Easter 2015, I went on a really great road trip, probably the best since the we did that wonderful one way back in the 70's, travelling from Ontario to Panama.
My great regret is that we never had blogs in those days and I have forgotten so much about that trip and really have no photos. There are some things that are indelibly etched in my mind however so I better record them now before it all fades away!
To begin with, we left Toronto in September of that year, just as the first signs of winter were beginning to appear. We headed out in a convertible MG Midget, a British car which really did not love the snow so while we had it in Toronto we spent many mornings "jump starting" it as by the time it was ready to turn over on the cold mornings, the battery was dead.
Apart from our clothes, the only things we had on the trip were a stove, tent and sleeping bag. My first memory was of camping somewhere in Ohio and having to pack up quickly and leave in the middle of the night as snow started to fall.
My other bad memory was getting a puncture (the only problem we had with our car) in the middle of a snow storm in Dallas, Texas, the first they were having in about 10 years, but it had to be when we were there!
How can I forget my first exposure to gambling too. There we were in Las Vegas with the bright lights, fantastic shows and best of all, money clinking from all the machines. We were overwhelmed by the sheer excitement in the place but were conscious enough to store our money in our tent and only take a few dollars into the casino.
Problem was that went very quickly and stupidly we went back and raided our tent of all our savings only to lose it all. The good thing though is it cured me of gambling forever, for although I have been to Las Vegas a couple times as I love the ambiance and the shows, I never take more than $ 10 with me and when it is done it is done!
After that escapade in Las Vegas though we barely had enough gas money to travel to California where we decided to hang out and work for a month to get some money to travel on.
I recall how difficult it was to cross from San Diego over to Mexico for although our papers were in good order, immigration kept sending us back. It took us almost a day to realise that all the guy wanted to let us in was a bribe of a couple US dollars!
We got a far better reception in Guadalajara though for as we drove into the town, we saw a group of young people around our age in an American convertible car and seeing our Canadian licence plate they welcomed us profusely. That night they took us partying and introduced us to tequila and marijuana which they claimed was better than Jamaican ganja.
Problem is, I had never seen ganja in Jamaica much less use it, so I could not compare.
I recall though we had a wonderful time hanging out in Mexico, travelling all over and staying extra days in places we liked. I can never forget the time we drove away from our hotel to explore and forgot the name of our hotel and the street it was on.
Luckily we had marked it on the map and night had caught us so we stopped under a street light to try and find out where we were.Soon we were confronted by an angry policeman for it turned out we were under a "no stopping" sign. But when he discovered we were strangers and lost, he found the place on our map for us, turned on his siren and led us home. And he did not want a bribe either.
Guatemala was then a place of bribes for it was then under marital law at the time. So it felt like every couple miles we drove, we were stopped by fierce soldiers who it turned out just wanted some Yankee dollars.
I recall how backward Honduras was at that time so we never tarried there. But we got a great reception in San Salvador at a hotel we stayed. At first no one knew where Jamaica was but when we told them it was next door to Cuba, we were treated as instant celebrities as Che Guevara was very popular in the region at the time.
We spent the most time in Panama because we had met a San Blas Indian named John, who worked in the American run canal zone and he "adopted" us and took us on tour of quite a few of the San Blas islands.
We had to ship our car from Panama to Jamaica as after that the rest of the way to Colombia and Venezuela was by air and sea.
That was my greatest road trip and my only regret is that I could not blog about it at the time.
This time I am writing every thing down!
My daughter's family and I headed south to New Mexico from Denver Easter 2015. Our first stop was in Trinidad, Colorado a nice little old mining town.
Unfortunately as it was Sunday, so everything was closed but we did find a great Italian restaurant which advertised that it had singing waitresses. Well it sure did for about every fifteen minutes a waitress, the owner or his young grand-daughter would burst into song and it was great singing and wonderful food too.
It was late night and dark when we reached our first stop at Taos, New Mexico.
To get there, we traveled through the little town of Eagles Nest which rises to almost 9,000 feet above sea level.This is the home of the Hopi Indians and there they give much honour to Kit Carson who was a famous frontiersman man and trapper.
Taos is an attractive town in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, a popular ski resort famous for or its Mexican/native American architecture and fantastic art. It is also america's oldest continuously inhabited town and of course the main inhabitants are American Indians or more politically correct, Native Americans. It was there I saw the amusing t shirt declaring "We have been fighting terrorism since 1492". Not only amusing but appropriate I thought.
