4-14-07
 Moab to Miles City

I made a run into Moab to get groceries for the road on Easter Sunday and found the town still full of jeeps. Most of the folks were at restaurants and tee shirt shops making ready for the ride home.

I liked this guys 'toy' hauler motorhome. 

At the Utah Colorado state line I saw this guy who is moving into a couple of caves just like the old time cliff dwellers did. He had a realy nice spot with good south facing exposure.

In the afternoon the weather closed in and it rained like mad, hailed like hell, and then started snowing over a pass. I just made it over this pass in 4x4 and was lucky to make it to Ridgeway for the night.

The next day I waited until afternoon before I tried Monarch Pass which is 11,000+ feet.

This is Salida, the old part of down town. The people have done a lot of work fixing up the buildings.

I made it to my old friend Cactus Jacks place in the afternoon. This is a shop building that he just finished building. It is built into the hill side in an old home site. Jack used to have a museum in downtown Salida and moved a lot of the stuff from that into this building as well as being a place to work on his art projects.

Jack had the front doors special made by a friend just for this lock set.

Have you ever met anybody strong enough to break an anvil?

Linda and Less discussing the plans for the area around the new fire pit.

Spring flowers.

The cat found a nice sunny spot. This cat is 18 years old and has trouble with his long hair so Jack and Linda have to give him quick haircuts now and then. He is a pretty funky, punked out looking old-timer but really friendly and likes pets.

I couldn’t keep my little camera in my pocket when in the house or even outside. Jack said I was like a Japanese tourist with a camera.

This is Linda’s room where she does some of her fiber art. She has a treadle sewing machine as well as a newer one that has some computer assisted features.

The music corner. Jack started out playing harmonica, went to banjo, then guitar and now mandolin. I first met Jack when he and Willie were playing music on the street in Tonopah, NV during Jim Butler days. I always loved it when they would come to Goldfield and play music in my cabin. Linda is now playing acustic bass guitar and they really sound wonderful together. I wasn’t able to hear them play this trip but again soon, I hope.

Jack was a river raft guide for many years and now he and his friends often take their rafts and float the rivers. Jack went to the prestigious Oakland Arts and Crafts school in Oakland, CA when he graduated from high school. He took a lot of painting classes and just recently started painting again. 

I really liked this painting of Linda on the river.

One of the things that Jack does is make these wonderful crosses with hammered iron, silver, brass and copper. He has made and sold hundreds of them through his shop as well as specialty catalogs.

We took a walk to town and ran across a couple of ‘stick’ dogs along the river.

Jack lives across the river and across the old train yards from town. This is an area that was where the Mexicans were allowed to live in the olden days when Salida was a major transportation center for the mines in this area. It is really nice area where he gets good solar exposure as well as being ‘out’ of town but just a short walk or bike ride to town.

In the spring when the river is up they have kayak races here as well as dog stick fetching contests.

The Chivvis and Lovell Gallery in on the corner down town.

Jack is doing a few paintings of downtown and details of the buildings.
 

These are some of his antique collages.

This is a painting of the little studio that he had built for Linda on their 40 acre get a way place not far from town. This is where Linda uses her treadle sewing machine. Jack has it all set up with solar lights and he says all you have to do in step in and ‘flip the switch’.

Jack recently started selling this antiqued furniture that a friend is building.

This is Linda’s part of the building. She has been in the framing business for years and does as great business. She really has a good eye for what a painting needs in the way of matting and frame.

This is Duke and Tammy who I met last year down in Creel, Mexico at the Horizons Unlimited meeting. I rode with them on down to Durango where I spit off from them and continued my way on down to South America. Tammy has a bead shop and Duke has a tee shirt shop in Salida.

This one is called ‘life is a grind’.

This one is ‘life is a beach’.

This is their guard dog Spike.

I left Salida and headed up to Fort Morgan where I had the chance to see  Colorado Ken  for a few hours that evening. Ken used to be an honorable guy and rode one of the first R80GS BMW sold in this country. He did his best to wear that one out on the back roads and finally bought a R100GS. He rode that one for several years and then slipped down in the gutter and sold it and bought a KLR. He is still a nice guy and I don’t hold his cheap Japanese motorcycle against him. He may come to his senses and redeem himself someday. He did point me to the city park there in Fort Morgan where I spent the night. In the morning as I was leaving I had to stop and take this photo of the little steam engine out front of the old power station. I don’t recall ever seeing an engine with a tank wrapped around the boiler like this before.

Ken also pointed me to the nice roads headed north and it was a wonderful drive on almost deserted roads.

That is until I got into Montana and the sun was getting low and the deer came out along the road to graze. I finally got behind a big SUV and let him plow the way through them.

I woke up in the morning at camp with a little snow to welcome me back. Ahhh, spring time in Montana……….