Sometimes busy... sometimes not these past few days. I was up early on Monday so that I could be over at the Ford Service Department by 9:00 a.m. The truck has been making a 'tick - tick - tick' noise every time I started it up. I just assumed it was a sticky valve lifter or something similar, but it has been loud enough that it needed to be checked out. I decided to stay at the dealer, and then over at the local McDonald's, all day just in case they needed to talk to me. I was rather disappointed to find that they didn't even get the truck inside the building until after 1:00 p.m. ,  so I was a bit pissed off.
   In the end it wasn't until after 4:00 before they told me that they had found two main problems with the truck. The first was that the noise was being most likely caused by the timing chain tensioners. And secondly there was a leak in the intake manifold gasket. So the good news was.... they could fix one or the other of the problems separately... or they could do both together and get it all fixed up at the same time. The bad news...... it was going to cost about $4,700 in parts and labor.
    So-o-o, a new truck, 2 door, no 4-wheel drive, no bells or whistles would cost me about $34,000 plus interest for 3-5 years. Or I could replace mine with a like equipped 4 door, 4 wheel drive for about $60,000 and interest.  So in the end there was no question of what to do.... My current truck may be nearly 11 years old with over 191,000 miles on it, but the only thing I know of that isn't working right now is the light in the gear shift lever console. So I went with fixing it, which also more closely aligns with my philosophy of keeping things as long as they work and not just throwing them away because they aren't the newest or best.
    So I called up my friend Tom, and had him come pick me up, and then took him to dinner. Mexican food of course, since Donna wasn't home and we were both hungry.
    It took the dealer all day yesterday to get all of the parts in and start tearing the engine in the truck apart. I had hoped they would be done by the end of the day, but no such luck.  So instead of hanging around all afternoon Tom, George, Joe and I went out to a Boys Night Out movie instead. We went and watched the semi documentary movie about James Brown, which I still can't remember the name of. But the movie was actually very good. We were all struck by the music of course, but the plot was good and the way it was filmed, with flashbacks and forwards to help tell the story was unique and really 'worked' in this case.
    We went and had Mexican food for dinner that night also. You might think I would be getting tired of eating it by now, but no way. After all, do Chinese people grow tired of eating Chinese food more than once a day? Do Mexicans not like 'Mexican' food more than once a day? I think not, no more than I would tire of eating 'American' food more than once a day. Though I'm not really sure what 'American' food really is.... maybe hamburgers or ribs or something like that.
    Because Tom and Donna had some friends flying into the Denver area for several days today I ended up moving back over to George and Marge's last night. It is so nice to have such great friends, in that I 'almost' think they were happy to see me back here with them. I'll be heading back over to Tom and Donna's in a couple of days though because it will be a lot easier to 'stage' out of their place when it comes time to pack up the truck for the river trip.
    So this morning was spent just hanging out here at the house with George and Marge. George spent a couple of hours showing and explaining some of the things he has been doing on his computer. A couple years ago he took it upon his self to learn how to create 3 dimensional computer animated objects and films. He has since then self taught his self how to manipulate some free software, 'Blender', to create little film clips he has posted on 'YouTube'.
    Around noon I called up the Ford dealer and found out that the truck would be done today, but that it would be late afternoon before it was done as they wanted to test drive it, then let it cool all the way down and then test drive it again when cold, just to make sure everything was working correctly. So it was nearly 5:00 in the afternoon before I went and picked it up. Just a little bit more than $4,700, ouch, but it started right up, didn't make weird noises and seemed to run better than before. So I am hoping that this will be the last major cost to hit me this fall. There will be other problems I am sure, but it would nice if there aren't any more big expenses for a while.
     Other than doing a little shopping this evening it has been very quiet. I think I'll go and get some cold water and then curl up with my 'Kendall' for the rest of the evening. I started a new book yesterday and it is keeping me pretty interested.


