Got back from three days and nights of hot, intense contra dancing down at Camp Sertoma in North Carolina. Packed up the trailer on Friday afternoon and took off around 3:00. Only an hour and a half or so down there, though I did have to pull over about 30 mins into the trip when a piece of my added on driver side mirror lost a part and nearly fell off on the road. Managed to hang on to the edge of it while pulling off the road then spent about 15 mins trying to find the piece that fell off, basically a black plastic wedge, but no luck there. What is kind of interesting is that I did find a perfectly good piece of small rope laying along the roadside. It was just the right size and length to tie the rest of the mirror back on well enough to get the truck to the dance and back.

    Made it down to camp by 5:00 and pulled into my usual spot right near the entrance to the camp. Reasonably level and wide enough to park the trailer and truck together, it is just a short walk on to the main camp. Time enough for a nice nap and then a quick dinner on the front porch before heading for the 'barn' where we danced for more than 3 hours to the music of the band Contrazz and the calling of Robert Cromarite. (sp) What a fun filled evening it was.... I so love dancing to that band... and it just got better as the weekend went on.

     I slept in late on Saturday morning of course, but was still up and about from about 10:00 a.m. Spent some time getting a bit of breakfast and reading some magazines I hadn't had a chance to read yet, so it was fun to just relax. On to 'lunch' around noon where I caught up with my friend Rima. We decided to head over to Hanging Rock State Park and hiked their signature Hanging Rock Trail. A nice couple of hours out in the woods during a beautiful fall day. Hiked out to the end of the trail and spent a couple of hours sitting on the edge of the rocks looking out, and down, over a vast part of the country. We watched the buzzards floating on their thermals and looked out over the hillsides where trees are really starting to change color now.

   Back to camp after that and more food before another night of fantastic dancing. That night we had Crowfoot playing and Gaye doing the calling. A somewhat bittersweet evening as it looks like Crowfoot, who are from Canada, may not be touring anymore in the configuration they are in now. Something to do with a new baby and wanting to be home with the wife and child... or some silly thing like that.   :)      It was a great night of dancing and I only sat out two dances the whole night. Seems that I have managed to pull some muscle or tendon down in my ankle and it tends to put a hitch in my step once in awhile. Lucky for me rest, drugs and moderation seem to be enough to get me by.

    My favorite dance day of a weekend is of course Sunday. I actually got up early enough, don't ask me why, to make it in to breakfast. A pleasant morning of talking and hanging out before the first session of dancing with Contrazz. I think they must of held back all of their best and most frenetic tunes for Sunday because it was just one hot dance after another until they finished up more than an hour later.

   Cue on Crowfoot then, and yet another session of wonderful dancing. So many great partners, so few dances to dance with them with. Did all but one dance in the final set, but did manage to dance one final sweet waltz with Rima.... And then it was all over for yet another year.

   Spent about an hour packing up the trailer and hooking it up to the truck. Had to wait a little while for enough people to leave to provide room for me to drive in and turn around. From there it was just a couple of hours to reach Floyd. We stopped for an hour or so in town and ate at the local Mexican restaurant. Not too bad as Mexican restaurants go, especially one this far east of the Mississippi, but not all that great either. Still, my first meal there was pretty good, and this one was okay, so I'll eat at least another one there before passing full judgment.

    Got the trailer back to Rima's place and settled it in for a couple of weeks. Will be staying in the area for a bit longer before heading out on the road again. Will be hanging out for the next couple of days... there is a lot more mowing and trimming that can be done.

     Busy couple of days recently.... funny how time has just raced by, but I can't for the life of me remember even half of what I have been doing. Seems like most of the last few days have started out like most of my days... eating breakfast, reading the comics, checking fb and email.

    Afternoons have been a bit more robust. I'm still staying at my friends place near Floyd, so I've been doing minor outdoor type stuff, mowing and tree trimming mostly. I did spend several hours a day or so ago trying to patch up the roof on Esmerelda. It seems to have worked 'pretty' well, but not perfectly. So for that reason I drove over to Christiansburg yesterday and hit the Home Depot again. Picked up some tree trimming tools and a couple tubes of caulking. Once back  I got the ladder out and climbed back up on the trailer roof to have another go at it. Caulked the heck out of the seam at the base of the vent over the bed. Not sure how any water could get in there after all the stuff I've put on it in the past, but one more application can't make it any worse. On the other hand.... I also rigged the umbrella back up under it just in case. The good news though is that there isn't suppose to be any rain this weekend.

