This morning we have breakfast looking out the large bay window and all I can think of is the scene in Disney’s Snow White. Hummingbirds—maybe 50 – dart with buzzing wings at the feeders. Rabbits hop with lazy, familiar ease around the stone walls as chipmunks and squirrels chatter and scamper about looking for food. Sherry feeds them all. She walks among them and they’re not afraid. There are also bears, elk, cougar and a few rattlesnakes in this isolated little paradise. We say goodbye at 10 a.m. and head south for Durango. Spectacular scenery down 550, and finally up Million Dollar Highway, a two lane stretch that winds upward with hair pin curves and no guardrails, looking down at cliffs so steep you can’t see the bottom. It’s all 15-25 and 30 mph, majestic, imposing mountains of brown, red, and in the distance an unearthly blue, backgrounded by an intense blue sky and brilliant white clouds. We traveled this road 10 years ago but my hands are still clamped around the steering wheel in a death grip, especially when some huge camper comes around a curve from the opposite direction and I’m forced to the shoulder overlooking a 2,000 foot drop. I’d love to know how many folks have driven over the side. How many battered cars litter the canyon bottom? Nobody ever talks about that. We reach Durango at 5 p.m. Check in, nap, and head to town where we have an excellent Mexican meal. We do some shopping. (Leigh shops. I have a different routine. I walk around the store, look at some things, then go out on the street to watch the people and traffic, listen to the sounds, feel area’s unique energy, and wait for her to finish shopping. I enjoy it all. http://www.durango.org The rhythm of the road takes a couple days to feel, but once it kicks in, it’s in your blood. You are moving, moving, always moving and the scenery changes. What’s over the next mountain, around the next curve? If it’s disappointing, wait, you’re on the move, there’s another curve, another mountain, another new scene. And when it’s grand or spectacular, what a reward! You feel a rush as the brain takes it in and the exclamation point of a new experience rushes through your body and into your soul. You drink it in and you keep moving. That’s what we’re about in America, moving, seeing, exploring. We’ve turned it into an efficient science. Travel centers on the interstate have evolved into shopping centers so you can stop and get gas, food, groceries, pick up supplies in Walmart. Get it done and get back on the road to cover the next 100 miles or the next 50 curves. Sit in a motel with your computer on your lap taking notes. I used to fill notebooks, now I type. The motels have got to catch up with the Internet though. I need to get my e-mail and check things on the Web. They’re only just beginning to install the technology. We’ve only been on the internet once in the last five days. We’ve covered about 1900 miles in the past five days. Only did 250 today on the slow, winding roads leading to Durango.
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