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   Sometimes life is just to busy and to much fun for me to sit down and write anything..... this is just one of those times. It has been a fun couple of days since I last wrote. Friday was a beautiful day and I spent it running errands for most of the afternoon. There was a regular contra dance in Denver that night and I headed over there after having a quick dinner with some dance friends before hand. The dance was pretty well attended considering it was summer and that it was a beautiful warm summer night. There were a few new dancers, but overall it was a pretty high dance level. Not the same level you will find at a weekend dance by any means, but at least I wasn't too worried about being injured by someone twisting my arm or stomping on my feet.
   Hung out with my friends at home for part of Saturday and then headed out for dinner with a couple more dance friends. I met Paul and Cindy over at a little Vietnamese restaurant I know of over in north Denver. I had a noodle bowl of course, (Bun not Pho), with noodles, shrimp, pork, chicken and beef. Yum!
   The dance was the once a month Denver Zesty, set up for more advanced dancers. There are still a few dancers that show up that aren't quite good enough to do a dance without at least one walk through, but most of them at least know most of the different moves. So it was a fun dance over all, with about 60 good dancers and a decent caller and band. It was also pretty hot and humid, so by the end of the evening everyone was pretty sweaty. Kind of reminded me of dancing back east.
    Hung out with my friends again this morning before taking off for Estes Park. A good dance friend of mine, Nancy, has a Bed and Breakfast up there just outside of town, and every summer she has a pot luck and jam party at her place. I went to Longmont at first, and stopped by the trailer to check that everything there was still okay. Also had to pick up a few things I'll be needing as well as drop a few things off.
    Made it up to Nancy's in time to enjoy a couple of cold beers and some finger food while listening to about 15 people jamming together on the front and back porches. Mostly Celtic/Irish flavored music and most of the tunes were ones that I have danced to many times before. A nice afternoon to sit outside and watch the hummingbirds flit by and we even had a couple bears, a sow and her cub, run up a big ol pine tree right next door. I left the party a little bit before the sun set so I would have a better chance of not hitting a deer or elk on the road home. Unfortunately I didn't get to see or talk to Nancy much of course, but we are going to try to get together dinner next Friday before the Boulder dance, and that will be nice.
    For now though it's late and I'm tired. Tomorrow I take the truck in to the Ford dealer to see what it is going to need before we get back out on the road again.


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    Moved my base of operations over to some other friends house yesterday. I am now 'blessing' my friends Tom and Donna's place for a few days. It is nice to have a change of scenery, but I will be back over at George and Marge's place next week, and that is okay with me too.
   It must of been  a little rough as a transition for some reason, as it was long after 2:00 a.m. last night before I ever managed to get to sleep. As a result I had a hard time getting up this morning and then staying up once I was out of bed. As it was, I ended up taking a nap late this morning and it felt good to do it.
   I had a few errands to run this afternoon, nothing really important, but I needed to go find another fold up chair to take on the river trip. Did manage to find one I think will work, so that is one more thing to scratch off of my list. Once done with those errands I met up with Tom and George over at the local movie theatre. We had all decided to see yet another movie this week, because there are so many new movies that have been released in the past few weeks. In this case though, the movie we went to see, 'The Edge of Tomorrow', was a movie that Tom and George had already seen two weeks ago. But they were up to seeing it again with me saying that it was good enough to view it again. It turns out that it was a pretty good movie. Starring Tom Cruise in the lead roll, the Sci-Fi  flick had a good plot and really good special effects. At the end it left you wondering if you actually had it all figured out, so it left plenty of stuff to talk over at dinner.
    Dinner was over at the local Red Robin afterwards, where Emily kept us supplied with drinks and food.  It's always a fun time talking with these friends because it almost always includes discussion of the next boat trip, movies, politics, books etc.  In other words; it is really nice to hang out with interesting, smart people who know how to hold a conversation.
   I headed on down to Washington Park after dinner, intending to do a little folk dancing tonight if anybody was there. It turned out that there was a pretty good crowd this evening even though it rained for about 10 minutes when I first arrived. It soon cleared off like it often does in the west, and the sky cleared up and the ground dried off. It was a good night of dancing, but it also really showed me how hard it is to remember the steps to some of the dances when you only do them once or twice a year. It is still fun though, so I hope there will be many more years to go, that I'll be able to go down to the park and dance.

   Another wonderful day here in Colorado. Hard to describe how beautiful it is here during the summer. Instead I am left with simply talking about some of the things I did and people I saw. So be it, that was a nice part of the day for me so it certainly isn't onerous.
   After a slow and easy morning, George, Marge and I headed over to a small local airport just to the east of us. I had awoken with this huge craving for a big, juicy hamburger for some reason, and one of the best I knew about was over at the airports restaurant, 'A Perfect Landing'. So off we went for lunch.... and it was just as good as I remember it. A really fun time just sitting there looking out the windows at all of the private planes and jets waiting there to be boarded before taking off for distant  lands. There are certainly some large private jets parked there that could pretty much take you anywhere in the world you wanted to go. I had a lovely, hot, gooey, mushroom/swiss burger with fries and ice tea, and it was great.
   Back to their house afterwards for some book reading and a chance to fall asleep in a chair. It was nearly 4:30 when George actually woke me up so I could go and see a movie out with him and Tom this evening. Boys Night Out today included seeing the movie 'Guardian's of the Galaxy' and then dinner over at a local pizza type restaurant. The movie turned out to be much better than I thought it would be just from seeing the ads and previews. Pretty hokey overall, but there was some good special effects as well as some good humor. I am certain there will be more of these movies in the future.
   About the only other news of note is that I will be switching where I'm staying tomorrow afternoon. Time to give George and Marge a break from me, even though they say I am always welcome, and move over to Tom and Donna's place for a few days. Will have to get all my stuff gathered up and ready to go. Hard to believe how much of a mess I can make in a little more than a week.




