Road Trip

I would not call this a vacation, more like an exercise in endurance to cram as much as possible into a week and 3000 miles which included 2 days of driving.  

Dungpileton to Lubbock, TX (maybe just as bad) to Grand Junction, CO.  I make the same trip to Lubbock ~ 3-4 times a year for the last 13 years to visit Andrea Hurlow and her son Josh Carpenter.

 I always expect hiking when I visit Rob and Sue Graham in GJ.  With my fibro under control I'm in better shape to hike despite coming from the flat lands.  This was in the Colorado National Monument.  Rob and Sue are fittness trainers at Mesa St. University.  I learned from Rob the muscle I strained on our hike was the Soleus - below the calf.  I got over it.

Plants, always plants along the way.  On the hike it blew my mind to find a columbine on the dry slopes because I've always encountered it in cooler high elevations, the shade or on moist north slopes.  The flower turned out to be Mancos Columbine, an endemic to this area.

In Closing:

                                                
                                                                       Joshua Carpenter