This retirement stuff can keep you pretty busy. This is the first week since my retirement that I really considered myself "retired". In my former work a day life, I normally took whatever vacation time I had left for the year during the Christmas, New Years period. With a lot of other people on vacation too, I really didn't feel seriously retired till the beginning of this week.
I have managed to clear a few things off my "to do" list around the house but the list is long enough and dynamic enough that I cannot foresee my ever eliminating it completely. My daily routine once again includes exercise....and to top it all off I have been taking it upon myself to do a lot of cooking around the house.
I have been able to sleep about a half hour longer on some days, but most of the time my body clock still gets me up pretty early. The picture above was taken a few days ago on a particularly fine morning. The wind mill is from the original ranch on which my housing development sits. Makes for a nice picture...
Right now I am limiting my cooking adventure to crock pot dishes. I figure once I get comfortable with that I'll expand into other things. So far I've done some pretty decent hearty soups, a Basque style chicken stew and tonight I'm working on a lamb stew.
On Wednesday I needed to take my trailer, Bivouac to an RV dealer to take care of a safety recall related to the propane refrigerator. Driving it there to get the work done ignited a small bit of road fever. It felt darned good just to be towing it anywhere, although I wished the direction of the tow could have been south towards New Mexico. I have a trip all laid out that will take me from here to Carlsbad, NM over about a two week period as soon as the weather breaks a bit. More on that in a future post.
Last night Guitar, Pic-E, The Bride and I went to the RV show downtown. K and Too Tall-Two Timing were supposed to accompany us but Too Tall has come down with the very nasty cold that seems to be making the rounds. I have been to the event several times and I always enjoy seeing what's available, even if I can't afford most of it. In past years I have gone either on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and it was somewhat of a hassle because of the size of the crowds...It gets a little cramped when 15 people try to get into the same RV at one time, regardless of the size of the RV. I've gotta tell you that Thursday night is the time to visit this one if you don't like crowds! What a great time. Everything was fully open but there were very few people.
We spent about two hours looking and dreaming and then decided to get some dinner. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has opened up just about across the street from the convention center so we decided to give it a try. For Denver...not bad. Guitar and I both had a
bucket of peel your own shrimp. This is a favorite of mine from way back when I lived in Savannah, GA and would catch my own shrimp and eat them this way. A good time was had by all.
Today, Guitar and I are headed for the Cowboy Poetry Roundup. I'll post later about how that goes. Also tomorrow we are planning on going to the National Western Stock Show. If Too Tall-Two Timing is not feeling up to it we may just wait until next week but check back soon to see.
Because of the Stock Show, many buildings downtown have not taken down their holiday lights. I tried to get a picture of a few of the buildings with The Brides new digital camera but only one turned out ok...that the one above.
Thanks for visiting.
Having explored (all we dared to) Ramah, Colorado we headed west towards Colorado Springs. I'm now in the "searching for weird" mode. Ramah has turned loose the weirdness and I'm on the hunt. The rest of the day was not to disappoint! After about a half hour of driving, my weird radar starts pinging and as I slow down to figure out what's going on, I see an amazing sight....
You know, when you're investigating weird, you run into a lot of collectors. People don't have just one thing, they have a collection of them. It must be something in the nature of man to collect stuff. I'm guilty myself. I collect old mining company stock certificates. I collect old bottle openers and a certain type of book. I have a small collection of antique radios and a half dozen or so old cameras.
All of my collections are small potatoes compared to what I had just discovered. This discovery wiped away any possibility of recrimination from the bride for any and all collections I have now or might undertake in the future.
I had run smack dab into a collection of.................................windmills........................yes, windmills!
This is serious collecting, folks. This is not something you just happen into. Not something you see at the flea market and think will look cute in the flower bed. This is premeditated, over the top collecting!
In the picture to the left, you can see ten full size, working, antique windmills. This is only about half the collection. I didn't have a wide angle lens wide enough to get them all in one picture.
I can imagine this person's spouse just shuddering every time they hear the car pull up to the house, wondering if there's a new addition.
Snug in my new sense of security from snide remarks and rolling eyes regarding any "questionable" conglomeration of things I might desire to accumulate in the future we pushed on to Colorado Springs and our planned highlight of the day.
If you will remember, in February I was in Colorado Springs and found a great old sign for the Navajo Hogan road house. I said at the time I wanted to come back and eat there. Well this was
the planned highlight of our drive in the country.
As we got closer I could just feel the history, the kitsch, the ambiance waiting for us! This weird hunting was hungry business and in addition to a craving for kitsch, I was craving food.
Pulling into the parking lot, I could tell that this was not going to be quite what I thought! The parking lot was full of motorcycles and they weren't Honda's. They were Harleys. With my best nonchalant look I turned to the bride and said, "Stick with me, hon, and I'll take you to all the finest places".
When we got inside most of the bikers were wearing jackets that said "Sons of Silence" on the back.....Did they know I just came from Ramah? Were they tailing me? I tried to look innocent but I really wanted to take a picture of them too. The bride said I was crazy. If they saw me taking their picture they'd probably kill me, she said....."What are you gonna do then?" she said. I said I'd tell them I'd trade my woman for a pict
ure! That seemed to calm her right down.
Using all the cunning and stealth I learned as an Intelligence Officer 30 years ago, I pretended to be taking a picture of the unusual ceiling and surreptitiously recorded them in full color!
My day was complete. We ate a mediocre hamburger, watched the bikers parade in and out and then left to return to the world of normal. The world of bland. The world of ho hum. My weekly fix of weird had been fulfilled. This would have to do until next weekend.
As we got to the parking lot, I saw one more bit of weird. I can't explain this and don't know which one of the bikers arrived on which. This is a bit of an Alice in Wonderland finish for a great weekend!
Thanks for visiting.
bucket of peel your own shrimp. This is a favorite of mine from way back when I lived in Savannah, GA and would catch my own shrimp and eat them this way. A good time was had by all.