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   There hasn't been a whole lot going on these past two days.... hence no post from yesterday. They have been very nice days for all of that, just not much going on. I caught up on paperwork and banking stuff that I have let slip over the past couple of weeks and after that was all said and done, there were books and magazines to read, and conversations to have with my friends.
    Today was very much like yesterday. Other than a nice walk outside this morning, there wasn't much going on. George, Marge and I did make a trip over to the local 'Lucile's' restaurant where we met up with their son, his wife and child. Lucile's specializes in 'Cajun' food for breakfast and lunch. There are several of them scattered about the front range of Colorado, with two here in Denver, and the original up in Longmont. The food is always good, and the company this morning was great. I had the 'Cajun Breakfast', made up of red beans and rice with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. Along side was some grits and home fries, and all was accompanied by a huge home made biscuit with strawberry/rhubarb jam. It was all so yummy.
    This afternoon  had me reading more books and magazines, and looking up stuff on the net. My one big accomplishment was opening up the new GPS unit I bought a few weeks back and getting it all set up and ready to go. This unit has lifetime map and traffic downloads so I connected it all up to the computer and downloaded all of the new updates. Otherwise about the only thing accomplished is uploading the photo's you will see below. I took them nearly two months ago while still in Virginia, but it has taken me this long to get them all sorted out and ready to go. They are of one of my favorite places, Mabry Mill, along the 'Blue Ridge Parkway' in Virginia. Enjoy!

Mabry Mill in Virginia - June 12, 2014

Built more than 100 years ago by the Mabry family, this mill could actually do several jobs. First and foremost it was a grist mill where you could take your corn or wheat or other grain and have it ground between two large mill stones in to flour. In addition it could also, by using various drive belts inside the building, mill logs into lumber. If that wasn't enough, more drive belts could be used to drill, sand, re-saw and plane flat all that lumber into finished material.

Looking at the mill from across the mill pond.

Another view.

My girlfriend Rima was with me on that day.

Another view.

An old wagon such as you would use to transport grain to the mill, and flour back home.

The front view of the mill. The center section held the grist mill for grinding grain, while the far left section held the sawmill section. Closest to the camera was the work shop where all of the wood working tools were located.

The rest of the photo's are just more of the mill as I can't seem to pare them down any further.

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   A couple of good days.... and nights, here in Colorado. Yesterday was spent running back up to the trailer in Longmont to pick up a couple of things I had forgotten and which I really needed. Such as my check book. Also made a stop at the bank while there and then went on out to my storage unit to start figuring out where all of the gear for the up coming river trip is. Lucky for me most of it is still right out front where I left it after the canoe trip last year, so it was just a matter of checking it out and trying to figure out what else was going to be needed in addition to the gear I already have. Looks like there is very little I'll need to get, basically just another light weight sleeping bag and another fold up chair. Otherwise my list is pretty complete.

    Went on over to a local Chipotle afterwards and had a bit of dinner. Sometimes I just really crave their chicken burritos. After spending about an hour there reading my book and hydrating the body, it was time to head over to Boulder for the Friday night contra dance. There were an amazing number of  people there last night. Usually attendance really falls off in the summer when there are so many other things to do outside, but there had to be close to 200 people there at the start of the dance. More than enough for 4 full lines with 20-30 couples in each line. Of course many of them were beginners, but over all they all did okay as the starting dances were all easy and everyone is pretty relaxed with helping new people figure out where it is they are suppose to be. It's one of the really nice things about contra dancing and contra dance people. Anyway; last night was 3 good hours of hot and sweaty contra dancing in Boulder. Many of the beginners dropped out halfway through at the break, but there were 80-100 hard core dancers that stayed right up until the end. Enough for  two full lines anyway. It was good to see and dance with some wonderful old friends, and even meet a new one or two.... not that I'll remember any of them of course.

   I was exhausted once I got back to George and Marge's place. I felt like the dancing went well even though my allergies were still going full blast and that I'm dancing at more than a mile high in elevation where as it was only around 3,000 feet the last time I danced nearly two months ago. A nice night of sleep for me as dancing always dehydrates me enough that I don't have to get up much during the night after dancing. Or is that too much information?

