Sirens Trip, Days 0-2
Oct. 12th, 2010 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaSo, recapping!
Last Sunday (wow, it's already been over a week), I got on a plane and flew to LA, where![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija picked me up at the airport and we got fantastic chicken with garlic sauce from Zankou. (Seriously, super delicious. I really wish I could figure out how they made that garlic sauce!) I also introduced her to the cracktastic addictive joy that is The Sims 3. The next day we picked up sartorias and headed for Colorado!
The first day, we headed northeast across Southern California and through Nevada. (I didn't take many landscape pictures, more's the pity, so I'm going to take advantage of other peoples' flickr shots to illustrate.) On the way toward Las Vegas I admired the weirdness that is the Joshua tree, and the general stark bareness of the landscape. We passed through Las Vegas and continued northeast, clipping the corner of Arizona and finally stopping in St. George, Utah. (On the way we drove through a truly impressive thunderstorm. And by 'through' I mean 'straight through;' the lightning was striking on all sides, long jagged branches of light, and clouds so dark that the intermittent flashes could blind, strong winds and thunder enough to make the car shudder, rain that didn't so much fall as slash downward. It was truly impressive.)
The next day we hit the road again, and spent most of the day (well, all day, really) crossing Utah. We saw sage-green plants growing in dirt red as rust, and steep striated hillsides, incredible patterns of light and shadow, fingers of stone and hilltop cliffs that looked like fortress walls.
We stopped at Cove Fort, which was a waystation for those traveling the Mormon Corridor in the mid to late 1800s. It was built as a defensive fort because it was established during the Black Hawk War, but no shots were ever fired at the fort (save one accident in which a little boy shot his brother in the knee) and things sound like they were pretty peaceful. The fort was a stop for a couple of stagecoach lines (including rooms to let), a Pony Express stop, and a telegraph station. It was run by one man and his family.
We stopped and took the tour, given by a nice LDS guide who was very sweet and not pushy and, as Rachel put it, had the ability to make pretty much anything into a parable involving Jesus. (I didn't notice, because he was actually a lot less heavy-handed about it than the people I grew up with, but there you go.) The fort was really interesting from a historical point of view: fully restored, and with many of the original furnishings. (I was particularly interested because material culture is one of my verymost favorite elements of history.) I did get pictures there, so, under the cut!
Approaching the fort:
The walls made of volcanic stone were apparently fairly unusual for the time, when most forts were made of wood:
The coach drivers' overnight room:
Telegraph office:
The kitchen and dining room, of which I took a lot of pictures:
Cast-iron stove, on which were made up to 75 meals per day:
I'm trying to imagine making 75 meals a day with this much workspace and failing:
A loom with a rag rug on it:
The boys' room, complete with period leather-backed dominoes on the table:
A linsey-woolsey coverlet on one of the guest beds:
This cradle was designed so that it could be flipped over and used as a bench when it wasn't needed for infants:
Sewing machine!
The barn, used for their cattle as well as the coach horses:
Kitchen garden and blacksmith shop:
The courtyard inside the fort:
...and one of the not-actually-ever-used gunports:
Then we drove a bit farther and decided to call it a night early, so we'd be fresh and awake and have good daylight for the petroglyphs the next morning. We stopped in Green River, at a hotel with an absolutely lovely river view.
Aside from the beautiful landscape and the chance to stop and see some really interesting historical things, the trip was a great joy because of the company. We talked about all kinds of things, from sense of place in fantasy literature to sexual orientation among pioneer women, from the difference between a critique and a review to the way historical fiction sets up a dialogue between modern mores and historical ones.
The next day: petroglyphs, and arrival in Vail!
Last Sunday (wow, it's already been over a week), I got on a plane and flew to LA, where
rachelmanija picked me up at the airport and we got fantastic chicken with garlic sauce from Zankou. (Seriously, super delicious. I really wish I could figure out how they made that garlic sauce!) I also introduced her to the cracktastic addictive joy that is The Sims 3. The next day we picked up sartorias and headed for Colorado!The first day, we headed northeast across Southern California and through Nevada. (I didn't take many landscape pictures, more's the pity, so I'm going to take advantage of other peoples' flickr shots to illustrate.) On the way toward Las Vegas I admired the weirdness that is the Joshua tree, and the general stark bareness of the landscape. We passed through Las Vegas and continued northeast, clipping the corner of Arizona and finally stopping in St. George, Utah. (On the way we drove through a truly impressive thunderstorm. And by 'through' I mean 'straight through;' the lightning was striking on all sides, long jagged branches of light, and clouds so dark that the intermittent flashes could blind, strong winds and thunder enough to make the car shudder, rain that didn't so much fall as slash downward. It was truly impressive.)
The next day we hit the road again, and spent most of the day (well, all day, really) crossing Utah. We saw sage-green plants growing in dirt red as rust, and steep striated hillsides, incredible patterns of light and shadow, fingers of stone and hilltop cliffs that looked like fortress walls.
We stopped at Cove Fort, which was a waystation for those traveling the Mormon Corridor in the mid to late 1800s. It was built as a defensive fort because it was established during the Black Hawk War, but no shots were ever fired at the fort (save one accident in which a little boy shot his brother in the knee) and things sound like they were pretty peaceful. The fort was a stop for a couple of stagecoach lines (including rooms to let), a Pony Express stop, and a telegraph station. It was run by one man and his family.
We stopped and took the tour, given by a nice LDS guide who was very sweet and not pushy and, as Rachel put it, had the ability to make pretty much anything into a parable involving Jesus. (I didn't notice, because he was actually a lot less heavy-handed about it than the people I grew up with, but there you go.) The fort was really interesting from a historical point of view: fully restored, and with many of the original furnishings. (I was particularly interested because material culture is one of my verymost favorite elements of history.) I did get pictures there, so, under the cut!
Approaching the fort:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The walls made of volcanic stone were apparently fairly unusual for the time, when most forts were made of wood:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The coach drivers' overnight room:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
Telegraph office:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The kitchen and dining room, of which I took a lot of pictures:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
Cast-iron stove, on which were made up to 75 meals per day:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
I'm trying to imagine making 75 meals a day with this much workspace and failing:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
A loom with a rag rug on it:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The boys' room, complete with period leather-backed dominoes on the table:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
A linsey-woolsey coverlet on one of the guest beds:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
This cradle was designed so that it could be flipped over and used as a bench when it wasn't needed for infants:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
Sewing machine!
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The barn, used for their cattle as well as the coach horses:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
Kitchen garden and blacksmith shop:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
The courtyard inside the fort:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
...and one of the not-actually-ever-used gunports:
 |
| From Cove Fort, 2010-10-05 |
Then we drove a bit farther and decided to call it a night early, so we'd be fresh and awake and have good daylight for the petroglyphs the next morning. We stopped in Green River, at a hotel with an absolutely lovely river view.
 |
| From Petroglyphs and Green River, 2010-10-06 |
Aside from the beautiful landscape and the chance to stop and see some really interesting historical things, the trip was a great joy because of the company. We talked about all kinds of things, from sense of place in fantasy literature to sexual orientation among pioneer women, from the difference between a critique and a review to the way historical fiction sets up a dialogue between modern mores and historical ones.
The next day: petroglyphs, and arrival in Vail!