Year's End Roadtrip

Not in Fort Collins.

Yeti Crossing?

Hey, Nice Horns!

The internet connections are not as good at the moment so some kind of year end wrap-up will have to wait. Have a good and safe New Year!

One Abominable Snowman

At the Greeley Freight Station Museum

The OC&E Layout

The Oregon California and Eastern HO Layout can be seen at the Greeley Freight Museum. Covering 5,500 square feet of floor space, this HO gauge layout features a 1,244 foot long single main line and thousands of hand-made rocks, trees and other scenery.

A Display of Railroad Artifacts!

The REA operated a Chicago based refrigerator car line beginning in the early 1900's and then converted its cars to leased bulk mail carriers by 1965. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1975.

The Yeti

Located in various places in the central layout are six dinosaur figures hidden among the rocks and forests that are not easy to find. Then there is a Yeti that is hidden someplace in the building. I found the Yeti behind an equipment box located on the east side of the museum. See above.

If you find the Yeti, you get this button!

When the museum opened in May, 2009 they would let the finder of the Yeti hide it again. They sort-of changed that policy when someone hid the Yeti so well that it was impossible to find! (It is not known if anyone has ever found THAT Yeti).

Berthoud at night

and more telescopes!

Dr. Andrea Schweizer

Back in February we saw Dr. Schweizer at the Science Cafe talk about the International Year of Astronomy. The other night she was at the Little Thompson Observatory to help build the Galileo Telescope kit.

On the way to the big telescope!

They put out a light rope so you could find your way at night. It's pretty dark on the south side of Berthoud, but that's a good thing!

18" Cassegrain telescope

We were hoping to look out of the retired 24-inch Mount Wilson telescope that was recently moved to the observatory earlier this year, but the mirror was being refurbished and the mount needed rebuilding, so we won't see it in operation until sometime next year.

People came in to build telescopes!

Some actually took a look at the manual!

The observatory in daylight.

Hart's Alley

is a "speakeasy' in Laramie Wyoming!

It was "Hot Brazilian Night" on Saturday!

With Fort Collin's World Class Samba Band "Bloco em Foco" in attendance. It was a real trip!

It's All About a Bridge Named BOB !

If you visit Avon Colorado:

They have a bridge named simply "Bob".

A 150 foot span over the Eagle river, the Bob bridge was the result of a "Name that Bridge" contest in Avon, Colorado. Not much to it, actually, but the idea has spawned all kinds of "Bob" related happenings, Bob-festivals, Bob-B-Q's as well as annual pilgrimages of Bobophiles from all over the world.

Under Bob

There is a laminated wooden arch holding an old aquaduct from an earlier time. Then of course, there is the Eagle River with it's white water!

There are whitewater runs under the Bob Bridge. As one might expect, there is an easy kayak run called "Baby Bob", an intermediate run called "Junior Bob" and a more advanced run called "Senior Bob".

The water under the bridge is called "Avon Whitewater Park"

where you might see kayaks bobing in the ice cold water. It won't cost you a shilling (bob). Women with bob haircuts get in free!. If the water is frozen bobsleds are used to slide down the river. Pembroke Welsh Corgi dogs with their bob tails can cross the bridge without fear (as Duncan Madog can attest).

Life Jackets are required by law!

Wear a helmet too!

Storming the Castle mit Wolf

If you are near Edwards, Colorado

you can get out on the trail with your jeep

and get a look at the remote Castle Peak volcano!

But before you go, make sure you take this guy.

Meet Wolfgang Uberbacher: mountain guide, horticulture expert, wilderness school instructor, mushroom expert and US ski instructor. The owner operator of Mountain Wolf Jeep Adventures, Inc., Wolf will make sure your adventure is an experience of a lifetime. He's no Eule Gibbins parody; He knows what plants are safe to eat, and which ones can be used for medicinal purposes. This guy is a real trip!

Oh, and he likes to yodel !

This was not cool

...because we got into some hot water

At the famous Glenwood Springs hot springs spa and pool!

Off season is the best time to go. The air temperature was about 60 degrees and the large pool was around 94. The smaller pool was around 104 degrees. As you can see from the above picture, there were few tourists today.

Near the back parking lot is the spring water source.

3.5 million gallons a day!

Here is the "drinking pool"

In the 1890's this was the place for "spring cocktails" that were guaranteed to cure any ailment. That's why this place was so popular back then.

Colorado Daze

August 1st is "Colorado Day"

It's a day to go out and see Splash Dogs

...and tractors.

lots of tractors!

Here's Duncan resting under one now!

Why is it Colorado Day? Well, apparently on August 1, 1876, President Grant signed a proclamation creating Colorado as the 38th state of the Union. It's a day we Coloradoans use to raise awareness of the state's historically significant locations! If you have a favorite Colorado historical site, you can tell Governor Bill Ritter (he's making a list) by going here.