   The reason that is such good news is because I'm hooking up the trailer this afternoon and heading off to my first dance weekend in nearly 3 months. This dance, Feet Retreat, will be at Camp Sertoma just over the border in N. Carolina. Can't wait to dance to the tunes of Contrazz and Crowfoot. Also looking forward to seeing old friends again and possibly meeting some new ones. Either way I need to finish this up and go finish packing. Will write again in a couple of days.

    

    Have spent a couple of very pleasant days here in Virginia. Actually mowed some grass the other day.... something I haven't done for 5 years or so. It still makes me sneeze! But it is the least I can do to help out my friend who's place I am staying at. She has been kind enough to give me a nice place to park the trailer for a few days and has even fed me a couple of times to boot. Yesterday after working up a few photo's, note below, I even went out and trimmed some grape vines and a couple of trees for her. There's about a bazillion trees here on her place, so they all aren't going to get a 'fine grooming', but some of the yard trees are very much in need of a severe pruning.... and I'm actually pretty good at that kind of thing for some reason.

 

   On a more 'fun' note... went into Roanoke yesterday afternoon and found more stuff for the trailer roof repair. Picked up a couple 9" wide rolls of 'Ice and Water' flashing which I'm going to roll onto both edges of the trailer as soon as it warms up and dries out enough. It's super sticky stuff and a real pain to put on, but it should do the trick I think. Of course that is what I have thought with every thing I've done up there so far. But I'm hopeful... maybe this time the leak will magically be fixed. 

 

    Afterwards it was off to Blacksburg for a house concert. A guy by the name of Nathan Salsburg, from Louisville, Ky, was the entertainment for the evening. Mostly acoustic guitar.... amazing acoustic guitar, with a few regular vocal songs thrown in. He, and a friend of his on banjo, kept us entertained for well over an hour. What I really like about house concerts is that you might pay $10 to $20 for the evening, it was $10 tonight, and in return you get to sit about 10 feet away from this amazing talent and meet and talk to them afterwards. Not that I did of course, but you could if you wanted to. It is so much better than going to a movie. So good in fact that I had to buy his most recent CD. It's being loaded up on the computer right now for use on the ipod later.

 

   What was even better than the music though, if that is possible, is that Nathan is the curator for the Alan Lomax collection of music films and videos of American Folk Artists that were taken back in the 1900's. ( About 1920 to 1975 is what I think he said) The collection is now in the Library of Congress and he brought about an hours worth of old film taken around the south and eastern U.S., of common folk performing on their back porches or in their kitchens. What a hoot. All of it is online... just go to YouTube and google Alan Lomax. It's really cool.

 

     So; back too late last night to do or post anything, this work stuff must be really wearing me out. But today looks good, though a little cloudy. Hope it doesn't start raining again, I just got the inside of the trailer dried out again. Time to go do some more trimming and mowing and general weed whacking kind of stuff. Life is really good at the moment. Enjoy the photo's from my trip out to Old Cape Henry Lighthouse last week.

Old Cape Henry Lighthouse at Fort Story Army Base near Virginia Beach, Virginia - Sept 18, 2013

Had to add this photo just to show that this was the very first public works project ever done in the United States. I think it is pretty neat that it was a lighthouse. 

The very first lighthouse in the U.S. was built to guard and show the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay as well as Norfolk and Suffolk harbors. This light no longer works, that job is now being done by a newer lighthouse about 200-300 feet away from this one.

The front door to the original lighthouse.

From the bottom looking up.

At the top of the lighthouse inside the old lamp room. My friend Rima is standing in front of one of the windows that looks out on the Atlantic Ocean and shows the newer lighthouse.

Looking out on the new Cape Henry Lighthouse and it's surrounding support buildings.

At the top looking down.

Check out how thick the solid brick walls are at the window enclosures.

A view of the top of the original lighthouse showing the lamp room.

Standing on top of a coastal sand dune, the light would of been visible for more than 16 miles on a clear night.

A look at the top of the new Cape Henry Lighthouse.

One of many different painting schemes used on lighthouse's.

Another overall view.

I liked this one because of the clouds in the background.

One last view of the whole lighthouse.

    Went and did it again.... took off on Monday for several days at Virginia Beach and completely forgot that I had taken the computer out of the back of the truck and had put it in the trailer once I landed at my friends place in Floyd. So I apologize for not posting anything for the past few days, it was unplanned actually... on the other hand, I really enjoyed being unplugged from everything for a few days or so and just enjoyed my days out.

