Same Ole Same Ole

So we got 12-15” of snow early in the week and then we had two days of nice weather (high 50’s). Time for another storm! This one is not supposed to be as bad but the weather shamans are saying I may be looking at 5-10” on the ground by tomorrow morning. I hope they’re wrong this time because I haven’t gotten the parts for my snow blower yet and anything that ends up in the driveway will have to be dealt with manually.

While I don’t really mind the winters here or the snow, this time of year it’s hard because of the teasing that Mother Nature does. It would be one thing if it were just crappy weather all month long but the Spring weather that is wedged between the frequent storms gets my hopes up that it will be an early end to the snow and it will be RV season again.

Hopefully, this storm will be the last of any consequence because The Circle is planning on a Circle The Wagons camping trip in three weeks. This will be a local camp out at Chatfield State Park which is only a couple of miles from here…..about 8 miles to be exact.

The picture at the top of the post is a shot from the roof of my trailer “Bivouac”. It not only shows some of the snow left from the last storm but It shows the new wiring job on my solar panel. The original wiring was located under the panel and went through the roof and towards the back of the trailer. This new wiring goes to the front of the trailer and down the plumbing vent stack in the middle front of the roof.

The picture to the right shows the new Tristar TS45 Solar Controller installed in the basement storage area. The battery compartment is behind the wall to the left of the controller and the red “knob” on the left of the picture is a Perko battery cutoff switch that allows me to shut off or disconnect the batteries when the trailer is stored. That prevents the batteries from being completely discharged by things like the fire and CO2 alarms that cannot be turned off inside the trailer. 

Finally the picture to the left shows the remote meter that is installed inside the trailer. This digital display tells me all sorts of information about the charge state of the batteries, how much charge the solar panel is providing to the batteries and how much electricity is being used by all the electric things inside the trailer. It will also track this information over time. Cool stuff!

I expect that to be able to boondock for extended periods I’ll need at least one more solar panel but before I spend the money for that I will spend some time testing out the one panel system. The good news is that there is plenty of room on the roof for several more panels and it’s simple to add panels to the base system I now have.

Thanks for visiting.

A Typical March In Colorado

It was in the 70’s two days ago and even yesterday morning was pleasant. Yesterday afternoon however a storm blew in and for much of the evening it was blizzard conditions here. By the time it all ended at mid day today we had 10-15” of wet, heavy snow on the ground.

How do I know it was “heavy”? Well about 3/4 of the way through snow blowing the driveway the snow blower quit. Not the motor but the wheels and the auger. Seems as if there is a little  $0.50 plastic piece that keeps the control cables for the wheel drive and auger in the exact spot it needs to be to have the proper tension to work…..that broke.

That unfortunate breakage meant that I had to do the rest of the job manually. I haven’t done that in a while and the last time I did do it, the snow was our standard Colorado champagne powder which is exceedingly light and easy to move…if it’s not 3 feet deep.

My normal thorough and neat job….wasn’t today. I did the bare minimum to get by and I still think I’ll be a little sore tomorrow morning.

Now back to the snow blower. I pulled out the parts diagram and called Sears to see about ordering a replacement. The good news is that I can. The bad news is I can’t just get the $0.50 part but have to buy $30.00 worth of other parts to get that tiny little plastic part! While I’m pretty peeved about that there was no doubt in my mind that I would spend that much if I had to to get the snow blower back in operation. Before I called the parts center I checked all the miscellaneous junk I have in the basement trying to figure a way to jerry rig a fix and to my disappointment could not come up with a plan. So Sears has now got my $30.

The roads were so bad around here this morning that I decided to drive The Emmer to work. I’m glad I did because it was pretty slick at 5:30 am. Heavy wet snow is a different driving experience than champagne powder and The Emmer doesn’t have experience in the heavy wet stuff. The snow stopped and the sun came out right about noon and as of now (3pm) the main streets are clear and dry. Some of the side streets have a bit of snow left but that’s melting fast.

