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Posts Tagged ‘Arkansas River’

Royal Gorge, Colorado, and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 31, 2011| 6 Comments »

 

I took this photo of the train I was riding on as it went about a bend on the journey through Royal Gorge. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My Favorite Places:  Royal Gorge

Looking up at the span across the gorge from river level. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

“I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life. – Leni Riefenstahl

NaNoWriMo Update

Still thinking, with trepidation, about the novel I will start tomorrow. My night-time thoughts solved one problem that’s been worrying me. I came up with a motive for one of the characters to approach my main character.

Looking down on the Arkansas River from the top of Royal Gorge -- Wikipedia photo

It’s a little thing, but it’s part of the opening scene that still exists only in my head. And at least I now feel more confident about that first blank page.

I’m worried, however, because mornings are my best time for writing and I have a doctor’s appointment at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. The visit has been planned for a month, and since I only have a short time before I’m off on the road again, I have to keep it.

In the past, I’ve let other plans like this keep me from even starting the challenge. So I’m almost glad that I will be facing this simple one on the very first day. It should help me know I can overcome interruptions – just like solving the first travel difficulty in my RV gave me confidence that I could handle anything the road threw at me.

Is this bravado speaking. Yup! But I’m depending on it to help pull me through the next 30 days and 50,000 words.

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La Junta: A Place Where Lady Liberty Holds a Torch

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

Lady Liberty in La Junta, Colorado. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Redbud blossoms say spring — Photo by Pat Bean

 

“Education is learning what you didn’t even know, you didn’t know.” — Daniel J. Boorstin

Travels With Maggie*

I stopped at La Junta, Colorado, to see the Koshare Indian Museum, but it was closed. Instead I took a walk in the City Park adjacent to the museum, where I was surprised to see the Statue of Liberty.

Of course not the real thing, just a miniature replica presented to the city by local Boy Scouts. Why was it here in this small town that sat on the banks of the Arkansas River (which by the way I had already crossed several times since leaving Texas just six days ago) and in the path of the old Santa Fe Trail?

This inquiring mind needed to know. It was the homework I set myself for the evening.

La Junta, I learned first, had its beginnings as a construction camp for the Santa Fe Railroad, which, when completed, marked the beginning of the end for the Missouri to New Mexico foot path. After the railroad work was completed the construction camp almost died, but then the railroad built a depot and roundhouse at the site and it bustled once again.

In 1881, the camp was incorporated and named La Junta, which in Spanish means the junction.

As to the Statue of Liberty replica, I learned there are over 200 of them scattered around the country in 39 states. Iowa, with 27, has the most, with Kansas coming in a close second with 26, and Missouri, with 25, taking third place.

The statue in La Junta is one of 17 for Colorado. A complete list of the statue sites, just in case you have an inquiring mind, too, can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/4q5a7gw

The statues were Kansas City Scout Commissioner J.P. Whitaker’s idea for celebrating the Boy Scouts’ 40th anniversary in the 1950s. Anyone with $350 plus the cost of freight for the 290-pound, 8.5-foot tall copper statues could get one.

Homework completed, I was once again a satisfied traveler.

A road trip is so much more than just traveling down the road taking in the sights with the eyes. The brain needs a bit of stimulating vistas to make it a complete travel experience. Well, at least that’s the way I prefer to travel.

*Continuing Day 6 of the journey, April 24, 2011

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Take a Train Ride Through a Gorge With Santa

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Life is like a train ride. You get on. You get off. You get on and ride some more.” — Author unknown  

Going round the bend -- Photo taken by Pat Bean from one of the train cars.

 

Travels With Maggie

When I was mapping out my route back to Texas from Utah – a trip I make yearly, always trying to see new sights along the way – I came across information on a scenic train ride through Royal Gorge.

I immediately signed up for the 24-mile round-trip. I’ve been intrigued with train trips ever since reading Agatha Cristie’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” and I’m a big fan of Paul Theroux’s books on his train journeys through Asia, China, South America and elsewhere.  

I wasn’t disappointed wtth my click-clacking scenic ride through the gorge – well except that I wasn’t ready for my journey to end.  The train ride, begins in Canon, Colorado, and on the summer day I took the tour, we passed several groups of white-water rafters coming

 down the Arkansas River. But I noted, as I refreshed my memory for this blog by going to the railroad’s web site (http://www.royalgorgeroute.com/), that it’s now offering its own version of “The Polar Express” for this season of the year.

Too bad I’m spending my Christmas holidays this year in Texas and Arkansas. I’d love to hug Santa and feel like a kid again. Wouldn’t you?

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