Pawnee Campground –Brainard Lake

Another weekend of camping! This brings me to a total of 50 nights spent in my trailer this year so far…and I have at least four more weeks of activities planned between now and October.

The Bride and I left home of Friday morning at about 9 am and headed for Pawnee Campground to meet the rest of The Circle….Too Tall-Two Timing, K., Guitar and Pic-E. This campground is about an hour and a half drive from home and is at about 10,300 feet in elevation. With all the adventures I’ve had so far this year, this is the first time this season that I’ve camped this high and we picked the perfect time to do it! While The Circle camped in 70 degree weather, the Denver area sweltered in 100 degree temps!

It was an adventure to start with. The campsite I chose was listed as a 40 foot back-in site. Plenty of room for both my trailer and truck….if you could get into it! What the description didn’t say was that the access road was a very narrow rough dirt road with ditches on both sides and the area was heavily forested. To make a long story short, it took me about an hour to get the trailer into the site and once I was in, I was wedged between two trees both less than two feet from either side of the trailer.

In the picture above you can see the tree close to the door side of the trailer. I had to climb on the trailer roof and cut some of the branches off of the tree to keep it from damaging the roof.

After that adventure I was ready to chill for the rest of the weekend and we did just that. We had two days of pleasant weather, good food and good friends. The campground itself was peaceful but the surrounding area was crawling with folks from the front range getting away from the heat. It was so crowded that the park rangers were limiting the number of people coming in and when we left on Sunday morning we saw them allowing one vehicle in for every vehicle coming out.

It was stunning scenery but there were probably as many people on the trails as at the mall here in town. A little too “peoplefied” for my tastes.

I now have a break of about two weeks with no out of town adventures and then I’m off to Twin Lakes, CO for a Passport In Time project. This project will be an archaeological survey looking for prehistoric Indian sites east of the Arkansas River. There have been numerous reports of tepee rings, lithic scatters and other evidence of prehistoric occupation but the Forest Service has never done an official survey of the area. It will be fun and an adventure!

The week after that I’m off to Wyoming for another PIT, this time using a metal detector to find evidence of the Cherokee Trail. And the week after that I’m back close to home at Guanella Pass doing another archaeological survey with the Forest Service.

I have applied for three more Passport In Time projects in September and October that I have not heard anything about yet….and The Bride and I will spend a week camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota in September so the adventures definitely will continue.

Thanks for visiting.

The Adventures Continue

It’s been a while since my last post but that doesn’t mean that “his-self” has been bored or lonely. One of the reasons for the lack of posting is that I’ve just been having too much fun to sit down at the computer. This post is being typed in my trailer which is parked in Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, CO….but more about that later.

Last weekend we three couples of The Circle had a 4th of July camping outing at Mueller State Park just to the west of Colorado Springs and on the north side of Pikes Peak. The Circle socializes a lot while we are in the Denver area but because of our diverse schedules, we don’t get to camp out together all that much so this weekend was a treat. It was a great weekend with liberal amounts of sightseeing, relaxing, group dining, laughter and fun. To add to the fun, Jamie and Betsy (part of Guitar’s extended family) joined us.

On Saturday we took a tour of the mining gold camps in the area. The picture at the top of this post was taken in the historic mining town of Victor, CO…birthplace of Lowell Thomas. For all you whippersnappers out there, Lowell Thomas was a very famous news reporter in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Victor is also the home of some of the most famous gold mines in the United States. The Independence, the Cresson, the Gold Coin and pictured just to the left of the American flag above, the Portland. At it’s peak in about 1902 Victor had a population of about 17,500. Today the population is about 400 and it looks more like a ghost town than lively bustling mining town.

There is one active mine left in town and it is just over the hill from the Portland Mine in the picture above. The Portland represents the old hard rock mining of the past. The new mining is open pit mining and while I understand the necessity of this approach to mining it sure is a shame to see what happens to a mountain when gold is mined in this way.

To give you an idea of the scale of this type of mining look at the picture on the right. The dot that the black arrow is pointing to is a pickup truck!

The weather for our outing was just perfect with the exception of one night when all hell broke loose. We had just finished dinner outside at the picnic table when and evening shower commenced. The shower rapidly got ugly and it rained, hailed, thundered and lightninged, blew and every other thing for about two hours. At one point we had about an inch of hail on the ground and my trailer awning nearly collapsed. Since the entire group was eating outside my trailer we all rode out the storm in my trailer….all eight adults and five dogs! It was a might cramped but we all had fun as you can see by the picture to the left.

On Monday morning we had our traditional group breakfast…with Mimosas, before breaking up and returning home.

Now about my current location. I left the Denver area this morning (Friday, 7/9) and headed south to the little town of  Walsenburg. Tomorrow morning I’ll be meeting up with a number of people who are all members of the Pike’s Peak Adventure League (I’m a member too.) This is a metal detecting club based in Colorado Springs. About once a month during the good weather months they have an outing. Tomorrow we will be going to metal detect at an old coal camp site that is located on private land. This area of Colorado had numerous coal camps to supply fuel for the railroads and other industry from the 1890’s until the 1930’s and later. This will be my first outing with the group so I’m not sure what to expect, but it should be interesting. The person who set up the outing informed us that we would be in rattlesnake country so I have come with snake gaiters for my legs and I’ll be carrying a  .38 caliber pistol loaded with snake shot! Hopefully my next report will tell you about all the cool artifacts we dug up…and the lack of snake activity so stay tuned.