I mentioned that the weather yesterday morning was fair and pleasant and it was. I decided to go down to the RV storage lot and check the progress on the solar system upgrades I mentioned in my last post. They were just in process of finishing the last part of the job and everything looks great. I’ll report more on that at a later date.

The other reason for going to the RV lot was to replace some of the light bulbs in the trailer. I’ve got quite a few lights in this trailer and while that’s a good thing for being able to see, the light bulbs use a lot of power and put out a lot of heat. I’ve been investigating the possibility of replacing the incandescent and halogen bulbs with LED light sources. LED bulbs use very little power, produce almost no heat and last a very long time.

The picture to the right is one of the LEDs that I used. It goes in a recessed light fixture and produces almost the same amount of light as the halogen bulb that is currently in the fixture. It’s a simple swap out of bulbs so it’s an easy project.

I replaced four bulbs yesterday and if I’m happy with them I will replace all the rest of the bulbs both inside and outside the trailer with LEDs.

Thanks for visiting.

What Came To Las Vegas Stays In Las Vegas...NM

I left the Denver area yesterday morning at about 8 am trying to beat the snow that was supposed to start there in late morning. This is my first trip pulling Bivouac any distance so I didn't want to have to deal with bad weather in addition to everything else. By the time I got 50 miles south it looked like it was going to clear up and I breathed a sigh of relieve. That sigh was short lived. I ran into off and on snow all the way south. Fortunately Raton Pass was one of the no snow areas but as I got into New Mexico the snow started to pick up again.

My goal for the day was Las Vegas, NM and I was hoping that was far enough south (280 miles) to put a damper on the snow. I arrived at about 2:30 and checked in at the Elks Lodge here. It's nothing fancy but it's a level parking lot with water, power and an internet connection. The price of $10/night certainly makes it worth while. As an added bonus, the Lodge was having a Super Bowl party with a pot luck dinner that I was invited to.

The weather was cold and threatening when I went into the Lodge but it wasn't snowing. When I left to come back to the trailer I got a nasty surprise. It was snowing pretty hard and there was already about 2" on the ground. The picture at the top of the post was taken a little while ago so as you can see it's not really a good day to travel. The forecast is for more snow today and tonight but only an inch or two of accumulation.

It didn't take too long to make a command decision to hunker down here for another day. Fortunately I don't have to be anywhere until the 19th when The Bride flies into Flagstaff so I'll just take each day as it comes. I think however that if I can get another 100 miles or so south the threat of snow will subside. With that in mind my ever so flexible plan is to head to Roswell tomorrow....We'll see.

Thanks for visiting.

Comin’ Atcha!

Well the storm system moved out of here this morning but it left bitter cold. The picture above was taken at 7:38 am. Don’t freak, it doesn’t say –95, it’s –9point5 but that still plenty cold. The high got all the way up to +20 but it didn’t stay there for long and it’s now back to single digits.

The storm is now headed east and in watching the news, it looks like readers to the east of me are now getting the worst of it.

Yesterday, in the midst of the cold and snow I had my truck tonneau cover installed. It looks great and will be perfect for what I want it to do. I’ll post a picture later.  All I need to do now is get the snow out of the bed of the truck. That will take a day or so as the temperatures are not supposed to get above freezing until tomorrow.  I also called the RV dealer to check on the status of my fifth wheel. They said it rolled off the line early this week and is scheduled to be delivered next week. The dealer will take a day or so to do his thing and hopefully by the end of the week I’ll pick it up. If the weather cooperates I’ll probably spend the night at Cheyenne Mountain State Park the day I pick it up to try out all the systems before I drag the rig back to the Denver area. That park is only 8-10 miles from the dealership.

Meanwhile, The Bride is scheduled to fly out of here on the 15th to visit her Mom, Ladder Lady, in North Carolina. She will return on Sunday the 20th.

I took this picture this afternoon. If you look close you can see my reflection in the Christmas tree ornament…

Thanks for visiting.

Shut My Mouth!