I would really like to go there in the daytime for it appears we travelled though at least two wonderful and scenic national parks as you could see the vast pine trees in the night and even saw a couple herds of elands along the roadside. The roads were winding and narrow really reminding me of home too.
Our next stop was the famous Santa Fe with its world renowned railroad and all. Everything you read about Santa Fe is true in terms of its adobe architecture and vast art galleries.
One of the most fabulous structures is the St. Francis of Assisi cathedral. It is really an inspiring place.
The entire old Santa Fe is really a wonderful place to visit and we spent the entire morning drinking up the beauty .
When you leave Santa Fe, the landscape is really what we used to hear being called the "badlands" in cowboy movies. Most were Indian reservations, extremely arid and real dessert surrounded by high mountains.
Despite it dryness it has its own beauty especially when you look at the wonderful formations of the surrounding mountains. We passed through quaint Spanish looking villages with names like Salida, Panama, Cuba and sampled Mexican or native American food at every opportunity.
Next Stop was the famous Four Corners. This is where the four states, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. Unfortunately we arrived there just ten minutes before they closed so we missed the exhibits.
The site is controlled by the Navajo, Huti and Ute and they display a range of native art and do a whopping business.
We left Four Corners and entered Colorado heading towards Mesa Verde through mainly desert territory. You know it is clear that after the native Americans were subdued, there were put on the most arid and unproductive land and southern Colorado and new Mexico has an overabundance of this type of terrain which still inhabited by the native Americans.
We spent the night in Cortes which is only 9 miles from Mesa Verde which was our main destination.
This is the first UNESCO and largest archaeological preserve in then USA. It is said that there are over 4000 archaeological exhibits there but it is best known for its cliff dwellings which were built by the ancestral Puebloans between 600 and 1300 AD.
I first went there about thirty years ago but had forgotten how awesome it was. These Indians were subsistence farmers and the 81 square mile national park is made up of the most awesome canyons but because it is an arid area, it is subjected to a lot of forest fires.
The site is breathtaking though with not only the dwellings carved out of the mountain sides but also temples and palaces which seemed to have been used for various ceremonies.
When we reluctantly left Mesa Verde we travelled through the pine covered San Pedro Mountains to Durango.
When I had visited Durango many years ago, it used to be a main set for many western movies but now that those are no longer being made, it has become a quaint mining town which attracts tourist from all over.
There they have quite a wide range of gift shops and a large variety of restaurants. The town has also become known for outdoor activities including mountain climbing and mountain biking. It is high up in the San Juan mountains which made it quite cold while we were there in late April. There we stayed at the charming, family owned historic Strater hotel.
Our most interesting stop the way back was was for lunch at Salida, a sleepy former mining town which is 9000 feet above sea level so also cold and breezy in April.
However they are famous for Sasquatch and UFO sightings.
The road back was through the snow covered Rocky mountains with its thousands of acres of pine trees and impressive flora.
We traveled through South Park which is the town that the television series is named after and by the time we got to Morrison we were reminded that it snows in Colorado!
But who cares, by then I had been ready to relax indoors after a really wonderful road trump,.
My great regret is that we never had blogs in those days and I have forgotten so much about that trip and really have no photos. There are some things that are indelibly etched in my mind however so I better record them now before it all fades away!
 |
| Main Street, Taos, |
Apart from our clothes, the only things we had on the trip were a stove, tent and sleeping bag. My first memory was of camping somewhere in Ohio and having to pack up quickly and leave in the middle of the night as snow started to fall.
My other bad memory was getting a puncture (the only problem we had with our car) in the middle of a snow storm in Dallas, Texas, the first they were having in about 10 years, but it had to be when we were there!
How can I forget my first exposure to gambling too. There we were in Las Vegas with the bright lights, fantastic shows and best of all, money clinking from all the machines. We were overwhelmed by the sheer excitement in the place but were conscious enough to store our money in our tent and only take a few dollars into the casino.
 |
| The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi |
After that escapade in Las Vegas though we barely had enough gas money to travel to California where we decided to hang out and work for a month to get some money to travel on.
