Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cabin Trip, May 2010

This photo was taken on Tuesday, May 25, at Pinegrove cabin. I drove up with Darren and Kiley on Sunday afternoon and spent three nights there with them. (Kristy and Chris, whose week it was, spent the weekend at the cabin but had to go home on Sunday evening -- we ran into them in Chama as they were heading home.)

We didn't do a whole lot while we were at the cabin. Monday was a cold day, feeling more like late March than late May. We drove up to the summit of Wolf Creek Pass, and then back down to the "scenic overlook" and Treasure Falls, but we only barely got out of the car due to the chill. We drove back into Pagosa Springs and did some shopping and had lunch at the Malt Shoppe, and then we decided to brave the cold and try tubing in the river. As was the case a couple of summers ago, the "Rito Blanco," the tributary of the Rio Blanco that joins the latter right there at the cabin property, was running high and afforded a fairly wild ride (we lashed three tubes together and rode as a trio) -- especially with a few newly fallen tree branches that got in the way. I was pretty blue (actually red) with cold by the time we finished a second ride that day and was happy to go take a hot shower.

On Tuesday, we drove back into town and did a few things. We bought river shoes for Kiley and then went to the candy shop underneath the theater to buy fudge and some other goodies. Then we walked along the San Juan for a while before going back to the Malt Shoppe for soft-serve ice cream cones. Finally, we returned to the cabin, and, since the weather was at least ten degrees warmer than the previous day, the river sounded a little more appealing. We did the "Rito" twice more, together, before untying the tubes, at which point Darren and Kiley rode twice on the "Rio" from the bridge around to our usual getting-out point.

For entertainment, we watched a few movies, played Monopoly Deal (a card game at which I suck, pure and simple), and surfed the Internet and checked e-mail messages on my laptop. (The neighbors across the road keep their satellite wireless network "open," apparently so that people at our cabin can log on to it. Awfully nice of them!) Darren and Kiley also put together a couple of jigsaw puzzles, something for which I've come to have little patience. There was a lot of traffic up and down the road, causing me to conclude there must be some construction going on somewhere down at the end of the road.

Finally, we came back fairly early today so that I could get back in time for my temple shift. It would have been nice to stay longer, but at least I'll have another four-day weekend for Memorial Day.