MANCOS, COLORADO!

I mentioned last fall that I've been trying to get home to Colorado's western slope. I've been writing letters, researching housing, and begging favors with all my might. Well, just now, I got an e-mail from the Colorado state representative for La Plata and Montezuma counties. I have qualified for a subsidized rental in Mancos, Colorado! The place is a one bedroom apartment in a very nicely kept 12-plex managed by the Rural Development Association. My rent PLUS utilities will only be $191.00/month! AND I can have Rikki and Starr!

Mancos is a little town in one of the most beautiful areas of the 4 Corners. Crime is all but non existent there, they have a great little public library, a yummy bakery/coffeeshop, National Forest surrounds the town, and highway 160 (the main drag for the 4 Corners) goes right through on one side of the town. Durango which has the college where I used to teach plus tons of fun things to do will be only a 40 minute drive to the east. Cortez (which will be my "city") is only 20 minutes to the west. When I was down there in the fall, I made instant friends of three women who were sitting in the back of Cortez's cute little bookstore and we all sat around for a couple of hours drinking coffee and talking like we'd known each other all our lives. One of the woman is the Minister of the Congregational Church in Dolores (15 minutes from Mancos) and invited me to check out her congregation when I move down there.

Those pictures of the fall scenery I posted last fall were taken about a half hour drive from Mancos on the way to Telluride (an hour's drive) where you can go hear all their great summer music festivals for free if you volunteer to take tickets and check tourists for their festival passes. Two hours to the south of Mancos is Santa Fe where you can get standing room tickets to the famous summer opera there for next to nothing (and there's always a few empty seats that they end up letting you have at intermission). To the west, there's Hovenweep, Canyonlands, Bryce, Escalante, and Zion. Just over the ridge there's the Navajo Nation, and I'll be able to listen to the morning blessingway chants on Radio Navajoland out of Shiprock!

I am so psyched! No more Front Range congestion and smog! No more World Prayer Center and Focus on the Family! No more ax murderer living just down the street from me!

I'm going HOME! YAY! OH, YAY! MAY FIRST! I CAN"T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!! (where's the emoticon for the snoopy dance?)