The Pitkin Hotel, A Side Story

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the little town of Pitkin has a hotel, aptly named the Pitkin Hotel. The building was built in 1904 and not a whole lot has changed in 105 years. Electric lights have replaced the gas lights although some of the gas fixtures remain in place. The rooms are still heated by individual parlor stoves and there is but one bathroom at the end of a long narrow hall. In more modern times a passageway to the building next door was opened up and one big room serves as a dormitory and can sleep about 20 people. The building is filled with books, games and dvd movies, attesting to the quiet summer nature and the isolation of winter in this place. Several of the members of the volunteer team stayed in this hotel. They had been to Pitkin before and knew the owner…which is part two of the story.

JoAn came to Pitkin almost 30 years ago with a “spiritual” group that made plans to buy the old hotel building and turn it into a commune of sorts. Joan put up all the money she had and then the rest of the group backed out, leaving Joan with a big problem. She had the building and no money so she did what she needed to, to survive…run a hotel.

It’s a hard life but she has eked out a living for all those years. This year she says is her last and she is going to sell the hotel and go to Florida where she won’t have to worry about snow nine months a year.

The picture to the left is me sitting between JoAn and her son Dusty. As much as I wanted to know more about her I felt I had pried as far as good manners would allow.

If any readers are thinking about getting into the lodging business, give JoAn a call….she’ll probably talk you out of it.

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.

Blessings and Profanities!

It's amazing how these two things can go so closely together...

Readers will know that The Emmer got her driver's license last week after many years of trying. Back in the recesses of my mind, I was preparing myself for the inevitable "learning experience" that every new driver has. In other words, I was prepared to suffer the loss of a vehicle somewhere along the line. For that reason I have been babying a 1995 Ford Contour for the last 11 years. My older daughter took that car to college and had her own "learning experience" on it which resulted in an unrepaired dent on the front hood. It was great basic transportation and was beloved by the family.

You will note the past tense verb "was". My loss was not exactly the way I pictured it.

Yesterday afternoon The Emmer and The Bride were headed to a hair appointment. The Emmer was driving and made a legal left turn...with a green turn arrow...and got broadsided on the passenger side by a young seventeen year old who ran a red light.

Blessings are that no one was hurt. This is truly a blessing because the Contour appears to be a total loss. The passenger side was pushed in over 12", windows broken, frame bent. The Bride was in the passenger seat and the impact shoved her into the center console. The emergency crew had to take her out the driver's door. She was sent to the emergency room of the local hospital as a precaution and fortunately all scans were negative for internal injuries. The Emmer was also unharmed. She walked away with a couple of bruises on her left side from being jammed against the driver's door.

Profanities are that in any U.S. metropolitan area now driving is DANGEROUS. It's the I attitude of people when they get behind the wheel. I..I should be first in line. I should not have to wait on anyone. I don't care about the other guy.

If you can believe this....As I was watching the tow truck winch my car out of the intersection a young woman in an SUV was clearly agitated at being delayed at getting around the accident. She glared at us, honked her horn, and as soon as she was by the broken glass...floored the accelerator and squealed by! Unfortunately by this time the police had already left the scene.

Profanities are, that even though I have good insurance, nothing can make me whole. I have to replace that vehicle with something and even if I replace it with a similar make and model the difference between insurance value and retail value will be several thousand dollars...And then I'll have to pay sales and licensing taxes too.

When I really stop and think however, blessings always trump profanities and in the game of life, this time, I had the winning hand. My family is safe.

Thanks for visiting.

Wild Life---NOT

Saturday night and I'm sittin' here thinking about the wild life...well, maybe not "wild life", that stuff is behind me now, but wildlife. Not only wildlife but just being back out in "The World".

When I was in VietNam, everything outside of that place was referred to as "The World". I kinda have that feeling about my career now. I realize that one phase of my life is rapidly winding down and things in my career that once seemed really important....don't anymore. I'm really looking forward to getting back to "The World". The World is filled with things I have rushed by for 35 years. Things that I wanted to know about and to do. Things that had to be relegated to a very low priority because of the "career" thing. It won't be all that long now, before that ole priority list gets turned upside down!