I’ve also been selected for two more Forest Service Passport In Time adventures which I’ll tell you more about after I get home next week.

Thanks for visiting.

Gold Mountain Mine PIT

I left Hudson-Meng early Sunday morning. The weather was fantastic and the dirt road had dried up in the four days I was camped at the site. It was about 150 miles to Hill City and I just enjoyed the drive and looking at the incredible prairie scenery. My route took me over much of the same road I had travelled for the field trip on Tuesday but I didn’t mind at all. It’s large country and the second look was as enjoyable as the first.

Once I got beyond Hot Springs, SD I was in the Black Hills and the scenery changed from sparse prairie to rolling pine covered hills. The temperature was about 65 degrees and the air was full of pine scent. My soul smiled as I drove, life is very good.

I reached Hill City right about noon and after a few wrong turns, found the RV park that was to be my reprovisioning stop. It was nothing fancy at all, about 15 gravel sites with grass between them and right on the main highway. It really didn’t matter because I was busy with dumping my waste tanks, taking on fresh water, grocery shopping and doing laundry. It fit the bill for what I needed for the night. I also was able to use my cell phone to check in with The Bride. I hadn’t talked with her for about five days. 

After doing the laundry I drove out to the designated camp site for this project in the truck. Well before I reached the camp site I realized that my rig was just too big for that place. It was a very narrow rough dirt road with lots of low hanging tree branches. When I got to the camp site there were only a few people camping there and most were in tents. There was one truck camper and one small trailer. The people at the site said that the road had been closed for several days because of rain and a lot of the other volunteers had found better boondocking places in the general area so I decided to do likewise and it didn’t take long to find an nice meadow next to a little stream about a mile from the mine itself. I figured that if I left the RV camp early Monday morning I could set the trailer up and be at the job site by 8 am which I did.

I think I had more fun on this project that just about any other PIT project that I have done. There were about 20 people working on the restoration. In addition to PIT volunteers there were six or seven Forest Service personnel and several members of the Black Hills Historical Society. On our first day of work the project leader asked for volunteers who weren’t afraid of heights to work up on the roof and I volunteered. Much of my working career had me on industrial construction sites so heights and climbing ladders is not an issue for me.

For the rest of the week I worked with three other volunteers replacing rotted roof rafters and then sheathing the roof. To get to the rafters we used a large crane with a basket…that’s me in the basket in the picture above. It was physically demanding work but a whole lot of fun and we could really see the results of our labor. Unfortunately we did not get the entire roof sheathed but what we did do will help protect the building until the project restarts next year.

I was pretty worn out at the end of the day and my body is covered with black and blue marks, cuts and scrapes but it was very much worth it. I was in bed and asleep every day, well before dark and slept wonderfully except for two nights. On those nights I was having a running battle with several mice that somehow got into the trailer. I woke up one night and heard a “scurrying” noise that at first I thought was coming from the roof of the trailer. After listening for a while I discovered it was coming from inside the trailer and when I got up to investigate I saw the tell tale signs…mouse droppings. That afternoon I went in to Hill City and got some traps and mouse poison.

The following night I heard the scurrying again and got up to investigate. One mouse had gotten into the trash can and was having a feast in the bottom of the can. I grabbed the garbage bag out of the can and tossed it out the door. One mouse down. At first I thought that might be the only mouse but when I got back into bed I heard more scurrying and then shortly the snap of the mouse trap…two mice down. I think that was the last of them but to be sure I’ve left several baited traps in the trailer, just in case.

The project wrapped up for the year on Friday afternoon and I moved the trailer to the Rafter J Bar Ranch RV Resort where I met up with K and Too Tall-Two Timing who were spending several days there and taking in the local sights. Friday afternoon we drove over to Mt. Rushmore and then had a great dinner, graciously provided by K and Too Tall.

Saturday morning it was time to head home and I was on the road by 8 am. The trip home was uneventful but the traffic on I-25 from the Wyoming state line to the Denver area was pretty heavy. I’ll have the rest of the week to recuperate and reprovision the trailer.

On Friday, The Circle is having a Circle The Wagons long weekend outing at Mueller State Park. This is a great park just a few miles from the historic town of Cripple Creek and is a very popular place. To get camp sites for the July 4th weekend we had to make reservations in January. It should be a fun time so check back for the report.

Thanks for visiting.

Two Week Road Trip

I will be headed out first thing Sunday morning for two weeks of travel and adventure. I’m headed first to the Hudson-Meng Archaeological Site in the Nebraska National Forest. This site is about 20 miles north of Crawford, Nebraska. My plan is to drive from the Denver area up through Cheyenne, Torrington and Van Tassel, WY and then head east on US 20 to Fort Robinson State Park where I’ll spend the night. Monday morning I’ll tour the historical park and then head for the Passport In Time project. The site is relatively remote so I don’t think I’ll be able to post any updates until at least Sunday 6/20 when I’ll head out. Right now the weather forecast is pretty good for that area with temps in the high 70’s at a max. That is great because this project involves excavation and that’s just like you see on TV, a lot of kneeling and brushing away minute amounts of dirt to reveal bison bones or stone age tools.

On Sunday I’ll drive from the project north along US 385 to Hill City, SD and spend the night at a commercial RV park so I can dump my waste tanks and take on fresh water before going to the next PIT project which will be about 15 miles from my overnight stay in Hill City in the lovely Black Hills National Forest. This project is also pretty remote and there will be no internet connection and most likely not even any cell phone reception.