    It was still late when I finally got up. It took extra long to make it back to home even though I thought traffic would be much milder near midnight. Didn't happen down on I-25 though. There was still a huge traffic jam down in the section between Santa Fe Ave and the stadium. An extra 30-40 minutes for sure as traffic went from 4 lanes down to 1. So it was no surprise when I went and had a nice nap later this afternoon. I tried to read my book, but it kept falling on my face when I fell asleep. So it was pretty easy to give that up and just roll over and sleep another hour or so.

   Tonight M & G and I took off and headed north toward the suburb of Arvada. We, and a couple other friends all have tickets to the play at the Arvada Center on the same night so we often try to do dinner together before hand. We met up with everyone at 'Three Margarita's', Mexican food again... of course.  A good meal and a chance to talk to some people I haven't seen for nearly a year.

   From there we were off to the Arvada Center for the last play of the season, and my last play as a season ticket holder. Tonight's offering was 'Tarzan' the musical. An interesting presentation and, as always with the Arvada Center, a master piece of stage craft and presentation. That being said; it will never be my favorite play just because it isn't that interesting of a subject. It was still a fun play to watch though and the acting and singing was all superb.

     Now though, it's time for some much needed sleep.

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   Finally a break in the weather in which the sun came back out and the rain, for the most part, went away for awhile. I was up pretty late this morning, I think because sleep for me last night was hard to come by. My allergies were really kicking up and it was long after midnight before sleep finally came.
    But once up it was full steam ahead for me. First on the agenda was lunch in north Denver with a couple of my friends, Maggie and Paul. Really good to see them both again, and they are doing pretty well though Paul is moving pretty slow still after having had a hip replacement several months ago. We went over to a local restaurant in their neighborhood, La Luna. Run by a family of three, it is some of the best Mexican food in the Denver area and very reasonably priced also. We talked for more than an hour there at the restaurant as well as some more once we got back to their house.
    Once done there I was off running errands, I needed to pick up another pack of cough drops first off as I seem to be consuming them like candy at the moment. They help control the cough that results from my allergies, but they also tend to upset my stomach a little bit with all the saliva and menthol that gets swallowed.
    From there I was off to a local RV store to look for a couple vent lids to replace the ones that were beat up in a hail storm a couple of weeks ago. Plenty of vent lids, but none of the 'unbreakable' ones in the style my trailer needs. Still plenty of other RV places to check in the next few days or weeks, so I will find them somewhere, at some point.
    That was it for errands for the day so I headed over to a local Micky D's and read a couple magazines while drinking an iced drink. I needed to meet up with George and Tom at the movie theatre a little bit before 5:00 p.m. as we were going to see another movie tonight since so many of them have come out in the last couple of weeks. On today's agenda was the movie 'Hercules' starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in the lead role. Overall it was a much better movie than I actually expected. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of gratuitous violence, but it did actually have a pretty decent plot. Lots of action, a little humor even a little sexual tension. Not an Oscar winner, but it will make a ton of money over time and it was kinda fun to watch.
   We all went across the street afterwards to the local Red Robin restaurant there. Still fun to walk in and find half the wait staff know who we are and all say hello. Emily met us at the table with our drinks and only had to make sure that I wanted the same thing as usual before putting in our order for food.
   A fun time talking with my friends and eating and drinking, but I needed to finish up a little earlier than usual as I was headed for Washington Park to see if there was any folk dancing going on outside in front of the north lake boathouse. A fellow by the name of Sukar (Sugar) Bassano showed up there one Thursday night 44 years ago. With a few old records and a table to put his record player on, he has been showing up there every since. I was lucky to be there the first night he and 7 other people showed up and started dancing. I'm still not sure how he managed to get me, a 13 year old boy, to come out and dance with them. But I did, and that was pretty much the start of my dancing life. Even though it has shifted somewhat over the years, going from just folk dancing to pretty much just contra, it is still really fun to show up at least  once a year and see some of my old friends there.
   Tonight Sugar was there of course, though he pretty much acts as an ambassador of dance rather than planning the dance list or teaching a dance or two. Also there was his wife Bettina and one of their daughters, Nora. I use to pick her up when she was about 5 and waltz with her around the floor. She's now in her 40's and has a husband and a 10 year old son. There are also a couple of other old timers there tonight. Russ and Sharon were both there that first night also and they still show up every summer too. And then there are all of the others, some that I know, some that I just recognize, and always, some that are completely new to me.
    I only danced about an hour and a half, but that was enough to remind me that it would be better if I danced some of these dances more than once or twice a year. And yet there are still a few old nuggets that they still dance to that, if I just stop thinking about it, my feet will automatically still find the steps to. At the end of every dance evening there is one dance that they always do that brings everyone together into one big circle as we all hold hands and close into a tighter and tighter circle with each other. I usually don't really go in for that kind of thing because it often seems a bit forced, but it's fun with this group because you actually feel like everyone is glad they and you are there sharing the evening.




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