"What's got into his-self" you say? Ah, I don't know? I think I read too many full-timing RV blogs today. Some of my favorites are "Tioga & George", "Our Odyssey", "Nick's Blog", "Len's Travels", and "RV Boondocking the Good Life". There are tons of others as well but all of them get me to thinkin' and dreamin'.

I doubt if The Bride and I will ever do full-timing, but I can certainly see myself taking extended trips several times a year. Seeing as how The Bride still has that "career" thing she kind of expects me to explore some....as long as it's "wildlife" and not "wild life".....if you catch my drift.

Dang, if this didn't turn into a stream of consciousness thing. I originally intended to post some "fauna" kind of stuff that #4 and I saw on our trip. Well, here they are.















And.....



































And my favorite from this trip.....................

Thanks for visiting.

Birthday Greetings

On Sunday I'll be off with my brother, #4, for a week in the mountains. During that time we'll not have access to the internet so I'll do a little early posting to wish myself a happy birthday!

July is a busy month in my family. My birthday is on the 12th. My father's birthday is on the 13th. His mother's birthday was on the 10th. His father's birthday was on the15th. I'll tell you more about them in a separate post.

This year I will be 60 years old. Yes, SIXTY. It's hard for me to believe although I will admit that my boyish looks are starting to recede somewhat. I am perfectly at ease with my age. I grew up in an atmosphere where age was respected and honored and I have always felt that it was a privilege and an honor to attain an advanced age. I am now in that position but there were at least five times during those 60 years that without the help of providence or luck or whatever you want to call it, I could not have survived.

My birthday however, should not be a morbid recollection, so here's some random thoughts and facts about my 60 years on this planet that you may find entertaining.

My mother's mother was born the year after Custer was massacred at the Little Big Horn.

I grew up in a time when turn signals, heaters, radios and automatic transmissions were all optional equipment on cars. Seat belts were unknown.

As a child I was quarantined in our house because I had the measles. A "QUARANTINE" sign was placed on the door and no one was allowed in or out....and the doctor made house calls.

Even though I spent a lot of my childhood in warm climates, I didn't live in a home that had air conditioning until 1972.

My mother's father told me stories about the first time he ever saw an automobile or an airplane. He also told me about visiting Civil War veterans and listening to their stories about the war.

My father is one of the last of the "horse soldiers". He started his military career in the horse cavalry.

My first car was a Corvair.

I was born at home without the assistance of any medical professional.

My father's father fought in France in "The War to end all Wars." and would NOT talk about it.

There were only 48 states in the Union until I was 13 years old.

I went to Italy with my family on a converted WW II troop transport ship, the MSTS Darby.

The tinsel on the Christmas trees of my early childhood was made out of lead strips that we flattened and saved from year to year.

I can remember a time with our family "before" television and listening to the Sunday radio program that read the Sunday newspaper "funnies" on the air.

The Twist, The Pony, The Swim, The Mashed Potato and The Shag were all dances I was proficient at.

My first legal, paying job, recompensed me at a rate of 50 cents an hour.

My memory is not to the point that I cannot remember these things clearly.

Thanks for visiting.

I Think I've Been Snatched by Aliens?

Last night even though I slept well, I woke up with an odd feeling. It wasn't something that I could pinpoint. I felt fine physically. Everything looked normal in my home and outside, but I had this odd indescribable feeling.

Sometime in mid morning I decided to check out the local news web site on my computer and that's when it all became clear to me. I've been snatched by aliens! Snatched and transported to another dimension...to a shadow world. Everything appears to be the same as in my old world but there are little details that give everything away.

I think the aliens have put me on the planet Leftus Liberalus in the galaxy of Bleeding Heartus Major. From what I can deduce this planet is populated by a civilization called "Can't We All Just Get Along" and it's obvious that the civilization is in BIG trouble. That must be why they snatched me? I haven't had much of a chance to look around yet but it's dollars to donuts that they are stacking me on the right side of the planet, trying to correct the tilt a little bit.

Unbelievable you say? That's what I thought at first but I'm sure of it. Only on a different planet would someone be given a ticket for killing a rattlesnake that just bit someone!