When I complete this project on Friday afternoon, I’ll get to meet up with Too Tall – Two Timing and his bride K who will be staying at an RV Resort just south of Hill City. They will be in the area for about a week taking in all the sights and there are a ton of things to do and see in the area. Check it out here. We should have a great mini Circle The Wagons night and once again I’ll get the opportunity to dump my waste tanks and take a nice long shower!

I brought the trailer home yesterday and began cleaning and loading it for the trip. While shuttling between the house and the trailer I heard the low powerful roar of a piston airplane engine. Looking up I saw a vintage B17G Flying Fortress fly right over the house. This plane visits the Denver area at least once a year and is available for ground tours and if you want to fork over about $400 you can take a 15-20 flight in it. I kept an eye out all the rest of the day hoping I would see it again and get a picture of it but only spotted it one more time at a distance. I’ll bet today, being a Friday, I’ll see it more.

This will most likely be my last post for about a week, but stay tuned….adventure ahead!

Thanks for visiting.

Another Passport In Time Project!

I received an email today telling me that I was chosen for another Forest Service Passport In Time (PIT) project! This one is in South Dakota and involves restoration of an old gold mine and mill.  The project actually lasts for two weeks but I signed up for the week of June 21-25.
This will be my seventh PIT project and will be the furthest I’ve ever travelled to get to one. The project is located about 35 miles south west of Rapid City SD and it will take me two days to get to the project site.  I’m already looking at the calendar and trying to figure out if I can add several days to the trip so that I can take in some of the other attractions in the area.
There will be plenty of adventures this summer!
Here’s the official write up for the project.

Black Hills NF

Gold Mountain Mine & Mill Restoration Project, Phase II

June 14-18; 21-25
Must commit to one full session; may participate in both
Please join us in the beautiful high country of the Black Hills for the second year of the Gold Mountain Mine and Mill restoration! The mill served the historic Gold Mountain Mine during the "Gold Rush" of 1875, and is the last "living" ore-processing mill on the Black Hills National Forest. The structure is one of many that stood here during a prosperous period of the gold-mining industry in the region. The wood frame of the mill still retains many of its original features, including its ore crusher, ore shoots, and distribution gates. Today, little else remains beyond the mill and its associated features, and the area's history is quickly slipping away. However, in 2007, the Forest Service and local volunteers began to explore plans to restore and preserve this unique site. In June of 2009, the plans became action. Phase I of our project consisted of a detailed survey to fully record the site and its features and preliminary restoration of the mill frame. Additionally, volunteers removed overhead hazards and emptied an estimated 12 tons of ore and debris from the mill, and planning crews began efforts to interpret the site for visitors.
During Phase II, we will continue to restore the mill structure and develop means for the site's interpretation. Restoration will focus on the mill-frame structure. The surviving original components will be removed, treated, repaired, and replaced using power and hand tools, though we will also bring in heavier equipment, such as cranes and bobcat tractors. Simultaneously, those assigned to interpretive crews will do historic research, develop trail plans, and design signage and other displays. This area of the Black Hills offers many popular attractions and boasts some of the best scenery to be found, and early summer here features warm days and cool nights, perfect for enjoying yourself around a camp fire! So, whether you're back for year two or will join us for the first time, we look forward to seeing you in June!
Number of openings: 20 (10 per session)
Special skills: Participants must have an interest in learning! Construction, carpentry, woodworking, art, and/or research skills helpful, but not required
Minimum age: 18 years old
Facilities: Tent and RV camping at no charge at nearby FS campgrounds; drinking water, toilets, no hookups; private campgrounds available nearby; facilities vary with campgrounds and may or may not include pit toilets, water, and/or RV spaces/hookups; reservations recommended; Hill City, Custer, and Rapid City are full-service communities with hotels/motels, restaurants, and a full range of other amenities; volunteers responsible for personal camping equipment, food, and transportation
Nearest town: Hill City, 5 miles; Custer, 20 miles; Rapid City, 35 miles

In a couple of hours I’m off to Chatfield State Park for a Circle the Wagons get together. Check back in a couple of days for a report!
Thanks for visiting.

First Passport In Time Project for 2010

I received word yesterday that I was accepted for my first Passport In Time (PIT) project for this year. I'm excited about this one! Last September I did a similar project near Gunnison, CO and had a great time. We found lots of artifacts including a museum quality, 1850's era, uniform shoulder board (epaulet). Read about it here.

Here's the official write up for this project...

Metal Detector Surveys of the Old Spanish Trail in Northern New Mexico

NM-3885
May 3–7, 2010

Must commit to full session

Volunteers for this PIT project will work with F.S. staff to conduct systematic metal-detecting surveys of segments and traces of the Old Spanish Trail in northern New Mexico. At present, these elements of the Trail have only been partially identified. Research on this historically import trade route is an ongoing, multi-agency project in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. One goal of this research is to identify which routes will be managed as Congressionally designated historic trails. The project will also help to provide important information for interpreting the Old Spanish Trail and its role in the trade and settlement of the American West, and will allow visitors to experience a direct connection to this aspect of the nation's cultural history. Most of the Trail segments will be within approximately 40 miles of the village of Taos, a town with a rich history and culture. Join us for this unique experience in one of New Mexico's most beautiful settings!

