On the Road with Flo

She’s baaaaaaccckkkk!
After nearly two years since we left Flo in Kansas and landed back in Durango, Flo has made her way back to Colorado. I know my mom has had fun with her—hanging with her Sisters on the Fly and traveling to music festivals throughout the Midwest.

Within hours of Flo arriving in Durango, we had her registered and tagged as an official resident of La Plata County. And this past weekend we took her back out on the road. A 400 mile round-trip adventure to Palisade, Colorado for the Lavender Festival. We pulled into camp after dark with no prep, but the muscle memory kicked in right away and we were unhooked and ready to sleep at the James M. Robb River State Park in no time. The campground itself was quiet. The nearby highway and 3am train, not so much. But the first night was cool and I fell asleep and woke up with a smile on my face.

The Lavender Festival was wonderful. I highly recommend it and we plan to go again. I learned so much! After attending the workshop, “Using herbs, hydrosols and essential oils” with Dr. Cindy Jones of Colorado Aromatics, I was full of questions to ask the owners of the lavender farms we visited. Dave and Freda of Two Bears Farm and More were wonderful hosts during our visit to their lavender farm and art gallery. Dave and Ray chatted about mutual friends and acquaintances as I learned how some lavender like Imperial Grand smells sweet and flowery while others have a more camphor or medicine scent. Palisade experienced a lot of snowfall and rain this year so the fields were plush with purple and green.

In the afternoon, we escaped the heat by attending a Reflexology workshop with Susan Smith. She shared two kinds of hydrosol that we used to prep our hands and feet to give one another treatments and two kinds of CBD salves: lavender and mint for us to use as we learned how to use our fingers to massage one another’s feet. She was so generous and kind. Between Ray’s moaning and me falling asleep in my chair, I would say it was a good investment of time and effort.

As we were picking lavender among the bees, our guide Brian asked where we were headed next and recommended that we take a different way home over Grand Mesa. We are so glad we did! After two days in the hot sun, it was a welcome relief to drive through the mountains that still had a lot of snow on the ground. We gathered as much information as we could so we would have a nice, cool place to stay when we return next season.

It took longer than expected to get home, but it was well worth the drive and it gave me time to research and dream of our next adventure together.

We did take in a little water from her inside door seam, but not much. And we have a tail light to fix. All in all, a great first trip in Colorado. Now that the summer sun is beating down harder than ever, I will be in search of higher altitudes and cooler temps. I’m hoping to get a few more weekends in the mountains with Flo this month. If not, I may just have to sleep in her, parked in the garage.