Confederate flag flying in a mobile home park.
When we checked in to Zapata Rach, which is owned by the Nature Conservancy, the woman at the desk acted really annoyed that we were late- 3:45. She had a game to go to. Check in time is 3, check out time is 10-- that means you're automatically paying for an extra day at a monster rate. They don't publish their address so it's a matter of asking at the gas station to find the place. It's near Great Sand Dunes National Park.
She didn't have any record of the deposit we'd paid on our room, and shoved a 3 page document at us to sign here, all about the dangers of riding horses or in the flatbeds of trucks.
We signed. We met her weasel husband, the one who wore cowboy hat and vest and waxed moustache 24/7, in the dining room near the bar. Jon asked when does the bar open, and husband and wife both looked shocked. "There's no alcohol at the ranch." So we realized we were in Mormon country. Jon asked where we could get a bottle of wine. You would have thought he'd asked "where can we score some meth?" Shaking their heads in disapproval, they mentioned a town 15 miles away, but they weren't sure if we could buy wine there.
When we asked about viewing the debate, they gave us the "yer nuts" look. Then the guy made some "how bout that Sarah" comments and we knew he was a Sarah Palin boy. Geez, at a Nature Conservancy resort? No booze and Sarah Palin and big prices?
We got to our room. There was a typed letter telling us what our activities were for the next day. We could help out at the ranch in the morning, and free time in the afternoon. No mention of horses or bison. I was so mad. We hadn't driven all this way to clean somebody else's tack or wash out feed pans.
At dinner we had to plead to be allowed to take the trail ride the next day. The dinners were good- they brought in a cook from outside for dinner, but breakfast was reheated bean only burritos and lunch was make your sandwich yerself, Democrat.
We think what may have been going wrong there was the couple who'd been running the place had split in a big hurry, and this sad sack couple were running it on their own. In the end they cut the charges in half. There were other maddening things, but enough of that trip.
10 comments:
Some vacation! That sounded more like being marooned on Planet Duh.
Mr & Mrs. wax mustache (and neighbors) remind me of the line from Blazing Saddles
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... ...morons."
Ahhhhhh God. I have lived in Colorado almost all my life, and never seen a buffalo, or heard of a tic-toc burger. You're just lucky, I guess.
However! This year Colorado is regarded as a swing state! Shock and awe! Obama has a chance!
All is not lost, I feel.
I do, however, almost feel bad for moving further up North now. It seems as though Colorado would benefit from my girlfriend's and my vote..
In a note of being fair and balanced, everything you believe of Conservatives is a lie, and everything you believe of being a Democrat ceased to be true the day Kennedy was assinated.
Your Party has been hijacked by totalitarians who wish to establish a Stalinist state, complete with gulags. Conservatives believe in the Bill of Rights and freedom. America as originally created is in it's death throws and we are headed to a Cuban style of life. No thanks.
We have identical mobile homes with stars and bars in the backwoods up here in NC. Pathetic. But Obama drew a crowd of approx. 30,000 here a week ago. The city pop. is only 65,000. The next few days are going to be an agony of waiting.
You sure those folks weren't named Bates?
For some reason this reminds me of the entire day I spent taking down my show completely by myself, including filling nail holes, touching up paint, hauling 51 pieces to car, etc., while employee just sat there listening to conservative radio all day long. It was so stressful.
It was memorable, I'll say that. Yesterday we stopped by Obama headquarters in Ridgway and offered to drive people to vote. The two older ladies in the office were thrilled.
Even within the distance we drive to get groceries there are huge cultural differences, from the uber rich Texans (and now Russians) on top of Mountain Village to the old hippies and wannabe young hippies in Telluride to New Age baby boomers in Ridgway to ranchers (and ranch workers) at City Market in Montrose.
and fearless, I see some of the same qualities in Obama as in my choice of Molly, our German Shepherd!
BRAIN POWER!
Eagerness to lead
Responsiveness and Responsibility
Calmness in turmoil
Compassion and kind heart
BRAINS!
I spend a lot of time at a German shepherd forum where many share your pov. And these aren't qualities found in a pitbull, even with lipstick! ;)
I'm apolitical for the most part, so my views on such matters are probably not worth very much at all and are in fact most likely idiotic as I'm not very well-researched in the political realm, but what hey:
I prefer the George Washington sentiment of multiple parties. I don't like this whole two-parties only business.
Obama strikes me as too clean. His image makes me suspicious. My totally irrational, gut-instinct impression of him: a phony, perhaps a bit of a butt-kisser, to put it nicely. Arrogant, too, I think. Back to the clean-image thing again, he's certainly quite popular, and, being the Kierkegaardian that I am, I tend to think that if most people like him then there's probably something wrong with him.
Now, irrational, gut-instinct impression of McCain: He strikes me as having a temper, and probably being violently crazy, though capable of great feats of hiding it. I could see him losing it though and trying to blow up half the world or something.
In either case (and in keeping with my general feeling towards politicians in general) I don't trust either of them. Obama strikes me, at least in the realm of my superficial impressions, as being "safer." If he were the phony suck-up part of me imagines him, then I imagine he wouldn't do anything too disagreeable to tarnish the image. If McCain is as crazy as I superficially imagine him, then I could see him doing some scary things.
As for me?
Probably Nader, or some other third party (I need to do more research, I'm painfully uninformed).
I have, however, imagined myself a wonderfully insane candidate that I'm hoping to film an "interview" with and put it up on Youtube by Election Day.
Why have my posts been so long lately? Just rambling thoughts. I ought to write these on my own empty blog. Sorry for the time-wasting, folks.
To A Wanderer
Look into Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party. He has many good points.
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