Number of openings: 20

Special skills: Must understand and be able to perform leave-no-trace camping and field hygiene techniques; must be physically capable of hiking several miles per day in moderate to rough terrain in a variety of weather conditions; previous experience with GPS systems (possession of one is a bonus!), digital photography, and/or archaeological survey helpful, but not required; knowledge of metal artifacts from the first half of the 19th century (Mexican and Territorial Periods) in the West also helpful, but not required; metal detecting experience preferred, but not required - please indicate on your application if you own and can bring a metal detector

Minimum age: 18 years old

Facilities: Primitive camping at site locations; other camping facilities (developed and undeveloped) available within the project area; Taos is a full-service community with a range of motels, B&Bs, restaurants, and other amenities; volunteers responsible for lodging or personal camping equipment, food, and water; transportation to and from a designated meeting site will be provided on a limited basis by F.S.; personal vehicles capable of dirt road/off-road travel helpful

Nearest towns: Taos, ~40 miles

I have been researching the Old Spanish Trail for the last several months and it will be very cool to visit spots on the ground that I read about in first hand accounts from the Spaniards and American pioneers.

Thanks for visiting.

Cowboys And Sweethearts

The post title is the theme of this year's Cochise County Cowboy Poetry & Music Gathering and salutes the fact that Sunday is Valentines Day. The festival started last night and continues thru Sunday but the best part was today...a totally free performance. Today's performance is very much like the one I attended (and paid for) in the Denver area, last month. Seven different rooms with three or four performers each, performing around a theme. Sessions ran for fifty minutes each and went from 10 am until 4 pm. It was a great time. A number of the performers I had seen last month but there were many more that I had never seen, or even heard of. That's part of what I love about this entertainment. I'm always discovering new talent...well, not new to most of the people but new to me.

One of the things that attracted me to this event, in addition to the fact that I would be in the neighborhood anyway, was that Joni Harms was performing. Last year while The Bride and I were here with Guitar and Pic-E, I bought one of her cds and really enjoyed it. I liked it so much that I bought another online and then told myself that I'd love to see her in person. Today was my chance. Not only is Joni a fantastic singer but she is a real cowgirl and lives and works on the family ranch that her great grandfather homsteaded in 1870. How's that for western roots? She has a fantastic voice and was named Female Western Vocalist of the Year in 2003 and has all kind of other awards for her skill and talent.

Before I get carried away with the festival I have to tell you that I went to the festival with an interesting person...and friend. When I first started reading blogs, and especially blogs related to full timing RVer's, I stumbled on Lloyd Treichel's blog, www.wandrin.us. Lloyd has been full timing for a number of years and his mantra is "Keep The Balance". That resonates with me and so I started to read his blog regularly. This past September he was in the Denver area and we met for coffee and conversation. It was a great meeting and I enjoyed his company. We agreed that if our paths crossed again we would get together...and it just so happens that he happened to be in the Benson, AZ area...and that he enjoys cowboy poetry and western music. Done deal, we met this morning, renewed our acquaintance and enjoyed the event.

So in addition to seeing some of the great talent I had seen last month I "discovered" several other great talents. If you're not tolerant of western music skip the rest of this post. The Tumbling Tumbleweeds are a great group. Five guys who obviously have theatrical training. Not only did they have great voices, harmony, etc. but a great stage presence and very entertaining. All of them were young (aw hell, even if they're 50 they look young to me) so I really had to wonder how all this talent got together one day and said, "Hey, let's get together and make our fame by doing Western music."? However they came to that decision is fine because I enjoyed the benefit of it today.

The other "discovery" was the group "The Desert Sons". This was a group that really enjoyed and sang songs similar to the Sons of the Pioneers, Cool Water, Along the Navajo Trail...Classic western stuff and they did it extremely well. What can I say, I now own one of their cds as well.

So, it was a great day. I've decided to stay one more day here because I still haven't gotten in to Ft. Huachuca to see (once again) the old calvary museum or the Military Intelligence museum...No nasty remarks from my brothers here. Tomorrow I'll do both and then on Monday head for Tuscon for a day or two.

Thanks for visiting.

Bats, Bears And Burgers, Oh My

The post title is a take off on the famous line by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Hard to believe that this classic 1939 movie is still entertaining and being quoted some seventy years after it was released. I wonder how many of today’s crop of movies will have a similar stature in 2080?

Enough of that. On Saturday The Bride and I left early and headed to the Colorado Division of Wildlife Volunteer orientation. The orientation was in Colorado Springs about an hour drive from our home. About 15 people attended to find out what types of opportunities are available for volunteers.

It turns out that there are a lot of varied projects available to interested volunteers. I’ve mentioned previously that I participated in a waterfowl count last week and that it tame compared to some of the projects. One that interested me is the Bats/Inactive Mines Project. In this project, volunteers survey inactive mines to see if bats have taken up residence in them. First of all there a literally thousands of inactive mines in Colorado and they are extremely dangerous. These mines make perfect habitats for a number of species of bats and bats are of terrific importance to man. The dilemma is to allow the bats a place to live and to keep humans from entering these dangerous sites.

Volunteers go to the mines but not in them. They use electronic “bat detectors” to detect the ultra sonic signals the bats use. If bats are found the mine entrance can be closed with a grate that will allow access by the bats but prevent humans from entering. How cool is that??

Other projects range from helping clean up State Wildlife Areas to helping at fish hatcheries to collecting animal heads for chronic wasting disease testing. The collecting heads project gets the heads from hunter harvested animals. There is also a State Wildlife Area Host program where volunteers camp at the Wildlife Areas and help educate visitors about the area. Between volunteering for the Division of Wildlife and the Forest Service methinks that I’ll be pretty busy this year.

All of that information about opportunities made The Bride and I hungry and fortunately the DOW orientation broke up at noon. We had previously made arrangements with The Circle to meet them at Conway’s Red Top burger joint. I learned about this place from a Christmas present book given to me by Cajenn and Cajon and my curiosity took over.

