Senior Pass & Bad Computers

Good news first. Yesterday I drove to Rocky Mountain National Park and obtained a Senior Pass. I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to do this because this is one of the few great deal left. For $10, I received a lifetime pass to all National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Sites and several national sites run by the federal government. Entrance fees to these types of sites range anywhere from $7-$10 and I have probably spent over $100 this year on entrance fees. For my $10, I now have a lifetime of free entry, not only for myself but up to three more adults as well!

The good news doesn’t stop there either. I will also get a 50% discount on camping fees in National Parks/Monuments, Forest Service and BLM campgrounds. These fees can run anywhere from $9-$30 so I can really save a bundle here too.

My intention yesterday was to drive to the park and do a little hiking before returning home. I got a bit of a late start leaving home and didn’t get to the park (a two hour drive) until 11 am. Even in mid week during July and August, the park is crammed with visitors and I couldn’t find a relatively short hike that wasn’t like walking on a crowded street so I opted to drive Fall River Road and Trail Ridge Road instead. Even with numerous cars in front of and behind me, this drive is so beautiful that it made me smile. I brought along a lunch of canned salmon and some cheese crackers and was able to find a nice place to eat lunch without throngs of other people (see pic to left).

All in all it was a great day. I got a mountain fix and a great deal. Life is good.

Life can be bad too and I discovered that Monday morning when I returned home from my trip to California. The Emmer had reported that the internet had been down all weekend and upon investigation I found that my wireless router had quit on me. Simple enough, I thought. Just replace it….That part wasn’t too hard but then my wireless printer, that I just bought two weeks ago, wouldn’t work. Six hours later, and two hours on the phone with the help desk and I finally had things running smoothly again.

I’m thinking about taking a fishing trip next week up into the mountains so stay tuned for complete plans.

Thanks for visiting.

A Visit To California

…And a great visit it was! The Bride and I arrived in Oakland just before noon on Thursday and was met by our daughter CaJenn. For the next three days CaJenn and her new hubby, CaJon, showed us some of the sights of the San Francisco area. Both The Bride and I had been to San Francisco before but we never really explored the area outside the city and that’s what was planned for this trip.

Friday morning we headed for Napa Valley and day of exploring the most famous wine region in the United States. The weather couldn’t have been better. Temps in the 70’s with a nice cool breeze. During the day we visited four different tasting rooms; Clos Du Val, Groth, Miner and Mumms. All I can say is that I’m glad CaJon was driving!

Napa has established a system that ensures that they profit even from the tasters. The deal is that it costs between $10-$15/person to taste from 3-5 different wines. If a taster then purchases some wine, the tasting fee is credited to the purchase. We ended up doing a little of both. We purchased several bottles at two of the wineries and none at the others. At lunch time we stopped at a great little general store/deli called the Oakville Grocery and got gourmet sandwiches. These we took to one of the wineries and ate them while looking at the endless rows of grape vines….life is pretty darned good!

Saturday we drove north through Bodega and Bodega Bay and then took Hwy 101 along the coast back to San Francisco. The Bride is a big Alfred Hitchcock fan and The Birds is one of her favorite movies. It just so happens that the school house used in the filming of The Birds is in Bodega. We couldn’t miss the opportunity so we drove into town and spent some time looking through the gift shop that now occupies part of the old school. In addition to the old school, the Catholic church next door was also used in the movie. Adding to the fame of Bodega, that same church was the subject of a great photograph by Ansel Adams. My photo is not in the same class as his but it was fun to try to get a similar shot...Mine on left, his on right.

The drive along the coast was breath taking. The wildflowers were all in bloom and that was just so much more eye candy. It was hard to process everything as every turn of the road gave us another great panorama. Then to add to the overload we drove back into San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge….see picture at top!

It was a long day but very much worth it. We ended the day with a great meal at a restaurant pretty close to where the kids live.

