Louisville

Sunday.

We're home. To the Louisville house. It's nice to be home, but not
necessary. It didn't take long this trip, before we were referring to the
motorhome as "home", and confusing each other if one of us really meant the
front-range home instead of the motorhome. The motorhome as home is just
fine with us.

Our timing was perfect. All that rain and snow we drove through on the way
home turned to snow all over the high country. We drove through a little
slush, but nothing serious. The Chain law went into effect on both passes
since then. I don't think we want to chain up the Bounder. We'd have been
there a while longer.

The mobile office was well received everywhere we went. These jobs weren't
always easy: for us or for our clients. There were some significant
transitions to make from old accounting ways to more current concepts.
Happily, though, every client still had some semblance of humor left by the
time we left. We don't appear to have irritated anyone so much that they
won't invite us back again next year. In fact, several people seemed
downright glad we had come.

Each job was in a different city. One job per city. But as a result of
this trip, we know nonprofit organizations in Glenwood Springs, Durango, and
Silverton that we expect to be new clients next time around. Maybe next
year we can do two clients per city.

Ridgway

Saturday.

We didn't need the air conditioner. We didn't need the heater. We got open
windows and river noise all night.

The morning dawned warm and overcast. We hooked up the Jeep and left. The
weather deteriorated. By Delta we were driving in some serious wind and
rain. We had to slow down to fifty for a while, but overall, the Bounder
took the wind well. At Grand Junction, the weather improved to steady rain
without much wind for the rest of the trip. Steady rain, except when it
turned to snow on mountain passes. Big fat flakes covering the windshield.
That highlights how big that windshield really is, when you can just look
out through the wiper blade paths.

We missed the steam train. There was no steam train this morning.

North. North to Montrose. North to Delta and just glancing off Grand
Junction. Then East. Interstate 70, east to Rifle, Glenwood Springs,
Eagle, Vail, Vail Pass, Copper Mountain, Officer's Gulch, Frisco,
Silverthorne, Dillon, The Eisenhower Tunnel, Idaho Springs, glanced off
Denver, and home to Louisville. Louisville. The biggest town we've been in
lately.

As we were driving through the driving rain outside Grand Junction, I got to
wondering about hydroplaning. Cars hydroplane in conditions like this. Do
motorhomes? We weigh thousands and thousands of pounds. Are we immune from
hydroplaning because we're so heavy it can't lift us? I decided not to test
the theory. I drove carefully.

At the Evergreen exit, just outside Denver, the clouds turned dark, and the
rain turned to hail. Serious lightning. The sun came out just as we left
the mountains. As we approached Louisville, the sky got bright dark. Dark
heavy clouds. Rain. Too dark to wear sunglasses, so we had to take them
off. But the sun was shining through under the clouds from the west so we
had to put the sunglasses back on to cut down the glare. Glaring dark.

A three hundred fifty mile day.

A little racquetball therapy.

It's not like we're going to be here for very long. We're off to Ft. Lupton
next Friday.

Ridgway

The view out the back window.

Ridgway

The campground at Ridgway.

Ouray

Cascade Falls.

Ouray

Moonrise over Ouray.

Durango

Friday. Travel day.

We didn't get enough time in Durango. There are too many places we meant to
explore, but didn't get to. Guess we'll have to come back sometime.

We had a startling wake-up. Sometimes things happen while we're on trips.
Presidents get shot. Three-mile islands melt down. John F. Kennedy Junior
crashes his plane. Crummy stuff. Last night we saw a terrorist warning
alert on the news. They didn't say much about it, just that there was
something big about to happen. This morning we watched the Park owner and
his wife walk out to the flagpole arm-in-arm, somber, and raise the flag to
half-staff. Oops. That doesn't look good at all. We fired up the news on
the television. Local news. CNN. Fox news. Nothing. Couldn't figure it
out. Judy got dressed and walked to the office to see what was up. Bubba.
Bubba was up. Bubba, the Boston Terrier had died during the night. Don,
the park owner declared if the flag could get lowered for crooked
politicians, it could get lowered for a great dog like Bubba, the campground
dog.

