September 8, 2017 Making a run for home!

September 8, 2017

I don’t know what is happening.  The big house that moves is shaking.  I will snuggle to my maternal human.

Why is Spouse moving the trailer?  What the heck is he doing?  Oh wait… he is in bed…  oooooh… that is wind.  And look at the lightening!  WOW!  And rain!  And thunder…  I drifted back to sleep. 

We woke up at around 5am.  The wind seems to have passed, but not the lightening and rain.  We turn on the TV to get the weather.  Severe weather is all around the region.  We are so thankful we did not stay in that other RV park on the desert floor near Oatman.  Good call!   The weather man says we should get a little break in our area around 6:45.  And that is when we made a run for it!

We took 95 south towards Needles.  The road is ok, but there are brand new lakes all around the road.  The weather is still threatening.  Spouse stops to top off the gas tank.  Good thing here too.  In Arizona, diesel was $2.59.  Five miles down the road in Needles, it was $3.99 and $4.09!  Talk about a royal screw job!

It is all of 7:30 am and Spouse is hungry.  He has to eat NOW.  He pulls over on the side of the freeway to make his meal.  Really?  A rest stop isn’t good enough?  He is soooo food motivated.  I won’t go into the details of the ride from there.  We had no more rain.  The ride on I40 is almost as boring as the ride on I15.

We got home around 1pm.  After over 5000 miles, Hannah needs her bed repaired as well as the TV antenna.  Outside of that, she seems ok.  As for our house….  My orchids looked phenomenal.  My friend that watered is amazing!  But we will have to drain the spa, and boy do I have some weeding and yardwork to do.  Let’s not talk about the mail.

We got most of the stuff unloaded and put away.  And I made a nice creole dinner.  It actually has healthy stuff in it…  time to get our diet back on track.

For now, I will listen to the Dodger game and watch the Angel game.  And Rudy is so happy to be home.

September 7, 2017 A long day

September 7, 2017

MEOWT!  I know if I sit on the chair and look cute, my humans will let me out.  MEOWT!  At least some times…

We woke early once again and decided to do a sunrise bike ride along the rim of the Grand Canyon.  There are beautiful bike trails that go right along the rim.  There are stunning views of the canyon and beautiful pines along the trail.  We worked our way east to the South Kaibab trail.

Now… let me tell you a little of what I have been dealing with Spouse.  He is pretty deaf.  And when he can hear, I am not sure what it is he actually hears!  Here is an example:

Spouse, the South Kaibab trail goes 6.3 miles down to the Colorado River.

Ten miles?  Really?

Ok, is there ANYTHING in what I said that could have been construed as 10 miles?  I don’t see any words that rhyme with ten or anything.  Sometimes, he jumps to the weirdest conclusions.  I often think he is a compass without a true north!  We are in our 6^th week, and somehow, I haven’t bitchslapped him upside the head! 

Ok, back to our day…  We did walk a few hundred yards down the South Kaibab trail.  Oooh, it is steep.  I would love to do it.  Spouse will only do it on a donkey.  For now, a few hundred yards will do.  Morning is magical along the canyon.  The morning light creates beautiful shadows and it is quiet…  Not many people out at 6:30 in the morning.  We headed back to Hannah and started getting her ready to move.

While I was in the shower, I heard all sorts of cuss words coming from Spouse.  What happened?  He was lifting the bed to get something out, and the hinges broke and it came crashing down on him.  We have to lift the mattress, and kind of cram it so it won’t fall over…  It’s not like there is a whole lot of room to maneuver here.  Then Dr. Brown got out the tools.  As he complained about not wanting to deal with this right now, I pointed out…  we are on our way home.  This could have happened early on.  At least now, he can get it patched, and deal with this at home in a couple of days.

On the road we head, down to Williams, then west to exit 139, where we pick up rte. 66.  It is really quite amazing how different it is being on the interstate versus being on a road.  The interstate shouts its presence.  IT is all consuming.  Rte. 66 goes through much of the same terrain, but it feels so much more personal.   You really see the ranches and the plains.  You are not fighting for space with the semis… it is so peaceful.