In my last post I said “let it snow” because tomorrow we leave for a Caribbean cruise…..I hope! Seems as if the snow storm that started Tuesday, will hang around for another day, stopping tonight. Before it departs the weather shaman says we’ll get and additional seven inches of snow. So far I estimate we gotten about 36” of snow here at the house

I have already shoveled the driveway twice and used the snow blower on it three times. I’ve had to shovel a portion of the back yard so that Molly Dog can do her “business” because without that she would have to be Mole Dog instead of Molly Dog.  I’ve even shoveled the deck one time because I was afraid of the weight of the snow on it. Keep that in mind when you look at the picture of the deck. When I shoveled it, the snow was about as high as it is in the picture. Picture twice as much snow.

Yesterday afternoon I had to go help The Emmer get out of the parking lot where she works because the snow and snow plows had her pretty much walled in.

This morning it was bad enough that I decided that I would just drive her to work so at 3pm I’ll have to go back and get her. In the meantime I have to take Molly Dog to the kennel where she will stay while we are gone. In between all that I’ll probably have to shovel the driveway at least one more time.

We will leave here at about 4:30 am tomorrow morning and head to the airport. God, I hope they do a good job on the roads today!

I will be grateful for a change in latitude!

Thanks for visiting.

It Must Have Been An “Arctic” Front

Yesterday morning it began to snow. A wet, early season snow. The temps were so close to freezing in the morning that some of the precipitation was more like white rain. As the day progressed it got colder and by late afternoon we had about two inches of snow on the ground. By the time the system blew out of the area early this morning we had gotten about four inches of snow.

There’s something about the first snow of the season. It seems non threatening, and because it’s been so long (going on 5 months now) since the last snow, it’s a novelty and something to be enjoyed. With that in mind, yesterday morning, I headed for the local State Park hoping to stumble on some good photo opportunities.

My premise was good but my timing was not so good as the clouds and snow kept the visibility down to a minimum. Add to that, the very slushy conditions and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time seeking the perfect pic. It was pretty though, and I was the only one in the park besides the rangers….and they were hunkered down in their office.

Back at home in the afternoon, I commenced studying other “Arctic” things…..stay with me here, there’s a point….the quotation marks are there for a purpose.

I have been chronicling my search for a fifth wheel trailer on this blog since the beginning of September. I’ve spent a lot of time, and mileage, searching for that one fifth wheel that was perfect for The Bride and I. It’s a difficult task because The Bride and I both have different expectations and wish lists. In the last few days I have almost bought three different trailers, only to reconsider and change my mind.

One of the brands on the list was Arctic Fox…..get it now? Yesterday was a perfect time to review all of the pluses and minuses of this particular trailer. By the time I was done reviewing I had decided that this was the trailer for me. This morning I called and placed an order for my new Arctic Fox 27-5L fifth wheel trailer.

This unit is really head and shoulders above the rest of the trailers I was looking at. That was one of my problems. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted something that much better that the rest of my candidates because  you do pay for “better”. After thinking about it for the day however I know I made the right decision and I am “pumped”.

This trailer is a true four season trailer. It has superior insulation, thermo pane windows and even an electric blanket that is wrapped around the water and waste tanks to keep them from freezing in cold weather. It is also solidly built and weights a bit more than the other units I was considering.

It is not as long, and consequently doesn’t have as much living space inside as some of the other units I was considering but the other longer units wouldn’t have worked at most of the Forest Service gigs I did this summer….Life is a trade-off.

The bad news is that because I had a specific list of things I wanted with it, I couldn’t find one already built that way so I have to order it from the factory. The build date is scheduled for the second week in December and I expect it will be mid January before it is delivered to the dealer in Colorado Springs.

Tomorrow I drive down to Colorado Springs and give the dealer a deposit to make things official….I won’t be a motherless child for too much longer!

Thanks for visiting.

A Weekend In The Mountains

This is true Colorado weather. After a very chilly week (see my last post), things warmed up considerably. The Bride and I headed out on Friday morning to spend the weekend in the ski resort, Keystone, about a hour west of the Denver metro area. The weather was absolutely perfect, 60’s daytime with brilliant blue skies.