As you can see by the picture above, the restaurant is a non-descript little place but it serves decidedly non-non-descript burgers. These behemoths are eighteen inches in diameter! Now they are not your typical two or three inch thick gourmet burgers but are relatively thin allowing that artery clogging grease to really flavor the burger. The burger is a bit thinner on the edges and their frying technique renders them crispy at the very edge. A great taste.

As hungry as I was I was not foolish enough to order a whole burger but settled for a half burger which was more than sufficient. I had mine without cheese most of the rest of The Circle ordered theirs with cheese. Guitar and Pic-E also sampled the chili while K had a hot dog and a bowl of bean soup. All pronounced their meals worthy of the trip.

After a leisurely lunch we all headed back towards the Denver area. On the way back we stopped at the little town of Monument, Colorado. Monument sit astride Interstate 25 and I’ve passed by it hundreds of times without taking the time to look past the ever present gas stations and fast food joints. It turns out that there is a quaint little historic town a few blocks off the Interstate. We did a little looking and following the ladies of The Circle and then Too Tall-Two Timing, Guitar and I retired to the local cantina to have a cold one and watch football while the ladies completed their exploration.

We were back in the Denver metro are by late afternoon. It was a great day. I had learned a lot and had an adventure or two. Life is good.

Thanks for visiting. 

Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, Mallards & Canadians

 

My first gig as a volunteer for the Division of Wildlife was a success and fun as well. My task was to complete a waterfowl count on a golf course on the Southeast side of the Denver metro area. I really had little instruction from the DOW other than to show up before sunrise and to count all the different types of waterfowl I saw so I arrived on scene at about 6:20 am with binoculars and a handy dandy bird identification book. The book was necessary because other than Canadian geese and mallards I really can’t tell a duck from a buck.

This past Saturday I drove out to the golf course to familiarize myself with the area and check out what kind of waterfowl were there. That day the only birds I saw were Canadian Geese….and there were probably 500 or 600 of them all over the course. When I arrived on Tuesday morning I was surprised to find only about 100 Canadians in the area and they were all in the water. (Now that I’m an expert, I know that they spend the night on the water and during the day move to the fields to feed.)

The golf course contains two different ponds and a creek that runs through the middle of the course so after I counted the geese at the main pond I walked around to the other pond and to the creek to see what might be there. When I got to the other pond I saw two other types of ducks/waterfowl that I hadn’t a clue as to what they were. I made some crude drawings on my notepad and headed back to my truck. After consulting the bird book I was still not sure about an identification and decided to go back to the pond and bring my camera as it was now light enough to get a picture and as they say “a picture is worth a thousand words for an old guy with CRS”

I got the pictures and on the way back to the truck again counted about 100 mallards along the creek. Fortunately between my drawings and the pictures…and the book I was able to identify the web footed flyers. In the picture above the smaller pair on the left are male and female Bufflehead and the larger pair on the right are male and female Common Goldeneye. I have never seen ducks like this before so I was thrilled at a new experience. By 8:30 am I had completed the count, drove home and completed my report which I faxed to the DOW office.

They must have liked my work because later that day I got an offer to help man the DOW booth at the International Sportsmen’s Exhibition this weekend in Denver. Unfortunately I can’t do that because on Saturday I’ll be driving down to Colorado Springs to attend another DOW orientation. At this meeting I’ll learn more about the opportunities to volunteer in Southeast Colorado. The orientation is two hours long and The Bride has agreed to come with me and then get some lunch in the Springs….which brings me to my next adventure.

Readers know that I like to investigate off beat places and down home food like BBQ and burgers. It just so happens that I recently heard about an unusual burger joint in Colorado Springs by the name of Conway’s Red Top. This burger joint has been written up in a number of national publications and is famous for it’s 18” hamburger….That is correct. Eighteen inches across. That’s way more than I could probably consume but the experience will be worth the trip as I see it. The soups and stews are supposed to be killer items too. So check back in a couple of days and see how this adventure goes.

Thanks for visiting.

The Fox Has Landed

Yesterday morning as I walked out in the driveway to get the morning paper, I saw a large red fox dart between houses about two doors up the street. Was this an omen? If it was an omen…it was a good one as you can see from the picture above. Yes, I finally have taken possession of my new Arctic Fox fifth wheel trailer.

The day was not without it’s little glitches however. The day before yesterday I had gotten a call from the dealer saying that the “capture plate” I provided him to put on the trailer to match my hitch, didn’t fit. That is a big problem and there is no way to tow the trailer without it. After a couple of hours of panic and scrambling I found the correct part and picked it up on Wednesday morning just before driving down to Colorado Springs.

The drive down was uneventful but my mind was racing with thoughts of the trailer, how it would handle under tow, how I would handle it under tow in traffic and on and on. I was pleasantly surprised that the truck got about 20 mpg on the highway on the way down.

I spent about two hours at the dealership finishing paperwork and doing an inspection of the trailer. After all that it was time to hook up and head home. I was nervous for about 5 blocks. After all I have never towed anything this big and I had to drive in fairly heavy traffic for a couple of miles. After five blocks however I realized that this was an easier tow than my old trailer. The more I drove it the more amazed I was about how easy this thing towed. To top it all off I managed to get 14 mpg while towing it home. That may not sound like a lot but compared to the 7-9 mpg I was getting with the old Class A it’s great.

