MANCOS, COLORADO!
I mentioned last fall that I've been trying to get home to Colorado's western slope. I've been writing letters, researching housing, and begging favors with all my might. Well, just now, I got an e-mail from the Colorado state representative for La Plata and Montezuma counties. I have qualified for a subsidized rental in Mancos, Colorado! The place is a one bedroom apartment in a very nicely kept 12-plex managed by the Rural Development Association. My rent PLUS utilities will only be $191.00/month! AND I can have Rikki and Starr!
Mancos is a little town in one of the most beautiful areas of the 4 Corners. Crime is all but non existent there, they have a great little public library, a yummy bakery/coffeeshop, National Forest surrounds the town, and highway 160 (the main drag for the 4 Corners) goes right through on one side of the town. Durango which has the college where I used to teach plus tons of fun things to do will be only a 40 minute drive to the east. Cortez (which will be my "city") is only 20 minutes to the west. When I was down there in the fall, I made instant friends of three women who were sitting in the back of Cortez's cute little bookstore and we all sat around for a couple of hours drinking coffee and talking like we'd known each other all our lives. One of the woman is the Minister of the Congregational Church in Dolores (15 minutes from Mancos) and invited me to check out her congregation when I move down there.
Those pictures of the fall scenery I posted last fall were taken about a half hour drive from Mancos on the way to Telluride (an hour's drive) where you can go hear all their great summer music festivals for free if you volunteer to take tickets and check tourists for their festival passes. Two hours to the south of Mancos is Santa Fe where you can get standing room tickets to the famous summer opera there for next to nothing (and there's always a few empty seats that they end up letting you have at intermission). To the west, there's Hovenweep, Canyonlands, Bryce, Escalante, and Zion. Just over the ridge there's the Navajo Nation, and I'll be able to listen to the morning blessingway chants on Radio Navajoland out of Shiprock!
I am so psyched! No more Front Range congestion and smog! No more World Prayer Center and Focus on the Family! No more ax murderer living just down the street from me!
I'm going HOME! :love: YAY! OH, YAY! MAY FIRST! I CAN"T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!! (where's the emoticon for the snoopy dance?)
And here's the e-mail I got in response to my thank you reply from Representative Mark Larsen who helped me get my new home:
Hey Monica,
You made my week too! I once had a very good friend who helped me in a big way. When I asked him what I could do to repay him for his kindness he stated, "Nothing. Just do something for someone else sometime." Well, I have lived my whole life that way. So all I ask is that you do something for someone else sometime. It definitely makes life worth living!
God speed and enjoy the apartment. Maybe I'll see you at Mancos Days or something!
Mark
Is that man cool or what? And he's an effing REPUBLICAN! I told him I'd vote for him for Senator or Govenor, but he's getting out of politics. Too bad! More pics! I am sooooo happy!
Congratulations. Don't forget to pack your logging chain.:D
My rent PLUS utilities will only be $191.00/month! AND I can have Rikki and Starr!...........When I was down there in the fall, I made instant friends........and invited me to check out her congregation when I move down there.............I am so psyched! No more Front Range congestion and smog! No more World Prayer Center and Focus on the Family! No more ax murderer living just down the street from me!.........I'm going HOME! YAY! OH, YAY! MAY FIRST! I CAN"T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!! (where's the emoticon for the snoopy dance?)
I'm so happy for you Mari, it seems that your luck is changing and with all those things that you've listed, that you are on your way living a life that you will enjoy.
This is good news for me to know as I've often felt the unhappiness in your comments that you post and hoped that the circumstances would change for you.
It's been a long time coming and you've survived the storm. I just know that your entire world will soon improve.
Now for the joke. This is a joke Mari. This is the wiseass humor portion of the post.
So maybe now you can stop busting Bush's rocks every day and just enjoy your life. :lol:
Congratulations, I'm very happy for you. :)
That looks one dream of a place to live Marichiko, but being a Brit who knows diddly squat as to where these places are in the USA, I need a map:
Way up in the wide open spaces - wonderful!
I can see that it might take more than just a few hundred wild horses to drag you away from your new place! Gee, it even looks nicer than Surrey!
Way up in the wide open spaces - wonderful!
I can see that it might take more than just a few hundred wild horses to drag you away from your new place! Gee, it even looks nicer than Surrey!
Cyclefrance, the term "wide open spaces" was coined for the 4 Corners region! It is dramatic, spectacular, and drop dead beautiful in every direction. "In all the 6 directions, may you walk in beauty" - Navajo Blessingway.
While I have never lived in Mancos before, I did live in Durango, Rico, and just outside of Telluride for years and years. I came out to the Front Range to be with the ax murderer. BARF! What a mistake! It feels like I've been trying to get back home again forever, and a thousand wild mustangs could only drag me deeper into the back country, up a twisting mountain road, or out on a canyon's rim to watch the nighthawks dive at twilight.
It is the country of my heart and I am counting the days -40 of them - until I am back home. I shudda been a cowgirl!
Good for you! Let us know how the settling in part goes.
[HTML]I shudda been a cowgirl![/HTML] And now you is one.;)
I have a cousin who lives in or near Durango. Out of curiosity I looked up some pictures and information. It looks like a beautiful place. Mancos also looks great.
Congratulations.
Congratulations. Don't forget to pack your logging chain.:D
Yeah, sex toys could be difficult to locate in such a rural area. :D
Congrats, Mari! Sounds like the world is starting to spin your way a bit more here lately. If I run away from home, I'll be sure and stop in and trash the new place for you (reference Belushi in "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave" on SNL).
