Colorado Cowboy Poet Gathering

What can I say, I love this stuff. A sawbuck ($20 for you whippersnappers) got me an entire day of great entertainment, music and western culture. I went to this event in 2008 with Guitar and we both vowed to do it again. I forget what happened last year but we missed it. This year I was determined to go and go I did yesterday a little after 9am.

Here’s the deal. There are about 40 different performers. Some are poets/humorists, some are musicians and some are both….God, this is hard to explain….groups of four or five performers, perform in a room, round robin style. There are four “sessions” per hour each with a different theme. Examples of the themes are, “Get ‘er Goin”, “Modern Ranch Life”, “Bunkhouse Banter”, “Cowboy Humor”, “Critters”, “Dancin’ & Romancin”. Each hour you have to pick the session you want to attend based on either the subject or the performers, or however you want. The performers switch between groups based on the subject matter so it gets pretty complex. I chose most sessions with the goal of seeing as many different performers as possible. After re-reading this paragraph, the easiest thing to do is give you this link so you can see the actual schedule

This year’s group of performers hailed not only from Colorado and most of the other western states but New Hampshire, Canada and Australia as well. The caliber of talent was amazing, especially considering that they are just “local”. You will not hear any of these artists on top 40 radio or see them listed on Ticketmaster for a concert but listening to a complex story told in rhyme and/or accompanied by guitar, banjo, or bones was one of those experiences where you told yourself, while listening, “wow, this is really good!”. I may have only paid a sawbuck for the entrance fee but by the time it was all over I spent three times that much on CDs to take the experience home with me.

It was after 5pm when I left and I had to face a vicious rush “hour” commute on a holiday weekend to get back home. One of the biggest “perks” of being retired is that I can normally avoid this unpleasantness but this day I had to endure. It was, however, well worth it.

This afternoon, The Circle will visit the yearly RV show at the Denver Convention Center. Even though I am NOT in the market anymore, I still like looking and all the different models. Both Guitar and Two Tall-Two Timing now have the “urge” to upgrade and I’ll have a large time goading them into it. It should be a fun time.

Monday morning I have an appointment with a sawbones….this is getting to be a theme post…sawbuck, sawbones. I didn’t even plan it! Anyway, I’ve got to have a bone spur taken off one of my toes. It will be outpatient surgery but I’ll be unable to drive for about two weeks. More to follow on this.

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.

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

DAM Art

Don't get upset at the title...DAM is the acronym for Denver Art Museum. The Bride, Ladder Lady and myself took a trip there yesterday. The "cultural complex consists of several buildings but the new art museum is pictured above. The building, designed by Daniel Libeskind was completed in 2006 to rave architectural reviews. Personally I think it's a bit over the top and I wonder how well it will age.

The reason for our visit was to see an exhibit of paintings by E.L. Blumenschein the famous member of the Taos Society of Artists. Blumenschein was an incredibly gifted artist and most of his works have been described as "post-impressionist" and "modernist". I would lean towards the modernist description but his style was realist enough that his pictures clearly portray the image. No guessing needed. That probably is a result of his early illustrator career. Most of his subjects were related to the Southwest. Indians, frontiersmen and New Mexico landscape and the like.

It was great. I was fascinated not only with the subject matter but the coloration and lighting of the paintings as well. The exhibit consisted of 66 of his most famous paintings and we studied them for a couple of hours before we headed off to lunch at the museum restaurant "Palettes". This is quite the "tony" spot for lunch and Ladder Lady was suitably impressed.....the food was good too.

After lunch we went across the street for a tour of the historic Byers/Evans House. The house dates to 1883 and was home to two different prominent Colorado families: William Byers, the founder of the Rocky Mountain News and William Evans, son of Colorado's first governor. The house was occupied by the Evans family until 1981 when it was given to the Colorado Historical Society so unlike many historical houses, this house and it's contents are 99% authentic. Everything in the house was actually owned and used by the families.

We managed to finish our little expedition just before the afternoon rush hour so it was a very good day.