So the trailer now sits in front of the house. I think I’ll christen it “Bivouac”, just like the original trailer I had a couple of years ago. I spent most of today loading it with all the thing I took out of my old rig and dreaming of my February trip. The covenants of my neighborhood only allow me to keep it on the street for 72 hours so tomorrow I’ll have to take it to the storage lot. I expect I’ll make numerous trips to the lot next week bring things that I forgot to pack.

Thanks for visiting.

Christmas Dinner With The Circle

Saturday the full Circle got together for our annual Christmas dinner. The six of us have been doing this for about five or six years now and it’s something we look forward to. Prior to the dinner itself we normally gather at one of our houses and exchange gifts. This year we gathered at K and Too Tall – Two Timing’s home. They provided atmosphere, hors d’oeuvres, and champagne….can’t have a Christmas get together without a little bubbly.

The gifts rely more on imagination than dollars spent and we usually have a fine old time in exchanging them. Some of the gifts are practical and some just plain silly. One year Too Tall gifted the guys with coonskin caps and playing on that theme this year I gifted the guys with some Rasta hats I found while on our cruise last month. I’m not sure when we will wear them but I’m working on a theme camp out for this summer.

Among other things the ladies of the group usually exchange Christmas tree ornaments. It’s fun looking at our tree and seeing these ornaments that represent some really good times.

For the past three years I have been giving everyone a calendar for the following year. Each month of the calendar contains a picture of The Circle or some of us on one of our past adventures. I have enjoyed doing it and I think the rest of the group looks forward to getting it. I never tell them which pictures I am going to use so everyone is anxious to make sure I haven’t used a particularly silly image of them. 

This year’s dinner was had at La Dolce Vita Restaurant in the small community of Castle Pines which is just a little north of Castle Rock, CO. It was a very nice restaurant and it’s hard to go wrong with Italian food. As we were dining a very talented young lady wandered around the restaurant singing to the different groups of diners. For our table she sang a wonderful rendition of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” that was written by Willie Nelson in 1961…..I thought it fit the group pretty well!

Dessert, coffee and after dinner drinks completed the evening. It was another great get together and we’re already searching for that next Circle adventure.

Thanks for visiting.

Mojitos To Mountains

“Ten days on the road and I’m gonna’ make it home tonight…” I can hear the lyrics in my mind but for the life of me I can’t remember the title of the song? Even Google didn’t help with this one. Anyway, it was ten days on the road and we did make it home. We had a great time and it was good for The Bride and her mother Ladder Lady to spend quality time together.

Disembarkation in San Juan on Sunday was a little dicey because our “servants”, our “employees”…the ICE…Immigration & Customs Enforcement decided to send a total of three….count em’ 3…officers to screen about 3,000 passengers that were trying to get to their land hotels or flights back to the mainland. In the end they pretty much let everyone through by just flashing an ID card of some type and not inspecting any baggage….Feel safe now America?

Fortunately I had built in time at both the beginning and the end of the trip. After disembarkation we went to the fabulous resort hotel, El San Juan for a night of de-pressurization before making the last leg of the journey. I had stayed at the El San Juan on business, many years ago and always fantasized that it would be great to show this place to The Bride. It took about 20 years but I did make the fantasy come true.  The ladies were suitably impressed and even commented that they would have considered spending ten days there rather than on the cruise. Little did they know that it was about three times more expensive per day that to “cruise”.

The trip back was “payback” and the only way to survive is to put yourself into a catatonic state…which I did for the day of waiting, lines, and inconsiderate people. We arrived home at about 8 pm on Monday evening. Just in time to watch the Bronco’s lose the Monday night football game…..just more payback for having a great 10 days.

The remaining part of this week will be filled with all the inglorious details of coming home…laundry, restocking the fridge, paying bills, etc. Fortunately, the weather is not a total shock, with temps in the 60’s for a few more days until colder weather sets in.

Now I have to reset my mental latitude and get back to thinking of the new trailer, getting a fifth wheel hitch, doing all the small details so that in about 30 days I can start on the next adventure.

Thanks for visiting.

Take Me To The Caribbean

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect! The picture above is the weather shaman’s guesstimate of how much white stuff we could have by Thursday afternoon. It will begin snowing tonight and continue off and on until mid day Thursday.

I say “let it snow” because bright and early Friday morning The Bride and I and The Emmer head to the airport to fly to San Juan, PR and get on a Princess cruise ship for the Caribbean. The snow on the ground at that time will just make the transition to the Caribbean that much sweeter. Our ports of call on this cruise include St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. We will meet Ladder Lady in Atlanta and then all fly together to San Juan, spend two nights there in Old San Juan before boarding the ship on Sunday morning.

On the practical side of things, I moved the snow blower up to the front of the garage today and made sure it had gas….and would start. I will probably have to use it tomorrow. We’re also finishing up doing some interior painting at the house. The painters started Monday and should finish up tomorrow. This is something that was on our “to do” list for some time but this week is the first time that the painter and us could agree on a schedule. Between all the furniture that has been moved around and suitcases being packed the house looks like it’s been turned upside down. I hope the painting will be done tomorrow so that I can put the house back together on Thursday before we leave.

I will be bringing my computer with me on the trip but don’t know if I’ll have time…or connections, to use it, so this may be the last post for about 10 days.

Thanks for visiting.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Especially on days like today. Today, for the first time in many years I do not own an RV. That’s right, last night I sold my Holiday Rambler Class A RV in preparation for getting a fifth wheel trailer. The timing isn’t exactly what I would like it to be but in the world of buying and selling RVs you kind of have to go with the flow.