Before the ascent, I took The Bride to three different RV dealers to look at new fifth wheels. We have both agreed on several parameters and those choices narrow the range of trailers to look at. Of all the different units we have looked at we are down to three models that we now need to choose from…that is providing that something unknown doesn’t pop up before a decision is made. Looking is fun but there are so many variables that it can be confusing at times. Each unit has pluses and minuses but it seems like no one unit has it all so we have to make choices.

The RV search lasted until noon and after a quick lunch we headed into the mountains. The weather could not have been more perfect and it was soul soothing to get into the high country under these conditions. Our destination was the Ski Tip Lodge. This quaint little lodge is an old 1880’s stage stop that was converted into a ski lodge in the 1940’s and then acquired by the ski resort in the 1970’s. Throughout the years it was remodeled and added on to numerous times but it still only has nine rooms. It would never be able to live up to today’s building codes because of the narrow winding hallways, frequent step ups and downs and other eccentricities of the add on building style. That is however one of the reasons it is so charming. It also has a fabulous restaurant in the lodge itself.

Saturday morning we decided to go into the resort area of Keystone. We were surprised to find that we were there in the slowest time of the year, after the leaf peeping but before the ski crowd arrived.  It was absolutely deserted! The picture above was taken at 9:30 in the morning and if you look closely you can see one, count ‘em, one person in the middle of the retail area (I marked him with an arrow). Most of the shops and restaurants were closed until the snow falls.

That was a bummer to The Bride as shopping is ALWAYS a big part of any get away. Fortunately, Breckenridge is only a short drive from Keystone so Saturday afternoon was spent browsing around another ski town. There was much more activity in Breckenridge and all the stores were open and doing a brisk business.

This morning after a leisurely breakfast we headed back to the Denver area. We avoided I-70 for a while and took the Loveland Pass road which goes right by Arapahoe Ski Basin. This ski area is always one of the first to open for skiing and it’s not uncommon for it to be open as late as June at the end of the season. Sure enough there were quite a number of “early bird” skiers on the slope.

By the time we made it back into the Denver area (45 minutes) the temperature was up to 75 degrees. That change in temperature is appropriate as in two weeks, The Bride, The Emmer and I leave for a Caribbean cruise. We will fly from here to San Juan on the 29th and return to the Denver area on the 9th of November. More about that in a later post.

Thanks for visiting

Holy Snowshoe, Batman?

Taken at 7am 4/29/09


















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If They Danced, They Did It Without Us

A week or so ago I did a post entitled “A Miss Is As Good As A Mile”. In that post I described how we just missed a pretty good spring snow storm. Well, this time the weather guessers got it right and we had 2 days of snow/rain/sleet and generally just an ugly time.

The snow started at about 6 am on Friday morning. By early afternoon the roads were more of a mess than normal. The problem was that the temps hovered right around freezing so a wet snow would accumulate, melt some and freeze on the streets. The Emmer called from work at about 3 pm and said she wasn’t sure she could make it home in her little 2WD car so I went to get her with my little Suzuki Grand Vitara. I actually had to use LO 4WD to get through and even then I slid around a bunch. I’m really glad The Emmer decided to call me an not just give it a go. Because the snow was accumulating and melting it’s hard to say exactly how much we got. I’m guessing a solid 18” but it could have been more.

Yesterday morning it was still snowing like crazy so we had to cancel our trip to Eastern Colorado to see the Lesser Prairie Chickens dance. That part of Colorado got just a little snow and some rain but there was no way to get there safely. This morning is sunny here so they probably danced without us. I’m bummed. Our collective schedules are such that there is no way to reschedule for this year. If we want to do it as a group we’ll have to try next year. My schedule is more open and I’m seriously thinking of doing a solo trip in about a week and a half to see it.