We pass through the town of Seligman with all of its klitzy rte. 66 memorabilia; old cars, juke boxes, etc.  We pass the RoadKill Café.  Along the way, Burma-Shave has series of signs.  They are red, they are about 100 feet apart, and they rhyme.  For example:

Sign 1:  If daisies are

Sign 2:  your favorite flower

Sign 3:  Keep pushing up

Sign 4:  Those miles per hour

 We continue on to the Grand Canyon Caverns.  It is raining and thundering outside, but this is a dry cavern so it doesn’t have the stalactites and stalagmites you see in wet caverns.  It has huge rooms, and is used to store mass quantities of food and supplies in case of a major attack of some sort.  There is also a tiny restaurant and a single hotel room so you can spend the night down below.   It was interesting to find out that the air that feeds into the caverns comes from almost 70 miles away at the Grand Canyon.  They set off some red bombs so see where the air was coming from, and voila!  Now they know!

Continuing on rte.66, we fueled in Kingman, then stayed on 66 towards the town of Oatman.  What were we thinking…  We start in the desert… crossing through dips where flashfloods have deposited all sorts of dirt across the road.  We found an RV park, and we considered staying there…  on the desert floor… Naw… let’s move on. 

Let me say this…  if a motorcycle would really enjoy the road you are on, chances are, you should not be towing a 30 foot rig!  The road goes over a pass.  It winds, it has no guardrails, and it is not big enough for us in the least.  We held our breath going around each hairpin curve hoping someone would not be coming the other way.  I should have been enjoying the beautiful views, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the road, and my back seat driving responsibilities!  Once we crested, we had a tiny little shoulder that made us feel a tiny bit better.  Let’s just say this… we did it, and don’t have to do it again!

When we got to the town of Oatman, Spouse was hungry.  This is a tiny old mining town, that the American Disability Act doesn’t have a prayer of getting handicapped accessible!  The donkeys own the town and wander freely.  The only thing I found that was edible was a salad.  I have some leftovers in Hannah so I will survive.  IN the meantime, throw some food to Spouse before he wastes away to nothing…  The town is totally funky, and full of souvenir shops.  They have daily cowboy shootout shows.  It was worth the visit, but once is enough.

We ended up in an RV park close to 95 south of Bullhead City.  Tomorrow… HOME!

September 6, 2017 The Big Ditch

September 6, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  Wait…  I don’t like the smell around here… I think something will try and eat me.

We both woke up early and decided to take a sunrise walk along the Riverwalk.  The geese and ducks serenaded us along the way.  It is cool, so Spouse is walking at a decent pace.  Since things were ok at the park, we are going to hit the road today.

After our walk, we picked up a few groceries and fueled up and were back at Hannah by 7:30.  There are a couple of ways we can head towards home.  We could go down 461 from Shiprock to Gallup.  This is a 4 lane highway for the most part and pegs the yawn-o-meter.  We chose to cut across the reservation and head to the Grand Canyon.  This road is a two lane road, and it is not in the best condition.  It is pretty boring for the first 30 miles or so, but once we cross into Arizona, the red rocks start showing up.  There are buttes, and even the ‘Baby Rocks’ which are little hoodoos.

Spouse stopped in the town of Cayenta to get something out of Hannah.  We pulled into a Burger King where there are signs warning about panhandlers.  You are barely out of your car when you are approached by some pretty skeevy characters.  Spouse did what he had to do and we split real quick.  There is a turnout by the Anasazi Inn about 10 miles down the road that is pretty.  We stopped there and ate some lunch in peace.  Then on to the ‘Big Ditch’. 

We have been to the Grand Canyon several times, and it never gets old.  It was warm – 94, but the clouds came in and the temperature dropped into the 70s.  Thunder rolled, and drops fell, but it never let loose.  Although going home is usually a two day thing, we decided to take our time since we didn’t have to spend so much time in Farmington.  So, why not stay at the Grand Canyon. 

