November Travels: Roadtrip to CO

While Liz visited for her traditional 2-week Thanksgiving trip, she decided it wouldn't be right not to visit my parents. They would be spending Thanksgiving in TX with Roger and his fiance, and plans hadn't worked out for us all to be together, but we could still visit the weekend prior! Plus, Liz wanted an American road trip, so off we went.

The first day was really nothing but driving. I'd had an early morning meeting to attend, so we left around 10am and drove just past Flagstaff before stopping for the night. The plan was to hit Four Corners early in the morning on our way in to Colorado. Apparently, in all of Liz's visits to the States, she has never made it to Four Corners. There's not much terribly interesting, but it's something worth being able to say, "yeah, I've been there." Plus, I've been DYING for a white Navajo horse-hair pot, and thought this would be a great chance to finally get one.

After a very long day of driving (and since the sun sets so early, several hours of night driving), we decided we'd come unprepared for roadtrip entertainment, and what we really needed was a MadLibs book. Well, that was an adventure in itself. After several stops in Flagstaff and one semi-crazy old man at WalMart, we were still without our MadLibs and entering no-mans land for the next day.

The next day placed us at Four Corners around 9/10am. I wasn't sure what time the gates would open, but we didn't have trouble getting in. However, it was even more desolate during the winter than I'd ever seen in other (summer) months. The best part about the monument are the Native vendors with their pottery, jewelry, and other artwork for sale, not to mention the Navajo fry bread. By the time we arrived, not a single booth was set up, though a few were arriving.

So, Liz took her traditional Four Corners photos, and we waited a bit for a few vendors. Unfortunately, none had quite what I was looking for. With the slow business of winter and the downturn of the economy, few sellers had serious pottery; most were small trinkets or souvenir-sized bowls. I did find one gorgeous Kokopelli statue in the style I wanted, but that particular vendor didn't take credit (many of them do, by the way). So, we continued on empty handed.

This second day of driving, we finally entered beautiful Colorado and got a nice taste of mountain driving. I really felt like I was coming home, being able to approach through the mountains, and apparently Liz felt the same way a bit. The weather wasn't bad at all, and though it was frigid and we saw snow, the road conditions were dry and clear. Perfect opportunity for Liz to have her first real mountain driving experience!

We arrived in the Springs early enough for dinner on Thursday, and had a few days to relax. Liz, of course, did plenty of her own shopping, and I did more packing to bring a few more boxes to California. Friday night involved an awesome vocal concert at the Air Force Academy by the Ten Tenors, a group of ... well ... ten tenors from Australia. Overall, it was just a few days to relax and enjoy Colorado Springs in the midst of our week-long road trip, but it was a great few days to be home again.