I can hear you whispering, "His-Self really needs to retire!" and I'll have you know that while that may be true it has nothing to do with this. The local news station on this planet has reported that a young boy was bitten inside a garage by a rattlesnake. The snake was killed and taken to the emergency room with the boy and ....well don't take my word for it...

"The snake was killed and put into a plastic gallon milk jug. Greg says he learned a valuable lesson about what to do with a rattlesnake when it attacks. "We were informed that any time you're bitten by a snake, you're not to act on it (kill it)," said Greg. He says Larimer County Animal Control came to the emergency room to write a citation for cruelty to animals. Ditus explained the story, saying they had not tortured the snake, and was let off with only a warning. "

I don't know if your computer can pick up signals from this planet but if it can read the whole story here.

I don't know if I'll make it out of here alive.....Wait a minute, that's stupid. If people get in trouble for killing rattlesnakes after they've bitten people I certainly don't have to worry about dying... only about getting out of here....

Someone please call The Bride and tell her I'll be late for dinner!!

Thanks for visiting.

It's NOT Genetic - Thank Goodness

I come from a family of four boys. I am #2 son. All of my brothers tower over me in terms of size. All of them are over six feet tall. As a reference look at the picture above. This picture was taken in about 1957. I am the sharp looking one, second from the right.

At this time I was 10 years old. My older brother to my right was only THIRTEEN years old. Compare his height to mine....My younger brothers to the left of me were 5 years and 2 years old at the time. Compare their height to mine. I didn't break the five foot barrier until I was in my teens and topped out at a hair under 5'7" in my "mature" years.

So, you're wondering why my title says "It's Not Genetic - Thank Goodness". Tall is good, right? Not necessarily. Not if you're not. There are a lot more things much more important. Looks comes to mind as one benchmark.

Not even 20 years later here's what happened to #3 son.


















Not even 20 years later here's what happened to #4 son.


















Number one son learned his lesson early on and avoided telling photographs, so I don't have any pictures of him to prove my point but you can clearly see the trend in sons #3 and #4.....so why would you doubt my word about #1 son?

They say that blood is thicker than water and it is. In spite of the unfortunate turn of events for them, I still love them. I know they were stricken by a hideous genetic trait that I was destined to avoid. I "rose above it" in a non-gravitational way.

Today we are all pretty scattered across the continent and don't get together too often. Through the magic of computers and the internet, however, we stay in touch.....So, #1, #3 and #4, just to let you know, I feel your pain and I'm here for ya bros.

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Mother's Day

I am who I am only because of the mothers in my life.................



Thank you ladies.

Pizza Party

So, snow didn't happen. This was a good thing! It was a gorgeous Colorado spring day. The circle,however, had anticipated bad weather and had decided that a surefire full circle activity would be a pizza party. Pizza Hut, Black Jacks are all a good business models but nothing could match handmade pizza. Fresh cut onions. Fresh cut green peppers. Fresh opened black olives. Fresh bought cheese....and....hand whomped pizza crust!

Ah yes. The secret to any pizza is the crust. You have New York style, Chicago style, thin, medium, deep dish and then.......................................................................................hand whomped!

If you want pizza that you can savor, pizza that can be added to the family cook book, you have to have hand whomped pizza

The recipe is as follows:
Make sure the whomping is adequate. If not consult the chef...




Be sure you have all of that fresh stuff like...






Once you have all that straightened out, do a lot of mixing and adding stuff...Dorthy, do you know your son is a bona fide pizza chef? He has an amazing ability to...chef. He showed us the secret of gourmet pizza.


Who wouldda thunk that pizza was so easy? In my last post I suggested that meteorology was the dream job. Maybe it's a pizza chef instead????

Thanks for visiting.

What A Difference A Day Makes

They say that with age comes knowledge. Today I realize that, this is absolutely true! I have spent 35 years working in a particular industry and have suffered and enjoyed the normal ups and downs of the working life. In all those years I always thought that jobs were pretty much the same....didn't make any difference if you were an accountant, doctor, teacher, janitor, shopkeeper,... whatever. Most of us have to choose a "thing" to do in life and then have to deliver.