We drove through Durango unhooked. We needed to find some fuel for the
motorhome, and that's easier to do in town if the tow car isn't hooked up.
Outside Durango, on the highway, while we were pulled over to connect, is
when Rags made today's escape. Happily, he escaped to the river side, not
the highway side, and he didn't disappear into the bushes, he just walked
alongside them, admiring the river, until Judy picked him up.

We decided to drive west. West through Mancos. Hot and dry. Scrub desert.
Then a right turn to Dolores. What a beautiful spot. What a beautiful
canyon. The Dolores River Canyon. There is a really nice looking river
bottom shady RV Park in Stoner we'd like to go back to. Stopped in the
center of Rico and had lunch. Several cars passed us while we were there.
This is a secret back way over the mountains. All the way north on highway
145 over Lizard Head pass, and down to Telluride. Lizard Head pass is very
fast and smooth. Not scary like Red Mountain. Beautiful. But with softer
edges. Passed within a few miles of Telluride. Haven't been there in
twenty years. Then, out and around to Ridgway. Spent the night at the
State Park there. All the spots are reserved for the long Memorial Day
Weekend, but there were still a few spots open for Friday night.
Eighty-degree blue-sky day.

And then! Guess what. I have these prescription glasses. I'm a little
slow to adjust to them. I don't actually wear them, but I have graduated to
carrying them around with me. Well, I was carrying them around with me, and
they disappeared a week ago. Today, we're in the neighborhood, so we
checked with Box Canyon Falls in Ouray. There they were! And you know what
that means? It means we get one more shot at the black swifts. The black
swifts that were supposed to be there a week ago and weren't.

What a lucky break! Except the swifts weren't there this time either. We
picked up the glasses, but not the black swift. It's still a nice park,
though. And we got a different story this time. Different lady. Different
story. The swifts will be here the first week of June.

It was a nice visit to Ouray. Judy found a shirt she needed. And another.
Found another waterfall. Not Box Canyon Falls, but one right out in the
open, lunging off a cliff. Cascade Falls. Back to camp for dinner.
Nobody's on the seed feeder, but the hummers have found their feeder. Black
chinned. Broad tail. Saw our first bats of the trip. Couldn't tell what
kind they were.

Rags was good tonight. He walked the entire campground loop with us, on his
lead. And it's a big loop. Then, down the trail to the river and back. He
met a lot of people. And a few dogs. The guy with the two boxers warned
them not to mess with a cat that size. He's a manly cat. Well, except for
that part about the testicles. And he didn't need any drugs today either.

Know what would be really neat? Dual backup cameras. I have that backup
camera that points almost straight down. It's really handy. I can see the
front of the tow car. It's wide angle, so I can see the rear end of the
Bounder go by the front end of the semi when I pass. But I can't see
anything else. It looks like there is room there for another camera. The
monitor even has a switch labeled camera 1 and camera 2. The switch doesn't
seem to do anything. Wouldn't it be nice to switch to another camera and
get a birds-eye view of everything behind while I was driving? I'll bet
more expensive motorhomes have two cameras mounted back there.

This is the warmest night we've had. It will be the first night we haven't
run the heater the entire trip. We may even have to run the air conditioner
to cool it down.

I didn't count the miles today, but we probably covered a hundred fifty.
Tomorrow, we'll want to focus on doing more. We'll just drive. We plan to
be home to Louisville tomorrow night.

Durango

The monster motorhome with the monster trailer.

Durango

The lunch view at Alpen Rose.

Durango

Thursday.

Two steam trains. Red wing blackbirds. Meadowlarks. Nice noise.

Giant forty-five foot American Eagle with a huge box trailer. Way bigger
than they need for the VW Bug they keep in it. Judy visited with them.
Turns out they're not just being pretentious. They travel with a son who
has some breathing problems. They tow a huge box trailer with a VW Bug in
it, and a hyperbaric chamber. Not quite the traditional motorhome
equipment, but they do what they need to do to make it work.

Rags didn't have to escape today. We just left the door open and let him go
in and out as he wanted. After a while, what he wanted was to go play in
the ditch. It's a small ditch, full of water, weeds, and bugs. Who could
blame him? We put his leash on and tethered him over in the shade, by the
water so he could play all he wanted, unsupervised.

Worked at home. Lunch in the sun.

