Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

Today was a long day, but that's not a complaint. When your day is filled with good stuff, it's good that it's long. I started in Farmington where I stopped at a corner water vending machine to fill up my jugs with filtered water before heading out of town. I drove about an hour to Durango where I was going to teach Amazing. I got there over half an hour early, as planned, and let River run around on a grassy area on his 50 foot leash. It had started raining this morning, so the grass was wet and muddy. It didn't deter us from enjoying a moment of dog play. Once River's needs were met, I loaded the crate into the studio and put him inside. I chatted with my host, Evonne, while the students gathered for class. This group was one of the strongest I've experienced. No matter what I said, they picked up on it right away. If it was FreeDancing, they were totally free.  If it was FloorPlay, they were totally playful. The routine also has some new movements t...

Just over an hour's drive from the motel I'm staying in in Farmington, NM across the Colorado state line, lies a small national park that I'd never heard of. Mesa Verde means Green Table. So I was sort of expecting to see a big flat topped mountain covered in flora. And that was one of the first things I saw. But I wasn't prepared to drive up to it and see all of the fall colors covering miles and miles of mountains. It quickly became clear that there was a theme to this park. Dwellings. People lived in the rocks. And I loved the big, dark vertical markings in the rock that seemed to be stained on somehow rather than part of the make up of the rock.  This park was not a rugged, outdoorsy park. This was not for camping and hiking. This park was more about driving to a site, parking, walking a few feet down the designated path to the designated viewing area, getting back in the car and driving a few miles to the next one.  So I couldn't go ...

Oh Utah, you are so beautiful.  Today I explored a triple threat: a National Park, a National Recreation Area and a National Monument (Capitol Reef, Glen Canyon and Natural Bridges, respectively).  I'm not clear on what the difference is between the three things, but I liked them all. The day started off in a shit-hole town called Nephi.  In all fairness, the town might be fine, but after my experience with the worse hamburger I've ever been served (J.C. Mickelson's) and the prison style Motel 6 I stayed in, I really have no reason to ever return. First stop was to get gas at a Chevron. I pulled up to the pump but the credit card swiper had a piece of paper taped over it that said "please pay inside". So I go inside and she tells me that I need to give her an amount before she can get me started. And if I over estimated the amount, she couldn't return the change to me, it would stay as a charge on my card. I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. S...

We started the day by visiting Shoshone Falls Park. When we first got to the park, I commented to the guy in the ticket booth on the sign that said the water level is "Dry". I asked, does that mean there wont' be any falls to see today?  No, he insisted, there are falls, but just no water. The falls, he said, were why people come back here. Without the falls, we'd just have a river. But I wanted to be clear because the logic was new to me. There is no waterfall, right?  It's dry.  He said.  There's two parts to a waterfall; the water and the falls. There are falls, but no water.  To me, the water is the waterfall. Otherwise, we're just paying to look at a rock cliff.  But I went in anyway. It was only $3. It wasn't too disappointing. There was actually several waterfalls running.  But the big one, obviously, wasn't.  This is the Snake River gorge made famous by Evel Knievel when he jumped over it on his motorcycle in 1974.  Or I should sa...