forgot to mention!

It was really nice to be in the San Juan National Forest all week, but I completely forgot to mention the excitement of the Dolores River Festival!!

So, we got there around 1:30pm, and all these outdoorsy-looking people are parking around this cute little park and walking over to the entrance. There was a band called Formula 151 playing, but they were almost done, and there was already a little hippie circle of ladies dancing in a very far-out way...

The park green was lined with little booths and there were a ton of people with blankets and chairs and stuff down in the center facing the two stages. Richard took off to get food and I meandered around the booths, and then bought a margarita at the brewery stand and sat down for the music. It was gone too quickly, and so when I went for a refill I found out I could get an extra shot for another buck! So, my second margarita was much nicer and stronger, and then I got hungry and went to stand in line at the gyro stand, and found Richard still waiting (but much closer to the front)!! So I joined him and we bought some delicious Greek food (even vegetarian for me!) and sat down to listen to the next group. Then he went to move the car near the campgrounds on the park and set up his tent, and I got my third margarita + extra shot. I sat out on the grass amid hundreds of strangers, and found myself just plain drunk!

I figured I'd go get another veggie gyro and stood in line again (because this time I was drunk so I didn't mind waiting!) and struck up a conversation (surprised?) with this totally awesome lady and happily killed time until we made it to the front. While we were in line, a band came on called "Bigga Digga" and they were toted this great funk band of Denver or something, so obviously we were going to have to dance. Then I sat down with my food and my booze at the front of the crowd and this band launched into the second song of their set.

It just wasn't possible not to get up and start dancing, this music was funk-ay, and so halfway through my food I stood up and just let myself go, barefoot and buzzin', and gradually some other ladies came up and joined me. They didn't stay the whole time, though, and every song was so good, too good to sit back down. I just stayed there and danced, practically by myself, until the wave of other girls would come again (two other pre-teens were there and seemed emboldened by my unwavering presence, so they helped me hold up the fort, so to speak). By their last two songs, there was a solid group of people dancing, though I think there should have been more.

The bassist came up and thanked me for jamming out afterwards, and he was really cool, so we had ourselves a nice little conversation. He invited me to come party with them after the festival, and I considered it. Then the next band came on (the headliners), called Euforquestra, and they SHOOK THE HOUSE. Except it was outdoors at a park. These guys had some Brazilian, Cuban, Nigerian, Reggae, and Funk goin' on. STELLAR. Unbelievable energy and comprised entirely of hotties!

They started their first song and I didn't waste two seconds before I was on my feet dancing, and THIS time people joined me pretty quickly. I love it when everybody's dancing, and I was grinning (and drunk) and happy and dancing, and then some photographer snapping all sorts of shots of the band started taking pictures of ME. He came up and had me write my name in some notebook and asked me where I was from. Hey! I guess I wasn't making a complete fool out of myself up there :)

So there had to be at least 100 people dancing, and this band was so good, it was hard not to. Even Richard got up and started dancing after a while (I don't know how he could ever resist). Eventually, though, I got pretty dehydrated and started hitting up the drinking fountain over and over, and then I got a raging headache (probably from drinking, dehydration, screaming and yelling for the bands, and being smack in front of a speaker the whole time) and drifted over to buy a CD and t-shirt to show my support.

After the show, and two amazing encores (a Talking Heads cover and some P-Funk mixed cover), I was damn-near onto a migraine, and had to go set up my tent in the nearby campground. It was getting dark and I could barely see, let alone think through this tent set-up crap, but eventually, and finally, my tent was up and my Advil was kicking in. I just wanted to show up at the brewery briefly to reaffirm my support for Bigga Digga, since they were so good and the bassist was so enthusiastic about hanging out with me there. Soon enough, I dragged myself over and bought some OJ on the way, and Richard and I arrived at the brewery to see the party continuing. The bassist guy came right up to me and gave me a copy of their new album, and then a beer! We stuck around and chatted with the members of the band while they drank and partied happily. I got so many thanks and hugs for being the "friendly face" in the crowd that vigorously grooved out, and that was nice.

Anyway, so the next morning, after nursing that headache until crashing hard in my tent, I went wandering over to the bathrooms at the park, and passed by a couple who were making coffee and breakfast in the grass. They said they recognized me from yesterday, the girl who was dancing, and I laughed and concurred. On my way back past them, we struck up a conversation and I ended up sitting down with them and having coffee and cantaloupe! They live in Durango and love it. It was totally like Livestock or something, having next-day pow-wows with strangers who shared my vibes. They took off later on and went rafting, and I packed up and was dropped off at the Forest Service bunkhouse. So now you're all caught up. I have two new CDs, a new t-shirt, even more confidence, and a nice tan from spending all day dancing in the sunlight!

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Today, we're in Aztec, NM, which is somewhere in the Four Corners area. We did a point yesterday outside Durango (which is a great little town after all), then stayed at a gorgeous campsite that Richard didn't want to pay the fee for. I knew we'd get in trouble for it, too, because it's Friday night and it was totally packed. Sure enough, some guy came around and wrote down our license plate number, and when I told Richard he scrambled to pay the fee. So ha. Dishonesty doesn't fly with me. I have no respect for it.

Then today we drove back into New Mexico, and I said goodbye to Colorado for the rest of the summer. It sure was pretty there, and chilly! Now we're in dumpy old northwestern New Mexico, and today we did two points (one was on someone's private property and Richard just shrugged when I told him!! Lame!) where every time I stopped walking, a swarm of cedar gnats would bombard my head. They whine in your ears and bite your forehead, ears and scalp! And there are thousands of them, so don't slow down! It was miserable, especially because I had hundreds of flowers and four different species, so I had to count diligently. Of course, I'll admit, it was lovely to be surrounded by all these bright red, pink, and purple flowers, just not the gnats! The second point didn't have any flowers at all, the ground was so parched, just a million sage and all those friggin' gnats! I have no idea if any hummingbirds even came to the feeders (I'm assuming none did) because I pulled my shirt over my face for the 30 minutes we had to sit there for the observations. HORRIBLE.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off. It is Father's Day, which is significant for me because 6 years ago it was the last day I saw my father alive. I plan to call my step dad and Toby's dad and my brother and my friend Andy. I also plan to sit next to the pool they have here, even though the pool is closed, and I will expose my crazy pale legs to the daylight. Also, possibly, there will be a walk across the street to the Vanilla Moose for some ice cream.

I haven't had a day off since Sunday, and I have worked HARD this week, so this will be a good day of retrospection and healing, as well as re-combobulating my attitude (which has been very discombobulated as of late). I will also be sleeping in, because I earned it. Last night I slept in the front seat of the Aveo, and I paid dearly for it with my back aching like crazy today.

So, if I have time, I might slap a few of my photographs in here, to make up for half a dozen long entries with no visuals besides my impeccable descriptions of things. I'm sure you're ready to see some pictures, even if you did manage to check out my photobucket album.

That's all until tomorrow!