Had the meeting. It was a long one. I ended up explaining all the
nonprofit income recognition principles, that the prior auditors didn't get
right, to the Executive Director and the Bookkeeper, and the Board
Treasurer. The Treasurer, an accounting professor. How presumptuous is
that? Presuming to educate the educator. He agreed with the logic and is
satisfied with the 2003 financial statements. Yesterday, I did the same
thing, but that treasurer, a retired CPA, agreed with every conclusion
except one. He was adamant that I misinterpreted a principal. I offered to
send him documentation supporting my position, but he declined. He said he
already knew all he needed to know. He was right, and I was wrong. It
wasn't a point I could concede. It would have led them down an
inappropriate accounting path. By the end of the meeting, he was still
right, but he graciously conceded that even though I was wrong, he could
live with the way I wanted to do it. Whew.

So. Back at Durango, we said our goodbyes. Sue, the person I've worked
with here promised that next year the job would be so easy that there would
be plenty of time left over for her and her husband to take Judy and me on a
mountain bike ride we'd never forgive. Oh boy.

Another one done. That's it. No more jobs. No more excuse.

Tomorrow. North.

Or west. We could go east to get there. We'll decide tomorrow morning.

Pagosa Springs

Wednesday.

Pagosa springs. Exit conference. It went well. Annie attended. Judy
didn't. I'll need some help from Diane to finish the federal compliance
part properly, but the fieldwork is done.

On the way there, we stopped at a place we're supposed to be able to find a
Grace's Warbler. A campground half way between Durango and Pagosa Springs.
Ponderosa Pine and underbrush. A nice place. No warblers. Actually, tons
of invisible birds singing. None moving. We listened. We stalked. We
watched. No warblers. I did see a Warbling Vireo. A new bird. Smaller
than a robin. Soft gray. No eye-ring. White eyebrow. White under-eye
too, but not connected. It had to be a warbling vireo. Or a Gray Vireo. I
looked in the book, and a warbling vireo is supposed to have a light yellow
wash underneath. I didn't see that. I'm almost positively, absolutely sure
it was a warbling vireo.

No new birds on the list today. Not quite sure enough.

Steam train past the RV Park this morning. Then another. They're running
two trains a day now.

Last night we had visitors. The lady Judy met at Honeyville, the store up
the road, wants to sell the house and buy a motorhome. Judy invited her and
her husband to come by after work and take the tour. Nice people.
Interesting. Broke. He worked for Enron for 26 years. The entire
retirement was in Enron stock. Now they have a house, but no retirement.
She works selling honey. He works as a mechanic.

Tomorrow, the last part of the last job to finish. The Durango job. The
exit conference got pushed back to 3pm. That will give me all morning to
clean up and organize the piles and piles of paper I have collected and
generated. I get to work at home until the meeting.

Then. Back to the front range.

Durango

Tuesday.

Barn swallows. Bank swallows. Steam train.

Exit conference scheduled for this afternoon. Didn't happen. Started work
at 9. The target kept moving. We kept after it. Caught up to it in the
afternoon. Nailed that sucker to the floor. We got it. No more wiggling.
Now the exit conference is scheduled for Thursday.

Exit conference for a different client in Pagosa Springs tomorrow. We'll
stay here at Alpenrose and commute to Pagosa. Wow. A fifty-mile commute
each way. Monday, in Silverton, our commute was ten blocks.

Pagosa Springs. I wonder if Judy will be able to occupy herself while I'm
at work.

The Friday job in Evergreen rescheduled. That leaves us all the time we
need to wrap things up here.

During our evening walk tonight, we noticed some big orange foam cushions
stuck on the bottom corners of a bedroom slide. Wonder what would prompt
someone to do that?

Silverton

Monday.

Both furnaces are working fine. Up to a point. That point is seventy
degrees. The front heater will do whatever you ask of it. The back heater
stops at about seventy. If you're chilled and want to take a shower in a
warm room and turn the heater up higher, it might go higher. It might not.
It depends. I don't know what it depends on. It just depends.