By late yesterday afternoon the storm had started to subside and the plows had pretty much caught up with things so as a consolation prize, The Circle decided to get together at Pic-E’s and Guitar’s place for dinner and entertainment. Pic-E and Guitar provided the main course and the rest of us provided salad and dessert. After dinner we decided to play an electronic catch phrase game. We divided into teams, men vs. ladies and used a small hand held device that provided a phrase associated with different topics. The person that was “it” had to provide clues to their teammates and get them to guess the phrase. All the while the electronic gadget was beeping a set amount of time away. When the phrase was guessed the device, still beeping, was handed to the other team for the next phrase. Points were awarded for guessed phrases and when the allotted time was expired the team left holding the bag…I mean device…lost a point.

All of us gentlemen were quite surprised at how competitive, and frankly unladylike, the ladies became during the competition. I heard a number of descriptive phrases uttered that made even me blush! In the picture above you can see K. flashing the “loser” sign to the gentlemen when she managed to successfully complete her turn. Belly laughs were plentiful and we all had a great time. The gathering broke up pretty early because K and Too Tall – Two Timing were headed out on a business trip to Las Vegas early this morning.

The Bride took tomorrow off for our cancelled trip so we will look for something interesting to do in the local area.

Thanks for visiting.

Not Looking Good For Prairie Chickens

Few words needed...

My garage Thursday afternoon.












My garage Friday morning.













Friday morning 9 am.












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Will The Chickens Dance In The Snow?

Another weather flag is up for this weekend! I know we need the moisture but can I get a break here? I have been patiently working my way through the last month of weekends of snow and missed forecasts of snow but it’s now starting to grate on me. Especially this weekend, when The Bride and I, and Guitar and Pic-E are scheduled to travel to the SE Colorado plains to view the Lesser Prairie Chickens do their annual mating dance. A weird thing to do you say? Well, it may be but this bird puts on a terrific show, so I’m told. It may also be that in just a few years these birds will be extinct so this trip does have some urgency to it.

The forecast is not much help…even though we’re only 2 days away from whatever happens. The good news is that the forecast is pretty definite for Sunday and Monday. Both of those days bounce back into the 60s and 70s. Right now there is a 50/50 chance for heavy snow along the front range that will make travel pretty risky. I was going to bring the RV here to the house to start preparations for the trip and to work on the graphics but I think I’ll wait and see what tomorrow brings.

On the blogging front, I’m creating this post using MS Live Writer. For all you non-techies what this means is that I can do a post without being hooked up to the internet. I can do both the text and pictures and even preview what the post will look like and then save it on my computer. When I get access to the internet I just upload the post.

I haven’t been able to try out this software before this because I had two big computer roadblocks…Windows Vista operating system and I used Firefox as a web browser. The Windows Vista conflict was solved some time ago but in Microsoft’s inimitable manner they engineered the software so that it would only work with a Microsoft browser…Internet Explorer. For a number of reasons I have refused to use that browser for years.

At any rate the roadblocks have been removed and I am now trying this software out. I do like the fact that I can compose a post, complete with pictures and links and be able to see the post in a WYSIWYG format on my computer without an internet connection. This will allow a bit more authenticity to posts I compose while on some of my trips. In the past I have either had to wait until I was somewhere that had an internet connection to do posts or I had to write the text in a word processing format, without pictures and links, save it, and then when I had internet connection, import the text and then insert the pictures. So far I’m pleasantly pleased with this Microsoft product.

While I’m doing a computer post I’ll also mention that I have been disenchanted with the Microsoft Office suite of products for some years as well. I didn’t like the way Microsoft made it difficult for any other software to interact with their products and I didn’t like the cost of their products. About a year and a half ago I decided to give Open Office a try. This is a free open source suite of products that includes word processing, spread sheet, data base, presentation, graphics and calculator modules and it is every bit as good as MS Office. It even allows you to make pdf files. I can recommend this as a professional grade, low cost solution for those of you that don’t want to spend the money on a Microsoft product.

I was bummed over the past few months when it looked like Microsoft would purchase Sun Microsystems who is the creator of Open Office. I was concerned that if the purchase went through that they, Microsoft, would make this great, free product disappear. I was happy to see that the deal fell through.

Thanks for visiting.

