Dear Isaac and Maia

Sometimes, life feels upside down. The reason for using this title for the post is because we went up the upside of the Grand Mesa (World’s largest mesa) and down the other before we got to our campgrounds.

We went to Vega State Park, which is about 2.5 hours but only 80-90 miles from our house. Climbing the Mesa is a windy road out of Delta – about half the trip is in Delta County. The scenery is gorgeous, so that helps the time pass. The road passes through Cedaredge, Orchard City, Eckert, etc on the way up.

Eventually, you pass Mesa Lakes and head down the other side a little bit to the State Park. The Grand Mesa has a lot of lakes because it is flat. Like when you spill milk on a flat table and there are a lot of little bubbles to wipe up.

On the other side are towns called Mesa, Colbran, and Plateau Valley. I always through Plateau Valley was an oximoron name. How can you be a plateau and a valley at the same time???

I understand, though. Vega means a large, fertile, grassy valley. I can see all of those things being true about Vega State Park.

We got there late and I was so tired that I had a hard time setting the tent up. We slept from 10 PM until 8:30 AM. Then, we hiked. Well, sort of because I wanted Sazi to use her wheels on non-sidewalk some more and Maizzy needed to ride in her pack. We only went a mile or two . . . it took forever. Sazi loved bushwhacking with Kachina through the tall grass.

We took the road from near our tent site and just followed it around the lake. Kachina and Sazi really wanted to play in the grass near the lake, so that is what we did. Maizzy slept the whole time. We went back and had lunch. Then, light rain started. I was so tired that we all went and took a nap in the tent until almost 4 PM. It was still light rain with some thunder, so I got the dogs up for a ride around the Lake before dinner. I was out by 10 PM, again.

Maizzy got sick during the night. She has an infection called giardia that we can’t seem to get rid of. She has been to the vet 3 times – now we are treating all the dogs. No one has symptoms but Maizzy, but it is highly contagious so likely it isn’t just her. She has had it since Christmas. We went to the vet early Friday morning and got more medicine.

When I got up to help her, she was sitting behind the suitcase. I think she was trying to hide from me or something. She was shaking – the infection has caused her to loose a lot of weight. I wonder how long she will be with us. I don’t think she sees much and she is fairly lame from arthritis. I struggle with what to do for her.

Once we got up, we packed up and headed back over Grand Mesa. We stopped at Mesa Lakes and had a picnic lunch. It was really windy. However, I always enjoy the trip because you can see miles and miles from the top of the Mesa – both from the upside and the downside.

In two weeks, we will be at Curecanti on the Gunnison River. Spring camping is all about water. Then, it is our week-long, Northern CO roadtrip. I am considering leaving Maizzy with someone while we travel. This weekend – we used 1/4 tank of gas. We are doing good with the COVID-19 advise to shop and buy gas local.