   So maybe a little catch up for any of you out there, but more importantly, so I can get it down on paper before I totally forget everything that has happened. I left off last Saturday on my way to Floyd Virginia and I am happy to say that I made it all the way into town and out to my friends place about 10 miles outside of it. We both arrived within 5 minutes of each other so it was nice to have her help in finding a place to back Esmerelda into where she would be out of the way for a few days. Rima, my friend, has about 22 acres of mixed forest and pasture ground that sits on top of a hill that sits above a very pleasant little stream. Of course the streams here in the east would be a decent river out west where I'm from, but that is totally beside the point. The point is that I managed to find a place to park the trailer, not too level, but level enough, but basically out of the way at least.

     It being late in the afternoon.... actually more like early evening, we headed into town for some food where we could just sit and talk while someone else did all of the cooking and cleanup. A nice meal at a local restaurant called Natasha's. A wonderful little place where the food is much better than one would expect in a town the size of Floyd. Good food and pleasant conversation while the sun was going down in the west. A fun couple of hours and then back to her house for a mug of hot tea before finally turning in for some much needed sleep.

    I slept late of course and then had an amazing breakfast made for me that included local farm fresh eggs along with locally smoked bacon and cups of steaming hot tea. Rima had big plans for the day for us that included going over to the 'New River' for an afternoon of canoeing. I think this was just payback for making her paddle with me while she was out visiting me in Colorado. Either way she knew a guy who had a place and we soon found ourselves dropped off 7 miles up river from this guy's place with the instructions to float on down and not pass by and miss the take out. Oh; he also casually mentioned the 4 class III rapids along the way and the several other lesser rapids we had to make it through. A beautiful, clear fall day with wonderful water and scenery along the way. This was the first time Rima had been on moving water with me let alone running rapids. She did really well however, even if she did yelp a couple of times, close her eyes and stop paddling once or twice. But only until I told her, in a very controlled manner, not a yell at all, to start paddling again. We had a really fun time of it and really did very well considering we had no idea what any of it was going to be like. Should of gotten out and looked over every rapid of course, but we didn't. Instead she foolish believed I knew what I was doing and just went along with whatever I told her to do. In the end we made it through them all with out shipping too much water into the boat. There was the one time my end of the boat got hung up on a ledge of rock and we had to 'rock' ourselves off, and there was the one ledge we hit perfectly, dropping over a little 2' drop and right into another ledge at right angles to the first one. It was a matter of doing a "hard" left turn and then a 2nd "hard" right to get around it. Thought at one point we might dump it right there, but we persevered and got through the whole thing with just a little spray at the bow. Along the way there were also long, quiet runs to float along on or practice paddling. What fun!

    Rima had to work a bit come Monday, but she made me breakfast before taking off for a few hours. Now you may be thinking that I'm a bit of a slug for 'making' her do breakfast for me while I lolled around until it was ready. But the truth is that Monday was my birthday and as much as I like to ignore the fact that I'm getting older, it is easier these days for me to appreciate little things like that, when someone wants to do it. A nice relaxing morning before we had to both get busy and packed up and headed east towards Virginia Beach where she had a 4 day conference to go to.

    About 6 hours of steady driving down out of the mountains and onto the coastal plains of Richmond, Norfolk and into Virginia Beach. We checked in and headed out for our first walk along the beach and boardwalk before finding something for dinner at one of the local places. Good food, I had fish, and very pleasant company. All in all one of the nicer birthdays I've ever had.

   Unfortunately Rima had to work come Tuesday morning..... but I didn't. Got up early enough to go out to breakfast with her at least, before dropping her off at her conference before continuing on to my adventure for the day. I drove the hour or so back up the highway to Old Colonial Williamsburg for the day. What a unique and fascinating place to spend a whole day at. Starting at a reproduction of one of the old plantations that would of been in the area in the late 1700's, complete with all of the out buildings, gardens, animals and slaves. It was a bit disconcerting to approach and talk to young black men or women, in period costume, who were also 'in character' as a field or house slave's would of been. It brings a whole new dimension to any discussion of a common days work and how things were done back when people believed it was okay to actually 'own' other people.

    On into the main part of Williamsburg where other people in costume, some in character, were happy to explain to you how wagon wheels were made or repaired. How food was grown and cooked and how some of our most famous forefathers once strolled these exact streets discussing the beginnings of our own democracy or our eventual succession from England.  Six hours was not enough to see it all, which is why when they told me they had a special deal going on for 'old' people, that allowed me to come back any day I wanted too until the end of the month, I jumped at the chance.

