Pictured above is 38 years of work by one man... with a whole lot more to come... I will get to that later on in the blog... But, I saw three tumbleweeds today!! Alright, so that's not all that exciting. So we drove through the Texas panhandle (which was okay, difference of scenery, eh?) early this morning and made it to New Mexico about 1 PM or so. We just took a ton of pictures while driving and I slept quite a bit.
We crossed the border to Colorado driving up Interstate 50 (I think) to a beautiful display of mountains to our west, with vast plains to our east. Misty water and almost-snow (maybe that's sleet?) lingered in the air most of the afternoon, darting the windshield almost like the bugs we hit on a regular basis... We decided to take the scenic route to Royal Gorge, just outside of Canon City, Colorado... From the Colorado-New Mexico border, instead of a 2-hour drive to Royal Gorge, we decided to take the scenic route: a nice little two lane highway that wove through the mountains and the valleys between them. We stopped A LOT and took pictures and video... We saw plenty of wild deer and gazelles to go around... (and did I mention the tumbleweed? haha)...
So, we were randomly coming around this corner and saw this giant mailbox that said "See the Hand-Made Bishop Castle". Dad and I were thinking.. "eh?" until we peered up about 160 degrees to see a ridiculously huge stone castle. The largest tower of it reaches about 170 (ish) feet high. (That's me in each of the tower pictures... I was shaking really bad.) I quickly threw it in reverse and parked on the side of the highway.
After passing a bunch of signs bashing the government, welcoming anyone to come in as long as they would not sue if they got hurt, we wandered up a small hill to the sound of machinery (one small dozer the owner was working with) and the presence of this gorgeous stone monstrosity lingering above our heads. So I started climbing the steps like crazy! I have my entire journey to the top completely on video. We probably spent like an hour climbing up and down the castle.
When we came down for the last time, we got to chat with the owner a little bit (that's him in the picture in front of the steps)... His name was Jim Bishop and we was a total conspiracy theorist... He went on for twenty minutes or so about how the government was awful - like 9/11 being an inside job and how Jimmy Carter was the only good president we've had in 100 years (haha, it's crazy). He proved to be a very interesting guy. He also said as we were leaving (concerning the government), "I'm a Christian. I'm just not one of those 'turn the other cheek' Christians. I don't have a skeleton in my closet." It made me think of a video from my New Testament interpretation class, that claimed that passage in Jewish culture being more of a plea/demand of respect and that Christians should not be doormats. I thought it was absolute crap at first; but after a while, I kind of feel like that's right. (The idea has to do with giving the other person the opposite cheek; the right cheek would imply a backhand slap to the face from the left hand, the hand that Jews during this time used for contact. It apparently was a sign of huge disrepect in Jewish culture, whereas when Jesus said to offer him your other cheek, implying an open-hand slap, on that is much more respectful and constructive. I am not sure really but I think it's a balance, just like everything else... (Thank you Mark Nicks of Cool Hand Luke.)
On that note, it's time to get some sleep... Peace be with you...
When we came down for the last time, we got to chat with the owner a little bit (that's him in the picture in front of the steps)... His name was Jim Bishop and we was a total conspiracy theorist... He went on for twenty minutes or so about how the government was awful - like 9/11 being an inside job and how Jimmy Carter was the only good president we've had in 100 years (haha, it's crazy). He proved to be a very interesting guy. He also said as we were leaving (concerning the government), "I'm a Christian. I'm just not one of those 'turn the other cheek' Christians. I don't have a skeleton in my closet." It made me think of a video from my New Testament interpretation class, that claimed that passage in Jewish culture being more of a plea/demand of respect and that Christians should not be doormats. I thought it was absolute crap at first; but after a while, I kind of feel like that's right. (The idea has to do with giving the other person the opposite cheek; the right cheek would imply a backhand slap to the face from the left hand, the hand that Jews during this time used for contact. It apparently was a sign of huge disrepect in Jewish culture, whereas when Jesus said to offer him your other cheek, implying an open-hand slap, on that is much more respectful and constructive. I am not sure really but I think it's a balance, just like everything else... (Thank you Mark Nicks of Cool Hand Luke.)
On that note, it's time to get some sleep... Peace be with you...
2 comments:
I'm glad some one else shared my enthusiasm for seeing tumbleweeds for the first time. I wanted to bring one back to nashville with me while I was in Kansas, but they're not exactly pocket sized.
That castle is breath-taking. What would a road trip be without unplanned detours?! Sounds like that guy loves Bush...
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