Why the title?

"Pioneers take the arrows"

Oh, wait. I should be upbeat and taking arrows doesn't sound like an upbeat thing to say.

So, let me amend that statement.

It was courage and vision that led the pioneers to leave behind a comfortable, settled life and trek West to begin a new life in a new place. Many of those from the East that went West found a strength within themselves that they didn't see while they were in their old life. Instead of being one of those that just kind of went along with the others in the old life, they became leaders and visionaries in their new lives.

The sentiments of that last paragraph come from a favorite author, Louis L'Amour, in many of his books. So, I can't really say that it is an original thought from me. However, what he said is truthful.

Welcome to being a pioneer. Look ahead and ignore the "barking dogs" that give you negative opinions and comments. Louis L'Amour also spoke of the barking dogs.

In some of his stories, it was usually a father or older man telling a young boy how it was that when the Westward bound Conestoga wagons rolled through towns, the dogs came out to bark at them. His character then told the young listener that the barking didn't stop the wagons from going on to their destinations.

Following the advice of the Louis L'Amour characters, may we all forge ahead with our plans, after carefully considering all consequences and leave the "barkers" behind.

Monday, January 24, 2011

More About Purgatoire River Campground

My test with Live Writer and pictures turned out to be a successful one. Everything posted into the blog just as I had composed it in Word and Live Writer. I thought that for today, I would add a few more photos. These may be from different years as I will be choosing photos now to show a little more of the campground.

This first photo is of the meadow, but taken from the Eastern side looking up-slope. The ones I displayed yesterday were taken from the upper loop of the drive down towards the meadow. There are two campers in this photo, one to the left and one to the right. Both of those are in sites just off of the upper loop road. In fact, the one to the right is our campsite. The cylindrical object on a trailer that is in the middle left of the picture is a bear trap that had been set the night before to capture a marauding bear. And yes, he IS in the trap.

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This one is of our campsite. While it is not very evident, about 20 feet to the left of the camper is an area that has been leveled off for use with tents. That area also has a picnic table and a fire ring.

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I guess I should mention that part of the reason you don’t see many campers in the campground is because we usually go up the last week in August, just before the Labor Day weekend. That way, we get an extra day off for our vacation. Since it is late August, students are in school and there are very few campers. Sometimes, other than us, the only ones in the campground are people who are up to hunt deer or elk. Usually, we see very little of them because they are up on the mountains instead of in the campground.

Not visible in the campsite above is a culvert that goes under the site where the camper sits. There is a very small stream that comes down the slope and through that culvert, right under the camper. And I mean small. Back years ago, I used to drink a lot of iced tea and we would keep a 1 gallon Tupperwear pitcher full of tea in that stream to keep it cold.

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In 2006, our youngest son went with us for vacation. We had taken wading boots so we would have the capability of walking in the streams and rivers to get pictures. The following pictures are of the Purgatoire River, the first being fairly close to the campground area.

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This one is further away from the campground where a point of rock is rounded by the river. This one is actually right next to the road going up to the campground.

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This one is that same point of rock but it is taken from the road.

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Another use we had for the wading boots was to walk back into Zapata Falls, a waterfall that is actually back inside of a mountainside.  I’ll show pictures of that area another time.

Working with these photos has sure depressed me a little.  After buying our Mobile Suites, we haven’t had the cash money to take a vacation since 2009, and we might not be able to this year either.  Everything hinges on our house being sold.

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