Judy was bad, but now I forget why now. I'm bad because I'm not taking good
care of the propane. I figure you can turn the furnace off at night and
open the window if you want, or you can turn the furnace on, and leave the
window closed. No sense trying to heat all of the high country with a
limited amount of propane. It still gets down to freezing every night, so
it's too cold to sleep comfortably without the furnace, so I set it at sixty
degrees when we go to bed. Here's the bad part. I open a window over my
head to get some of that nice cool night air before we fall asleep. Then we
fall asleep. We fall asleep before I reach up to close the window, and we
sleep until dawn before I wake up and close it. Not very good propane
management. Great sleeping though.

Work went well. Had the exit conference at 4:30. Finished by five. Thank
you Stuart.

Silverton. The Durango Silverton railroad. It stops in Silverton just
before noon. Judy went out at lunch, stood by a locomotive, and got
blasted.

Left Silverton. Negotiated Molas and Coal Bank Passes back to Durango to
spend the night. I can't just keep going on about the scenery can I? Okay.
Just let me say, we've been hanging out on a road called the "Million Dollar
Highway", and in what's know as the Colorado Alps. The Switzerland of the
Rockies.

Had some serious barbeque for dinner. Boy, am I thirsty!

I have now walked around the rear of the motorhome at least thirty or forty
times in a row, without walking into the rear slide. I wasn't so good at
the start of the trip. You might think it would be hard not to notice that
rear slide sticking out, but not so. It doesn't extend down low. It sticks
out about shoulder high, depending on the surrounding terrain. Walking
around the rear of the motorhome in Leadville, in a snowstorm, looking at
the ground, trying to see, I walked right into the slide and tried to knock
myself out. That left a mark. I'm more careful now. And my head feels
better too.

Tomorrow. Back to finish the Durango job.

Silverton

_____________________________________________
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 10:10 PM
To: Bill Taylor (E-mail); David Taylor (E-mail); Tom Taylor (E-mail)
Subject: trip32

Sunday.

New ground. I've written trip reports for a month before, but never for
more. He we go on our second month. I wish it were a whole second month,
but alas, no. Just a few more short jobs to do, and it's back to Denver.
This is too cool. We're not ready to go back to Denver.

Finally, the time has come. We get to pop over to Ouray and pick up the
slam-dunk, can't-miss brand new bird: the black swift. Twenty-four miles
to Ouray. An hour's drive. Now we have a problem. If we have a job in
Silverton or Durango, then get a job in Ouray; I don't know how we'll get
there. The only way to get to one from the other is to drive over Red
Mountain Pass. Judy says she doesn't ever want to drive over Red Mountain
Pass in the motorhome. It's that good. It didn't help, following a large
gas motorhome down the other side, his brakes smoking and stinking. Not the
kind of place you'd want to wander off the road.

Box Canyon Falls. Right outside Ouray. Black Swifts. The Box Canyon Falls
Black Swifts only have one job. That's to migrate back to Box Canyon Falls
by May 20th. This is May 23d. They didn't do their job. No black swifts.
How bad does this suck? Now we'll have to come all the way back here some
other time.

Drove out to Ridgway. Had lunch at the state park. Birded the forest.
Annie swam in the Uncompaghre. Explored the town. Passed the Orvis Hot
Springs Bill wants to check out. We know where it is now. Drove back
through Ouray. Made the drive back over Red Mountain Pass. Judy
reiterated. Not in the motorhome. Took a detour just before we got back to
Silverton. Ophir Pass. Four wheel drive road. Still ten foot drifts at
the top. For a person who doesn't want to drive over Red Mountain in the
motorhome, Judy is good at driving these four-wheel-drive roads.

Back safe and sound. Ready for work tomorrow. Mountain Studies Institute.
Good place for it. Silverton. We'll go see what they're studying.

SIlverton

Saturday.

That took a lot of leaving. We did the Breakfast in a Bag thing. Raw
scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon bits, mushrooms, olives, ham, anything you
want in an omelet spread out on the table, in containers. Write your name
on the outside of a Ziploc bag. Pick the stuff you want. Dump it into the
Ziploc. Squeeze all the air out and seal it. Drop it into the boiling
water for ten minutes. Dump it onto a plate. It's an omelet.

Thirty-five people in the group, plus us. It took a lot of conversation to
get through breakfast. Then several people wanted to come over and meet
Rags the cat. Then there were several RV tours exchanged as everybody
checked out each other's rig. Finally, we escaped.