    Back to Virgina Beach that afternoon in time to meet up with Rima and wander the beach for an hour or so. A really beautiful place all in all, but the ambiance was marred somewhat by scores of F-18 jets flying right over town all day and evening from 8:00 a.m. to exactly 10:00 p.m. at night. And these jets were all flying at less than 200 feet above the ground as they were taking off or landing at the local military base just outside of town so they were really, really.... no really, 'LOUD'. It was hard to talk whenever they were in the vicinity.

    But we found the most wonderful little American Bistro restaurant to eat dinner at. Named 'eat', it is at the north end of the strip in a little unassuming building. We shared an entrée and picked a couple of appetisers to round out the meal. Our entrée, a NY strip steak stuffed with mushrooms, red peppers and herbs along with these perfect French fries. They matched up well with the summer soy bean salad and hot bread. What a great little meal, made only better by the warm blonde brownie served with ice cream a carmel wafer and blueberries.  

    Wednesday found me staying in town for the day where I spent several hours walking up and down the boardwalk and looking at all the kitschy stores that line the streets. A couple of those hours were spent in exploring the very first Coast Guard, actually the 'Life Saving Service' at that time, Station in the U.S. Lot's of old artifacts to look at including the actual building which is still standing there facing the beach. A fun time losing myself in reading about the first years of the service I spent several years in. The only thing that could make the day better was picking Rima up after her day at the conference and heading up the coast a couple of miles to see the very first public works project in the country.  We had to check ourselves in through the front gate at Fort Story Army Base in order to go in and visit the very first lighthouse built in the United States, Old Cape Henry Lighthouse.

     We had only an hour or so to climb up to the top of the 1st light house and look out on the entrance channel to Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk and Suffolk harbors. The lighthouse we were in no longer actually works. That job has been taken over by a newer second lighthouse about 300 feet away form the first one. There will be pictures of both at sometime though.

   Had to go back to 'eat' for dinner again. There were just to many good things on the menu that were still to be tried. That night it was the special; rabbit fricassee ravioli with some special sauce the chef made up. Along with that was a warm spinach salad with goat cheese rolled in panko crumbs and then flash fried along with pork stuffed dumplings and French macaroons for dessert. Yum!

    Thursday found me on my way back to Williamsburg to see some of the many things that I didn't have time for the first time around. Spent time in the very first 'Capital' for the colony where the English would have their Representative and family live while they were administering the King or Queens business. Later on Thomas Jefferson would be one of the first Governors of the new colony of Virginia and would live there until they moved the capital up to Richmond instead.

   Also took a tour of the Wyeth House, Mr. Wyeth being a prominent businessman in the early colony. He was also a lawyer and had a hand in teaching a young Thomas Jefferson in some of his studies. What was most interesting, and yes, even a bit thrilling, was knowing that the window seat I sat on in the room that would of been one of his class rooms had probably been sat on by Thomas Jefferson himself more than 200 years ago. How cool is that?  (I am such a geek!)

    I picked Rima up at about 4:00 and we drove south in search of a beach that didn't have jets flying over it every few minutes and didn't look like it got raked and combed every morning before the sun came up. We ended up on one just north of one of the state parks and spent a couple of happy hours there looking for shells and wading in the water. To cap it all off we had a pod of dolphins swim by just out past the surf line where we could see them coming up for air and cavorting with each other.

   The last night in Virginia Beach and we had dozens of places we could of gone for dinner but we once again found ourselves walking into 'eat' once again. The wait staff were already starting to recognize us and we did manage to meet and say hi to the owner and head chef as we headed out after our meal. He seemed pleased that we liked his creations so much. For us however it was just a joy to try yet another batch of food off of the menu. Another special this evening, grass raised leg of lamb from Washington State. To go with it we had grilled asparagus speers and my favorite, summer soy bean salad again. We also had to have one more go at that blonde brownie with ice cream. We left totally satiated but a bit sad at knowing there were still many dishes that remained to be tried. Perhaps we will make it back there again at some future time. For now though, I would very highly recommend any of you go and seek this place out and give it a try.

    Only a little more than half a day on Friday for Rima. I spent the morning reading the paper on a bench over looking the beach and taking a short nap after lunch. We started back west around 3:00 and promptly ran into Friday afternoon traffic out of Norfolk and through Richmond. We stopped in Charlottesville around 6:00 and had a nice meal in their old downtown area. Mediterranean food for the evening including pita and hummus and a nice leg of lamb dish with candied carrots and gratin potatoes.

   We stopped by the local Charlottesville contra dance afterwards and danced for the first half of the dance. Nice to dance again after several weeks of not dancing and what was really nice was actually knowing a few of the people there. We didn't stay for very long after the break though, it was already after 10:00 and it was another 3 hours before getting back home. A long drive for the rest of the evening, but really quite pleasant listening to some good music on the i-pod and talking about the past week. Sure felt good to finally make it home and fall into a real bed again.

