FALL CAMPING. WARD, COLORADO. LITTLE CATERPILLAR BUDDY.

Here we are sitting by our smoky little campfire this weekend. We arrived at the campground mid afternoon on Friday. This particular campground is only a little over an hour from our home and we had our pick of campsites. Camp fees were a real deal - $8.00/night because the water was turned off. We had plenty, though, as yours truly anticipated the lack of potable water and made sure our supplies were adequate. There was a stream close by, so we dipped our little red cooler jug in just in case we ran out. We boiled that water and used it to wash dishes.

Saturday, we rose late, breakfasted, packed lunch and took an 8 mile hike. Back at camp, we rested, read and then drove to Ward, Colorado about 10 miles away. It's always interesting to visit Ward. It's a scroungy little hippie populated mountain town. (One very interesting factoid about Ward from Wikipedia is that Ward boasts the highest concentration of Ph.D holders in the U.S. - is this really true? If so, it's hard to believe.) There is one little General Store and lots of junk and junk vehicles of all descriptions. Here are some pictures I took there. Gives you a little bit of an idea of the flavor of this town. Wikipedia gives a pretty good description of the town and history, but the photographs there make it look nice - which is doesn't.Later, back at camp, we dined on a sumptuous dinner of grilled chicken and vegetables, we washed up in delightfully warm water, put things away for the night and watched 'I, Robot'. At least, Merle watched it. I read some more.

I basically did not sleep that night and that's kind of unusual for me when sleeping in the camper. Our sleeping quarters are so comfortable, I typically have no trouble getting my zzzzzzzzzz's. However, it was not to be, so I listened to the ever increasing wind outside (and inside, for that matter - Merle, the Windy One), got up twice to go to the bathroom on my little potty seat outside the camper and thought about too many things. Each time I went outside, there were little drops of icy rain falling.

I think I did start to doze toward early morning and around 7:00a, when we took a peek outside the windows, we saw that a very light blanket of snow covered everything! We turned on the camper heater, luxuriated in the warmth for awhile, then got up, got coffee and started packing up. By the time we left, the wind had died down and the sun was shining, but it was still pretty cold at 36F.

Oh, and here's the cute caterpillar Merle found crawling across the campsite our first day. I took lots of pictures of it and we watched it make it's way into the forest. I looked it up on the Internet and it is a Spotted Tussock Moth caterpillar. It is also called a Yellow Woolly Bear and I much prefer that name.

RADIO CONTROL WARBIRDS. IRISH LASS......AT LAST.

The Warbirds Over the Rockies radio control aircraft event was this weekend at the RC airfield where Merle flies his planes. He spent the day there yesterday and I went back with him for awhile today. It's great fun to watch, many people attend. The great planes and flying action are fantastic. Watch the Warbirds slide show to the right.

IRELAND IN OUR FUTURE?
While Merle was at the air show yesterday, I got together with my email pal from Ireland. I had met her online through Homelink when we tried to arrange a home exchange a couple of years ago. Well, recently she contacted me and told me she was coming to the U.S. for about a month. I helped her plan her itinerary for this part of the trip and then we finally met in person. She was delightful and we had a very good time getting to know each other.

After getting her checked into a nearby dude ranch (she couldn't resist the hat), I drove her up into the mountains, over Trail Ridge Road and back to our house where she met Merle and we had a nice dinner with interesting conversation.

She teaches 6 year olds in Ireland. One of the things that she teaches them is the Irish language. Apparently, the area were she lives is working hard to keep the language alive. She spoke some phrases for Merle and I and told us that her family speaks Irish at home.

She invited us to come to Ireland and to stay at her home. She may or may not be there depending upon whether or not she gets a temporary teaching job in Germany. Whatever the case, we will likely plan a trip there sometime next year. It's a country we have always wanted to visit and it is very nice to know someone who can help you become more acquainted with the area.

The biggest negative in visiting Europe at this time is the exchange rate. One U.S. Dollar currently equals .70 Euro. Of course, for Europeans visiting the U.S., the exchange rate is a big plus. We were also told that things are pretty expensive in Ireland, so we'll have to give it some serious thought before we decide whether or not to go.

