I feel bad for this church here in Trinidad, Most Holy Trinity. I got to the church with time to spare only to find an empty block and a sign on the church door. Church Closed. All Masses will be held at Sabastianni Gym.

Their ceiling and roof condition make the church uninhabitable. And in order to affect the necessary repairs, foundational and structural work is required. This parish is in a real fix. There is hope for some grant money from the State Historical Fund. They need money and prayers.

Mass in the Gym was fine.

Ok, big gear change.

I’m most likely am at my last campsite. At least it’s the last of the sites with several nights stay. Tomorrow I’m going up to see The Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa. It’s about an hour and a half away but will be worth the trip. And I’ll be staring at mountains all day. Which is important because the next day those mountains will be in my rearview and quickly fade. I’ll be heading out on to the plains of Kansas, east, then northeast, then north.

I’m feeling nervous about being home. Mostly I’m feeling nervous about suddenly being in one place. My campsite stays have mostly ranged from 2 to 6 days. That’s a lot of motion over three and a half months coming to a sudden stop.

To be fair, getting home means questions to be answered. But I feel ok about what they are and my discernment of that. I’ve been exploring constantly for several months. I need to redefine exploring. Simple right? If that sounds like a dodge I’m sorry. That’s all you get for now.

Saturday I took some back roads up to Westcliffe. Why Westcliffe? Because I knew if I drove up that valley I’d have mountains on all sides of me. (see previous mountain lament)

It was a good relaxing day of truck exploring with a nice burger and beer at The Rode House. Of course it was called The Rode House. And it is Rode not Road. I didn’t ask.

Ok, so this last picture requires some splainin’.  This is near the historic mining town of Cokedale, and these are coal ovens.  The impurities were burned off the coal prior to being shipped to a steel plant in Pueblo.  Rail cars took mined coal onto these long terraces of ovens, burned off non coal stuff, and hauled it out.  There are massive piles in this area of whatever came out of those ovens.  Spooky.