In which Moominmama sets out on her sixth season of travel after wintering in the high desert and decides to feature libraries in her 2026 travel reports...
Moominmama begins year six of her travels after a busy winter of skiing and socializing. This year brought friends from New Hampshire and Iowa for a visit, including an overlap that allowed all of us to head to the Grand Mesa for a day of skiing together.
Despite the lack of snow in many parts of Colorado, the Grand Mesa still managed to provide reasonable conditions for cross-country skiing. Moominmama even met a skier from the high peaks of Leadville drawn to the Grand Mesa because there was no snow at home.
This year, it was the East Coast that got most of the snow, often in violent and frigid bursts. My New Hampshire friends enjoyed the relative warmth of Colorado, even on the snowy Mesa!
In fact, we got downright sweaty on a visit to Arches National Park in February. Enjoying the popular park in the off-season is a real delight.
Here's Charlotte, who scrambled up the rocks to stand in the Double Arch, one of many marvels in the park.
Over the course of two days, we spent happy hours navigating through the rocks at Fiery Furnace and admiring the arches and viewpoints throughout the park. It was my third visit, and I don't believe I will ever tire of these strange red rocks. They are even nicer in winter without the crowds!
Back in Grand Junction, Moominmama also deepened her local friendships. Though there's no Quaker Meeting here, Moominmama has found the next best thing: a small church called Koinonia full of social activists and thoughtful people.
I spent many happy hours at the local library: the Mesa County Central Library. Visiting libraries is something I do most everywhere I go. It's where I can count on an internet connection and get my blog posts written and posted, not to mention the writing work I still do to earn money.
Like many people, I have a lifelong love for libraries, and I worry about book bans and threats to the funding and operation of public libraries.
Libraries have always been my safe place. And there are fewer safe places to be found these days.
I am more uneasy setting out on the road this year than I've ever been. The world has become less safe thanks to U.S. policies, and that will come back to bite us, I'm sure.
So this year, besides taking photos of some of the amazing views, I hope to document some of the libraries large and small that I frequent along my route.
Here is the library in Grand Junction that I left behind. Note the metal work that encloses an outdoor patio. It has cutouts to look like shelves of books!
As I write, I'm sitting in the library in Apache Junction, Arizona. This photo fails to do justice to the size of the library which forks out and includes a long, shaded walkway at the back.
The library is already beautifully landscaped with cactus and yucca and other native plants, but contractors are at work on a 20,000 square-foot garden, including raised beds that will enable library programming to include gardening workshops and demonstrations. I look forward to coming back someday to see it!
For now, I am settling back into nomad life. I set out with a clean and polished trailer and on day two, got caught in a wind storm that left red Arizona sand all over the outside and inside of my home. I was momentarily disappointed, but a little dirt seems like a fair price for adventure.
Moominmama visited this spot: the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior and learned that Arizona is home to the greatest number of species of hummingbirds: 14 in all. I'll share more on that visit in my next post! For now, know that I am well and back on the road!
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