You are browsing the October 2004 Archives
102 degrees for lap swimming, 109 for soaking.
Hot Fresh Mineral Water at "Sand Dunes Recreation".
No Chlorine, high mineral content - including Lithium! It works! - Or maybe it's the hot water, but either way, tranquility base here, the eagle has landed.
Serenity now, serenity now.
Happy Trails To You, until we meet again.
Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA
Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA
Camped by the tree, in case anyone needed a landmark.
Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA
Watching the shadows of the clouds cross the dunes.
It could last a lifetime, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever".
I'm not telling where.
Reporting to you relaxed and with healthy mind, muscles, and skin.
The 7th mineral pool soak in Colorado.
Although this photo does not show the fish jumping, the elk, the antelope, bighorn sheep, golden sunlight, etc.,
it still pretty much has it all.
art is art
Spent a few hours on this hard packed gravel road
Ice near the summit added to the fun of being over 10,000 feet
and still not above the tree line.
Imagine a few weeks prior, these Aspens would have been blinding yellow.
another nice warm mineral water soak.
Spent about 8 hours in this water, emerged healed.
I'm mentally well again!
Until it dries off, anyway.
photogenic place,
but the souvenir
"Estes Park, Colorado"
thermal coffee mug goes for $13.95.
Invasion of the seasonal merchants.
Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
- e.e. cummings
Trying to stand up straight in 50 MPH wind gusts.
Located off Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park.
Hanging On, the wind already blew away all foliage.
Above the tree line, approx 10,000 feet above sea level
inside Rocky Mountan National Park
near Estes, Colorado
The sign is a bit dark relative to the extreme color in Colorful Colorado!
Can't you see the lumina, saturation, and hue?
Colorado get a big colorful Yee-Haa Y'all
beginning to look like Colorado
when you see yellow leaves, blog it
blog it good
from Northeast Utah
After about 4 miles of this uphill drive I found a stable enough spot to trust the emergency brake and get out.
Down into the canyon, back out again - that could easily take 1 clutch per round trip.
4WD Low, that's LOW!
My blister is now healed just by looking at this.
A still and silent place.
Candles flames lit in camp burned straight up several inches, no breeze.
Just the sound of water on rocks, quaking aspens with their yellow leaves, and a dozen wild turkeys along the bank echoing off the canyon wall.
Woke to a frozen water bottle, I felt fine.
Sunrise, sunset, stars, Sunrise, sunset, stars.
Green River Utah inside Dinosaur National Monument.
Leaves were changing, some were falling.
Sounds echoed off the cliffs,
we were in a slight canyon, a parallel cliff face is behind the camera.
Nice acoustics, especially when alone hearing everything going on along the Green River, Utah.
Only for those with high ground clearance and 4WD Low. That's 4x4 low, LOW!
You'll notice how steep this is if your brakes burn out on the way down.
It's a 15 mile back road from Utah to Colorado, down into a canyon, up onto an Aspen grove and pheasant hunting land.
Not everyone can live where the downtown has a chain link fence containing 3 of the best known "Great Lizards":
T-Rex, Bronto, & Steggie.
In concrete due to budget constraints.
Not a spray paint tag in sight. Clean!
This is a female bronto. No question about it in Utah, if you know what I mean . . .
"Here in Vernal we're serious about uh, um, we want to make sure you have a good adventure in this isolated part of the lower 48."
They do a great job here: outfitters, guides, ice cream cones.
Vernal is the (only) town near Dinosaur National Monument.
(Foreshadowing of future postings)
It's Free to sit in the saddle of a real Brontosaurus.
His (her?) eyes are real yellow light bulbs.
I was unable to view this at night, I had places to be, yellow Aspen leaves to see.
Godzilla got all the attention.
I debated over posting this photo or a close up of just the head. The teeth are spikey.
This is not a camper, it's a desert home in North East Utah.
There were 2 kids playing in the yard, located on the other side of the big yard-art (above). The oldest kid was pulling a piece of wood tied to a string, marching and talking to himself with a staged serious expression.
The younger kid was buck nekked and was throwing sand into the wind. Both looked as happy as can be.
God Bless 'em, a happy home is a happy home.
Seeing those kids I felt it then more than normally. Seeing them I felt so very lonely, man,
I am so lonely!
The best way to fight it is to keep moving. Being still eats me alive from the inside.
I wish I lived here with a family with a big dinosaur on the side.
What's up with me ??
A few postcards were sent saying we're entering the "dinosaur phase" of the trip.
I doubted that it made much sense to the recipient, but the blog clarifies all.
their marketing literature sezs:
by the Hiway
Two Good Places to Eat & Sleep: Home and Here!
This place is great! Saved me from my accidental decision to drive a mountain road at night.
It was a simple sunset photo session that turned to a night drive and was quickly turning into death by Elk / head-on collision / steering off a mountain road into the void.
Highway 40 going East out of Salt Lake City.
Dark!
Every vehicle was towing something - Ford F-350s with ATVs trailered, Dodge Rams towing campers, all impatient to get somewhere, not concerned about passing on a hill.
Oncoming trucks passing on the 2 lane and heading straight into me.
Add some spitting rain and this Frontier Motel saved my life, kinda sorta.
They had a cop car at the Frontier Cafe. The night clerk said that all they had was 1 smoking room and it was $48.00. She was nice, gave me the chance to see the room. She said it was up to me, that I could drive on to Vernal, UT, another 20 miles, but it'll be even later when I get there and I'd be safer here than on the road this time of night.
Credit card, license plate, and I'm in the room with my toothbrush.