Our flight didn’t depart Oakland until the late afternoon so we had time for more adventure on Sunday. In late morning we drove down to Jack London Square in Oakland to visit the farmers market there. If I am jealous of California about anything, one would be their bountiful supply of beautiful vegetables all year around. I was entranced by every sort of vegetable including several I had never heard of before. The tomatoes in particular caught my eye. There is nothing better than a tomato sandwich on white bread slathered with mayonnaise on a hot summer afternoon and I saw lots of tomatoes that looked like they were destined for that.

To console myself at not being able to have a tomato sandwich, I decided that a shrimp salad sandwich at a nice restaurant right on the water was the next best thing. I was in luck! There just happened to be a very nice restaurant right there with outdoor seating right on the water. We ate a great lunch while watching the boats go by. In the distance was the skyline of San Francisco. Life is really good!

The trip ended all too soon and we arrived back in the Denver area about 8 pm. I’ve got about a week of “down” time before more adventures start, but more about that in the next post. CaJenn and CaJon, when you read this I want to thank you for you’re hospitality on our visit. We’ll be back to see more of your area. Your Mom and I are proud of you.

Here’s a few more pictures from the trip.

Thanks for visiting.

62, And On The Dole

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I achieved the venerable age of 62 and I am now a consumer rather than a producer of our nations resources. In a couple of weeks I will start receiving a retirement pension from the company I worked for for 35 years. In September I will begin receiving a Social Security check as well.

All in all, I feel terrific and have no major infirmities. For this I am grateful. I wish the best for our country and the young people in the workforce today. I hope both succeed beyond their wildest dreams because without their success, my future will not be secure.

Today would have been my Dad’s 91st birthday. He died last August and not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and wish that I could ask him just one more question. The picture of he and I, above, was taken last June. It’s one of my favorites of the two of us together. We’re both smiling because I had just smuggled in a little white wine into his apartment so that we could have a sip or two together.

The day after tomorrow would have been my paternal grandfather’s 110th birthday. As you can see July is a busy month in my family. My grandfather has been gone for 45 years now but I would give anything to be able to talk with him again.

Finally, my paternal grandmother would have been 111 years old on July 10th. Neither my Dad nor I ever had the opportunity to know her but I would have loved to have had that privilege.

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday in California visiting my daughter CaJenn and her husband CaJon which I’ll tell you about in the next post.

Thanks for visiting.

The Pecos Conference & Will California Be Open?

There is absolutely no connection between the two subjects above except that they both involve myself, his-self. The first item is the Pecos Conference and I am excited about it! The Pecos Conference is a gathering of people interested in all things archaeology related to the South West United States. Started in 1927 by several of the biggest names in American archaeology, it brings together amateurs and professionals for a couple of days of presentations and demonstrations. There are also vendors, a barbecue, a dance and field trips to some great archaeological sites in the area. I first heard of this event a year or so ago and thought it might be interesting. Two weeks ago while I was working on the PIT project one of the other volunteers told me more about it and said that I should attend if I could. This year it is being held in the vicinity of the small SW Colorado town of Cortez so I figured, Why Not?.

For the princely sum of $73.00, I get all of the things mentioned above, AND, I get to camp free at the site of the conference…a reservoir north of Cortez. Not only is this great entertainment but it’s also CHEAP entertainment. Did I mention that they throw in a T-shirt too?

The conference is August 6-9 and right now I plan to leave on Wednesday the 5th and return on Monday the 10th. I’m thinking that Wednesday night I’ll stay at the Great Sand Dunes National Park which is about half way there. There is nothing important happening on Thursday other than registration and a reception so it won’t matter if I straggle in, in the afternoon. On Sunday I have my choice of about 12 different field trips and I haven’t decided yet which one to do.

This will be a cool trip. Maybe a little hot as Cortez is in pretty arid country but I’m looking forward to it.

Now on to “Will California Be Open?”. Thursday morning The Bride and I leave for the San Francisco area to visit CaJenn and CaJon. With all the ruckus about California being broke I hope they don’t close the airports? Don’t laugh, this is California I’m talking about. CaJenn reports that the local weather will be fantastic with temps in the 70’s. My timing is perfect because it is supposed to get in the mid to upper 90’s here in the next few days.