If I had only known when I was a young cub, trying out life, that there was this one particular vocation that could have made life a "sunny day"! One thing that I could labor at, one thing that I could invest my entire existence in....Why in the world would I have explored the military (very nearly making my life's exploration a very short story), and gone on to an industry that, well let's just say is an industry, if I had known that this perfect vocation was out there waiting for me?

Meteorology....God, if I had only known...Newspapers, television, glamor, glitz, all based on a probability, performance return of 50%...that is FIFTY percent...as is HALF. Your either right or your wrong. 50/50.

This weekend we were expecting >>>>













Instead we got this.
















Think, "The Graduate", the academy award winning film in which Dustin Hoffman is advised "Plastics" as the vocation of a lifetime.....Sorry, I'll go with meteorology. Way less pressure!

"Guitar" Gets Hatted

Wow, what a weekend! The circle took off first thing Saturday morning for Leadville...by way of Fairplay and Buena Vista. The weather "guesstimate" was all over the place all week but by Friday night they figured out that there might be some snow somewhere in the state on Saturday. We found it about 6 miles outside Denver at about 6500 feet altitude. This was a big weekend however and we had four wheel drive vehicles so we weren't about to turn around.

First stop was Fairplay. Fairplay is another small old mining town about an hour southwest of Denver. In addition to the great history and location, it is also home to Colorado Mountain Hat Company, the birthplace of both "Two Timing, Too Tall's" and my custom cowboy hats. We wanted to stop by and get our hats "tuned" up by the proprietor Smitty. We...or at least I was hoping that "Guitar" John would take the plunge and order a hat for himself. You will notice in previous posts that Two Timing, Too Tall and I have been harassing him for not having one for some time. After about 5 minutes in the store, dang it if he didn't say "I'm gonna get one!"... AND he said it out loud.... AND we all heard it so there was no backing out now.

That was probably the easiest part of the decision. Deciding to buy one that is. Now he had to choose the type of felt, the size of the brim, the shape, the color, the hat band. All of this with five "helpers". This was my kind of event. He was at our mercy. The picture at the top of the page shows just a fraction of the different combinations of size, shape, color and whatnot.

Guitar started off by being real conservative and looking at something that he could wear "anywhere". The picture at the left shows this "vanilla" look. The five of us hooted and hollered that if he wanted something he could wear "anywhere" he may as well go to J.C. Penny's. After all if you're going to buy a custom COWBOY hat it ought to look like a COWBOY hat, not some wimpy, bland nothing!

Well then, we got him off of that ridiculous trend and at least got him looking at other stuff. Guitar can be a slow study however, and while he gave up "ungodly" bland he was still having a hard time with the concept C O W B O Y hat. 'Course we were right there to help him in his time of confusion.

Ever so slightly in his defense....it can be confusing. Especially if you have questions about your true identity or personna? I'm not saying he does but look at his eyes in these pictures. Does it look like to you that he has a clue?

Guitar finally did himself proud and picked out a real COWBOY hat. If you're thinking you're gonna see a picture of it right now you're wrong. It will be at least ten weeks before his hat is "born" and before anything Guitar has to submit to the "conforminator". The conforminator is a mechanical device that was a common tool of haberdashers in the 1800's and up until the early part of the 1900's. They are now very rare.

The purpose of the conforminator is to to provide the haberdasher with a "map" of a persons head. A map that makes a hat, a custom hat. It does this by tracing a reduced scale outline of the subjects head to a piece of paper. Once Smitty does this he has a paper file that documents your head for eternity because while the rest of your body may change over time, your head remains the same. That can be used in the future to make more custom hats if you so desire. Smitty told us he has elaborate security procedures for protecting this important and very sensitive data and in all his years in business no one has broken into that cookie tin.

So Guitar has finally ordered his hat. He now has ten weeks to wait to see the product of his...I mean OUR choice. Ten weeks to consider if he has made a gigantic mistake on the style or color. Ten weeks to consider if he will look like a fool wearing OUR choice. Ten weeks to think about how much he spent to maybe look like....well you know what I'm trying to say.

