Can't believe it has been 5 days since last writing. I apologize to all of you who actually expect me to post something on a regular basis. I'm usually pretty good at keeping up with this stuff, but it is summer, my favorite time of the year, and there are simply to many fun things going on in the world right now. I will try to recap some of it though, at least briefly, more for my benefit really, as I have a hard time remembering things if I let them go for too long.

    So going back a few days; my friend Rima and I headed south down I-25 on Wednesday the 21st, on a day long road trip. Down through Colorado Springs and Pueblo and then turning west towards the mountains at the Colorado City exit. The first goal was to get to Rye Colorado, my first community, and the birthplace of my mom and of her parents original homestead. Rye is still a small, sleepy little town with not much going on in it, one stop sign on the main street and a couple small stores scattered up and down  a couple of blocks. There was a new café in town, located in what I think was the old volunteer fire department building. It came in handy having it there later on when it was time for lunch.

    We continued farther west into the foothills at the base of the Wet Mountains until we came to the road into the first house I had ever lived in. My father was building it when I lived there, as he found time between working and commuting into Pueblo or all the way to Denver, so it wasn't even half finished when I lived there with 6 of my brothers and sisters. Certain memories still come to me about that place, even though I was only six when we moved to Denver, but I remember roller skating in the basement with my brothers and sisters, having to share the skates since there were only a pair or two between the 7 of us. The house had running water in the kitchen from a well my dad had hand dug just outside the house. It also had a real bathroom in it, though the water wasn't hooked up to it yet so I actually used an outhouse for the first few years of my life. There are stories to be told about my brother and I having to escort my sisters out to the outhouse at night and then leaving them there in the dark.  There was also the old tin bathtub that came out on Saturday or Sunday nights, that had to be filled with hand carried buckets of hot and cold water. The bath water was shared, one after another, and if I remember right, who got the first bath was rotated on a weekly basis. My sister, Kathy, and I didn't have to worry about using somebody else's 'dirty' bath water though as we got our bath's in the twin laundry sinks next to the washing machine.

   Travelling on up the road a bit farther, you come to the mountain park that is along Greenhorn Creek. Lots of fine times running through the park throwing rocks at wasps nests and damming up the creek so we could have our own swimming hole. We walked a little bit there and even found where one of the old swimming holes had been. The water was a lot colder to wade in than I remember it being at the age of 5 or 6.

     Another couple of miles and we are now well up on the flanks of the mountains and my grandparents property, 'The Ranch' finally comes into view. With plenty of rain this summer the old hay fields were verdant green as they nestled between ridges of tall, dark Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Firs. All of the old buildings, the house, the barn, chicken coop and pig pens are now long gone. But the memory of them all still lingers on.

   Turning around at the end of the road we headed back down to Rye and then north toward San Isabel Lake. My Father helped build the lake that is tucked back among the trees there. It was the 1940's and it was a government work project designed to get people back to work and the economy working again. Not sure if this was a CCC's project or not, but he was in that service later on, so it may well have been. We were going to eat at the old lodge there near the lake as it holds memories of really good fried chicken with mashed tater's and gravy, and the best home made pies ever. Mom and at least one of my sisters worked there during the summer a few years before I was born. But we had to backtrack to Rye for lunch however because the lodge is only open Friday through Sunday these days. But we got to try out the new café in Rye, and while not super terrific food, it was good enough and pleasant enough to sit out on the back deck and eat a hot rueben sandwich and potato salad.

     Next stop was farther back north where we pulled in to see what a guy named Jim Bishop has been up to these past years, on his pet project... building his own stone castle. Seems he has been plenty busy working, as one tower is nearing at least 200 feet high and there is a ton of new wrought iron work that has been done since the last time I was there. Personally, I think Jim is probably crazier than a loon, but you really have to admire a guy who has a vision and then sets out to achieve it. You look at what he has accomplished and wonder how, essentially, one guy can do all that he has done. It is certainly admirable and if any of you ever get a chance you should go see it. There will be pictures at some time of course, but no guarantees on when that will be. Oh... best not tell him you work for any type of government agency if you do. He's rather touchy that way.

     A side trip up the dirt and gravel road alongside Opher Creek was next. We sat at the top of the pass looking down into the Wet Mountain Valley and watched one rain storm after another flow down the Sange de Cristo Mountains and up our side accompanied with rain, then sleet and then snow. That is, we watched until one lightning bolt hit close enough to the truck to shake it real good... then we left in a hurry.

    From there we travelled back through the towns of Wetmore and Florence and on to Colorado Springs and Castle Rock where we ate huge, gooey, unique hamburgers at a restaurant named 'Crave'. Mine had a cheeseburger stacked on a grilled cheese sandwich, all smothered with green chili. Rima had one with pulled lamb and avocadoes and all kinds of other good stuff.