Rags didn't make it very far. He started drooling. Just can't handle that
occasional motion. We stopped and drugged him, and he rode quietly after
that. We had lunch at the Durango RV Park we stayed in before. We picked
up a WiFi terminal for high speed internet and did an email dump.

From there, north on highway 550 to Silverton. A person might be
disinclined to bring a motorhome up this steep winding road. It is
definitely slower in a motorhome than in a car. But slower means a better
look at the scenery, and in a motorhome means you get that look from a
higher perch. Not much traffic. Plenty of room to let the people by that
do catch up to us. Plenty of high county scenery.

Arrived at the motorhome park in Silverton. There are ten units here
already. We parked at the other end of the row from the one that has
www.rightwingbooks.com <http://www.rightwingbooks.com> stenciled on its
forehead.

Leveling logic. Four point hydraulic levelers. The front two work
together, off one button. The back two work together off one button, or
individually, off separate buttons. All side to side leveling has to be
done with the rear levelers. When leveling, you start by letting the air of
the suspension so the whole coach settles down. Then you want to level it
with the least amount of lift, so that last step going in and out isn't too
high. Besides, if you lift it too high, it might look like you don't know
what you're doing.

I read the directions for leveling. I followed them. If you follow the
directions, sometimes it ends up looking like you don't know what you're
doing. The directions say to put both the front jacks down until they touch
the ground. Then put the rear jacks down and level it side to side. Then
raise the front jacks some more if you need to. The problem is, it changes
the side to side leveling when you raise the front jacks, so then you have
to level it again with one of the rear jacks which raises the whole rear end
a little more, so you have to raise the front a little more.... You get the
picture. The hydraulic jacks will extend far enough to raise the wheels
clear off the ground. It looks silly if you're on fairly level ground to
begin with, and your motorhome is that far up on its tiptoes to get level.
Theoretically, one corner of the motorhome should never have to be lifted at
all.

Here is what I discovered. Don't go at it from just one direction. You get
to watch a leveling bubble while you're pushing the leveling buttons. Don't
level it all at once, front to back, or side to side. Bring it a little
closer each way, alternating as you go. Sneak up on it.
Silverton Colorado. 9,300 feet above sea level in a mountain valley. It's
all up from here. It's a rough mountain town. They haven't paved the
alleys here yet. They're all dirt and gravel. They haven't paved the
streets yet either. They're all dirt and gravel too. There is only one
paved road in town, the one that runs right down the center. It's a
dirt-road main street kind of place..... except that the main street is
paved.

It was sad when we left Riverside. I picked up the feeders and packed them
in an outside bin. As soon as I did, a house finch hopped up on the grill
stand where the seed feeder had been, and hopped all over it looking for the
feeder. At the same time, and hummingbird was buzzing all over where the
other feeder had been. They'll have to adjust to life without us now. It
took the hummingbirds two days to find our feeder at Riverside. It took
them ten minutes to find it here. All broadtails. Different altitude.

Tomorrow. Check out Ouray and Box Canyon Falls.

Pagosa Springs

More views of the hot springs. The lowest pool is close enough to the river
you can reach out and touch it.

Pagosa Springs

Rags of the River.

Pagosa Springs

Hot springs pools.

Pagosa Springs

_____________________________________________
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 9:18 PM
To: Bill Taylor (E-mail); David Taylor (E-mail); Tom Taylor (E-mail)
Subject: 30a

Lunch on the river.

Pagosa Springs

Friday

I changed my diet to avoid starchy food because I found out I feel better
when I don't eat it. When I did that, some weight fell off as well. My
weight stabilized in the low 160s. In the last few weeks, however, it has
popped back up five pounds. Now I'm in the upper 160s. I'm the same
person, doing the same things, and eating the same food. What happened?

What happened? Ting happened.

That's right. It's Ting's fault. My back and shoulder were hurting so I
thought I'd give Ting the acupuncturist a shot at it. He's good at pain
relief. He did a pretty good job on the shoulder. He did a medium job on
the back. Problem is, every time he fixes something, I go out and play
racquetball on it the next night and make it hurt again. The other problem
is that when you go see Ting, he doesn't just fix the body part you brought
for him to fix, he messes with other stuff. Other stuff I don't understand.
He talks about energy paths, and meridians, and other stuff I can't
remember. I think he messed with my metabolism.