Slán agat. (Goodbye in Irish)

BUSTED, BABY! (sort of)

I'm cruising along, top down (the Jeep top), sun shining, beautiful foothill vistas, birds chirping, the world is fine. I'm listening to pet advice on my Martha Stewart Sirius radio channel. I don't have any pets now, but it's interesting to listen to the callers asking for advice while all the while feeling very glad that I no longer worry about animal hair, feces, rabies, bordatella or vet and kennel expenses. Yes, I know, pets are sometimes lots of fun and good companionship, but let's face it, sometimes they aren't.

I had just completed a successful shopping trip to the Great Indoors, about an hour from my home. My purchases rested on the passenger seat. New vanity lights for my bathroom and a really sweet, brown pendant style light for another part of the bathroom.

Oh yea. Here's something you should know. I guess it's more appropriate to say "vanity" lights instead of "bathroom" lights. I was enlightened regarding this by the genteel, dressed in black sales associate at the store. When I said, "Where are the bathroom light fixtures?", she replied, "The vanity lights are downstairs." It wasn't like I ask her, "Where are the lights that go in the room where the toilet is and where we perform bodily functions and it sometimes smells bad?" It wasn't like I asked her that.

Anyway, here I am cruising along, minding my own business, giving wide berth to bicyclists on the road and like I said, listening to pet advice. Suddenly the hairs on my neck start to quiver. I sense a foreboding presence. Out of the corner of my eye in the rear view mirror, I see it. Flashing lights, red and blue ones attached to a large, white SUV type vehicle. Yikes, what's the speed limit? Oh boy.

One time I saw one of those nature films where things get killed. There was this little baby caribou being chased by a big arctic wolf. When it became apparent that flight was impossible, the little guy just sat down in the cool arctic grass and waited for the inevitable. That's how I felt. I just pulled over, pulled out my license, hunkered down and waited for the inevitable. Pretty pitiful.

I waited a minute, then glanced in the rear view mirror. The ballcap and sunglasses were on the radio, probably checking in with headquarters in case backup was required. Finally I hear the door open and close. I hear footsteps on the gravel. They stop next to me. I look up.

He smiles. He says, "You must be Lannie."
I have custom license plates.
I say, "That would be me. How fast was I going?".
He tells me, but I'm not going to tell you. It wasn't too terrible although I was definitely speeding.
"I'm sorry about that, I was not paying attention." (Probably the most common excuse.)
"I know. You've got the top down and you were just cruising along." He's still smiling, but his teeth are starting to look kind of sharp.
I hand him my license.
"Do you have proof of insurance and registration?"
"Yes I do, " I start to reach over to the big box on the passenger seat so I can move it so I can get in the glove box for my papers.
"That's OK, you don't need to move it. You do have them, right?"
I'd swear on a stack of Bibles, but they're in the glove box with the insurance and registration.
"Yes, I do have them." My head is nodding like a Bobblehead doll.
"I'm only going to give you a warning," he says.
Suddenly his face sort of begins to look angelic.
"Wow," I say. "That's awfully nice of you."
He looks at the words Rubicon on the side of my Jeep.
"I have one too, it's a 2004."
"Really," says I. "This one is a 2003. It's my 3rd Jeep, but my first Rubicon. My husband has a 1998 and it's all built up big. It looks great."
Having gotten past the stressful law and order part, we then chatted for a bit about Jeeps, 4 wheel drive and how many kids he had. Since we had gotten pretty chummy, I proceeded to confess that I was due to be stopped as lately I noticed I'd been kind of not driving as slow as I probably should. It felt good to confess, kind of lifted a weight off of my conscience and gave me a new law abiding sense of resolve.
"I have to go check your license in case you are a terrorist or something."
We laugh.
"Ha. I don't think you have to worry about that."
He leaves, goes back to radio in information on his "perp". It's getting hot sitting in the sun with the Jeep top down, so I turn on the air conditioner and turn up the radio.

When he comes back some time later, he hands me my license and his business card and admonishes me not to speed - he calls me "young lady". I think that maybe this is one of those things they teach them in deputy class. Like, when you stop a middle aged woman, you can certainly make her feel better and defuse any potential violence if you call her "young lady".

It works. I felt better.

When I got home, I went to the Boulder County Sheriff's website. It was pretty darn interesting. Did you know you can listen to police radio from the web? Also, they had some cool little videos of the police dogs finding drugs, climbing ladders and training to attack. I followed different links and ended up at the FBI 10 Most Wanted list. Scary. I see Usama is still on there. (I always thought it was Osama, but I'm sure the FBI doesn't make serious typos like that.) I'm considering trying to find him. The reward is $27 million.

That could buy a whole lot of lights for the potty room.

Blue Stone Gems, Green Lemon and Biking Boy

BLUE STONE GEMS AND GREEN LEMON

You know how you sometimes notice small businesses during your travels to and fro and say to yourself, " I've driven past this place so many times and never stopped. I really need to check it out?" Well, we've done that for awhile every time we have driven past a new gem shop located on a frequently traveled thoroughfare to the mountains. We finally stopped the other day. As opposed to other places that have rented this spot, this one had a real bonafide sign, not something that looked like an afterthought, cheap looking, crudely painted and posted. Good signage is a good sign, meaning that it shows the owners are putting some serious effort into their marketing.

Anyway, we stopped and were very pleasantly surprised to find a little shop full of beautiful stones, gems and geodes. There were nice pieces of jewelry also. It was well stocked and everything was displayed to the best possible marketing advantage. We started talking to the owner and found that he and his wife had recently moved here from a more easterly part of the U.S.. They'd had the same type of business there and decided to move to Colorado where they had visited quite frequently over the years. Good move - to Colorado - great state. We chatted at length about lots of things. One interesting topic was a band they sort of followed called Green Lemon. This band is apparently from our area here in Colorado and they are good enough to have developed quite a fan base across the U.S., including the owners of the Blue Stone. They like them so much that they "followed" them here, so to speak.

We exchanged contact information before leaving and I asked permission to take a couple of pictures for my blog. After we got home, I went to the Blue Stone Gems MySpace page to look around and then to the Green Lemon page. Merle and I listened to the songs they have playing on MySpace and were very, very impressed. They have a great sound.

We look forward to having the Blue Stone owners as neighbors in our wonderful community.

BIKING BOY WITH ELMO SLIPPERS
Here are a couple of cute pictures of my little nephew.We all went for a short but vigorous bike ride the other day. Merle, Biking Boy's Mom and yours truly. Biking Boy rode in his cool Trek child trailer behind Mom. At one point he managed to get one of his Elmo slippers out of the trailer and onto the road. Mom had to backtrack a bit to pick it up.

Later on in the evening, he and Uncle Merle stomp danced together in the kitchen. I missed that one, I'm sorry to say, but Merle told me about it. It would have been a great video, I'm sure.

LANDFILL

TRASH: Debris, Dreck, Dregs, Droppings, Dross, Excess, Filth, Fragments, Junk, Leavings, Litter, Offal, Pieces, Refuse, Residue, Rubbish, Rubble, Rummage, Scourings, Scrap, Scraps, Scum, Sediment, Shavings, Slag, Sweepings, Waste

That certainly sums it up.

We have been making several trips throughout the summer to our local landfill because of various construction and house cleaning projects. I always make a point to go along. There is something about the landfill that is rather fascinating to me. Yes, it's dirty, it's usually dusty, there are flies, it doesn't smell particularly pleasant and it's not a pretty sight. So, what is the fascination?

I think it starts way back. When I was still growing up, our family was not exactly sitting on a pot of gold. This situation changed many years later when my Dad started a successful business. I was no longer living at home by that time.

I remember visiting the local Goodwill for my first set of skis here in Colorado. They were wooden, as were the poles and the boots were leather. Of course this was some time ago and I think wooden skis were more common back then. I also remember going with my Dad to the junk yard a couple of times to get me a car when I was old enough to drive. I wish I had both of them today, they would be worth something now. One was a tiny Peugeot and the other was a little Renault with a sliding sunroof. Dad fixed them up and I drove them for as long as they lasted. I remember I had to carry water with me for the Peugeot as it sometimes overheated. This particular car also had red and white leather seats and an itty bitty shifter on the floor. It was like shifting a toothpick. On another occasion, I remember personally scavenging in a small landfill area next to an apartment complex we lived in for awhile where I found a nice dish drainer that I proudly presented to my mother.

All of this is to say that I have no aversion to used things. I actually have some fond memories associated with used things and landfills are filled with used things that are considered trash. It's pretty interesting to see what people are throwing away.

Merle and I loaded up our latest group of landfill fodder that included an old utility sink we replaced, a barely working Kitchen Aid dishwasher from the 1970's, also replaced, a wooden ladder that should have been discarded a couple of years ago, but Merle continued to teeter atop it until I insisted we buy a nice aluminum one, a big box of construction debris left from work being done at the house, an ugly clay pot and some kerosene.

There are a couple of other things that I think are very interesting about landfills. One is the huge pieces of equipment that scoop, smash, drive over and generally subdue and then bury the immense trash mound. I've always thought it would be fun to drive one of those monsters as long as I was able to sit in an air conditioned cab listening to music while the dirty air swirled around inches away but unable to touch me. The other is the seagulls that hang out at the landfill. They, along with a few crows, scavenge the piles of trash and it must be a successful venture, because they are always there.

The whole scene is so "Mad Max" -like. Which, in turn, brings to mind "The Burning Man Project"- check it out.

#?!!@##! and A Peach Tree Grows in The Valley

The Bathroom Sink
The handyman showed up around 7:30a this morning, backed his little trailer up to the garage and came in so we could go over the task list. It had nothing to do with him personally, but from that point on the day seemed to spiral down slowly into a vortex of things going wrong.

He started in the bathroom with the sink. If I'd known we were starting here, I would have emptied the cabinet underneath.

"If you are going to start in there, I should clean out from under the bathroom sink", I offered, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Nah, that's OK, I'll work around it." He folded himself down until he was about three feet tall and started doing a plumbing thing.

I'm thinking. Oh my. What is under there? I venture a little peek. Oh my. Just as I thought. Summer's Eve. Hot wax removal kit for unsightly and unwanted facial hair. Ear wax removal kit. Why did God make people have unsightly hair and waxy ears?

"Oops", says he. "I think we have a little leak here. I'm going to have to move some of this stuff.

Out comes the Summer's Eve, including the one that is NOT IN THE BOX!

Followed by the wax kits, the urinary tract relief, the toe fungi cure, old hair rollers with hair in them from when my hair was long enough to roll, the sexy little plastic back massager and old gooey, dried up hair gels and lotions.

In an effort to appear helpful while hoping to mask the urgency of my movements, I kind of shoved by him and grabbed the fungus cure and the urinary tract relief. He two handed together the red, pink and purple nail polishes with removers.

"Just put them on the counter there", I said trying to distract him.

He's a married guy with kids. He knows about this stuff. Yeah, but what about my dignity? How can you tell a workman to do things for you when he's handled your Summer's Eve and purple nail polish?

Lesson: Be prepared for workmen in your house. Clean out everything.

The Kitchen Sink

"Hey, you need to come here for a minute."

I did a quick save on the computer and made my way to the kitchen project area. The sink was out of the hole in the counter and SO WERE THE TILES THAT HAD BEEN UNDER THE EDGE OF IT!!

"The tiles came up with the sink. They were not originally attached very well", he said sadly. Sadly, because this was not supposed to happen and it was certainly messing up his plans to get everything done this week.

I commiserated. We stood over the sink hole (metaphorically speaking) and pondered. We came to a conclusion that neither one of us was too pleased with, but was really the only option. Put the tiles back and go from there. Hope for the best.........................

The Dishwasher

"Hey, you need to come here for a minute." He has installed our new dishwasher.

With a tiny sense of dread, I made my way to the kitchen - again.

"This thing from the dishwasher is broken and so is the silverware basket".

Yep, they were broken.

Find the receipt, call Home Depot, here's the manufacturer's telephone number, dial it, go through about five menu choices, wait and listen to very obnoxious music in addition to them telling me every minute that "We know your time is valuable. We are here to serve you. Please stay on the line and a customer service representative will be with you shortly."

Finally after about 15 minutes the music and voice stop and then no one comes on the line. I wait a few more minutes listening to dead silence, hang up and go through the whole spiel again and then one more time. Finally I choose a direct operator choice from the menu and get an actual person on the line. It's now been about 30 minutes since I started.

After another 45 minutes during which I was on hold again for 15 minutes, I receive confirmation that a cutlery basket will be mailed to me and then I am given another phone number to call for a local company who will make the other repair. I call, have to leave a message there with assurances that I will be contacted yet today.....we'll see.

OK. Enough with the troubles. On a different note. While I was on the telephone with the customer service rep, someone came to my front door.

I spoke to the customer rep. "I am going to have to put you on hold a minute while I answer my door. Please do not hang up."

I answer the door. A nice, smiling lady is there. "Hi, I'm your neighbor down the street and I have to tell you that I have been coveting your peaches." OK, how much weirder is this day going to get?

"Peaches? What peaches?"

"You have a peach tree in that little valley next to your house."

"What? We have a peach tree? No."

"Yes, you do. My husband and I walk the neighborhood a lot and I've seen them for some time now. I was wondering if I could have some to make jam and chutney. I am sort of the neighborhood bag lady. I've found grapes, too on someones property and they also didn't know they had them there."

I was rather flabbergasted as I had no idea that we had a peach tree on our property. I had to check this out.

"Give me your name and number and after I look at this tree, I'll call you about it. I'm sure you can have some. I just want to see them first." Yep. Them thar is peaches, by golly.

Day 7, Homeward: Lost Springs and Windy Wyoming

We got up around 7:00 a.m. this morning, the last day of our trip. Everything was fresh and cool. The heat wave ended yesterday with a nice rainy session in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, we just made it back to the parking lot from hiking the Little Devil's Tower when it really started to pour.

P P P P

I've always enjoyed "being on the road". I like driving vacations as opposed to those where we fly somewhere. I like the scenery. I enjoy being able to stop when we feel like doing so. That's how we ended up in Lost Springs, Wyoming. Population 1.

It was time for some lunch. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, chocolate pudding and milk. The sign at Lost Springs advertised a Town Park, so we pulled off the highway, across the railroad tracks and parked next to the picnic shelter.

It was simple and clean. There were only about four buildings in this smallest of towns. They were old but well maintained and painted a crisp white. The grass in the Town Park had been recently mowed and from the large building next to the park came the sound of power tools.

Within a few minutes of our sitting down we met two of the workmen who came outside for a little break. I think mostly they were curious about our little trailer and we introduced them to it. We then talked for awhile about the area. One of them had lived around Lost Springs all of his life. He gave us some historical highlights of interest and told us that the governor of Wyoming was coming to Lost Springs next week with some other officials for something or other (we never found out exactly what). We thought that was pretty cool.

The large building turned out to be the community center and the workmen were refinishing the old wood floor in preparation for the governor's visit. There was a wooden stage with a roll down picture curtain and hangers up along the walls where you could hang up chairs.

Apparently, it had once been a roller skating rink and then a dance hall. One of the guys showed me an area on the floor with many cigarette burns. They were on the spot where guys or gals used to stand during a dance and smoke. The workmen said they were going to leave them there - it showed part of the history of this old structure. We found out that the one resident was a lady who owned everything including the bar across the street. Apparently, when it was open, it was pretty nice. They told us that if we had any questions about Lost Springs, she was the person who would know the answers as she had been there for many, many years.

Afterwards, as we drove away, we realized that we had just had a special little trip gift. One that you don't find at the national park. It was definitely a slice of American life that most of us do not know.

The rest of our drive back to "civilization" was similar to our driving experience a few days before when starting our vacation- head winds and hills. One traveler we met said that no matter what direction you turn in Wyoming, there is a head wind. I think he was right.

......and that's all for the travelogue.

Day 6: Hiking in Pines and Needles

Our original intention was to leave our bikes at one of the trailheads on the Needles Highway in Custer State Park, drive up the highway to the end of that trail to another trailhead, start hiking there, end up at our bikes and ride down to the trailhead to our car at the second trailhead. HOWEVER, our trail map was inaccurate as we luckily found out from a park employee. The trails we wanted to hike did not connect, so we had to change our plans. It worked out well. We hiked two trails, both having "strenuous" ratings due to steep, rocky areas. The second trail was the most difficult because we had to rock scramble up it, but well worth the effort. That's Merle on the top of it in the picture above and here I am. It's actually quite high off of the ground - it's advisable to stay away from the edges.It was very invigorating and we were high on endorphins - a very good kind of high. Read about other activities that release endorphins and make you feel GOOD! We are becoming endorphin addicts.
Here's a picture of the Mount Rushmore guys I downloaded from Google Images. Believe it or not, I did not get a good picture of this stony faced foursome - ? Hey, wait a minute. What the heck? That Merle, he is such a ham.
At the lighting ceremony we attended last evening, I took several pictures, but it was dark (it WAS a lighting ceremony...), so my exposure was way off. I should have had a tripod with me. I was right about the patriotic boo-hoo factor of the ceremony. It was very touching.