    I slept late yesterday morning... who would of guessed. Finally up and about around 10ish. We ate some breakfast and then headed into town. First stop was the farmers market where we picked up a few fresh items from the local farmers before heading on over to the Floyd 4H fair to check out this years winners. Lot's of sheep and a few cows as well as some display animals including chickens, ducks and baby goats. The goats were just adorable to look at and pet, but they did certainly smell like a goat so I don't think one of them will be joining me in the trailer. Not yet anyway. We went on over to the Floyd General Store after sitting and watching several young girls doing their version of 'Cowboy Ballet'. For lunch we both had a hot bowl of pinto beans and cornbread on the outside porch while the rain was gently falling in front of us.

   Just hung out at home last night. I made dinner this time, yes I do actually cook. This time it was roasted root vegetable's that I first browned in olive oil in a 12" cast iron skillet, before throwing them in a really hot oven. For the entrée, we had bistro cooked steaks done in another cast iron skillet, along with browned sliced onions and morel mushrooms. It all came out much better than I thought it would and we both ate it all before settling in for some reading with a hot cup of tea.

    So I have spent several hours this morning catching up on everything while ignoring the beautiful day that is going on outside. On the good side it meant being able to actually sit and listen to a 'Prairie Home Companion' and 'Car Talk' all the way through. But now I think it is time to give this up for a time and get up and go do something fun. Will try to get a few pictures posted at some time, but not sure when that will be.
 

   

   Made it into eastern Tennessee by 8:00 p.m. last night. It had been a long, long drive during the day, nearly a full 12 hours in the truck, but a nice trip over all. Emma, my GPS, took me a new way, going down through Paducah and then on to I-24 before turning east again. Only minor problems trying to navigate through some construction work in St Louis and then a couple of spots in Kentucky and Tennessee. The last one was outside of Nashville where traffic slowed down to a crawl for nearly an hour. But I just put some good tunes on the I-pod and worked my way through them.

    Spent the night in a pretty little rest area just west of Knoxville, TN. The only problem was having one truck after another pull up next to me and leave their engine, or generator running the whole time. I was tired enough however, that it didn't really bother me all that much. The only other problem was getting up several times during the night to rid myself of some of the estimated 140 ounces of fluid I had drank during the day. Sure am glad Esmerelda has a bathroom.

   Didn't have a signal out there at the rest area last night, which is why this is getting posted a little late. Am currently sitting at a Micky D's having a late breakfast and hydrating yet again. I passed into another time zone earlier on. So now I feel even further away from friends and family back in Colorado. Already more than 1,400 miles away and now 2 hours different also. On the other hand, only 300 more miles to go to where I'll stop for a couple of days. Plan to stay with a friend in the Floyd Virginia area for a couple of days before heading on over to Virginia Beach for a couple of days. Really looking forward to seeing and hearing the ocean again. It is interesting to me how much I can miss being around the ocean at times. But then again, I know I'll soon be missing the mountains of Colorado the same way too. Probably a good thing I travel like I do, that way I can visit each at least once every year.

    Here are some photo's from a day hike my friend Rima and I did while she was out in Colorado visiting me. This would of been 2-3 weeks ago by now, but I've been so busy lately that it takes me a while to deal with photo's and get them posted. These should be the last photo's from what I consider last years 'Carefree Highway' tour. From now on my new tour for this year will be known as my 'Changes in Latitudes - Changes in Attitudes' tour. Enjoy!

Hanging Lake day hike near Glenwood Springs Colorado

Aug 2013

The start of our adventure, like most great trips, started with food. In this case a nice picnic along the Colorado River at the east end of Glenwood Springs Canyon. For those of you who don't know her, this is Rima.

Starting our hike from the parking lot at the Hanging Lake pull off.

Looking across the river from the trail head. Hard to believe that 4 lanes of I-70 pass through tunnels under those mountains.



Looking up river.

Climbing up the canyon now. Cliffs like these are on either side of you the whole way up.

Lot's and lot's of rock.

It had been so dry that there wasn't any water in the creek bed down at the start of the climb. It started to re-emerge as you climbed up the mountain.

I liked how the light dappled the water along the way.

Nearly at the top of the climb. In the background you can see the canyon we have been climbing up for a little more than a mile.

Finally at the top and this is your reward. Hanging Lake does truly 'hang' on this little ledge of rock along one side of the canyon. About 10' behind me the side of the cliff drops off a good 50'-100' straight down, depending on where you are looking.