   Thursday was a kick back day so we goofed off on the lake in the morning doing a little canoeing together. First time I had ever paddled with Rima and we did very well together. Showed her a couple more advanced strokes to add to her list, the Duffek stroke, cross bow rudder and such, and she picked them up right away with out dumping us over or even getting us wet. :)

     Lunch together with a friend of mine, Joe, at the '4 Gs',and then on to one of two new Cabela's stores here in the Denver area. I was in search of a new pair of binoculars since my last pair seem to have lost there waterproof-ness somehow. Lots of new optics to look at and as I had more than $400 in Cabela points it was fun to look at every pair that would fulfill my requirements. It took about an hour of looking and help from a very friendly and knowledgeable clerk, but I finally whittled it down to one pair of 10x42 Steiner's, although there were 3-4 others that would of been acceptable.

     We met up with a friend of Rima's for a quick dinner at Racine's afterwards. This friend, Devon, had been a friend of one of her son's in Floyd Virginia, and I had actually met him once while I was visiting there. So we had a nice dinner there and managed to get through yet another round of rain storms out on the covered patio, without getting too wet.

    Tried to go folk dancing afterwards, but it started to rain again so we just headed back to the house and watched one of my favorite movies, 'Star Dust'. Of interest to me is how I thought this movie was a rather benign romantic comedy, when actually it has a rather lot of violence mixed up in it. Though most of it is played towards a humorous side, I'm still surprised at times to note how different people react to different situations.

    Friday the 23rd we headed north towards Longmont for most of the day. I had several things that needed to go back to the trailer and some back into storage. Also wanted to pick up my mail while in the area and really wanted to go over to one of my all time favorite restaurants, Lucile's, for lunch. We managed to squeeze everything in, even though we got a bit of a late start. There is actually two Lucile's restaurants here in the Denver area, but Longmont has the original, and best one in my opinion. It is geared to a slight 'Cajun' flavor so my meal was a Cajun omelette with andoui sausage while Rima had red beans and rice. Yum!

    A couple of hours to kill found us over walking up and down the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. Fun just to get out and walk outside for a while. Though there was time to enter a couple of stores that were of interest to one of us or the other. We weren't real hungry yet after such a wonderful lunch, but we wanted to eat something before going on to the Denver contra dance at 8:00, so we stopped and split a Vietnamese noodle bowl and some spring rolls before heading over to it.

    We got to the dance about a half hour late because of the slowness in the noodle bowl place, but we hadn't missed but maybe one or two dances. So we changed shoes and got into the first line available. We hadn't danced even half of the dance yet when one of the bands microphones sent out a loud squawk of feedback. Annoying, but not normally a big problem except on that night when one of the band members, Rodney, suddenly stopped playing, stood up and started ranting about the god*#/& sound and stalked off the stage. Talk about a real show stopper! We were all just stunned having never seen or heard anything like that before. Tina, the caller, was pretty on top of her game though, as she called for the mid dance break a bit early so they could see about getting it all back together. But the damage had been done already and I know at least half of the dancers, including us, left right then and there. I have to say that I have danced to the music of Rodney more than a hundred times before and nothing like this has ever happened before, so I am sure something else was going on with him that night. But it was pretty rude and unprofessional, and I am sure it will be the talk of the Denver contra dance community for some time to come. As for us.... we just headed home where we sat outside and watched the lake from the bottom deck of the house.

    So that brings us up to yesterday and yet another fun filled time. Some more paddling out on the lake before going over to the local farmers market for some shopping. We were having friends over later on for a cookout so we needed a few fresh things for that. Some corn, so sweet you could eat it raw off of the cob, a yellow fleshed seedless watermelon, lettuce and onions and of course a fresh baked pastry or two to eat along the way.

     Some burger and buns and other odds and ends were picked up at 'Kings' and then back home to sort it all out. Also had to find time to mow and trim the yard, water the flowers that hadn't been rained on and of course, throw the ball for Rhodie.

     We started getting ready for the cookout around 4:00 by making a fresh peach crisp and icing down the watermelon and drinks. There were 7 of us planned for, but only 5 stayed to eat. Still, we had a wonderful evening of sitting around talking eating and drinking with everyone until late.

    Not sure yet what the rest of the day is holding in store. Rima is over playing the piano as I'm sitting here writing, so that is a nice way to enjoy the rest of the morning. We will be doing something out on the lake I'm sure, and then this evening we are meeting some friends over at a local bar, the Bull and the Bush, for some pub food, conversation and then some good, live Dixieland Jazz and Big Band music.

    I hope it won't be this long again before I write, but it is hard to tell at times. I will certainly be working on photo's again at some point soon. I now have so many waiting for me that I could post from now until the end of the year it seems. Like always though, if it becomes a choice between having fun and writing about having fun.... well I think you all know by now what the choice is going to be.