Because of the economy, I thought it might take a while to sell my RV and I really didn’t want to “trade it in” when buying my new rig. Trade in values on RV are notoriously low, so, I decided to try to sell it through craigslist. I did my homework and priced it fairly but aggressively on Wednesday.

I got a couple of calls and emails on Thursday but nothing that I thought would turn out as a sale. Friday morning I got a number of calls and had one couple look at it at about noon time. At about 2 pm the same couple called again and asked if they could see it again with their son. About the time they arrived for the second viewing, I got a call from a man with whom I had traded several emails earlier in the day.  When I told him I had to call him back because some was looking at it right then, he offered to buy it sight unseen…he would drive about 50 miles after he got off work and pay for it in cash and drive it home! I accepted his offer and went to tell the people that were then looking at the rig. Before I could tell them I sold it, they said that they had decided that they would buy it.

Early in my work a day career I was a salesman and it was music to my ears to hear someone say they wanted to buy what I was selling. Telling someone that I couldn’t sell them what I had and what they wanted is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me….but I only had one RV.

The guy on the phone was true to his word and appeared at my doorstep at about 8:30 pm with his wife. He did a brief inspection….in the dark, with a flashlight on the outside and a little closer inspection on the inside..with lights. He said it was as advertised and handed me cash money!

So, here I sit, RV-less, without a truck to pull the fifth wheel that I have yet to buy. I guess this is a better condition to be in that to have the truck, fifth wheel and my old RV and not be able to sell the old RV.

I only had this RV for about two years but I certainly used it and enjoyed it. I figure that I slept in that RV around 100 nights over that time. I summit-ed just about every major pass in Colorado with it and travelled a lot of back roads in New Mexico and Arizona sitting in it’s driver’s seat.

So now the pressure is on to find a replacement to take me to new adventures. Before I leave this chapter however, I’d like to echo that old trail song of yore….Goodbye Old Paint ! Here’s some more pictures of good times had…

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

Old Spanish Trail, Chapter II

The last two days we have continued to excavate the four areas of the old stage station. We haven’t found too much in the area of the root cellar that I’m excavating. The highlights so far are an old hobnail boot sole and a whole whiskey bottle. In the picture above the sole is at the end of the trowel I’m holding.  Unfortunately the bottle broke as we tried to dig it out of the hard soil. We have now excavated two meter square patches to a depth of almost 3 feet and because we’re not finding much we’ll probably stop excavating in that area.

The other areas are yielding a lot more stuff. The other volunteers have found a marble, part of a skeleton key, patent medicine bottles, beads, a toy hammer head and lots of other stuff. The prize find so far is an epaulette from an army uniform. This is the “shoulder board” decoration that was worn on the shoulder of officers and non-commissioned officers. It was found buried in one of the fireplaces and we don’t have a clue how it got there.

The well area is also providing a lot of interesting artifacts including glass bottles, lots of large bones, elk antlers…and at the very bottom, an old pail and the chain that was attached to the pail. The well was excavated to a depth of about 12 feet when the soil started to get pretty mucky and we decided to stop digging there.

This is hard work and by the time I get back to the RV I’m pretty tired but tired is a small price to pay for this incredible experience. It’s hard to describe the feeling I had when I looked at that epaulette that probably hadn’t seen sunlight in 130 years or more. I’ve spent a lot of time daydreaming about how it got where we found it. Did someone desert the army and intentionally tried to hide the uniform? Did someone buy the uniform to wear because they needed a coat and cut off the epaulette because it served no practical purpose?

Tomorrow a couple of other volunteers and I are going to explore a portion of the old stage road further up in the mountains. We’re bringing metal detectors and hopefully will uncover some interesting things.

I haven’t found out too much more about our cowboy neighbor except that he’s been working in this area for over 35 years. I’m thinking his favorite shirt color is red because as you can see he’s wearing a red shirt in the picture to the right.

Right behind my RV is a clothes line that the cowboy uses to dry his clothes. I couldn’t help but take the picture below for several reasons, one to show you his other red shirt. The other reason ties into my comment in the last post about this place being the heartland of America. Check out his laundry….Red, white and blue. Can you get any more American than that!

Thanks for visiting.

Blogger to Blogger

I began blogging over a year and a half ago. I have really enjoyed the creative aspect of writing posts about what has been going on in my live and having a way that family and friends can keep up with me. Another part of the blogging experience for me, is reading blogs written by others. I have quite a few that I read regularly and a number of these are written by folks that do full time RV-ing. That is they live in their RVs and travel around the country full time. I like to live vicariously through their blogs.

After I posted my last story about possibly getting another RV, I received an email from Lloyd of Wanderin’ Blog fame. I have been reading his blog and following his travels since I started writing my own blog. It just so happened that Lloyd was in the Denver area and he offered to meet with me to discuss fifth wheel trailers or anything else that was of interest to me.

Wow, this was a great opportunity! I jumped at the chance and yesterday afternoon we met at a Starbucks in between where he was staying and my home on the south side of Denver. Lloyd has been full timing for about eight years now, spending the majority of his time in the west and southwest. We spent about two hours chatting about travel, blogging, other bloggers that we both followed and genealogy. I had a great time getting to know Lloyd and hope to cross paths with him again in the future.

