2020 is flying by, sometimes dancing and spinning with activity, sometimes napping and walking slowing, trudging along.

We went on what we call our Hole-In-The-Ground-Tour starting in Colorado, which is decidedly not a hole, but a valley to the east of the Rockies, drove to Durango, Colorado, then to Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon.

Durango is an “old west” town, the kind I love to visit. When I was young I remember asking my dad why we couldn’t live in the “west.” I meant the old west of television shows like Rawhide and Wagon Train (okay–I had a childish crush on Clint Eastwood). Dad laughed, but never explained that I DID live in the west–just a different one than the one that lived in my imagination. Durango lives up to all those images–old wooden buildings mixed in with new restaurants and buildings; old shops and new; every opportunity to hike and river raft (if you like).

From Durango, we drove to Mesa Verde to marvel in relative isolation (not many people there and you can’t walk into the ancient builds right now) to marvel at the remarkable houses chiseled out of the red rock, hanging precariously as if ornaments on a tree. You have to wonder while there, who were they really? What did they look like? Why did they so suddenly leave?

We drove to Grand Canyon and stayed at the El Tovar hotel on the South Rim. Breathtaking and miraculous–the most natural Disney World of American, I like to call it. Condors flying overhead looking for roadkill. Hummingbirds slurping the last of the nectar out of desert flowers. Deer and Elk sauntering onto the lawn of the El Tovar because there are few humans out. A few guests rocking on the front porch, tugging at medical masks that cover their smiles.

We drove quickly through New Mexico, the vast and seemingly deserted Navajo Reservation (how do they have a COVID problem while so widely separated?). We drove to Windlow Arizona (Standing on a Corner), where my husband got some great pictures. Stayed at the La Posada Hotel (means “inn” in Spanish). A one-of-a-kind hotel with artwork everywhere, rooms decorated in Spanish style, and a great restaurant where we tried deep-fried squash blossoms for the first time.

So, in this year of COVID, this year where time is slow and fast, life is dangerous and care-free, the future is certain and up-in-the-air, I’ve decided to do that which I have no other choice but to do–wait, watch, wear my mask and self-distance.