This will probably be my last post until next week as The Bride and I don’t get back home until late Sunday.

Thanks for visiting.

When It Rains It Pours

This will describe the weather here for the last few days….heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon. This is not what this post is about however. It seems as if all the good times and good living is catching up to me. The Gods are throwing some bad luck my way to atone for all the good stuff that’s happened lately.

The first bit of bad luck concerns my 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara. I’ve had it in the shop several times over the last few months for a variety of items that have put a dent in my wallet. I thought I had worked through all of the problems until this past Friday. An intermittent problem struck again. I hate intermittent problems! They are the toughest to find and fix and I’ll bet dollars to donuts that when my mechanic looks at the car, the problem won’t be there. The problem involves a very rough running engine that almost feels like one cylinder is not firing properly. It occurs at start up and will last for varying lengths of time….but it doesn’t happen at every start up. The check engine light illuminates but a diagnostic check shows nothing. So, tomorrow morning I guess I’ll have to take the car and leave it for a day or two at the garage and cross my fingers.

The second problem involves my desktop computer. We have both a desktop and a laptop computer in the house. I guess I should have said “We had….” Yesterday when The Bride tried to access the internet all hell broke loose with the computer. All kinds of error messages popped up continually and porn sites kept popping up on Internet Explorer even though my default browser is Firefox. I tried to run a McAfee scan in between pop ups and then even tried to run a restore program but most of the files had been corrupted by that time…….Trojan horse!

I have no idea how I became infected because I am very security conscious about my computers and never open unknown files. However it happened, it pretty well trashed the 4 year old desktop. Because it was four years old I decided to not even try to to have a computer whiz put everything back together again. For the price of a couple of hours of computer whiz, I could just buy a new computer….which I did. I am now the owner of two laptops. It didn’t make much sense to buy another desktop when today’s laptops have the same amount of memory and storage as a desktop, for about the same price.

So as I sit here typing this post I’m also trying to install all the programs on the new computer. It seems as if I might have a problem with some of the older printers I have. Everything nowadays is configured for wireless connection but I have three older printers and a scanner that do not have USB connections so this switch of computers might cost me the price of an all in one wireless printer in addition to the cost of the computer itself. I hate it when I get surprised like that!

It better stop pouring by Thursday of this week because The Bride and I are scheduled to fly to the left coast for a visit with my daughter CaJenn and her hubby of just one year…CaJon. We haven’t seen them since the wedding last year so we are looking forward to the trip.

Thanks for visiting.

Cherry Creek Arts Festival & Molly Dog

Today was the beginning of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. A three day exhibition of every conceivable type of art held in the “tony” shopping area of Cherry Creek. This is a big deal in the Denver Metro area. Close to 400,000 will visit the festival during the 3 days. About ten square blocks of this very upscale shopping area is cordoned off and the streets are lined with artist booths, public service booths and food vendors. While the area is closed to vehicle traffic, the stores continue to be open so you can not only see the artists but you can shop the regular stores as well. It’s a juried event and the artists have to be invited to participate. Art forms include painting, ceramics, fabrics, metal, wood, photography and a bunch of other stuff. There was even a custom/art guitar maker.

The Bride and I decided to visit this morning when the festival opened at 10 am. We spent about three hours wandering around and admiring a lot of thing we really liked but couldn’t afford. By 11 am the streets were packed and watching people was as much fun as looking at the artists wares.

One of my favorites was a guy by the name of Jerry Berta who did ceramic and neon sculpture. I don’t think you would classify this as “fine art” but I thought it was pretty cool.

By noon it was blistering hot so The Bride and I ducked into a little Italian panini shop for a bite to eat and a cold beer. After lunch we walked a little more and then beat it back home.

Tomorrow The Bride and The Emmer are going down town to watch a Rockies baseball game. The Emmer really gets a kick out of doing this every 4th of July. After the game there will be a fireworks display so she really gets her money’s worth out of the ticket price. I have opted to sit this one out.