It's Ting's fault.

I dropped Judy off at the adult day-care center on my way to work this
morning. She has that pass. Seventeen pools terraced into the hillside
overlooking the San Juan River, all fed by the hot springs, all ultimately
emptying into the river. They'll occupy her until lunch.

The people on both sides of us left. The first to go was the guy from Del
Rio Texas, in a fifth wheel that looked suspiciously like a converted stock
trailer, up here with his son for a week. He was fun to talk to. Anybody
catch Survivor, with the guy called Big Tom from somewhere in the south? He
would get to talking, and everyone would just look at each other, stumped.
If he got excited about something and started talking fast, you couldn't
figure out what he was talking about. The guy from Del Rio was like that.
What???

But the people that took his place were bad. They had two rotten dogs that
barked and growled at our Annie. The guy on the other side was from
Beaumont Texas. We liked him, but he left too. The bad people on the left
left. The guy with the chows pulled in on the right side. He takes good
care of them though. He's a better neighbor. Then the Samboree happened.
A bunch of "group" people. All from Los Alamos New Mexico. All Good Sam
members. They're all together. There are a lot of them. I think we've met
them all.... What a great bunch of people. Lots of people. Lots of pets.
All the pets are well behaved, or at least well managed. These people "get
it". They are wonderful neighbors. They even invited us to their
"Breakfast in a Bag" get together tomorrow morning. Maybe we'll check that
out.

Interesting array of tow cars. Five Jeeps in a row: two Wranglers, two
Cherokees, another Wrangler.

Every day I get to come home for lunch. Sitting by the river in the lawn
chair today, eating lunch, watching the metallic iridescent blue flash off
the backs of tree swallows swooping over the stream in the sun. It's a nice
way to spend lunch.

Finished up at work today. Got it completely wrapped, and the report
completely written. We didn't have the right people in town to have the
exit conference, but I'll be in the neighborhood next week, so I'll come
back here on Wednesday for the exit conference.

I think Judy managed to sample every pool at the hot springs. They all have
names. The Waterfall. The Cliffs. Clouds in my Coffee. She even ventured
into the one called the Lobster Pot. Briefly.

I'm going to miss the birding here. But then we're still stuck at 294 on
the bird count. Guess it's time to move on. At least get us to Ouray so we
can pick up the black swifts. Then we need to find our way down to the
Grand Canyon neighborhood to pick up the condors. I thought we might get
there from here, southwestern Colorado, but it doesn't look like we're going
to do any long weekend excursions. The condors might have to wait until our
June trip to Arizona.

It turns out there was no need for my lunchtime run today. I went off this
afternoon to snap a picture of Treasure Falls and I found myself on the
trailhead. I thought of Stephanie, the trail runner, my inspiration, on the
way up, and ran the entire thing. It was switchbacks. Steep. But it felt
good. I marveled at the falls. I ran back down. I feel unreasonably
strong. Strong. I need to go play a racquetball tournament, or hike the
Grand Canyon, or something. That's it! I'm going to go run the Grand
Canyon. Well, maybe I'll run down, and walk back out.

They have thirty-five acre riverside lots for sale here. That wouldn't be
bad. Thirty-five acres on this river.

Tomorrow. Off to Silverton. We haven't driven there on the road yet this
trip; just rode the train there.

The campground manager came by our site tonight. She said they liked us so
much they just wanted to give us a present. And did! That's never happened
before. That's it. I don't want to leave. I'm anxious to move on to the
next job, and the next adventure, but I like it here too much. I don't want
to go.
Friday

I changed my diet to avoid starchy food because I found out I feel better
when I don't eat it. When I did that, some weight fell off as well. My
weight stabilized in the low 160s. In the last few weeks, however, it has
popped back up five pounds. Now I'm in the upper 160s. I'm the same
person, doing the same things, and eating the same food. What happened?

What happened? Ting happened.

That's right. It's Ting's fault. My back and shoulder were hurting so I
thought I'd give Ting the acupuncturist a shot at it. He's good at pain
relief. He did a pretty good job on the shoulder. He did a medium job on
the back. Problem is, every time he fixes something, I go out and play
racquetball on it the next night and make it hurt again. The other problem
is that when you go see Ting, he doesn't just fix the body part you brought
for him to fix, he messes with other stuff. Other stuff I don't understand.
He talks about energy paths, and meridians, and other stuff I can't
remember. I think he messed with my metabolism.