Sleep for now, g'night
frog-gator-something-saurous
latin for WTF? RUN!
The Natural History Museum, Univ. of Utah has a dinosaur exhibit.
I'd heard they have a T-Rex.So I went. I walked because I was legally parked.
They did not have a T-Rex on display, just a model of his head.
They had some Ass-asaurus and these things (above) looking at me.
I got a blister walking around the orderly Salt Lake City neighborhoods. Funny, you walk 15 miles up a mountain and can still walk on glass. Then when you walk to a museum you get a blister. Had a good laugh at a small dog barking in my direction, but he was non-committal about barking at me. His owner was a Kurt Cobain look-alike, an unusual look in Salt Lake City.
The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.
and if you've ever been to Jackson, WY then you understand.
Yee-Haw. Let me hear you say yehaw. You got a little cowboy in you, call it up.
Yee-haw, Ya'll.
Saddles for barstools, not that we bellied up to the Million Dollar Cowboy bar or anything.
We bagged Cascade Canyon, Tetons national park.
That's Mtn Talk for we went for a long walk in the woods and came back.
Hey Look at the mountain we just climbed.
It's above the sole auto in parking lot. October, it's the time to go.
Fog whirlwind at the summit of one of the peaks in theTetons.
This photo is in color.
We're lost but nobody knows it.
It's OK to be lost in the wilderness when you're wearing a fine Italian gator as a headpiece, a Sierra Club Ski Patrol poncho, and a serious look of lost awareness.
Keep the river on your right. Should we walk backwards then??
Saw several Moose and heard several "noises" pacing me in the woods.
15 miles on the Canyon trail in the Tetons.
View from the "town gym" in Jackson, Wyoming
I'll admit it was a workout to earn this view.
Hey, a workout is one thing, but getting passed by chatting housewife locals
while I stumbled along and gasped for oxygen was part of the experience.
Really keeps the ego in check.
The Grand Tetons in background.
the gym in Jackson, Wyoming. 3000 foot vertical gain if you're hiking up. Or if coming down, the steepest ski run in the world, or so I was told by a local brewmeister.
We are cool, but not too cool for school. Old Faithful was worth the effort.
Have you ever seen Old Faithful?
It is big but not the biggest geyser, It's the regularity that is so amazing.
Is there a faucet? A valve?
yet another beautiful waterfall in Yellowstone National Park
the only hot mineral bath I have not yet soaked in, it was scary hot.
Beyond boiling like you only find around volcanic activity.
Yellowstone National Park
Yes, it was boiling and we sure needed the soak
Avoid the left sides and stay around the cold river portion on the right or you'll get a boiling.
Nice mineral water, feels very healthy for the skin.
Taste Great! & less filling than Beef.
It's my Home. Plus the car is so cool looking in an empty parking lot with Elvis'd out windows.
Come during October: late for summer, early for snow.
Using Manners to Get Food when Hungry and a Stranger in a Strange Land.
Here's the deal, the inside story on a big good time (bigbonton) in this town (population 3,325).
Begins with Hunger.
Go into the Star Cafe & Lounge front door. Ignore the empty Cafe & Lounge area. Proceded on the uneven flooring through wooden door, then navigate the maze of halls and unmarked doors, trying each one. They are all locked or open into shadows of danger.
Hear a big laugh. Follow, people are in this building & they seem OK, maybe. They laugh like that here.
Enter the "actual" Star Cafe & Lounge entrance after a 10 minute search through the empty Star Cafe & Lounge building.
Persist! There are no other choices, wha' you want Thai tonight? Deep dish pizza? Feel like Pho? Then go home. Dude, you want to eat tonight? Well you're going to ask the barmaid nicely about a meal. Hat in hand, because everyone here knows
"we quit serving early tonight".
Persist, call up the manners Grandma told you about. Follow Miss Barmaids directions through another maze of halls and unmarked doors. Fear a trap. You are lost in a building and know you cannot find your way out. I left my flashlight in my daypack. Helpless & hungry, but in America so we'll be OK.
Enter the secret (licensed?) cantina through their backdoor. You were not invited to dinner. The room of 18 festive Spanish-speaking farming brethern goes silent.
Smile hard, remember the manners Grandma taught you. Some people are eating here. Others might be able to eat tonight also.
Smile and for Gawds sake don't step on anyones toes, you couldn't find your way out of here in the daylight, much less "after we quit serving early".
You may win big like we did! We charmed an off-duty cook into the best Mexican plate I have ever tasted - not just because it was a hard-won meal, but because this burrito had life and was a gift of love!
"Hungry and you fed me".
Now get a formerly festive brethern to lead you back to your place at the Star Cafe & Lounge, so he "can get on along with his party".
Next: Place $5 before Miss Barmaid. Now you can smile more easily. Say things like: "Keep 'em coming, M'am. I sure do like it here."
Saying "keep the change, you are so good to me" also works when your smile and manners need a boost.
easy now pardner, nobody is Lost. Don't say Lost.
There is no name for where we are.
water? - check . . . gas? - check . . . map? - check . . .
head on straight? - lost ... we're lost dude LOST
beside the car tire was a coyote skeleton, long dead and partially mummified.
Figured we'd not photograph that since it might bring us bad luck. Not that we were scared or anything . . .
Snake River north of St. Murrays Idaho
St. Murray Sand Dunes, Idaho
Somewhere outside St. Anthony, Idaho.
Rough Rock, Fine Rock
Find the Blue Heron and win Eye-Candy.
Beside our motel in beautiful downtown St. Anthony, Idaho.