I would have visited with Lloyd a lot longer than two hours but yesterday morning when I went to start the dishwasher I discovered that it had given up the ghost…passed on…died…crapped out! Naturally it was full of dirty dishes. I’m scheduled to leave on my next adventure on Saturday morning so I was in a bit of a bind to find a new dishwasher and arrange to have it installed. After leaving Lloyd I headed straight to the local Home Depot. I had instructed The Bride to visit a Home Depot on her lunch hour and pick out a dishwasher she liked. When I got to our local store I call her and got the model number of the dishwasher she wanted. The only hitch is that it will be Tuesday before the new dishwasher is installed.

On the RV front, I’m still searching for a gently used truck so that I can begin the search for a fifth wheel trailer. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s slim pickins’ for quality used diesel trucks right now. I found one in a small town about 20 miles from here that would have worked except for one thing….the former driver was a heavy smoker and the interior reeked of cigarette smoke. The dealer says he is going to have someone come to his lot and treat the inside of the cab with something that is supposed to remove the smell. I’m pretty skeptical but I’ve got nothing to lose. When I return from my trip I’ll go by the dealer’s place of business. If the smell is gone I’ll buy the truck….if not I won’t. In the meantime I’ll be on the lookout for another truck that will fit the bill and if I find one before then I have no obligation to this dealer.

As I mentioned, I’m leaving bright and early Saturday morning for two weeks of Forest Service volunteer projects. I will be out of phone and internet contact for all of that time except possibly Saturday the 19th of September. Next week I’ll be in the Gunnison National Forest, southeast of Gunnison, CO doing an archaeological survey and dig on and 1870’s stage station. Read about it here. This project ends on Friday the 18th and I will drive to the extreme southeast corner of Colorado to participate in another archaeological survey in the Cimarron Canyon area. Here’s the description of this project.

Comanche National Grasslands

Cimarron Canyons Archeological Research Survey 2009

Must commit to full session

Located in the rugged canyon country of southeastern Colorado, the tributaries of the Cimarron River shelter a wide variety of archaeological sites, including prehistoric quartzite quarries and habitation areas, rock art, and 19th and early 20th-century homesteads. PIT volunteers and Forest Service staff will thoroughly explore these canyons to record sites and features. Project tasks will include map reading, artifact identification, basic lithic analysis, photography, site mapping, and botany. Come and explore this little-known corner of Colorado!

Number of openings: 6

Special skills: Must be physically able to hike daily for long distances in rough terrain in highly variable weather conditions; previous experience with mapping, photography, lithic analysis, and/or archaeological survey helpful, but not required

Minimum age: 18 years old

Facilities: Primitive camping at no charge near project area; vault toilet, picnic shelters, no potable water; some space for small campers in camping area; volunteers responsible for own camping equipment, food, and drinking water

Nearest towns: Kim, 25 miles; Springfield, 41 miles

Thanks for visiting.

Taking Care of Bidness

Numerous times over the past year while on one of my adventures, I’ve met new people and exchanged phone numbers, addresses, etc with them. It’s always inconvenient to find a piece of paper and pencil to record this stuff with.

It was easy in my work a day life. I just traded business cards….so I recently thought, why not have a retired card instead of a business card. I have met several other people that have adopted this idea. About a week ago I went online and found a place where I could design my own retired card and for about $16.00 get 250 of them printed and mailed to me……….on the picture below I blocked out my personal info but you get the idea.

In other news, The Circle had another Circle The Wagons trip this past weekend. We all met Friday evening at Golden Gate Canyon State Park about an hour and a half from here. We had a very relaxed weekend with group dinners and a nice fire every night. Sunday morning we had a late breakfast and then all headed home.

This week is a catch up week doing chores around the house and starting to prepare for my next adventure starting a week from this Saturday.

Thanks for visiting.

Fairview Peak, The Rest Of The Story

The weather cleared out enough on Saturday so that we were able to go up the mountain at about 11 am. Since it was a late start we just humped sand, a door and a window to the top. Getting a late start didn’t mean the ascent was any easier although I thought it was a bit easier because I now knew what to expect.

Sunday and Monday we started out from Pitkin at a little after 8 am and made it to the top by about 10:30. The weather, while sunny was brutally windy….winds of 30-40 mph. It made working very difficult and by the time we got down off the mountain at around 4 pm we were pretty well exhausted….and wind burned.

Unfortunately the window we brought up would not fit the opening. The door fit fine after some major trimming with a hand saw. The Forest Service Archaeologist said that last year the hut filled up to the roof with snow because of the lack of windows and a door. Hopefully this winter the interior will remain snow free.

The other major task we accomplished was to rebuild a portion of the south wall of the lookout. A hundred years of weathering had taken it’s toll. We removed rock from the peak of the wall down to the window lintel and then rebuilt it using stone from the mountain top and mortar that we mixed on site. It was a long and complicated process to re-assemble the wall and make everything fit but several of the volunteers had done this sort of work before.

Several times during the week we had visitors hike up the mountain to see what we were doing. The project had gotten some publicity in the area and a few hardy souls came up to see what we were doing. Take a look at the picture to the left and see if you can see the hiker on the ridge below us…..aw, I’m going to help by marking him with an arrow. This fellow hiked in the long way. It turned out that he had worked on this same project last year. This picture gives you a good perspective of how high up we were….and this guy was 2/3 of the way up when I took the photo!

It was an absolutely amazing experience for me. One that I will remember for a long while. I was tickled that I was able to physically do the climb every day. It was also an honor to be able to help preserve this bit of history in a little known, far away place.

I will be doing another Passport In Time (PIT) project with this same archaeologist, next month. This project will be another archaeological survey and there will be a little excavation to boot. Fortunately this project will not require as much physical stamina….but more on that later.

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting.