Last night and tonight we watched a 3 part video that we bought in Durango, Colorado last summer. The first half was all about a family who ranched near Cortez, Colorado. I was so impressed with them all. The documentary was very bland and kind of boring, but the family was very interesting. What they did, how they talked, what they thought, who they are. I looked them up on the internet afterward and found out that the eldest had died in 2000 - He must have been close to 90 by then. And his 2nd wife just died last week! I sent a condolence in the guest book at the mortuary.
This family lived on McElmo Creek, way down there southwest of Cortez, on that dirt road north of the reservation:
Mel and I were there, too, last summer. We drove that road all the way into Utah and visited Hovenweep National Park - way out in the middle of nowhere Utah. It was hot. It was lonely. I loved it! The drive back was pretty great, too. Anyway, back to that family - I remembered several of the buildings that were in the video. The old school house, a couple of the houses, an old building without a roof and so forth. And we stopped at one of the rock areas they showed in the video and took photos:
(This is MY photo) However, in the video they angled the photo so you couldn't see the sign. I recognized it immediately, though. I only wish I had taken a lot more photos along the road before we got into Utah! I was saddened to see that after the patriarch of the family died in 2000 that the ranch was put up for sale. I would imagine that it's been sold. And I'd imagine it's been broken up into 'ranchettes' or something, too - although we did see people still working the hayfields. I remember wondering who the people were who lived along that road, out in the middle of nowhere Colorado - and now I know! And I liked them a lot. I remember wondering what it must be like to live there, day in and day out - such a different life than ours! And in some ways, watching the video, I envied them a bit.
When I grow up I want to be a mule wrangler at the Grand Canyon.
I want to be able to hike the trails at the Grand Canyon. Can't do that now. Tried it a few years ago and got about 20 feet down one of the trails before I had to turn around and face the canyon wall beside me. I wasn't even really on the trail yet. I am terrified of heights. The older I get, the worse it gets.
The second section of the video was about the manager of the mule trekking or mule rides that go down the Grand Canyon. I was also very impressed by him. I was very glad, very, that both he and the family patriarch in the first video gave praise to God. It was in round about ways (we do live in a society that is becoming more and more anti-Christian), but it was there. Here is a YouTube of him, but it's not the same as the video we watched earlier.
When I grow up I want to not be afraid of heights.
And now, it's time to head to bed and dream about red rocks and horses and cattle and mules and the part of the United States that I love so very much and want to live in some day.
