Just outside on Canyonlands National Park, Utah,  we spy this pump.  The rich minerals of the region extend to oil.  Oil production in America is up and world-wide prices have dropped.  Part of the benefit to us is cheaper gas prices as we travel our great United States.  Canyonlands is nick-named the “Island in the Sky” for its great plateaus and deep canyons, as if islands floating in the sky.

The train that powered our steam locomotive in Durango – the little engine that could not –  was powered by coal.  I discovered it was mined just an hour away in Mancos, Colorado.  Every town we travel through, each museum and visitors center all have mineral collections of great variety, in addition to their history of silver and gold.

We leave Fairplay, Colorado and Burro Days and set off to the North for some R & R.  We hope your week is blessed.

“Anthropomorphic,” the figures of men with exaggerated torsos and strange headdresses.  Two teenage girls were viewing petroglyphs, similar to these.  One turned to the other and said, “It must have been aliens.”  Although the experts can mostly guess at the meaning of petroglyphs, aliens seem unlikely.  I wonder what meaning people attribute to our art generations from  now in the absence of a written record.  From petroglyphs, to cliff dwellings, to sandy riverside beaches and towering dunes, the sandstone of the western United States creates a land of wonders.

Hail, the size of softballs destroyed their trailer.  The next year, as they huddled in a storm shelter, wind destroyed another trailer.   Our RV neighbor, travelling with his wife and three children related the above and still they enjoy RV travel.  Then, later that day, we were pelted by hail and rain so strong it entered our RV windows even though closed tight.  

We have had a least a little rain each day we have travelled so far this summer.  Watching the storms are exciting, even though potentially dangerous.  From our camp site outside of The Great Sand Dunes National Park, here in Colorado, we watched as the storm cells seem to glide across the San Luis Valley, the largest valley in Colorado.