After the obligatory Old Faithful viewing we visited Black Sand Basin. It was a relief just to get away from all the people. The air was cold and the humid, it felt so good on our parched Colorado skin. Microbial mats of color illuminated our senses and gave rise to our mystical imaginations. The deep gurgling from geysers rumbled through our heads and it felt like we were waking up. Waking up from the long drive and the 2020 pandemic isolation slumber.

In that time I gave back to my farming roots and realized a lot about the state of agriculture in Colorado. Mainly, that we're off course. If we're going to be able to sustain ourselves and thrive; we don't need more farmer's markets, we need more farmers.

As I stated earlier, learning the history of the original inhabitants of this continent during a pandemic brings into focus one of the major struggles these cultures endured, or worse, did not survive: The realization that the lands Christopher Columbus 'discovered' were in a state of ruin when the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock because of the introduction of viruses and disease.

Here was a very different narrative than that I learned in school, which sheds light on the current culture clash in the Americas today.