least and the pictures do not do it justice. It is much larger than the pictures show. It’s nature at it’s best.
I am also convinced that there are no nail shops in the states of New Mexico and Colorado. I have been looking for one for about 500 miles. NOTHING! All I want is a simple pedi people! Forget the pedicure, we just want some veggies. I asked two middle aged customer service reps in Walmart in Alamosa if there were any restaurants with vegetables in town. One said.. IHOP! Are eggs and pancakes veggies??? I told her I was looking for like a Golden Corral and I swear she has never heard of it. She looked at me like I had three heads. Then she said they have nothing like that and all they have is Mexican and Chinese Restaurants. We went for Mexican. After all, when in Colorado..eat as the Mexicans do. (????) We thought for sure there would be vegetables somewhere in town. However, they were only in the veg and fruit section in Walmart (for me to cook). We are settling with Veggie Chips… a wholesome snack. It does contain spinach.
We were going to rest in Alamosa tonight, but we decided to take off since we still had some daylight. We are staying at Big Horn RV Park in Coaldale, CO. Our plan is to stay two days then venture North. Who knows…if we like the area we may stay another night. It sure is nice having no calendar of events to keep up with. Our schedules are clear until next week. We went on a hike as soon as we got to the RV park because the scenery is sooo nice.  The RV Park is right by a fast running stream and the horses and a deer were across the road. Super nice owner and we have an awesome site for the RV. One of the best. We are sitting here now with the windows up. The lows are in the 40’s, so I don’t think we will run the AC tonight.
The best news of the trip is that finally my brain has started to rest. For those that know me, I am always thinking of work or keeping my mind preoccupied with work scenarios, etc. Being a pilot Jeff always has a way of turning it off when he comes home. Yesterday, as I sat outside and closed my eyes and enjoyed the bird chatter it was so relaxing and I just turned it all off. I was at peace for the first time in a long time. Thinking about nothing but the adventure ahead! We are so blessed to be able to have this opportunity to be together and enjoy each other’s company (while we still get along and are physically able..lol). We have been together since 2010 and he proposed to me on this day (May 17, 2013) on a balcony at Hibiscus! So today we are celebrating our 5 year engagement anniversary. I guess that’s why I am getting so sappy!  Our goal is to enjoy the summer, hike daily, get in better physical condition (so we can keep up with Bill and Cheryl our hiking buddies) and continue our vegetarian lifestyle!

Live simply! No stress!