Patrick, you know I've had a crush on you forever and you're welcome to run away to my home anytime you want! :D
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Is that man cool or what? And he's an effing REPUBLICAN! I told him I'd vote for him for Senator or Govenor, but he's getting out of politics. Too bad! More pics! I am sooooo happy![/QUOTE]
Mari --- congrats!!! Hey I'm glad you have realized that all republicans are not bad. Many of us have open minds and hearts. Unfortunately, my quest for relocation is not faring as well.
I'll tell you what, Mr. Larsen is one of the few politicians I have encountered of any flavor who actually seems to be a responsible human being. I don't care what he calls himself. If he ever again runs for office, I'll not only vote for him, this democrat will actively help campaign for him! I've discussed any number of issues with him since we first started an e-mail correspondence when I sent the entire Colorado State Legislature a most uncomplimentary e-mail. Mr. Larsen responded at once (unlike the rest, most of whom never replied at all), and gave me his analysis of the issues and what he had been doing to try to change things. And he wrote personally - not some stupid canned reply. The people of his district adore him, and so do I. I really, really hope he'll get back into politics after he takes his break from the legislature for a while.
I do wish you well with your relocation efforts, Mrs. P., and I hope it doesn't take you as long as it has me. I've been struggling for a full year to get out of this place that I should never ever have come back to.
My best advise is to perservere. Never give up. Not ever. You'll obtain your goal. It may not happen as fast as you'd like, but it WILL happen. I even painted the La Plata Mountains in water colors on my front window, so that every time I looked out I was reminded again of where I needed to be. (I'm gonna have to do a bunch of scrubbing to get my damage deposit back, but it was worth it!)
Thanks for your encouragement. It seems that in my life, patience is my continual challenge. I too love to paint, although I rarely make the time to do it, and I think a Coloradoesque landscape is in order to remind me of my goal!
Mari, I hate you. Seriously though, congratulations! Your pictures would make anyone envious of your new home! The first vacation that I can remember was in Colorado, when I was six. We buried my Dad there because he loved it so much, he kept going back there, even hopping on freight trains for rides when he had to. My husband and his family go to Colorado - the eastern part - every year, or at least every other year for vacation. I went with them 2 years ago and loved it. We took 11 four wheelers, there were 13 or us ranging in age from 4 to 87, and we rode old mining trails up in the mountains for a week, and nobody wanted to leave. We would start out dressed in shorts and T-shirts at the bottom of a mountain and put on another layer every few miles, until we were riding in snow and sleet at the top of the mountain, wearing coats and rain suits. Hopefully we'll go again this summer!
Cool! Say, didn't I meet you going the wrong way over Imogene pass once? You remeber me. I was the one driving the beat up Toyota with Colorado plates, and I hopped out and shook my fist at you and yelled, "Stupid flatlanders! Outta my way!" And then after you had to back half way down to let me pass, and I'd driven off in a cloud of dust you realized that it was ME going the wrong way, NOT you! Sure, you remember! :lol:
Seriously, let me know next time you come out for a visit and I'll show you how to drive off Land's End in a thunderstorm. Its a kick! You go over the edge of what looks to be a precipice about a 1,000 feet down, ignore the sign that says, "WARNING! Road not recommended!" and lock in your hubs and start floating down through the clouds.
Beleive it or not, the universe must REALLY want me to leave the Front Range almost as bad as I do because today I got the offer a second apartment in the truly cool town of Cedaredge, Colorado, right at the foot of the Colorado Plateau. That apartment I can have by April 1, and they don't even require a damage deposit! Decisions, decisions! West Slope here I come!
and they don't even require a damage deposit!
Poor unsuspecting fools.:lol:
Poor unsuspecting fools.:lol:
:lol2: Pffffft! Yeppers, little do they know! They called twice today, too. They long for me and that desperado Belle Starr and that master of Siameseness Mr. Rikki Tikki Tabby and my collection of great C/W CD's that I like to play at top volume, and my prized stick of TNT that's really an old road flare, and my hibachi that I throw juniper logs into to have front porch flame-out BBQ's. I give any abode I reside in a certain Kentucky hillbilly mystique after only a few days.
Other than that I'm a nice former librarian trying to recovery from a disability. (heheheh!)
Cedaredge is tempting because I could just move right on in, and I've been worrying about how to come up with the $500 damage deposit Mancos requires. I really adore the 4 Corners, and Cedaredge is pretty far noth of there. Its really pretty, though.
Its a tough call, I'll have to decide over the weekend which spot I'll head for. The most important thing is that I'm heading OUT of here at long last! YAY, OH, YAY!
It looks beautiful there Mari. One question I have is where is the nearest airport? Denver? Or is there a local one so you can jet out of there when there are 3279 feet of snow and you need a break? ;)
Actually, Durango, which is about a 40 minute drive to the east, has a very nice, up to date, little airport. Jets land there and everything! The flight to Denver is maybe an hour or two, I forget, but not very long.
I won't need to fly away from the snow, though. That's another cosmic thing about Mancos. Its one of those "edge" places right between the mountains and the desert. Mancos itself gets tons of snow every winter, but they are very good about keeping highway 160 clear. In 20 minutes, you can be in Cortez where the pavement is dry. Two hours from Cortez and you can be basking in the warmth of the desert country of southern Utah!
The Sonoran desert is maybe an 8 hour drive away. You hit snow again around Flagstaff for a bit, but after that its all smooth driving down to the Baja if you feel like going that far!
Sweet! It sounds like you plunked down in a primo place :)