The color here is all real. Something to do with the chemical composition of the water as it flows through the limestone substrata.

The water fall behind the lake.

 

I loved how the sunlight plays on the water drops.

One fat little chipmunk came over to see if we had any goodies to feed it.

At high water there is 2-3 times more water coming out of the hole in the side of the cliff. At really high water you also get water spilling over the top lip still. 

It was warm that day.... but not that warm. Rima is actually standing well behind the waterfall. It is a nice illusion though.

Looking out from the cave behind the waterfall. I have been here in the winter time also, and the waterfall builds up this huge cone of ice underneath it. So much ice in fact that it nearly fills the back of the cave.

I like this shot. Most times I forget to use the flash on shots like this, so that the only thing you see is this dark silhouette.

On top of the cliff looking down at the lake. There are hundreds of little Brooke Trout there in the water. It is really quite fun to watch them swim around chasing flies.

On the way back down. In high water times the stream flows out and around these rocks.

Nearly down now. A nice hike up to the top and then back down again. From here we headed on into Glenwood Springs where we had a nice meal and then went and sat in the hot pool for an hour or so.

   I'm so tired tonight that my first thought was to just hang it up for the evening and forget about posting anything to the blog... but I've had so much caffeinated soda throughout the day today, that it may be well after midnight before the eyes finally close for good.

   Was up at 7:00 a.m. this morning and ready to get an early start on the road. My brother-in-law, Mark, had found me a covered spot out at the Co-op he works at, to park the truck and trailer in over night. That way it would at least be protected if it started hailing along with the rain the area had during the evening. So he, being up and off to work even earlier, drove it back over to the house for me about the time I got up, and told me that he had 'aired' up all of the tires and that he had found the reason the back rear truck tire was losing air. Seems that I had picked up a small screw somewhere along the way and it was causing a slow leak that didn't really become apparent until I hitched the trailer up to the pickup and put all of that weight on to the rear end.

   Mark managed to get me in to see their tire guy first thing this morning so we drove over there and this really skinny guy, whom I forget the name of, took the tire off the truck, dismounted it from the rim, removed the screw and patched the hole, then put it all back together again and mounted it back on the truck, and did it all in 15 minutes or less. The really cool thing is that the whole thing only cost me a grand total of $15.

   With all of that going on, it was nearly 9:00 before I actually got on the road this morning, so about an hour or so late. Rainy, cool and a little foggy for the first couple of hours. Very pleasant driving however as I headed north to catch I-80 EB. After that it was pretty much steady driving other than stopping for gas every 200 miles or so. Still a stiff head wind for most of the morning, so gas mileage went down to the 8-9 miles per gallon range... ouch! Once I passed Omaha and turned south however, what little wind that was left, was behind me and I managed to do 10+ per gallon and that was with the air conditioning on the whole time.

    Pretty pleasant and uneventful driving for the most part. Of course there was that 1-2 seconds of terror late in the day when some semi truck driver missed his turn off to Kansas City and nearly took me and another vehicle out with him as he swerved across two lanes of traffic to get back onto the exit. But we all survived the incident and none of us are the worst for wear from it.

   Currently tucked into a rest area just west of Columbia Missouri and am hoping to get a few hours of shut-eye here. Will have to see how it goes as the highway is very close by and very noisy right now, plus I am sure some semi will come in and park right next to me sometime during the night and leave his generator going the whole time. Oh well... I always have a good set of ear plugs handy if I need them.

                         Hunger

Hawks sit silently on the fence posts in the early morning light.
       They wear their foggy shroud like a mantel around hunched shoulders.
The sun is there, somewhere in the east, but for now all is cold and grey and damp.
        Silent eyes stare out over the empty fields... they search in vain for movement.
Hunger is their companion this morning. They sit without motion and wait.


On the highway, cars pass, some going east, some going west.
     You can hear them in the distance even though they are hidden by the fog along the river.
Inside their sealed cocoon's the heaters purr as people stare at the passing billboards.
      The next exit has a Denny's or a McDonalds, hot coffee and donuts.
There is no need to wait when others have prepared your food for you.
  

   First day back on the road. Got a bit of a late start due to the rain in Colorado, as it took longer to pack up all of my stuff in the truck this morning. Also had to stay around long enough to say good bye to all of my friends before dashing off to the east where it is likely we won't see each other again for the next 9-10 months.