Don't worry Guitar, I think you made the right choice. You will look absolutely precious in your new hat. After all anyone that has a head shaped like the one below can't help but look like....well you know.

There's lots more to tell about our trip but I'm on the road right now and time is limited so I'll have to do this in several posts so stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting!

On Our Own - Chapter 3

The count is down to THREE! I have been in New Orleans for the past two days and on Tuesday at least I dined in a manner more like that to which I was formerly accustomed.

The trip started with the prerequisite delay for my flight. I say prerequisite because the majority of my trips over the last few months all have had some type of flight delay. It seems for some reason this time, United Airlines wanted to update the onboard navigation computer. I really couldn't figure that one out but it did seem odd that all of the people who got off the plane in Denver were wearing Mexican straw hats, shorts, flip flops and Tommy Bahama shirts? Well, whatever they did worked, because the pilot found his way to the Crescent City without any problems.

After a couple hours work with our local business contacts we decided to head out for dinner. My anemic slack jowled look induced by 4 days of "On Our Own" may have had some influence on the matter but that was fine with me. I wanted to eat and eat well.

The last time I was in New Orleans they took me to K-Paul's which is owned by Paul Prudhomme. Dinner that night was fantastic so my sights were set pretty high. I had visions of Emeril's but my hosts said they wanted to go to an out of the way, local spot. They said I wouldn't be disappointed and I was not.

We had dinner at Clancy's and it really was a "local" restaurant. In my eyes local is even better and the food was proof. As an appetizer I had oysters and brie a fantastic combination. This was followed by a Boston salad, baked snapper with avocado sauce and for desert, chocolate brownie pie with caramel ice cream. While it didn't make up entirely for having to deal with lawyers for two days it went a long way in reducing the curse of "On Our Own".

Yesterday, after a full day of work we tried to make our way back to the Denver area and not to to depress and frighten the travelling public with the exactitudes let me just say I arrived at home at 2 am this morning.

I did go into work for a few hours and it's a good thing I did because if you'll remember The Emmer and I are "On Our Own" and I have three more dinners to conjugate....We can now lower the count to TWO.

There is a meeting room right next to my office which gets pretty heavy use and today was no exception. Today it was a lunch meeting and lunch consisted of burritos!!! When the meeting was over and all the people had vacated, I cruised through the meeting room and snagged two burritos. I am not one to look a gift burro in the mouth!

I didn't tell The Emmer about my find but told her I was going to make one of Grandma's famous recipe's that she had never had before.....burritos. The recipe was so secret I said that I didn't know if she, Emmer, was worthy to behold this wonderment in its creation yet. Therefore she needed to remain out of the kitchen whilst I did my magic.

For about 45 minutes I banged around the kitchen, ate some chips and salsa and left obvious "cooking" signs around the kitchen. I then put the two burritos on a pan to warm in the oven and called Emmer in for dinner explaining that we just had a few minutes until we could partake of Grandma's legacy.

I could tell The Emmer was not overly impressed but she certainly didn't want to impune the memory of Grandma so she ate with a feigned gusto. Not wanting her to feel bad about her late grandmother's culinary abilities, I allowed as how I probably didn't capture the magnificence of Grandma's original recipe and that perhaps tomorrow we could eat out for dinner.

Dinner out will leave ONE more "On Our Own". Stay tuned....

Thanks for visiting.

On Our Own - Chapter 2

This is turning out to be easier than I expected…

Just about the time I was throwing away the metal plate for the electric grill after lunch on Sunday, (amazing what some common kitchen utensils will do to the “never great anyway” Teflon coating), the phone rang. It was “Guitar” John wanting to know if The Emmer and I were going to dinner at Too Timing, Too Tall’s and Karen’s place?

“Didn’t know she was puttin on the dog and that we were invited?”, I said.

Turns out Karen’s a fan of the Pioneer Woman’s blog and she wanted to try out a lasagna recipe she saw on Pioneer’s blog the other day. I told Guitar that it was lucky he caught me because I was just starting preparations for a real exotic dinner I had planned for Emmer and I and that once I got into the intricacies of this creation I wouldn’t be able to just stop. (After all, once the can opener breaks the seal you can’t undo it. It’s not like you can put it back in the freezer or anything.) Since he did catch me in time, however, I’d be glad to lend my expert opinion to the matter of lasagna.