Sounds easy, right?  It is after Labor Day… the kids are back at school…  As we are driving to the RV park, we saw a herd of elk.  There was no place to stop, but best that we didn’t… they may have smelled their kindred spirit in our freezer…

We get to the RV park, and just as the lady is telling Spouse that there are no vacancies, someone called and cancelled their reservation.  Had we been 5 minutes sooner, or 5 minutes later, we would not have had a spot.  Such is luck!  A little more thunder, a little rain…  All is good.

September 5, 2017 On to Farmington

September 5, 2017

Oh!  All the other humans are gone!  And my maternal human is sitting.  I have to go curl my paws on her.  Hi maternal human!   I missed you.  Lemme curl my paws.  My purr box is really going.  Curl… curl.    Hi human, curl, curl, curl…  time to nap… on my human. 

Spouse and I woke up early so we figured we would get on the road to Farmington early.  Going north on 550 by 7am, there was a whole lot of rush hour traffic going south.  We have done this drive before… and again… and again…  It is really kind of pretty, just not over and over again.  It is high desert and buttes.  We stopped in Cuba for breakfast, then continued from the desert, over the pass with pines on the plains.  Ok, I won’t boor you with the details.

Instead, let’s talk about NM bingo.  Jennifer and Bob invented a game where you score points based on things you see in New Mexico.  For instance, if you see a Dollar General store, you get points.  If you see a Family Dollar in the same town, double points!  You get points if you see a washing machine in a yard.  More points for 5 cars (nothing less than 5 gets points) in a yard.  Oh, that is NON-WORKING cars…  Need I go on?  This is New Mexico.

Spouse and I made it to Farmington, staying at the Elks Club.  It is perched on a hill with a nice view.  We did not know what to expect when we got to our park, but it was better than we expected.  YAY!   A little bit of ‘enforcing’ with Spouse walking around with the manager ought to do the trick for now.

Since we didn’t get a walk in the morning, we took a walk along the Animas river.  They have carved trails into a nice Riverwalk.  Old groves of cottonwood trees create beautiful canopies.  There are deer and lots of skunks.  You definitely have to watch your step so you don’t accidentally piss one off.  They kept their tails raised facing away from us, which is a good thing, but the area smelled like skunk.  The way Rudy sniffed my hand made me question if there was a skunk scent on me.  I can’t smell it, but Rudy sure likes it!  Maybe I better shower so Rudy doesn’t chew my arm off…

September 4, 2017 Name that paw print

September 4, 2017

There are so many humans here!  What is going on?   The little human keeps following me around.  I try to hide and she finds me.  Here comes my maternal human.  SAVE ME!  Mew!  Not the little human again…  Mew!

It was a warm night for sleeping outside, but it did cool off.  Bob actually got cold.  I was good.  Hayden seemed ok.  But, neither Bob nor Jen slept too well.  Bob woke up with a migraine so we sent him home (all of 10 minutes away).  Jen, the kids and I went on a walk to the Pueblo.  Spouse stayed back and made breakfast.

There was actually staff at the pueblo today.  Every time I have walked there, it hasn’t been open.  Little did I know there was a fee for entry.  Ooops…  She told us to go ahead and walk the trail along the river, so we did.  Ellie and Hayden were quite the troopers.  We saw a coyote run across the trail.  It was pretty furry for a coyote.  I was told it might have been a Mexican wolf.  We also saw some weird paw prints in the sand.  One set was canine – maybe the wolf/coyote.  The other prints were much smaller.  We smelled a skunk, so maybe they were skunk prints.  However, one of the prints looked like it might have been an iguana.  It had prints on both sides of what looked like a tail.  Maybe a gila monster, who knows.  The trail follows the Rio Grande and ended in a beautiful cottonwood grove.  It was a nice walk and I totally enjoyed the kids.  To all of you who know how I feel about kids… I actually REALLY enjoyed it!  Who knew?