I recall how difficult it was to cross from San Diego over to Mexico for although our papers were in good order, immigration kept sending us back. It took us almost a day to realise that all the guy wanted to let us in was a bribe of a couple US dollars!
 |
| Statue of the fist native american nun to serve in Santa Fe |
Problem is, I had never seen ganja in Jamaica much less use it, so I could not compare.
I recall though we had a wonderful time hanging out in Mexico, travelling all over and staying extra days in places we liked. I can never forget the time we drove away from our hotel to explore and forgot the name of our hotel and the street it was on.
Luckily we had marked it on the map and night had caught us so we stopped under a street light to try and find out where we were.Soon we were confronted by an angry policeman for it turned out we were under a "no stopping" sign. But when he discovered we were strangers and lost, he found the place on our map for us, turned on his siren and led us home. And he did not want a bribe either.
Guatemala was then a place of bribes for it was then under marital law at the time. So it felt like every couple miles we drove, we were stopped by fierce soldiers who it turned out just wanted some Yankee dollars.
 |
| Quaint Shiprock mountain in Navajo territory |
I recall how backward Honduras was at that time so we never tarried there. But we got a great reception in San Salvador at a hotel we stayed. At first no one knew where Jamaica was but when we told them it was next door to Cuba, we were treated as instant celebrities as Che Guevara was very popular in the region at the time.
We spent the most time in Panama because we had met a San Blas Indian named John, who worked in the American run canal zone and he "adopted" us and took us on tour of quite a few of the San Blas islands.
We had to ship our car from Panama to Jamaica as after that the rest of the way to Colombia and Venezuela was by air and sea.
That was my greatest road trip and my only regret is that I could not blog about it at the time.
This time I am writing every thing down!
My daughter's family and I headed south to New Mexico from Denver Easter 2015. Our first stop was in Trinidad, Colorado a nice little old mining town.
 |
| The huge sand formations are breathtaking |
It was late night and dark when we reached our first stop at Taos, New Mexico.
To get there, we traveled through the little town of Eagles Nest which rises to almost 9,000 feet above sea level.This is the home of the Hopi Indians and there they give much honour to Kit Carson who was a famous frontiersman man and trapper.
 |
| Four corners monument |
I would really like to go there in the daytime for it appears we travelled though at least two wonderful and scenic national parks as you could see the vast pine trees in the night and even saw a couple herds of elands along the roadside. The roads were winding and narrow really reminding me of home too.
 |
| Breathtaking sand formations |
One of the most fabulous structures is the St. Francis of Assisi cathedral. It is really an inspiring place.
The entire old Santa Fe is really a wonderful place to visit and we spent the entire morning drinking up the beauty .
When you leave Santa Fe, the landscape is really what we used to hear being called the "badlands" in cowboy movies. Most were Indian reservations, extremely arid and real dessert surrounded by high mountains.Despite it dryness it has its own beauty especially when you look at the wonderful formations of the surrounding mountains. We passed through quaint Spanish looking villages with names like Salida, Panama, Cuba and sampled Mexican or native American food at every opportunity.
Next Stop was the famous Four Corners. This is where the four states, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. Unfortunately we arrived there just ten minutes before they closed so we missed the exhibits.
The site is controlled by the Navajo, Huti and Ute and they display a range of native art and do a whopping business.
 |
| Awesome view from the top of Mesa Verde |
We spent the night in Cortes which is only 9 miles from Mesa Verde which was our main destination.
 |
| Sun Temple |
I first went there about thirty years ago but had forgotten how awesome it was. These Indians were subsistence farmers and the 81 square mile national park is made up of the most awesome canyons but because it is an arid area, it is subjected to a lot of forest fires.
The site is breathtaking though with not only the dwellings carved out of the mountain sides but also temples and palaces which seemed to have been used for various ceremonies.
 |
| Cliff Dwellings |
When I had visited Durango many years ago, it used to be a main set for many western movies but now that those are no longer being made, it has become a quaint mining town which attracts tourist from all over.
 |
| Chimney Rock in Colorado |
 |
| Old rail car in Salida |
However they are famous for Sasquatch and UFO sightings.
The road back was through the snow covered Rocky mountains with its thousands of acres of pine trees and impressive flora.
 |
| The San Juan mountains rise to 6,500 feet |
But who cares, by then I had been ready to relax indoors after a really wonderful road trump,.
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