Spring Is Still Unsprung

Our Monday snow storm was nothing special. We got about 1.5" of snow that was gone by Tuesday morning. Tuesday bright, sunny and windy and I took the opportunity to go into downtown Denver and take some pictures of the inside of the State Capitol and the Catholic cathedral. The picture at the top of the post is of the main altar in the cathedral.

The cornerstone for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was laid in 1906 but it wasn't until 1921 that the Cathedral was consecrated. It has twin 210 foot tall spires that are pretty impressive but apparently are very attractive to lightning. One spire was struck by lightning in 1912 and it knocked off the top 25 feet. In 1997, the other spire was struck by lightning and it took some 9 months to repair. All that aside it's an impressive building inside and out.

After photographing the cathedral I headed down the street to the Colorado State Capitol. It too is an impressive building. The cornerstone was laid in 1890 but it wasn't completely finished until 1908 when the gold leaf was installed on the dome. The building is only open during business hours and it's a pretty busy building. Not only were the legislators wrestling with this years budget but the hallways were filled with lawyers, lobbyists and of course school children on their civic outings. I managed to get a number of pictures but it definitely was harder than in the cathedral.

Yesterday afternoon another snow storm blew through and left us with another 1-2 inches of snow. This snow will also be gone by the afternoon. Yet another much bigger storm is forecast to hit tomorrow night and continue into Saturday. This storm is much bigger and the weather folks are guessing...I mean forecasting that we'll get 12" or more from this one. While I'm ready for spring, we need the snow badly and I welcome it.

This weekend I'm doing demos at the big box store...both Saturday and Sunday. After this weekend I have two more scheduled for the end of the month. After those, I think I won't schedule any more for the spring/summer....I've got to keep my priorities straight. RV season will be here!












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Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Methinks not. We were to have a Circle The Wagons camping weekend starting on Friday. The place we are scheduled to stay is south of the Denver area. If you look at the snow forcast map above it's in the red area at the bottom center of the picture. Red in this case means 16-22" of snow between tomorrow and Friday morning. I'm not complaining, we really need the moisture. The weather folks could be wrong too. It seems as if they're more wrong than right these days but I have a feeling that this time they will be right.

We will just have to wait until Friday morning to make a final decision. I will leave my RV at the storage lot till then and hope that if we decide to go I will be able to get it out of the lot. The lot is not paved and it can get pretty muddy after a heavy rain or wet snow.

In the last few days I have been cruising around the area with my new camera looking for subjects that would make good HDR photos. Yesterday I went south of here to a field that had a lot of old classic...but junk cars. They are always interesting to photograph and I think a few shots turned out pretty well.

The processing of the photos can be as complex as you want it to be and it's easy to "over do" it. I purposely "over did" it on a few shots just for the fun of it. The picture to the right is a bit overdone but when your subject it the wrecked interior of a car, you need a little something to make it interesting.

This morning I went to a historic old town that is now just a suburb of Denver. It still retains it's small town feel however in the old downtown area. There are lots of things to take pictures of and I wanted especially to take some pictures of buildings and not get too crazy with the processing. I also knew that today would be my last chance for a few days to do this if the weather people are right about their forecast.

The weather was perfect for shooting today with brilliant blue skies and a healthy dose of clouds. A lot of times here in Colorado the sky is the classic Colorado cobalt blue, but there are absolutely no clouds in the sky to give contrast to that blue.

I spent the better part of the morning wandering around taking pictures and got back home about noon. Processing the pictures occupied a good portion of the afternoon. It was a day well spent.

My next objective is to find a church or public building and take some pictures inside. HDR can be really effective in that situation. There is a large Catholic cathedral in downtown Denver that would be perfect and perhaps next week I'll get a chance to go down and try my luck.

Here's a couple more pictures....



















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Adrift in the SouthWest Again - Part V

By Monday the 23rd Guitar and I had been at the Cactus Country RV for six days. We were getting antsy to move on. Antsy-ness certainly had nothing to do with the hospitality of our hosts or the RV park. We simply had a long list of "wannas" and needed to work on that list. You can see some of the antsy-ness on my face in the picture above....Note the new "soft" western hat.