Living proof that some kids will survive after I spend time with them!

Back at camp, Spouse had breakfast ready for us.  Since Bob left, we took Jen and the kids home, along with our laundry…  We had enough clothes for another week, but we are not sure how much longer we will be, so now we are good for a while, probably enough to get us home… I hope…

It was a great visit with them, but alas… we must get back to Hannah in preparation for the next leg of our journey…  Rudy appreciates the solitude!

September 3, 2017 Food and family

 September 3, 2017

I like our new spot.  There is lots of dirt to roll around in.  I roll and scratch.  This is fun.  Time to go inside and sleep though.

Today, we chose to do nothing.  How often does that happen?  We thought about going up the Sandia Peak Tram…  we were told that it is not the thing to do on a holiday weekend.  Oh yeah, forgot about that.

I took my morning walk around the Jemez Pueblo.  We are right next to the Rio Grande.  The pueblo dates back about 500 years.  Then we got serious…  RUMMIKUB!  I let Spouse win a game!  What was I thinking!  But I won it back… and I got him holding some points!  YES!  To be continued…

We did some grocery shopping in anticipation of my nephew and his family visiting.    We also filled our empty propane tank.  Spouse agonized over paying more for getting the tank filled than we would when we got to Farmington.  But we needed it for our barbecue tonite, so he had to bite the bullet.  I am surprised that he did not writhe in pain!   We will light the fire pit and make s’mores.  And we will set up the cots and sleep outside.  It has been warm, but not hot.  We have needed the air conditioner inside though.

 

Spouse cooked the caribou, some salmon and some halibut that our friends gave us.  None of us had eaten caribou before and it was quite good.  It was lean and tasted like steak.  I am not much of a meat person, but I liked it.  Maybe it was the hatch chiles that we roasted and put on the same plate.  I REALLY liked them.  It is the season for them and people buy them by the 25 pound bag and have them roasted.  We may have to get some when we get to Farmington.  I don’t know where we would put a 25 pound bag of peppers, but the couple next to us came here from Phoenix specifically for them.  They had at least 60 pounds of them!

As we ate, the skies grew dark and ominous.  Spouse had showed Hayden and Ellie how to make kindling from solid pieces of wood.  They had fun with that.  By the time Spouse lit the fire, the wind was really blowing.  We had to rescue one of our chairs that blew into the fire, but weather be damned!  The kids are going to have s’mores!  And that they did!  We did get a few sprinkles on us, but the rain pretty much stayed away.  The lightening show was quite nice.

Bob, Hayden and I slept outside in the cabana.  The clouds parted and the moon was really bright.  Good thing the cabana provided some darkness.  I wanted to tell ghost stories, but Bob didn’t recommend that!  Jen, Ellie and Spouse slept inside.  Rudy was quite overwhelmed with all the activity.  He hugged his daddy all night long.

September 2, 2017 Leaving Las Vegas, yes we are

September 2, 2017

Oh no… my paternal human got up first…  I guess I will get less food.  Ok, I ate… MEOWT!!  MEOWT!!!

After our morning walks, we found ourselves leaving Las Vegas.  Spouse remembers towns by certain things:  cheap gas, and Dairy Queens.  Las Vegas had at least two Dairy Queens.  This is now an OK place for him!  It actually was nicer than we expected.  It is not a garden spot, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  And at the Elks Club, all the RV spots are now full.  But time to move on.

Speed limit?  What speed limit...

Heading south on I25, we are headed to the town of Bernalillo… another garden spot.  My nephew and his family live next door in Rio Rancho so we will spend some time visiting.  It is quite a nice drive with rolling rocky hills and ponderosa pines.  As we near Santa Fe, adobe style houses start popping up.  We stopped for breakfast at the Flying Tortilla.  We prefer to eat at non-chain restaurants, and this one was right next door to an Applebee’s.  Good food, but tough to make turns towing Hannah.  Center dividers can really be a pain…

We are back in the Coronado Campground.  We stayed here last year.  Each site has a cabana and a firepit.  We have some morning shade, but the air conditioner is on now.