Guitar and his better half, Pic-E, picked up Emmer and I about 5 pm and we proceeded to Karen and Two Timing, Too Tall's place. It was a delightful spring afternoon and while Guitar and Two Timing, Too Tall, were out on the deck discussing the relative merits of electronic lockers on their Jeep Rubicons, I delighted the ladies with talk of Julienne, basting, reductions and such. They were frankly amazed at my grasp of culinary niceties. I actually held myself back some as I didn't want to overwhelm them with this unseen side of me.

After a while we proceeded to the table and sampled Lasagna ala Pioneer Woman. I must admit it was terrific. All the while I was enjoying the eats I was thinking, that's 2 dinners down only 5 more to go! I made sure I complimented Karen on her faithful rendition of a new classic and told her that I couldn't have done better myself! Normally a statement like that is guaranteed to bring an offer of "There's plenty left, you MUST take some home with you."....which would have been dinner #3 by my calculation, but for whatever reason Karen didn't rise to the bait.

As we were driving home I realized that I have a business trip for Tuesday and will be in New Orleans Tuesday night and back late Wednesday night! That's two more nights that require no magic on my part....I'll even get to go to a really nice restaurant Tuesday night.....I'll show Emmer a thing or two about WE.

I do have to work some magic tonight so I'd better get going. I think the microwave is clean enough so I won't start a fire if I use it tonight and I got all the big pieces off the sides of the oven so that's good to go too.............Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting

On Our Own - Chapter 1

Yesterday morning at, as they say in the army, O-dark-hundred, I took my bride to the airport for her semi-annual trip back to her folks place in North Carolina. She will be gone for a week and during that week The Emmer and I are “on our own”.

Normally, about a week before The Bride leaves, she starts making extra portions of our regular meals and sets them aside for the week of her absence. This year, The Emmer told her that that wasn’t necessary. WE could make it…“on our own“! If I have enough strength left at the end of the week, I’m going to have to talk to that girl about WE!

Being an “almost retired guy”, however, I had no doubt that with Emmer’s help we could live high on the proverbial hog! After all, I can do a mean Lean Cuisine and my technique at ordering out Chinese is second to none. I used to cook for myself before we were married…I’m told Hamburger Helper has really kept up with the times over the last 30 years. As long as Emmer can show me how to turn the oven on we’ll be fine.

Dinner #1
Stuffed Chicken Breast
Risotto Provencal
Mixed Vegetables



Piece of cake….the fire in the oven actually gave the chicken breast a faux barbecue look/taste. By tomorrow we should have the microwave cleaned up enough for another attempt….can’t believe you can’t use metal bowls in a microwave! It must be some type of retail conspiracy to make people buy new bowls.

Sunday I think I'll be a little more adventuresome. Who knows, maybe I could make a second career out of cooking...after I retire. What's Emeril got that I don't? Stay tuned.............

Thanks for visiting.

The Critics Have Spoken

Critique My Blog has been around for a while, providing not for profit opinions (no consideration provided by the submittee) for blog sites. I submitted my blog for review last week and to my happy surprise received a nice review yesterday. Check it out at Cid69 Blog Critique

If you’re interested in reading other blogs this is a great place to start looking for new sites. Critique My Blog will give you the straight skinny and make your surfing more efficient.

Thanks for visiting

Cid69 Philosophy 101

I was reading the blog “Backroad Chronicles” last night and Joy was describing their visit to the Strong Hearts Native Society Pow Wow. She said that she could now “mark off another item on “life’s list of things to do””.

Someone told me long ago that “crossing off something on life’s list” was a very negative way to think about things. Crossing things off a list implies that the list is finite and at some point there would be nothing left on the list. What happens to life then? Is it over?

A much more positive approach would be to add something new to our list of life experiences. Think about it. This way the number of experiences can be infinite. I certainly realize that my time on earth is not infinite but I prefer that the opportunity to experience new things is.

Muffler Man and philosophy…this guy is DEEP!

Thanks for visiting.