Yesterday marked four full weeks that Molly Dog had been in her leg cast. Most of that time we have also had to keep a “cone” on her and that has been pretty rough for her. Finally yesterday the stitches, cast and cone came off. Her paw is still pretty tender so even with the cast off she still favors that leg a lot. Hopefully in a few days she will be able to use that leg more normally.

Thanks for visiting.

Pole Gulch- Passport In Time

I returned yesterday afternoon from my volunteer work with the Forest Service. What a great week! A week of beautiful mountains…mostly beautiful weather and great archaeology.

I left the house mid afternoon last Sunday and drove to Fairplay, CO a small old mining town, now small tourist town about 60 miles, but a world away from here. There I met with the Forest Service archaeologist and several other of the volunteers for an “ice breaker”. After meeting everyone and getting a bite to eat I headed for the campground that was to be our headquarters for the week. It was about 12 miles south of Fairplay and off the highway about a mile. Nothing fancy here. Outhouses and a water pump were the only amenities but the setting under the pine and spruce trees was enough for me.

Our project was to explore Pole Gulch and look for signs of prehistoric and historic activity. The group consisted of seven volunteers and two archaeologists. We split up into two teams and fanned out across an incredibly beautiful valley to begin the search.

The search is simple enough. We walk in a line about 5-10 yards apart and look at the ground trying to find stone tools or flakes indicating that prehistoric people had visited the place. Part of the valley had been searched before and several sites had been discovered so we were pretty sure we’d find more. 

It didn’t take long to find flakes of Jasper on the ground. We could tell that they had been worked by someone and besides the nearest source of Jasper in the area was over 10 miles away. The picture to the right is of a flake like the many we found. We also found some more complete “points” and tools, pictured below.

All in all we found about six different prehistoric sites and three or four historic sites. One of the historic sites was the remains of an old logging camp with what appeared to be four different dwellings. The only thing that remained was scraps of lumber to indicate where the houses were and all sorts of debris; dish fragments which would indicate that women were present; a marble that would indicate that children were present and a lot of cans and other household debris. This site probably dated from 1900 to about 1920.

It’s much harder to date the prehistoric sites but it appeared as if this valley had been used by Native Americans for thousands of years as a summer campground….and I could see why. Plenty of fresh water and game and an incredible view of the surrounding area. One site was on top of a hill that gave a clear view for miles around. If you were there it would be pretty hard for someone to sneak up on you.

We surveyed the area for five days and wound up the project Friday about noon. The Bride came up on Friday afternoon and we had a great two days of just chilling and a little exploring. On Saturday morning I took her back into the area we surveyed and showed her some of the things we found. She was pretty good at spotting flakes on the ground!

On Saturday night The Bride prepared a gourmet meal of lamb chops and grilled asparagus….a little wine, a great meal with great ambiance….life is good.

The wildflowers were also spectacular at the altitude we were at and I was able to get a couple of HDR photos….see below. I still have several more applications in for other PIT projects and hope that I’ll get selected for one or two. This is really habit forming….

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

In The Doldrums

Adventure has taken a break for a while. The weekend was lazy with nothing to report and this week is mostly composed of getting ready for my Passport In Time project which starts on Sunday. I probably will not have any more posts until I’m back on Monday the 29th. I expect to have a whole lot to report then and hopefully some great pictures too.

Tomorrow I will attend the funeral of a friend I worked with for over 20 years. He left the company just a year or so before I did and went to work for a local distributor of construction products. He was a wonderful man who lived to work. He couldn’t stand to be idle and it seems like when we worked together, he was happy only when he was working 60 hour weeks. After we both left the company we would trade emails a couple of times a year but I was unaware that he had any medical issues.

He was only 66 years old. That’s only 4 years older than I am. If nothing else this makes me more determined to live my life to the fullest and keep the adventures, large and small, keep on coming.

his-self, out.

Happy Birthday Mom

June 12, 1920 – August 9, 2006

 

 

We miss you!

Wildflowers

For the past week or three, I’ve been taking hikes to various front range locations to view the wildflowers which are now in full bloom at this altitude. One of the great things about Colorado is that because of the wide range of altitudes in the state, you can see gorgeous wildflowers from late May until the middle of August. In June, the bloom is down here at 5000-6000’.