We drove down to Albuquerque to meet my nephew Bob and his wife Jennifer for Thai food.  The streets are kind of new and they really pissed me off.  It is impossible to negotiate around all the friggin’ islands they have.  How many U turns does one have to do to get in a shopping center?  And forget about towing Hannah.  The islands are so narrow, there would be no way to tow anything and make some of these turns.  What are city planners thinking?  REALLY?  I am sure the neighborhood hears the cussing of delivery truck drivers…

Rudy likes our new spot…

September 1, 2017 Staying close to home

September 1, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I want to go outside and play but my humans won’t let me run free.  MEOWT!

Today is the Friday of the Labor Day weekend.  We chose to basically stay off the road.  We stayed local and took a look at what Las Vegas, New Mexico really is.  OH, and Spouse washed the truck … again…

After our morning walks, we headed to Storrie Lake.  It is a state park only 3 miles from the Elks Club.  It is a shallow lake, and we can see all the reserved spots are roped off.  It is not real crowded.  There are spots for RVs with electricity, and some with water.  I think we have a Los Angeles attitude about the holiday weekend.  At home, things would be booked and crowded.  I don’t think that would be the case here.  We orchestrated around not driving on Friday and Monday, and it probably wasn’t needed.  Oh well.

Let’s go check out the Wildlife Refuge nearby.  Lots of beautiful meadows covered in bright yellow Broom Snakeweed.  There are ponds with lots of water fowl.  At one point, we stopped to listen to the geese gaggle.  We saw some hawks, but other wildlife doesn’t come out in the middle of the day.  We know better, but we are on our schedule, not theirs…  Was that lightening?  Better get off this dirt road so Spouse doesn’t have to wash the truck again!

What is the downtown like?  There is the Highlands University.  It is a huge, modern university.  Right up the street is the historic Santa Fe Trail and a cute city center with a square with a park in the middle, hotel and shops all around.  Very cute.  There are a lot of stately homes, most of them crying for some sandpaper and paint.  It really is quite a large town, which is not evident from the highway.  It’s amazing what is out there off the major highway…

When we got back to the Elks Club, there were other RVs there!  Holiday weekend…  But we got our spot!  We will leave tomorrow for Bernalillo, and visiting with my nephew and his family through the holiday weekend.  We actually have a reservation – at a place we stayed at before and Spouse liked.  It is a rare thing for us to make a reservation.

August 31, 2017 Visiting Sandy

August 31, 2017

My maternal human normally gets up first in the morning.  So, I whine to her for food.  If I have food already, I will go eat it real quick so she will give me more.  Then I will go snuggle with the paternal human.  He will give me lots of food.  I have his number.  I help him groom then he gives me food.  Good deal.

I did a morning walk around the neighborhood, and realized the GPS sent us way out of our way yesterday.  I hate her at times…

Today we are visiting Sandy.  Sandy and I met in 1982 when we roomed together on a safari in Kenya.  She has been living in this area for almost 20 years.  It is always an adventure going to Sandy’s.  She is off the grid on dirt roads and we always get lost.  Today was no exception.  We know how to get to ‘the tunnel.’  Then we have to find the right dirt road.  We go left, we know this is not right. Too much paved road…   We go right.  Is this right?  No, let’s go back.  Maybe it is right but it is further.  Yea, this is good.  But now what…  crap, Spouse just washed the truck.  Why?  Knowing how we get to Sandy’s, why would he wash the truck?  Sure enough, we swim through some mud…  We finally got Sandy on the phone and she guided us past the big bad S curve to her house.