A Cheyenne Parade!

This was fun:

We got into the town of Cheyenne

and we parked a block away from the parade route!

They had Yellowstone Park touring cars!

...and Yellowstone Park touring wagons!

There were cowgirls on a truck!

and pink tractors?

Frontiersmen on a float (displacement of native Americans)

Dazee's 1926 float of the Silver Crown (a Ponzi scheme before Charles Ponzi was born)

and Dazee's 1936 float 'Hell's Half Acre' (early prostitution in town)

a float depicting the last man to be hanged in Cheyenne? (capitol punishment)

...and bootleg whiskey? (illegal manufacture of spirits)

Oh, yes, there were more tractors!

And there were many, many fully operational horse-drawn coaches, carriages and wagons; more than in the Museu Nacioal dos Coches in Lisbon! Best yet, the area high school marching bands were in the parade as well!

The BVKC Dog Show!

Duncan MaDog was not welcome here:

At the Doggie Salon

Show Dogs

and more show dogs!

Doggie portrait #1

Doggie portrait #2

Doggie portrait #3

Doggie portrait #4

Doggie portrait #5

Last week-end at "The Ranch" or the Larimer County Fairgrounds and Events Complex we just had to check out the Dog Show. Duncan MaDog could not come because "ordinary" dogs could be carrying the canine herpes virus which could quickly spread to the show dogs. No big thing, except Duncan would have had a good laugh at all the fuss the dog handlers were exhibiting at the doggie salon.

...and there's nothing like the Oster 2-speed forced air power dryer to ensure a dry dog on show day!

Poudre Aqueduct

Along the Poudre River Trail:

It's an old aqueduct!

Over the Poudre River!

This is a good place to stop on the trail and look at rusted metal and weathered concrete. I didn't see any markings on the structure to indicate when it was built and I couldn't tell for sure what direction the water was directed to go.  It points south toward another branch of the Poudre river but it is doubtful that the branch is a source for the water. It may have been used to take water to or from the reservoir near Hoffman Mill road and S. Timberline.

Shear a sheep! Do it today!

Shear a sheep in 30 seconds!

At the Estes Park Wool Market. Also included: Lama Performance Show; Alpaca Meet-n-Greet; Natural Colored Sheep Show; Cashmere Goat Show; and Sheep Dog Demonstrations!

Oh look, I found a VOR

From the sky:

It's neat looking! But what is it?

It's a VHF Omni Range (VOR) ground station, of course!

Or perhaps it is simply an antenna for communicating with space aliens! It looks pretty neat, but the sign says to stay away and since I left my tin-foil hat a home, I didn't get too close!

Timnath Bombs!

I just heard some people talking the other day about the town of Timnath and "The Bomb". "Were they talking about the new WalMart that just opened?" I wondered.
"No!" they said. "The Japanese bombed Timnath during World War Two!"

"Oh sure!" I thought. Timnath, a town of around 250 people just 2 miles east of Fort Collins couldn't possibly be the Japanese idea of an effective target. "What's wrong with these folks?"

But, they were quite adamant about this "fact", so I had to give in and assume that this could very well be a Roadside Mystery that I have to at least make some effort to report.
Checking the facts is easy now that the World Wide Web is here! Checking out the Wikipedia entry for "Timnath, Colorado" we find that "During WWII Japan experimented with 'Balloon Bombs' that floated across the pacific to the U.S. The only bomb to successfully reach land was one that floated all the way to Colorado when the balloon finally popped over the Town of Timnath making it the only town on the continental United States to be bombed in WWII."

"Well, I'll be..." I thought. "I better check this out!"

After a detailed examination of declassified government documents I found the approximate location where the supposed bomb landed and with my Official Welsh Guard bomb sniffing canine Col. Duncan MaDog, we checked out Timnath ground zero:

Col. Duncan MaDog sniffing for bomb residue

The bombing of Timnath happened on March 20, 1945.  Unfortunately it was such a long time ago that Duncan was not able to determine if any of the surrounding material in the area came from a Japanese bomb.  Good dog anyhow. I'll promote him to Brigadier next month!

In case you find something weird in your back yard and wonder if it is a Japanese bomb, see the picture below:

A bomb that was captured in Oregon 

A detailed drawing of a balloon bomb

Another drawing that looks like it's out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

The Japanese sent off more than 9000 balloon bombs hoping to catch the jet stream just right so that they could land in the Pacific Northwest and create all kinds of havoc in the U.S. Not much happened, apparently. Some people in Oregon were killed when they found an unexploded bomb and tried to drag it away for a souvenir.  In all, about 1000 balloon bombs were recovered; 300 of them on U.S. soil.