 Cloudy and rainy all the way up to Longmont this morning. My first stop was at my storage unit where I dropped off a few last items and loaded up some of the stuff I took out of the truck for the summer. From there it was on to the bank for some last minute paperwork stuff and then on to my post office box to pick up the last bunch of mail I'll be seeing for a long time. Had been expecting a couple of small packages that I had ordered to be there, but I knew they were on back order, so it wasn't totally unexpected that they wouldn't be there yet. Oh well, next year I will probably have forgotten all about them ,so it will be like having Christmas in July for me.

   Stopped and filled the truck up with gas and then went on over to the trailer storage place. It actually stopped raining long enough for me to transfer stuff from the trailer to the truck and vice-versa, and then hook the trailer, and all of it's components, back up and get it ready to get back on the road. The only real sour note to the whole experience was to find that the wind had blown one of my roof top vents open at some point, and that the rain we have been experiencing for the last two days has had free reign to come in and drench much of my kitchen and dining area. It also appears that the leak over the bed, which I thought I had finally found and fixed, still isn't fixed. Not much can be done about it all right now though, so the most I can do is clean up the mess as best as I can and then try to get it all dried out as soon as possible. I'll work on the roof sometime down the road when I have some nice warm and sunny weather again.

   Took off around noon finally and after 4+ hours of driving in the rain and wind I managed to get as far as my sisters home in Imperial Nebraska. A fun time this evening just sitting around with her and Mark and a mutual friend, Daniel, chatting and drinking beer. Early in the evening they took me out for what may have been my last really good Mexican food meal.  I'm really going to miss that stuff for sure.

   Headed on east early in the morning. I need to stop at a Menard's hardware store briefly, in Kearney Nebraska, in order to return some items I bought there a couple months ago. But I hope to put a good 500-600 miles on each of the next two days. I'd like to be back near the east coast sometime around Saturday afternoon if everything works out okay. Right now though I'm just hoping the torrential rain will go away.

   My friends, Tom and Donna, got back into Denver last night after backpacking the whole John Muir Trail out in California. It only took them 17 days to hike the whole 200 and some odd miles of it, and even then they did it a day quicker than they expected to. It has been wonderful staying here in their house on the lake while they were off doing there hiking thing, but I am so glad they made it back in time for me to see them before I left again. My original plan was to leave early tomorrow morning and they weren't suppose to even be back until late tomorrow night or sometime on the 12th. So this certainly worked out better for me.

   I went and had breakfast with them this morning, out at a new restaurant for me, 'Toast'. Yummy good stuff. It was still raining here after it clouded up yesterday and started sprinkling last night. It really looks like what I remember living in Oregon looked like 30 some years ago.

   I pretty much had everything packed and ready to load into the truck by late last night so I found myself with a bit of spare time on my hands. Tom and I decided there was just enough time this afternoon for us to go take in one final Boys Night Out movie before I left. Our choice for today was a newer one called 'Grand Master'. A Chinese film with English sub titles, the plot was about a kung fu master in China in the early 1900's, who brought martial arts into the modern age and who it is said, was the master who taught Bruce Lee all that he knew. Your basic guys night out movie, but this one at least had a decent plot and the cinematography was excellent.

    Came back to the house and just had time to change and get ready to go out to dinner and the theatre this evening. Had changed my original tickets for later in the month for tickets tonight so that I could at least go and see one of the plays at the Arvada Center this year. Tonight's offering was the opening evening to one of the all time great plays; Camelot. I was taking my friend Steph to dinner and the play with me so it was a simple matter of walking 3 doors down to pick her up. Dinner was Vietnamese noodle bowls over at a little hole in the wall restaurant  near the theatre. The play was performed well of course.... the Arvada Center always does a wonderful job. Good acting, good singing and a wonderfully creative set. I can't think of a better way to spend a last, cold and rainy night here in the Denver area.

   Headed back on the road in the morning if it isn't raining to hard here. I hear it is sunny and warm just to the east about 60 miles. Sure loved being back in my old stomping grounds for a few weeks. So much to do and so many good friends and family to spend time with. But the itch to travel is hitting pretty hard so I'm ready to head out to see new things and meet new people. Thanks to everyone here for such a good time. See you all in about 10 months.

    Stayed up way to late last night and missed out on posting anything for yesterday. Wasn't a whole lot to talk about anyway, but it was a fun enough day in any case. Went over to one of my sisters place around 10:00 and had a late breakfast/brunch with her and her partner. Had a really good time there just jabbering away with the two of them. Breakfast was terrific also, eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and some kind of really good cinnamon, something-something bread. Also got a look at a wooden shed she is building.