Today the rush is on to make final preparations for the arrival of CaJenn and CaJon tomorrow and to lay in supplies for the party on Saturday evening to celebrate The Brides college graduation. It will be a memorable event and I plan to take lots of pictures so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Aspen Graffiti

As if I don't have enough "hobbies" right now.....Several months ago the monthly Colorado Historical Society magazine had an article about aspen graffiti carved by sheep herders in Colorado in the early part of the 1900's. Seems these guys had a LOT of time on their hands and carving pictures in aspen trees helped pass the time. Some of the carvings were pretty pornographic and some sentimental.

That article sparked an interest in the subject and on my last couple of trips to Cottonwood Lake I started looking for aspen graffiti and taking photos of some of them. The first thing I learned is that there is way more carving initials and names than carving of any type of picture. So finding a picture is a coup. The next coolest thing is finding the oldest date. After about two months of observing my oldest date is 1965....That's forty years ago and coincidentally it's the average life span of an aspen tree so if I find any older than that I'll really have hit the jackpot.

The most unusual discovery on this last trip was Joe and Gloria Torres. If nothing, Joe is/was persistent. I found his declarations of love for Gloria on numerous trees with dates from 1969 to 1993!













Amazing, but there is a big gap in the 1970's. Did I miss those? Nothing since 1993. Where is Joe? What about Gloria? I guess I'll have to go back and explore some more.

Here's a few more including a communal tree which has served several generations of carvers.

Thanks for visiting.

Tucumcari Part III - Murals

With all the faded glitz of Tucumcari, the last thing I expected to find was a very current and lively public art. The art was in the form of murals. Murals on the outside of buildings. All kinds of buildings. From the Chamber of Commerce to the local pharmacy to a tobacco shop. There are somewhere around 30 different murals all over town and I probably saw twenty to twenty-five of them on my walk. All I can say is WOW. Totally unexpected and really, really cool.

The majority were painted by the husband and wife team of Doug and Sharon Quarles. Their style is photo realism so when you look at their murals there’s no need to “interpret”. The subjects range from historical scenes to humorous to personal memorials. I’ll say no more….the murals speak for themselves.

Click on any picture to enlarge it.









This on one side of the building















And this on the other....














To absent friends...







Very realistic....














Historical...














Humorous....










Thanks for visiting.

Labor Day Circle

The last hurrah for the summer and like millions of other folks we had plans and ambitions. When I say we, I mean The Circle. A gracious invitation from K and Too Tall, Two Timing led us all to the ski resort town of Breckenridge, CO for one night in a very nice 3 bedroom condo. All of us really wanted to do more than one night but we just couldn't arrange it. Not to worry though because after several years of practice we, The Circle, can pack a lot of fun and laughs into just about any allotted time.

The plan was to leave the Denver area on Sunday morning, check out the happenings in Breckenridge, have dinner and fun and return on Monday. The return part was only for The Bride, myself, Guitar and Pic-E. K and Too Tall, Two Timing were going to spend a whole week there.

The Bride and I decided to make our way to Breckenridge by way of a very picturesque old road through Boreas Pass. This route follows the old gold miners trail that became a wagon road, that became a railroad bed, that finally became an automobile road. The scenery is spectacular and the road is easily passable by most cars. The Bride and I wanted to see if there was any hint of color change yet in the aspens at altitude.

It was a gorgeous day, the scenery was spectacular but there was no definite hint of yellow in the aspen leaves. It looks like it will be about two more weeks. The picture to the left was taken just past the summit of the pass looking down into the valley. If you look close you can see Breckenridge in the center of the valley and some of the ski slopes on the left side of the picture.

As we were descending, I stopped to take some pictures and ran into these cowgirls who wanted me to take their picture. Being the gentleman that I am I was more than happy to oblige them....after all it's part of the cowboy code! They were obviously having a good time and after the picture rode off into the mountains.

We arrived in Breckenridge just about noon and met up with the rest of the circle for lunch and planning the afternoon events. Check in time for the condo was not till 4 pm so we decided to check out the annual art show in town then pick up supplies at the grocery store and go to the condo.