Here are some pictures I’ve taken while on these hikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking has been a morning adventure because for the last couple of weeks, afternoon brings some vicious thunder storms and funnel clouds. Yesterday, Guitar and I almost got caught in a really bad one but escaped by the hair of our chinny chin chin!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

Molly Dog, Mammoths, Hot Dogs & B-17s

Well there’s an intriguing title? That’s a lot of seemingly disconnected stuff but it is all connected in my weekend. First of all Molly Dog is on the mend. That’s her in the picture above with the cast on her right front leg. She’s learning to hobble around on it and thankfully hasn’t bitten at the cast. The vet said it would cost $69 to replace the cast if she tried to chew through it. I really didn’t want to put a cone on her head to stop her from doing that. That seemed like “piling on” in her current condition. The cast is about an inch or two longer than her other legs so she has learned to trail that leg behind her and hop on the other three legs to get around. The cast is mainly to hold her paw in a position so that the tendon will heal properly. She will be in the cast for about 10 more days.

As for the mammoths, yesterday The Circle attended a lecture about the Lamb Springs Mammoth Archaeological Site, which is about 10 miles from my home. After the lecture which was held at a local library we visited the site.

Readers know that archaeology interests me and this was an exceptional experience because I hadn’t a clue that this site was right in my back yard. The site is extremely important to understanding not only the extinct animals whose bones were found here but also in learning more about the ancient Clovis people that once lived in this area.

Amongst the bones found here were also artifacts used by Clovis man which proved that these ancient hunters killed animals here as long as 11,000 years ago. That’s the earliest evidence of Clovis man ever discovered and even that record could be broken. 13,000 year old mammoth bones were found at the site that appear to have been broken unnaturally….or very much like ancient humans processed bones. The problem for archaeologists is that no Clovis artifacts were found at the same level of the dig so there was no “smoking gun” to tie one to the other……except for one item. A 33 pound rock was found among the bones. What’s the big deal about that you say? Well, the rock didn’t belong there. The area of the dig was clay with only a few small stones in the area. About a mile away however is the bed of the South Platte River and there are plenty of similar stones there. The stone found at the site had marks on one point that looked like it had been repeatedly dropped on something hard and the marks matched up with the marks on the mammoth bone. Anyhow the archaeology community is split over whether the evidence is strong enough to declare that Clovis Man was present in North America 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. Fascinating.

There really wasn’t much to see at the actual site. All the working pits had been backfilled after the dig in the 1980’s to preserve the area. It was easy however to see the way the land sloped down to the spring, now dry, and imagine animals coming here for water…..Another interesting fact. Archaeologists can tell that the spring was a reliable year round source of water for over 13,000 years. About twenty five years ago however, about the time that this area started to develop, the spring went dry. Modern humans have lowered the water table enough to dry out the spring.

The weather was a perfect as you could ask for and we had a very enjoyable time. After the tour The Circle went to a local hot dog joint called Bernie’s for lunch. I’m not normally a hot dog guy. I prefer hamburgers but I enjoyed the Colfax Dog with a side of onion rings.

Finally, there has been a WW II B-17 bomber flying around this area all weekend. It is a magnificent piece of history and seeing it fly only about 1000 feet over my house on D-Day really gave me the willies….in a good way. You could hear the deep throated roar of the four engines about 30 seconds before you could see the plane itself and I tried hard to get a picture for several days but I was only able to get the one you see here. Even though I had my camera at the ready in the house it always seemed to surprise me by approaching from a different direction each time or catching me too far from the camera to get a shot before it disappeared. I would have loved to take a ride in it but at $400 for a 30 minute ride, it’s a little rich for my budget.

All in all just a great weekend……..

Thanks for visiting.

Pawnee Buttes, Lamb Springs and Molly Dog

Yesterday, Guitar and I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, hike around Pawnee Buttes. Pawnee Buttes are a series of geological formations in northeast Colorado. You really want to have to go there, to get there. To catch a phrase, it’s desolate there. The only sign of human habitation are a few scattered ranch houses and windmills, yes windmills. This area is pretty windy year round and the power companies have installed hundreds of windmills a few miles from the spot of our hike. If you enlarge the picture to the left you can see some on the ridge, center right in picture.