    Spent the afternoon running around doing errands. Picked up a couple pounds of fresh peaches so I could make a nice peach cobbler to welcome Tom and Donna back home again. Little did I know that they finished their 18 day backpacking trip a day early. So they are actually due back in town sometime this afternoon or evening. I am sure they will be worn out from driving all the way from Nevada today, but hope they will want to sit out on the deck later on for some cobbler and ice cream. Good thing I stayed up until 1:00 last night making it. Yum!

     Also had dinner over at Steph's last night. She wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday and to thank me for taking her on the canoe trip. So we cooked up a couple steaks, some salad and assorted other little tasty bits. A very nice evening out on her back deck, good food, cold beer and wine and pleasant conversation. The two dogs also had a fun night of wrestling with each other.

     Have been cleaning and straightening up the house since this morning. It certainly isn't up to Tom and Donna's level of cleanliness, but it isn't too messed up either. It will have to do in any case as there are still way to many things for me to do before taking off in two days. Right now I'm just enjoying the cooler day we are having, sitting here in the kitchen nook with the door open and looking out on the lake below.

    Speaking of below; the photo's for today are from a day trip my friend Rima and I took a couple of weeks ago. We started out going south through Pueblo and then out to the town, Rye, my family lived in when I was six. Bishops Castle is north of Rye 25-30 miles. Started more than 30 years ago by Jim Bishop, he has been working on it pretty much by himself all these years. Open year around for free, you can wander around pretty much at will. He does ask for donations so he can keep going, and I always think it's worth a few bucks just to see what he has completed since the last time I was there. I highly recommend taking some time and seeing this place if you have a couple of free hours. I would hold back from discussing anything to do with the government, state or federal, police, dept. of transportation, the forest service, the building dept. and inspection service or any number of other agencies that can make a persons life miserable, especially if you happen to work for any of those agencies.

Bishop's Castle - Aug 2013

Travelling north from San Isabel Lake, you soon turn a corner in the highway and see the towers of the castle above the pines.

The front part of the castle as you approach up the entrance road. Note the wrought iron work and the dragon head mounted at the peak of the main gable. It will eventually be hooked up to a steam boiler so that it will spout steam from it's mouth and nostril's. For now, in the winter anyway, Jim Bishop hooks it up to a little wood burning stove for the same effect.

Looking at the south tower. I remember visiting this structure more than 30 years ago when the only thing here was an outline of the building structure and about 2 vertical feet of stone wall.

With a 14mm wide angle lens, this is all of the structure that I could fit in while staying on the property. Built by hand, pretty much by one guy, it is an amazing piece of work.

Looking up at the dragons head from the wrought iron balcony at the front of the castle.

Jim Bishops regular day job was as a metal worker specializing in wrought iron work. This is some of the stuff he has put up since the last time I visited. He is certainly a master craftsman as far as his metal work is concerned. That being said; it is a little creepy to walk out on some of the stuff he has put up.

Looking at the wrought iron bridge between two of the shorter towers. On the left tower is a structure known as 'the birdcage', you can evidently climb in and stare out at the passer-by's. I have seen a dozen or more people standing up on the bridge at one time.  It always make me a little nervous. There was no one there the day we showed up, might be because it was the middle of the week, or it might be, as it was pointed out to me by a good friend, that standing on an all metal platform a hundred plus feet in the air during an afternoon thunder and lightning storm might not be all that good for one's health.

A closer view of the bird cage. It really is like a fine piece of sculpture.

Inside on level 2? or 3?, depending on where you start, Bishop has started to finish off some of the interior space, at least to the point of installing windows.

The main hallway. What intrigues me was the use of wrought iron trusses to support some of the roof. About every 10'-12' or so a stone and concrete arch would take some of the roof load.

For a small donation, about $150 I've heard, you can have a pane of stain glass installed into west end of the main hall window wall.

Looking  up at the built in sky light section. Also note the stone and concrete arch section.

There are no limits to where you can climb on the structure as long as "you" take responsibility for your own actions. Or so the hand lettered signs say so. This view is from the tallest tower, but not the highest point by any means. Given the storm brewing outside, this was as high and exposed as I wanted to go.

A close up of the dragon head. I like how the sunlight was shining on the dragon scales.

Also new since the last time I was there; Jim Bishop has been working at digging the moat around the front end of the castle. Here is the new 'gate keep' that he has built, complete with a draw bridge, internal spiral stairway and metal gate.  

When I first started coming here about the only machinery they had was an old flatbed truck and a 1 yd. concrete mixer. It looks like he is still using his own ingenuity to move the thousands of tons of rock and other materials he has moved over the years. I still believe he is a bit on the loony side, but you have to respect what he has accomplished.

The end of a wonderful day. Must be another forest fire somewhere in the west.