Our first "plan" was to go north from Tucson, through Globe and spend the night somewhere around Payson. We were on the road by 8 am and were in Globe around noon. We spent a little time looking in antique stores and taking pictures of old signs. After a quick lunch we headed out for the Tonto National Monument.

I mentioned in my last post that up until this trip I had never seen Saguaro cactus before. Saguaro National Park around Tucson was filled with them but once you got outside the park the habitat changed. The road we took on Tuesday morning Arizona Highway 77 passed through miles and miles of Saguaro terrain. It really gave us that deep SouthWest flavor.

Tonto National Monument, north of Globe and south of Payson, contains a number of ancient cliff dwellings. The only one we had time to inspect was a 1/2 mile hike from the visitor's center. 1/2 mile doesn't sound like much but this hike is almost straight up! The picture above was taken pretty close to the visitors center so you can see what the climb was like. It was very worthwhile however as the scenery was spectacular on this gorgeous spring day. Temps were in the 80's.

We took our time looking at what we could because we had planned on stopping relatively early in the Payson area. As we were driving towards Payson we decided that if we went a little further we could camp on the Mogollon Rim. The Mogollon Rim is an escarpment that runs for hundreds of miles in a NW to SE direction through the central part of Arizona. The idea of camping at the edge of the rim, looking down on the Saguaro forests was too much to resist.

Little did we expect while driving through the cactus forests with temps in the 80's that weather would put a dent in our plans. When we reached the rim which is about 7000 feet in elevation, we found snow....and lots of it. In some places there was at least 4 feet of snow on the side of the road. All the campgrounds were closed of course so we resorted to a backup plan.

The hastily concocted backup plan was to drive through to Winslow, AZ and camp at the Homolovi Ruins State Park. We had two things on our "to do" list for this area but it was getting late so it was all we could do to get to the campground by dark.

As I mentioned the campground was in the Homolovi Ruins State Park. This is a very interesting State Park that was created in 1990. The park protects several ancient pueblos that are sacred to the local Navajo tribes. Neither of the publeos has been excavated so you have to use your imagination to visualize what the pueblos looked like 800 years ago. You did not have to use your imagination to get an idea of the pottery that these ancient people used. The ground was covered with shards. In many areas pieces had been gathered and placed on a stone as a kind of offering to the spirits. We assumed this had been done in ceremonies by the local Navajo people.

While we were at the park we heard that it possibly would close after this year due to budget problems. We felt lucky that we were able to visit this special place while it was still possible to do so.

After touring the park on Wednesday morning we headed for "downtown" Winslow. If you are of my age and are in the Winslow area a must do is to "Stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona"....a classic lyric from the classic song Take it Easy by The Eagles. Even if I didn't want to do this there is no way Guitar would have let me pass this by.

It was pretty clear to both of us that this was one of the few things keeping this small town alive. The only other thing going for Winslow was La Posada Hotel, the last of the great Fred Harvey hotels and a true architectural masterpiece. Guitar and I spent about an hour looking through the gift/jewelry shop and looking around the stunning public rooms in the hotel.

Winslow was the spot where we would turn east and head into New Mexico but I'll leave that part of the story for later...Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Surprise And A Circle Event

Our expert meteorological scientists have missed another one. If you remember, one of the reasons I came back from my trip last week was that the weather was supposed to turn a bit ugly on Thursday. Well, that never happened and the revised forecast was chilly and a slight chance of drizzle over the weekend.

Friday night I did some reading in my bedroom and when I turned out the lights at about 9:30 pm it looked like someone had left a light on, on the deck which is right below the bedroom. I got up and looked out of the blinds to see a pretty good snow storm going on.

By Saturday morning we had about 5" of the white stuff. I'm happy about that. We are already behind in snow totals for the year and the moisture will be good for us. It also helped the mood for putting up the Christmas tree.