The cabin from across the way

Sandy lives in a little casita off the grid.  She started to build a log cabin, but ran into some circumstances, and ran out of money.  The cabin has killer views of the pecos valley, but, alas, it will never be finished on site.  Her brood of dogs greeted us and we all visited.  Spouse and I took a walk around.  It is a beautiful area.  The roads are challenging but there are a few nice homes out here.  One of her dogs (Felipe Navidad) is now our new best friend…

We visited, we ate.  Thankfully, Sandy made some food that was somewhat healthy!  YAY!  And it was good. Even though it is kind of difficult to live off the grid, there is an undeniable beauty here.  Maybe the next time we come, we can do it without getting lost.    We left right before dark, and didn’t get home till almost 9pm.  Rudy was going to tear our throats out…

Last year while we were on our trip, I lost a dear friend in Glen Spreen.  This year, I lost another dear friend, Shelia Baker.  It is her birthday today…  I hope to break this jinx next year.

August 30,2017 Back in New Mexico

August 30, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I really like it outside here.   I am happy just sitting in a chair watching.  I don’t think my humans brought enough chairs though.

After our morning walks, we readied Hannah.  From this point on, we are somewhat is a business mode.  We need to get to Farmington, but first, we have a few visits.  Today, we got on I25 south.  To the east, plains.  To the west, plains with the mountains in the background.  The plains turn green, add some ponderosa pines, add some rolling hills and some canyon sunflowers.  After the town of Trinidad, we head into the Raton pass.  It crests at around 7900 feet, and is lined with pretty pines and alpine meadows. 

As we cross into New Mexico, we leave the mountains behind.  The plains are green with loads of canyon sunflowers making it quite a pretty landscape.  We see antelope grazing amid the cattle.  I am driving, which I think makes Spouse nervous.  OH well.

We headed into Las Vegas, New Mexico at the Elks Club.  It is not pretty, but it works.  The significance of this location is that it is somewhat close to where my friend Sandy lives.  She is in the boonies so this is a reasonable drive.  We thought of doing other campgrounds, but with the holiday weekend coming, we didn’t want to drive all over to find campsites are all reserved.  So, this is easy.  We aren’t here for the camping per se.  But they sure do have a fast internet!

What, no pictures???  not today

August 29, 2017 Getting High and eating

August 29, 2017

It is a fresh morning.  I want to run!  I want fly!  I see my human’s paw… I must attack it!  Is that a movement???  I must get it.  I must fly because I am THUNDERPAWS, king of the morning!

I hate this laptop…  argh….  Ok, got that off my chest.

This morning we walked into Old Colorado City and had breakfast at the Bon Ton on their beautiful patio.  I walked ahead to get some exercise.  When Spouse showed up, he told me he bought some Egg Mcmuffins for a homeless guy.  Soft heart…  When he didn’t finish his food, he had it boxed up and gave that to a homeless guy too.   All through town, we see homeless, and people begging on the streets.  Looks like quite the problem in this neck of the woods.

After breakfast, we headed up to Pike’s Peak.  Once you enter through the kiosk, it is roughly a 20 mile drive… up.  The road is windy and we are surrounded by woods; pines and aspens.  As we climb, the vistas are quite stunning.  Then we start to climb.  Did I mention that the road goes up?  It gets windier, and there are few guardrails, mainly for the downhill travelers at the hairpin turns.  At about 11,000 feet, there is a kiosk where, on your way down, they check your breaks.  If they are too hot, you have to stop at the store there and let them cool.  It is steep.  We climb.  At 12,000 feet, we leave the treeline behind.  It is a rocky landscape with what looks like tundra as a ground cover.  The road gets smaller and even windier.  The drop-offs are steep and there are no guardrails.  If you are afraid of heights, this is not the road for you.  Ultimately, we reach the summit at 14,115 feet.  It was nearly 80 degrees when we started.  At the summit, it is 46 degrees.  We are in shorts and tee shirts.  I have a long sleeve shirt and a jacket.  Spouse does not.  There is a breeze making it feel even colder.  The views are incredible as we wander the top.  If this is too much, there is always the train that comes up from Manitou Springs.  How bad can that be… the railroad is only 120 years old and hugs the side of cliffs.  What could possibly go wrong?

