Travelogue

It's been just over a week since we returned from vacationing (holiday) in Colorado (Southwestern U.S.) We're all getting settled back in and readying ourselves for the kids returning to school tomorrow (Buddy Boy to 2nd grade, Sweet Pea to Kindergarten).

When I was a kid our family took a camping trip every summer (usually for two weeks). We traveled all over the U.S. and Canada. It was a great way to have fun, see some scenery, meet great people, and learn some geography and history without really trying. I never appreciated how great those trips were at the time, but I do now, and hope to pass some of the same memories along to my own kids. Because of time constraints at work, I'm usually limited to only one week off at a time, but it's still great to take a trip with the whole family. Liz refuses to camp, but it's still fun even if you're staying in a motel or condo.

We loaded up the "family truckster" and left early on Saturday morning. Although in an ideal world the kids would both gaze placidly out at the scenery all day and not get in any fights, we decided to serve the sanity of all involved, and bought a portable DVD player for the car. It's better than drugging them, and has the advantage of being legal. We drove for 11 hours the first day, and got as far as Limon, Colorado. That's about 760 miles (1216 km) with a 7 and 5 year old. While not perfect, the DVD player worked wonders in inducing a trance like state for hours at a time. While I still don't believe in its routine use in the car, I must say I now understand those parents that do.

There isn't much to see or do in Limon (apologies to any Limonites), and we pressed on the next morning another 380 miles (608 km) to Durango, CO, which was going to be our base for the week. We got there early enough that we were able to get some time in in the pool. We stayed at a condominium complex which was OK, if a bit dated.




One of the first things we did in the area was to explore Mesa Verde national park. This park is noted for being the site of many cliff dwellings left by the Anasazi Native American tribes. We always think of America as a young country, and tend to forget that there were people here a long time ago. The Anasazi came to Mesa Verde in about 600 A.D. First they dwelled in huts dug in the ground, while the cliff dwellings pictured were probably built in the 1200's. The Anasazi left this area for unknown reasons near the end of the 1200's. We're always ensured of getting a lot of knowledge out of guided tours, as Buddy Boy can't help but ask at least 3 questions every 5 minutes (even though we prompt him to take turns and let others also ask). He does ask some good questions, though.



We had to hike a couple of miles to get to the ruins, but the kids held up well, and it was well worth it. The kids also did well on some other hikes we took during the week. They collected a bunch of rocks which they ended up stuffing first in their pockets, and later in the cupholders in the car.



What would a trip to mining country be without panning for gold. We took a couple of off road jeep trails, and besides seeing some great scenery we also caught a little "gold fever" while panning for gold. The temperatures during the day were in the high 80's to mid '90's (31-35 degrees C) around Durango, which is at 6500' (1980 meters), but it dropped into the 60's to 70's (16-22 C) when we were on some of the trails that went up as far as 13,000 feet (3962 meters).



We drove up to Silverton (an old mining town) instead of taking the historic narrow gauge train because the train trip takes 3.5 hours (rather than a little over an hour driving). We love old trains, but didn't think the kids would be up for that long sitting on the train. Once there we explored some ghost towns out of town, as well as saw some alpine meadows and drove by some snow.

The trip (like all good things) came to an end much too soon. Before we knew it we had to fire up the DVD player for the trip back home. The only casualty on the trip was a headphone cord that got chewed thru, which was spot repaired with a band-aid (plaster).

Now we need to start planning next year's trip!

Anticipation

photo credit Ed Wilson

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasing after some finer day. ...

Anticipation-Carly Simon

There was a lot of anticipation in the Club 166 family today. It's been three years since we've visited the kids' birthmother. Buddy Boy hasn't expressed much of an opinion one way or the other on the trip lately. Until last night, when he said he was going to give "Aunt Kelly" (what we call his birthmother) all of his money so that she could buy a house. Because she was poor and lived in an apartment, so we could buy her a house, or he would just give her money so she could.

"Um, Buddy Boy, that's very generous of you, but I think that you would really hurt her feelings if you did that. Also, just because somebody lives in an apartment doesn't mean they are poor. Mom and I have lived in lots of apartments. So don't say anything about her being poor, and I bet she'd really like it if you gave her and Jeffrey (their 10 year old biological half brother that Kelly is raising) a lot of smiles."

Liz and I have always pursued an "honesty is the best policy" when it comes to talking to the kids regarding their adoption history. Adoption has always been a part of our lexicon, and their birth and adoption stories have also often been discusssed. We've told them that their birthmother loved them, but was not going to be able to take care of them when they were born, and thus made an adoption plan for them, and selected us to be their parents. We've never used the word poor to refer to her, but somehow Buddy Boy has inferred that because she wasn't going to be able to take care of him or Sweet Pea before, and she still lives in an apartment, then she must be poor.

Liz and I were a little anxious about the trip. When we adopted Buddy Boy we agreed to what's called a "semi-open" adoption. That's where the new parents agree to a specified number of pictures/updates over a certain period of time. Our relationship with the kids' birthmother (they both have the same birthmother) has morphed into an open one, with cards, pictures, and letters exchanged on holidays/birthdays, and the one previous trip that we took 3 years ago for a visit (in addition to the time we spent together the 2 times we adopted the kids). When we visited 3 years ago it was obvious to us that Kelly payed a lot of attention to Sweet Pea, and not much attention at all to Buddy Boy (after contacting us and asking us if we wanted to adopt Sweet Pea when she was born, Kelly almost changed her mind in the days following her birth, because 'She had always wanted a girl'). We didn't want a repeat episode of Buddy Boy getting the short end of the stick.

Sweet Pea, for her part, has been counting down the days until we visited "Aunt Kelly". She has pictures from the last trip in a photo album on a shelf in her room, but she doesn't really remember the last trip (she was just shy of two years old). Last night, however, she seemed to be having second thoughts. "I don't want to go tomorrow, Daddy. It's going to take too long in the car, my legs will get stiff, and it's not going to be any fun."

"But don't you want to go see "Aunt Kelly" and Jeffrey? They both love you very much, and I know that they want to see you." [Sweet Pea gives me a sidelong long turned half away from me-I'm not quite sure how to interpret this] "Get some good sleep, sweety pie. It's a long trip, but remember there's a swimming pool at the motel. We'll all go swimming when we're there. It'll be fun." (Reminding her about the swimming pool is a cheap ploy, but I knew it would work. Both kids are suckers for swimming pools. In fact, I think they'd be just as happy for our annual vacation if we stayed in our home town and checked into a motel with a swimming pool).

The trip itself was fairly uneventful. Buddy Boy is a good traveler (riding in the car was always something that soothed him as a child). Riding in the car with both Buddy Boy and Sweet Pea for 5 hours brings the usual sibling squabbles one would expect between kids that are 7 and almost 5. We strategically put the laptop briefcase between them on the backseat as a pseudo barrier, but of course they're big enough to reach over it and poke the other one when they really want to (which is fairly often).

About half way there, Buddy Boy asked me what the red button on the dash was for (the emergency flasher button). I of course told both kids that if I pushed it, anyone in the back seat was ejected from the car (I've never claimed to be the perfect father). Buddy Boy immediately countered "You can't do that! It's against the law! Parents are supposed to take care of their kids!"

Liz gave me a dirty look and said "Kids, your father has something to tell you." "Well, it's really the emergency flasher button", I said. (Liz has no sense of humor sometimes). A couple of stops for gas, food, and bladders, and we arrived without a hitch.

Tomorrow's blog-we meet again...

Joe is on the road, eating junk food, and there isn't a scale in sight...