We normally do not put up the tree until about the middle of December. This year is different, however, because in two weeks The Bride will have her official graduation ceremony. To help celebrate, my mother in law, Ladder Lady, and my oldest daughter, CaJenn and my new son (in law) CaJon are all coming to town. The Bride wanted to have all the Christmas decorations up by then. The fresh snow fall made it seem not quite so "commercial" to do it this early.

The Christmas tree decorating is The Bride's job. I bring the tree up from the basement and all the boxes of decorations but for some reason I have never liked or participated in the actual decoration of the tree. I think it stems to my childhood when my parents used lead tinsel on the tree. After the holidays it was the kid's job to take every single piece of tinsel off the tree, flatten it out straight and save it for the next year. I hated that job so much that I don't think decorating the tree ever became something that was fun for me. The good news is that The Bride loves to do it so this is not a family issue.

On the social front, The Circle had not gotten together for a few weeks so we all got together last night at Guitar's and Pic-E's house to celebrate Guitar's birthday. After presenting Guitar with gifts appropriate to his stage and place in life, (a wiener roller was probably the most apropos gift) we all headed out to a concert at the Swallow Hill Music Association hall. This was a great folk/western concert featuring Jon Chandler, Harry Tuft and Rock n Roll Hall of Famer, Richie Furay .

It was a delightful evening with very entertaining music and very talented musicians at a very affordable price ($20 a ticket). The concert started at 8 pm and was over by 10 pm, relaxing but not strenuous.

This morning when I woke up, I was greeted with another couple of inches of snow that was not forecast yesterday. My chore for the morning will be to hand shovel the driveway and walk. I have not as yet moved the snow blower out to where I can get it easily but that chore just went to the top of the list for tomorrow morning.

Thanks for visiting.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

These two little tykes were on their way to the school bus this morning. This picture was taken from one of my bedroom windows. Nasty weather eh?

Hey, I'm supposed to leave for a "road trip" on Monday!

Have no fear, after all, this is Colorado....











The 6 day forecast for the north central part of New Mexico looks like this.















That doesn't look bad to me either. I'm thinking this will be a good trip. I started packing and finished up researching the stops I'll make along the way. I am planning on staying at a commercial RV park on Tuesday night in Aztec, NM so hopefully I'll be able to file a report from there. For the rest of the trip I will be well beyond any WiFi or cell coverage so the stories will have to wait till I return.

On another totally unrelated but still "What's Wrong With This Picture" subject, what is the benefit to our financial system to allow "short" selling?

I rarely make political or social comments on this blog but our current financial melt down has me scratching my head. Now I'm no financial genius but I managed my way through a business career, raised a family on a budget, bought several houses over the years and numerous cars, boats and trailers. I even accumulated some stocks. Though the years I think I've also learned a little about human nature.

So I'm wondering, how is betting on a bad thing happening....a good thing? If someone makes money on a bad thing happening and they are serious about making this money, isn't it in their best interest if bad things happen? Do you suppose they might try to do what they can to have a bad thing happen? It appears to me that it's way easier to influence the stock market with bad news than it is to influence it with good news.

I just don't get the "logic" in allowing short selling in the financial industry. It seems like it's giving someone a big hammer, sticking a bulls eye on your forehead and then spitting in their face?

What have I missed here?

Thanks for visiting.

Dodging Winter

The weather in Colorado this time of year is always an adventure! Looks like we dodged the bullet this time. The map at the top of the post is the national radar picture. See that classic curlicue over Kansas? That's a pretty strong storm that's causing a blizzard in western Kansas today.

Tuesday night the temps dropped like the stock market and the winds howled most of the night. When I looked around yesterday, a lot of the trees had been stripped of their gorgeous fall plumage but it looks like the mountains directly to our west deflected the system enough to protect us from the really nasty stuff.

The radar map to the above left is this morning's radar showing the snow starting about 100 miles to the east of here. I can see the dark storm clouds at the back edge of the storm from my home office window.

Now let me show you why Colorado weather is an adventure. Look at the extended forecast below. By this weekend it will be spring/fall like again. Short sleeve weather. I'm loving it!!!



Stay tuned for a BIG, BIG announcement on Saturday!!!!

Thanks for visiting.