So what about the Wiki entry about the "only town  to be bombed?" Well, from what I have determined from the records, some bomb fragments were found in a farmer's field in Timnath, but many more were found in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.  In fact, a complete fully intact bomb assembly and balloon was found in Kirby, Wy.   Heck, they found balloon bombs as far East as Detroit:

I don't get those reporters in Michigan. The word was out that we were supposed to keep the balloon bombing a secret so the Japanese wouldn't know how effective their WMD program was! I wonder if someone from Toyota saw this and got an idea.

The Northern Gateway to Colorado

It's Wellington, so they say...

Where you can see a rather well preserved photograph of the infamous "Maggie Murphy" potato.

... and this foot from a Civil War soldier.

There were some other things we saw in town but were too mystified to photograph.  We shall return in the near future! 

The Celestial Cafe

Take Tea and See...





All paintings at a tea company near Boulder.

Too Many Notes

In Denver, at the 2009 Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival:

Bluegrass Compilation w/ music by Sons and Brothers

Lots of music this weekend! There were great shows all day long; jams and workshops all over the place!

Half-Assed Ranch!

Today we visit Meredith Hodges and her magnificent mules!

Here is Meredith coming down to greet us !

Here she is sweet-talking a donkey!
This ain't no ordinary ass. This is Little Jack Horner, the famous jumping donkey!

Here's a bronze statue of Meredith; attempting to jump over Jeanne?

...and Meredith standing next to a statue of Meredith on a jumping mule.

Here is the castle-like grooming barn. It was a quonset hut for sheep until the mid-1980's when Meredith moved to Colorado.

Meredith's house.

Meredith has published five children's books about Jasper the mule.

The eldest daughter of Peanut's creator Charles Schultz, Meredith is probably the number one person to see if you need to train your donkey or mule! Check out her website today! Your ass with thank you for it!

I never knew there was such a place.

We on the road to Shambhala

Today we are drawn to The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya

... and we are truly enlightened.

The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya has been built to last for over 1,000 years. The shape of the Stupa represents the Buddha, crowned and seated in the meditation posture on a throne.

The Standing Buddha on the outside

During the Mahayana period of Buddhist development, stupas began to be embellished with various themes of enrichment: the cosmic embrace, opulence, generosity, super-rich, gold, big gates, ornamentation.

A golden statue of the Buddha sculpted in the Gandaran style sits in the first level of the Stupa.

The first floor of the Stupa is open to the public. The second level, reached by interior stairs, contains a small chamber, 32 feet square and 14 feet high. Here there is a three-dimensional Chakrasamvara mandala, as well as statues, paintings and frescoes throughout. You must seek special permission from the Shambhala Mountain Center to gain access to the other floors.

The marble floors were magnificent!

The insect motifs caught my eye.

Not all bugs!

Among many of the treasures inside is this signed illustration of Babar visiting the stupa by Laurent de Brunhoff.

Outside, one might find a collection of other treasures!

The Shambhala Mountain Center is located about an hour north-west of Fort Collins! It's a little bit of Nepal right here in the frontrange of Northern Colorado! Who woulda thunk!

The art of snow

In Breckenridge at the 19th International Snow Sculpture Championships!

Here's a Bulgarian team member chipping away.

Team Spain's entry (An angry owl pissed off because beavers are gnawing his tree)

Team Canada - the dance of the ancestors

In our opinion, Canada was the best entry.

In all there were 16 entries at Breckenridge, but we were not sure it was worth the 3 hour drive just to see the sculptures. Hey, that reminds me...

Back in Chicago, we made this dragon out of snow

... and one year we made this panda bear.

We could do the same in Fort Collins if it would snow. Maybe there's hope. One year FoCo had 3 feet of snow. It could happen!

Note also: Our old neighbor from Arlington Heights, Fran Volz is hosting a snow sculpture contest in Grant Park, Chicago.  Check it out this February 12 -15, 2009!

The Road to Masonville

It's a good day to take a little journey into the foothills:

The folks in Masonville are down-homey types. 'Course they all play banjars !

The forecast calls for cooler temperatures tomorrow, like around 45 for the high (instead of 68 like today!)

Oskar Blues

This place in Lyons is a lot of fun:

It's sort of a 'Cajun' restaurant with live music, but not Cajun music typically!

... and even though most of the live acts are blues bands, every Tuesday they have an open Bluegrass Jam ! 

Swing again

Ah, the old VW gets a full tank of gas! Compare with this price!

On the way to The Swing Station...

For a short bit o' jam!

They play honky tonk there. More hard drinkin' than Avo's. It's on the way North side of the county.

The Tree Farm

There are two things in Greeley that are worth the drive:

1) They have great Mexican restaurants
2) They have a nice Christmas tree farm

We are looking for a fresh tree to put up in our new home. Now that we have 14+ foot ceilings, we can put up a larger tree for the first time ever! Lets do it!