The trip from the Denver area is about 100 miles, but it’s light years away from the city crowds and madness. The hike itself was about 5 miles round trip and it wound over prairie and through some badlands. We saw only two other people there and they were about 1/2 mile away.

The wildflowers were spectacular. It’s amazing the number of different types of flowers we saw in an area that, in the heat of summer, you would think was barren of flowers. I brought my Rocky Mountain wildflower guide but it was no help at all….This terrain could not be classified as “Rocky Mountain” . On our way to Pawnee we passed miles of prairie that were covered with some type of white morning glory type of flower. When I first spotted a field of them, I said to Guitar that it must have just hailed. That’s what the flowers looked like at a distance. The white covered the ground between other plants and bushes and looked like hail. I tried to take a picture but it just doesn’t show the way the eye sees it.

On the way back home we passed through the “almost” ghost town of Keota, CO. There were maybe, five people living in this otherwise deserted town. This town had it’s heyday just before WWI. At that time it had about 150 town residents and served about a thousand other ranchers, dryland farmers and their families. It had a bank, a newspaper, numerous stores and….no saloons. Today only a few buildings, the water tower and fire hydrants survive.

It was a long and enjoyable day. Guitar and I got back a little after 6 pm and are already beginning to plan for our next hike.

To tide our adventure lust over for the weekend, The Circle, had made plans for an unusual short trip on Saturday morning. Several weeks ago I read an article in a local newspaper about an archaeological site called Lamb Springs. On a local ranch not 20 miles from my home, a rancher in 1960, discovered the bones of a Columbian mammoth, ancient camel and ground sloth. The site now belongs to Douglas County, Colorado and they hold seven tours a year of the site. The Circle will see what this is all about on Saturday. Stay tuned.

While Guitar and I were on our hike yesterday, Molly Dog had an accident. It seems that while chasing a squirrel along the fence in our back yard, she severely cut her foot and tendon on the metal edging around a flower garden. Luckily The Emmer was home at the time and called The Bride. The Bride had to rush home and get her to a vet, who operated immediately. She is now not a happy pooch. Her right front leg is bandaged and in a splint and she is under the effects of heavy sedation for a few days. Total recovery time will be 10 days to two weeks. In looking at the amount of blood on our deck, patio and garage floor, I’m thinking she could have easily bled to death. I will be nurse for that period of time so there will be a break in my adventures for a while.

Thanks for visiting.

Passport In Time Project

Last year I was introduced to the Forest Service volunteer program called Passport in Time. In late September, Guitar and I spent 5 days helping in an archaeological survey of very primitive country in Southeast Colorado. I had a blast! Read about that trip here. After that experience I was determined to do more of that sort of thing this year.

The Forest Service announces on the site linked above, projects that are open to volunteers and if you are interested you can apply to participate online. Most of the projects call for 5-10 volunteers. So far this year I have volunteered for 10 different projects and so far I have been notified that I was not picked on three of the projects I applied for. One of the Forest Service employees I spoke to told me that these projects have suddenly become very popular. So popular in fact that most projects are getting 50-60 applications for 5-10 openings! What I thought would be a relatively sure thing all of a sudden became much more tenuous.

Yesterday I broke my losing streak and was notified that I had been accepted for a project in late June. Yahoooooo! I am really excited. This will be another archaeological survey in an area that they already know was heavily used by both prehistoric and historic people. The official notice of the project explains it way better than I could so here it is.

 

Pole Gulch, Buffalo Peaks

CO-3828
June 22-26, 2009

Must commit to full session

Pole Gulch is nestled above Pole Creek in the east foothills of Buffalo Peaks in central Colorado. From previous investigations, we know the regional area contains a high density of significant prehistoric and historic sites and artifacts. These sites may represent a range of 7000 B.C. to A.D. 1870. PIT volunteers will assist Forest Service staff with a continuing systematic survey of the Pole Gulch area to establish record of its historic and prehistoric archaeological resources. We expect to find numerous prehistoric camp sites containing flaked and ground stone tools, and may even find evidence of once culturally sacred trees. Ultimately, this work will help us to prepare a National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) district nomination.

