Yesterday Stan and I took a much-needed "date day" on a lovely trip into the mountains. We never have a destination plan, just point the car and go, and where we end up that's where we are.

Drove south on I-25 and hung a right at Walsenburg. It's a town dying with methane coming out of water faucets. Light a match and the water catches fire.

Punched it on Hwy 160 going west. Weather perfect, drive easy, traffic good, and trees spectacular. Can't tell you how many times Stan got out to take pics. The light breeze and clear skies made tree color pop and glisten! Dance! Especially from about mile marker 283 west to marker 275 – trees amazing. Shortly after, maybe around Forbes Park, the aspens abruptly stopped.

Drove to Crestone and poked around for awhile, but it's pointless to travel that far unless you want to see The Crestones. Those mountains look really different from the ones here in Pueblo West or in Boulder where the Rockies are rounded or up in Loveland where they are perfection. Dramatic! Crestone itself isn't a destination point. It's a New Age mecca with a population of about 130 people and pretty dilapidated unless you have mega-bucks and live on the fringe. Numerous signs dot the way saying you're "on The Cosmic Highway," "ETs Rule" and there's a stop off to snag a top position on the ET/UFO watch tower. What can one say… Kinda like 3 tacos short of a fiesta. Na-nah-nah-nah. Na-nah-nah-nah.

18 spiritual centers are featured at Crestone including:

• Dharma Ocean Foundation
  
• Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang
  
• Mangala Shri Bhuti
  
• Pundarika Foundation
  
• Vajra Vidya Retreat Center
  
• White Jewel Mountain
  
• Yeshe Khorlo
  
• Crestone Mountain Zen Center
  
• Chamma Ling
  
• Haidakhandi Universal Ashram
  
• Sri Aurobindo Learning Center
  
• Spiritual Life Institute
  
• The Singing Stone
  
• Shumei International Institute
  
• Dragon Mountain Temple
  
• Way of Nature
  
• Little Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church
  
• Crestone Baptist Church
  

Below are a couple of pics from the Tashi Gomang shrine. If you don't know how to practice, they give a quick tutorial on a handy adjacent billboard. Not sure about the multi-colored banners surrounding "Tashi". Kind of reminiscent of those calling attention to used car lots.

OK, push that aside. I enjoyed a lenthy conversation this afternoon with Scott Stevens who lives in Crestone. Scott says there's really double the above number of religious orders there. He's a world-renown meteorologist and among the first to sound the bell about government monkeying with our weather – weather modification, chemtrails, geoengineering. He and we arrive at the same conclusion about End Times – we just sail on different boats. Regardless of the journey, we need to be ready. There are some reasonably grisly times around the corner and the best solution is to be prepared spiritually and physically.

Didn't get home till around 8:30 last night. Dogs were exhausted having to be actual 'outside' canines instead of house slackards. When they came inside, they went to bed in the livingroom and barely budged for the next 2 hours. Didn't even have enough energy to give The Parents "what for" for leaving them alone all day.