On the way back, we stopped in at Windsor to see how the rebuilding was going. You could still see workmen fixing roofs and cleaning up after the damage. Some of the larger trees were removed from the area since the last time I visited, but none of the businesses have been restored.

LaPorte

In some other town...

Pretty weird jam on Sunday night! We will try again next week.

'Paca Party!!!

Today we went to the Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies 12th Annual Fall Festival Alpaca Show !

Alpacas are members of the camelid family. They are mild-tempered, gregarious animals with an inquisitive nature!

Indigenous to South America, the alpaca is raised for its soft fleece.

Had we purchased House Number One we would have had enough land to own a few of these critters.

Heck, they require only modest amounts of food! They are very intelligent animals that respond to a variety of training and handling techniques.

And they sure are cute!

Here's Jeanne with a huacaya.

This one with the dreadlocks is known as a suri.

Not one of them spat at us! Hooray!

Hidden Valley again

Over to Hidden Valley at RMNP. It's a great place to get Rocky Mountain High.

This weekend Bryan from St. Louis came to visit!

Pray for Greeley

"With the expansive prairie out one door and the towering Rocky Mountains out the other, Greeley is a city of unlikely combinations that complement each other beautifully. Experience the best of the Contemporary West in a place where you can feel equally comfortable in a cowboy hat or a business suit."
Well, that's what the Greeley Convention & Visitors Bureau says. I rode my bike out to Greeley today to see what was there. It was a nice day, and I put on about 65 miles for the round trip. As I came into Greeley, I saw some signs that read "Pray for Greeley". I didn't know what they were about. As I rode up a hill, I smelled a rather recognizable oder... it was a meat packing plant! Ah ha! This was the plant that fired about 100 Muslim workers after refusing to report for work a day earlier in protest of the company's refusal to allow a prayer break during the work shift. It was in the news and here I was and I smelt it! Mystery solved!

Elsewhere in Greeley there is a place that has what I might call a very early mobile home:

It's a wagon with a little house on it!

A look inside the mobile home.

...and that's about all I have to report about Greeley.

Oh, and they grow sugar beets there:

Annie, The Railroad Dog

We were in Denver last night to see Avenue Q. It's sort of like an adult version of Sesame Street.
Check it out!

Annie the Railroad Dog: This is not the first time we have seen statues of dogs.

Here is the statue of Annie at the Fort Collins main library building.

...and this is Greyfriars Bobby in Edinbourgh.

I just found out that there was a community celebration in honor of Annie the Railroad Dog on August 23! Oops. Maybe next year!

Bobcat, Scat!

This morning we went on a naturalists' walk at a place called Bobcat Ridge Natural Area.

There is a picture of a bobcat we didn't see this morning.

Here is Susan, our Master Naturalist volunteer, telling us that there are so many volunteers on this walk this morning we will probably scare off any wildlife that would normally be seen! ...but we could look at animal scat and figure out what animals recently tip-toed through this area.

"What's the biggest piece you ever saw?"

Oh, look! I found some! It's bobcat!

"I'm giving it an f/5 at EV-1 !"

Bobcat Scat!

Estes Park!

I attempted to ride out to Estes Park this morning. I started out around 8:00 am and by around noon I was half way there!

Here's the Big Thompson River Dam

And here is an example of what I saw on the way to Estes.

Looks like a face in the mountain! Who does it look like?

Here I am!

Here's Jeanne! See! She's alive and well!
Jeanne met me for lunch. Estes Park seemed a bit too commercial, so we traveled to the real attraction. We bought a year's pass to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Here is Jeanne in RMNP's Hidden Valley!
We decided to miss the rodeo in Estes Park!

Windsor Colorado

When we returned from our first trip out west to find a place to live, we saw on the news in Chicago about Windsor, Colorado. On May 22, 2008 an EF3 tornado devastated the town of Windsor and many areas of Weld County and Larimer County, killing one and injuring 100 other people in its wake. The tornado was preceded by golf-ball-size hail and torrential winds which knocked over 15 Rail Road cars, vehicles and semi trucks.
Colorado does not get many tornadoes, so it was unusual to hear about this one. Today I rode my bicycle out to Windsor to see how things were going:

Many houses around the town were getting new roofs. You could hear the nail guns going off in all directions! I came upon this small shopping area on the east side of Windsor. You can read the sign, but not much is left of the stores:

Lots of trees were pulled out of the ground and thrown about.

Here just a metal frame remains.

Just the windows and everything inside this building are gone!

There are crews working to clean up the area right now.

Not much can be salvaged from this mess.

Which one was Marks Funeral and Cremation?

I think it's this one.

...or maybe that one. Oh, I don't know. According to Mark, his 8 ton animal crematorium was still intact, so maybe his business will return.

I will return to Windsor before the winter and see how its going.