at Collin and Marisa’s up on Glade Park above the Colorado National Monument — sleep in a bit while those folks get down to the airport to prep for their Learn to Fly event that their company, the Colorado Flight Center, is putting on. The drive down is in a deep and moist fog which gives the Monument extra dimension. At the airport, the F/A-18s inject their presence with after-burner roars on flyovers and take-offs. After the flight training sales-briefing, the awarding of the door prizes (free flights!) and barbecue, Collin takes me over to another hangar to see the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber that is being restored. It’s the heaviest single-engine aircraft in WWII. Wow, it’s huge!
Back up on the Glade in the early evening, we take a hike down the canyon that their land borders, hiking down to the Colorado National Monument boundary. Yet another wow! Yeah, jealous at the fruits of their significant labors! An intense piece of land with a house and several out-buildings — the land consists of the wedge of highland between two slick-rock canyons. The land seems relatively untouched with (perhaps) first-growth piñon, small prickly-pear cactus, with a thin sandy soil — I can imagine because of the steep drop on either side, anyone ranching the land would fence it off from cattle from the get-go. Collin tells the story of not having walked the entire piece of land before buying it, and then, when wandering out to the point of the wedge only to see a nice set of big slick-rock hoodoos stepping down into the canyon head. After that he wanders back and gets Marisa who is also oblivious of the sight as well. Nice surprise. And it’s not far from that point that the yurt is to be erected. Thunderheads build over Grand Mesa.