There is no doubt that volunteers will enjoy the project's scenery. Pole Creek is located at an elevation of 9,500 ft. with rolling terrain and moderate slopes. The area is an ideal location to enjoy nature, wildflowers, and the Colorado High Country in early summer. We encourage experienced archeological surveyors as well as interested neophytes to apply. We will have a group "ice breaker" dinner on Sunday June 21, 2009, and there will be many other fun diversions during the week.

Number of openings: 8

Special skills: Previous experience with archaeological survey and/or prehistoric and historic artifact identification helpful, but not required

Minimum age: 18 years old

Facilities: The FS will provide several camping spaces at Buffalo Springs Campground to be shared by project participants; pit/chemical toilets, water; volunteers responsible for personal camping equipment and food; Fairplay and Buena Vista are full-service communities with hotels/motels, restaurants, and a full range of other amenities; FS will provide transportation to the project area from Fairplay and Buffalo Springs Campground

Nearest towns: Fairplay, 15 miles; Buena Vista, 23 miles; Breckenridge, 38 miles

 

Hurry up June!!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Moab Area Pictures

No words, just pictures…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

4 Wheelin’ And Other Moab Stuff

Friday was the day I chose to participate in the 4 wheeling activities. The day was cool with intermittent light rain and it made for an interesting trip. A little moisture with the sand makes Moab’s famous slick rock even slicker. We had 6 vehicles in the group on Friday and everyone made it back safe and sound. I rode with Guitar in his Jeep Rubicon. It’s amazing what these wheeled vehicles can do but while I enjoy riding along I don’t think I have the skill….or money, to do this on a regular basis. The trail we took this day was called Green Day and if you click the link you can watch a YouTube video of some other folks doing the trail.

We were through with the trail at about 2:30 pm and the rest of the group decided to head for another trail on the other side of Moab. I got Guitar to drop me off at the RV and I managed to get in a little afternoon nap. Life couldn’t be much better.

Saturday The Bride and I took Ladder Lady to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyon Lands National Park for sight seeing in the morning and then in the afternoon we visited the Moab Arts Fest that was being held in the city park. As you can see from the picture to the right, light rain continued to bother us. I’ve been doing this Moab trip for about 6 years now and this is the first year that it has rained. Rain or not, I took a ton of pictures…almost 500 over the entire trip. In the next post I’ll show you some of the better one’s.

I’ve always enjoyed the Arts Fest. It has a good mix of vendors and the live music is usually pretty good too. The Bride and Ladder Lady definitely had fun and managed to contribute a bit to the local economy. While we were doing our thing, the rest of the group was on another 4 wheel trail. This time they weren't as lucky and several vehicles broke down and had to be towed out.

Oh, one other thing of interest happened on Friday. After I took my nap, I heard a pretty good size bus drive by and I got up to see what it was. It was the German Rotel Tour Bus parking at the campground for the night. I saw this thing on my Mesa Verde trip last year but it was going in the opposite direction and I didn’t get a good look at it. You have to look at the link and read all about this rather Spartan way of touring. I imagine that after a tour on this thing you are either very friendly with the other participants or they are mortal enemies!

The drive back on Sunday was OK until we hit Idaho Springs, CO about 50 miles from home. Then the bottom fell out of the sky and it rained, hailed, thundered and lighteninged harder than I think I’ve ever seen it do! Top speed the rest of the way home was 35 mph max and most of the time even slower. Visibility was very poor and it rained so hard that standing water became a problem. About 4 miles from home I passed a bad accident caused by the conditions that involved 4 or 5 vehicles. I was one happy camper when I got to the house in one piece.

That aside it was a wonderful trip and I was glad to be able to show Ladder Lady something she had never seen before. In a day or so I’ll post some more pictures.

Thanks for visiting