The art show was a pretty big affair for a town as small as Breckenridge. Plenty of booths and a lot of interesting stuff. Pic-E found a wonderful sculpture that included a small dachshund that reminded her of her pooch. We couldn't quite talk Guitar into getting it for her...he just didn't think $22,000 was reasonable and doubted is ability to negotiate it down to $22? If you look at the picture to the right you can see Too Tall, Two Timing...and you will see exactly how he came to be known as "Too Tall".

After the art show and a supply run we headed for the condo and proceeded to just have a heck of a good time. Conversation and libations were followed by a steak dinner that just hit the spot. Guitar stepped up and took over duties as steak chef and we have decided that he can keep the job...permanently. Following dinner there was more conversation...and libations....and entertainment provided by Too Tall, Two Timing. He wanted to dispel the myth that tall people can't dance and proceeded to wow us with his personal rendition of the Hat Dance, the Blues Brothers Shuffle and several others! You can see clearly that we were in total awe of this Arthur Murray side of him..

Monday morning came all to quickly and The Circle had to disband and make our way back to our separate lives. We did however, start making plans for several other Circle events so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Is It Genetic? Is It Contagious?

I'm referring to Muffler Man-itis. This interest or obsession with 25 ft. tall fiber glass humanoids is certainly not your run of the mill, everyday, common, humdrum, workaday, commonplace, conventional interest. You really have to be looking for something to be interested in to develop an interest in Muffler Man.

So, the question is...is this a genetic condition? Are my offspring doomed by the genetic double helix to spend their life searching for the Holy Grail of the undiscovered Muffler Man? Should I just include gas money in my will for the time that they will drive 300 miles to investigate the rumor that a strange giant mannequin might be a heretofore unknown variant of Muffler Man?

Or, is this a much lesser affliction? A contagion? Nothing can be done for a genetic condition but something that is developed as a result of contagion is not necessarily fatal or even permanent. People have recovered completely from leprosy....but a lot don't. Not everyone dies from small pox.....but a lot do.

Is it genetic? Is it contagious?

Email from my daughter who lives in California entitled, "Dad, this one's for you!"

We were about a mile outside a small town called Guerneville when I saw it in the
middle of a trailer park.  When I told Jonathan to stop the car so I could take
a picture he looked at me like I was nuts.   But I knew if you were here you'd
want a photo of it so here you go...

Thanks for visiting.

Move Over Andy Warhol

Today, The Bride, The Emmer and I took a ride to Colorado Springs to hunt for vintage signs and eat lunch. I had read about a restaurant near the airport that included an old Air Force KC 97 tanker as part of the "ambiance" and you could eat inside the plane. That sounded right up my alley.

All I can say is the "experience" of eating in an old 1950's plane FAR exceeded the quality of the food. Oh well, I really hadn't expected much so I wasn't disapointed. Here's a picture of The Emmer standing in front of the dining room.

After refueling our stomachs we were off on a vintage sign hunt....I was anyway. The Emmer had her iPod on and was oblivious to everything and The Bride was "humoring" me. I'm not saying The Bride didn't want to be doing this but I'm not sure it was on her list of top 10 things to do today.

The picture at the top of the page is one of the first signs we spotted. In addition to a new camera purchase lately, I have also gotten Corel Paint Shop Pro XI. It's a great program at a very affordable price. I would estimate it has about 85% of the functionality of Adobe Photo Shop and costs, with the current rebates, about $50. A great deal. If you're into digital photography, check this program out. But, I digress, the photo at the top of the page was "artsyfied", yes "artsyfied", (That's a well known term commonly used in Muffler Man circles.) using this program. I really like the way it turned out and was pretty simple to do. Here' the original photo. It's pretty interesting all by itself.

Probably the best find of the day is below. The Navajo Hogan. How cool is that? It's an eatery as well. I will have to assemble the circle and come down one afternoon so we can all eat...and be photographed here.


All in all it was a great weekend. Had a friends fix, read some history that I have been meaning to do, found some great signs and even had time to do a little Olympic air pistol shooting. I'm in town all the week so I suspect there won't be too much to post about. You'd better check a few times during the week though, never can tell when something just demands to be released from my brain to the blog.


Thanks for visiting!