Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

I got into town late on Thursday night. I ordered my pizza delivered to the room and crashed in front of the TV. On Friday morning, I woke up after sleeping in luxuriously late. The motel here has a great system. They call the room in the morning to check if I need housekeeping service.  Typically they just pound on the door, waking me up and alarming River into a short barking frenzy. They yell out through the door "HOUSEKEEPING!" And I'm required to call back to them, "NO THANKS!  I"M NAKED AND SLEEPING AND DON"T NEED SERVICE TODAY!"  River adds, "Bark bark bark bark!" She calls out "DO YOU NEED TOWELS?" I shout "NO THANK YOU!!" River offers, "bark bark bark bark." So, yeah, handling it over the phone seems so much more civilized. No door pounding.  No shouting.  No barking. Finally, after I was awake and had my coffee, I needed to wash some clothes. The property has no laundry facility so I got to go fin...

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...