On the way down, we stopped to climb some rocks.  It is slow going as the air is so thin.  I guess we didn’t feel we got high enough…  Our breaks checked out cool and we slowly descended.  I thought it would be scary coming down, but it wasn’t… thankfully!

We decided to drive by the Broadmoor Hotel.  It is similar to the Banff Springs Hotel.  Beautiful homes surround the area, but we didn’t go in.  It was amazing how our GPS sent us a real stupid way there, and a more sane way back.  Go figure…

Dinner tonite was with Tom and Sandy Yukman.   I worked with Tom back in the 1980’s.  We had so much in common.  We went skiing in Banff, water skiing at Lake Powell, and we golfed here and there.  We have kept in touch through the years and here we were again.  Fabulous dinner of Greek food.  Sandy retired 3 years ago, and Tom is just about there too.  They are selling it all and going on the road, hoping to spend half the year in Alaska, then do time in Kauai and Colorado.  Life is good for them.  And for us for that matter.  Another splendid evening.  Tom deposited salmon, halibut, elk and caribou in our freezer…  We gave them some of Spouse’s yellowtail.  We got the better end of the deal!

We have GOT to stop eating…

August 28,2017 Bugs and Homies

August 28, 2017

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  I see another feline over there.  MRRROOOOOOWWWWW!  These humans are mine!   MRRRRROOOOOOWWWWW!  Stay away or I will claw your eyes out!

My morning walk took me on the trail behind the park.  It runs several miles in both directions.  Here, it follows a creek.  I get a few whiffs of marijuana, and pass a few homeless people.  They have thrown lots of trash into the creek.  Pity.  The trail winds into Old Colorado City which is a historic district.  No time to check it out now, but later…

Back to Hannah for a bite.  Today, we are going to the May Natural History Museum.  Spouse saw this on the TV show ‘Strange Inheritances’.  This is a bug/insect museum.  It is right outside of town below the mountains and above some lakes.  It has an RV park that is old, but quite nice.  In the museum, there are a gazillion impeccable displays of butterflies, beetles, stick insects, spiders and all stuff in between.  The earliest collection that I saw was in 1906.  This went on into the 40’s.  Each critter is identified by date and location.  Australia, Africa, South and Central America, New Guinea, and even the US and Canada made contributions.

Some of the beetles were so brightly colored, they would make beautiful pieces of jewelery.  And the variety of butterflies was incredible.  Who knew that locusts could be so pretty (as long as they aren’t crawling on you…).  Some are very rare.  It had to be challenging to capture them without breaking pieces of them off.  Many of the butterflies were displayed upside down, as the inside of their wings are what captures your attention.  It was well worth the time to visit this collection.

After a Thai lunch, we walked around Old Colorado City.  What a cute little historic district.  No chain stores here and lots of cutesy clothes and trinkets.  I watched a glass blower for a while when Spouse was getting a haircut.  Good thing I don’t smoke pot because I was in a trance as it was watching the glass blower.  Give me pot and I might be stuck to him like glue!

Dinner is to be with my work buddies Jackie Hjelm and Becky Espinoza.  Jackie is going to save us some angst by picking us up.  Hmmm… where is she.  I called, she is looking for us at the Elks Club…  Jackie, you didn’t listen to my voicemail yesterday…  Ok, she has the address… her GPS can’t find it…  where is she?  I call… Are you lost?  Let me look up a map…  Ok, here she comes!

First stop is her house.  She is way on the north side of town.  She has a beautiful home with views of Pike’s Peak off in the distance.  Her driveway is steep and she is nestled in the woods.  Her balcony opens onto a killer pathway across rocky spires.  What a playground!  She moved here last year and is loving it.

Then on to Castle Rock for dinner at Piati’s.  Jackie loves this place… but isn’t it on that corner?  No, maybe it is this corner…  GPS time… Oh wait… It is Siena’s...  Ok, we are there.  Wonderful food, terrific company.  Eventually, we had to leave, after all, Becky has to work in the morning.

Jackie got us home without incident.  We said our goodbyes.  What a great evening!