Well, it's late - we're pooped, so this is a nice short one. Good night.

Day 5: Moonshine Gulch Saloon, Black Hills South Dakota

Early this morning as we had just finished our breakfast, one of the KOA employees stopped by to engage in some Jeep talk. He and Merle conversed in "mechanics" lingo, while I did some odds and ends things around the campground. He had lived in this area all of his life and so was able to tell us about a nice drive down a little dirt road by a stream that eventually would take us to the Moonshine Gulch Saloon where we could have burgers and fries for lunch. So, we put the top down on the Rubicon, took off the doors and headed out. The drive was very pretty and sure enough, we ended up in Rochford. The fish above was on the wall next to our table, so you have something of an idea about the decor. The ceiling was covered in old crusty ball caps. There was stuff tacked up everywhere and lots of it was dusty. A skinny legged, wide bodied little doggy came by and put her head on my leg begging for french fries. It was a pretty busy place, apparently quite popular with the biker crowd. The burgers and fries were adequate. It was the atmosphere that was the draw.

Here's Merle. He was smiling at me, but because I had the camera stabilized on the table and pointed upward, it looks like he's smiling at something else.

Black Hills, South Dakota. We drove here yesterday from Devil's Tower. It was a cool, beautiful drive. This area is very clean and neat. We were here about 7 years ago and it looks pretty much the same. After checking into the hugest KOA ever, we made the 10 minute trip up the highway to Mount Rushmore and did a drive by visit. Tonight, in about 30 minutes, we are headed to the evening "lighting" ceremony. It's done every evening for a certain length of time until the weather gets too dicey. We didn't go last time we were here, so I guess we had better do it now.

Tomorrow is supposed to be considerably cooler (around 70F) with 50% chance of rain showers. We are looking forward to relief from the heat. Our plans include a hiking/biking thing over in Needles area but we'll have to see what the weather does.

That's all for now, folks. I've got to grab a box of Kleenex before we head out. I guess the patriotism involved in this Rushmore ceremony tends to makes one dissolve into tears..........

Devil's Tower Day 1

Devil's Tower Visitor Center parking lot. 9:30 a.m.. It was only 2 miles from our campground - uphill all the way. But we made it and boy, was it fun going down. (You can't see them very well in the picture above, but our helmets are there) This is the infamous Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It's much more spectacular in person. We grabbed a person walking by and asked them to take this picture. Behind us there were 3-4 groups of climbers making their way up the cracks in this beast. Using our binoculars, we found our KOA neighbors up there. They are avid climbers from Colorado, looking between the ages of 45 - 60, all very fit. We were impressed. Apparently, they come here every Labor Day weekend and climb the Tower.

Last evening at 9:00p we went to the last scheduled ranger talk for the season at the Devil's Tower campground. We always make a point to go to the ranger talks wherever we are that they are available. They are so "vacation" and we have always enjoyed them, even the one we went to where the young volunteer ranger read a Dr. Suess story for us. However, the one last night was about prehistory in this area, arrowheads, migrations and all that sort of thing. It was fairly interesting, but after a full day of driving 370 miles here pulling the trailer while bucking a strong headwind, setting up camp, moving our little camper by hand to a better position, making dinner and taking a shorter bike ride, we were pooped and I could barely stay awake. Needless to say, we slept very well.

I was snoozing heavily this morning around 6:30a when Merle nudged me awake. "Leann, there are balloons outside." Sure enough, 4 beautiful big hot air balloons were taking off over at the edge of the campground. What a treat! They slowly made their way close to the Tower. Here are a couple of pictures I took. In the second one, I wanted you to see our view of the tower this morning with the balloon next to it.

Here's another view of our campsite.

At 9:00p tonight we are taking our lawn chairs and snacks to watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". They show it outside nightly here at the KOA......................it just doesn't get any better than this.