It's Ting's fault.

I dropped Judy off at the adult day-care center on my way to work this
morning. She has that pass. Seventeen pools terraced into the hillside
overlooking the San Juan River, all fed by the hot springs, all ultimately
emptying into the river. They'll occupy her until lunch.

The people on both sides of us left. The first to go was the guy from Del
Rio Texas, in a fifth wheel that looked suspiciously like a converted stock
trailer, up here with his son for a week. He was fun to talk to. Anybody
catch Survivor, with the guy called Big Tom from somewhere in the south? He
would get to talking, and everyone would just look at each other, stumped.
If he got excited about something and started talking fast, you couldn't
figure out what he was talking about. The guy from Del Rio was like that.
What???

But the people that took his place were bad. They had two rotten dogs that
barked and growled at our Annie. The guy on the other side was from
Beaumont Texas. We liked him, but he left too. The bad people on the left
left. The guy with the chows pulled in on the right side. He takes good
care of them though. He's a better neighbor. Then the Samboree happened.
A bunch of "group" people. All from Los Alamos New Mexico. All Good Sam
members. They're all together. There are a lot of them. I think we've met
them all.... What a great bunch of people. Lots of people. Lots of pets.
All the pets are well behaved, or at least well managed. These people "get
it". They are wonderful neighbors. They even invited us to their
"Breakfast in a Bag" get together tomorrow morning. Maybe we'll check that
out.

Interesting array of tow cars. Five Jeeps in a row: two Wranglers, two
Cherokees, another Wrangler.

Every day I get to come home for lunch. Sitting by the river in the lawn
chair today, eating lunch, watching the metallic iridescent blue flash off
the backs of tree swallows swooping over the stream in the sun. It's a nice
way to spend lunch.

Finished up at work today. Got it completely wrapped, and the report
completely written. We didn't have the right people in town to have the
exit conference, but I'll be in the neighborhood next week, so I'll come
back here on Wednesday for the exit conference.

I think Judy managed to sample every pool at the hot springs. They all have
names. The Waterfall. The Cliffs. Clouds in my Coffee. She even ventured
into the one called the Lobster Pot. Briefly.

I'm going to miss the birding here. But then we're still stuck at 294 on
the bird count. Guess it's time to move on. At least get us to Ouray so we
can pick up the black swifts. Then we need to find our way down to the
Grand Canyon neighborhood to pick up the condors. I thought we might get
there from here, southwestern Colorado, but it doesn't look like we're going
to do any long weekend excursions. The condors might have to wait until our
June trip to Arizona.

It turns out there was no need for my lunchtime run today. I went off this
afternoon to snap a picture of Treasure Falls and I found myself on the
trailhead. I thought of Stephanie, the trail runner, my inspiration, on the
way up, and ran the entire thing. It was switchbacks. Steep. But it felt
good. I marveled at the falls. I ran back down. I feel unreasonably
strong. Strong. I need to go play a racquetball tournament, or hike the
Grand Canyon, or something. That's it! I'm going to go run the Grand
Canyon.

They have thirty-five acre riverside lots for sale here. That wouldn't be
bad. Thirty-five acres on this river.

Tomorrow. Off to Silverton. We haven't driven there on the road yet this
trip; just rode the train there.

The campground manager came by our site tonight. She said they liked us so
much they just wanted to give us a present. And did! That's never happened
before. That's it. I don't want to leave. I'm anxious to move on to the
next job, and the next adventure, but I like it here too much. I don't want
to go.

Racquetball

Thursday.

I've been thinking about racquetball. I think I had a backhand breakthrough
just before I left on this trip. The backhand is supposed to be the most
natural stroke in racquet sports, but given that we all grew up hitting
balls with bats from one side, we tend to favor the forehand. I'm happy
with my forehand shot. It is mechanically sound, consistent, and I think
it's as good as it's going to get. The backhand, I've been working on, but
it is still a level below the forehand. Given that it is supposed to be the
most natural stroke, though, that just doesn't seem right. Also, given that
every once in awhile, I hit a monster shot off the backhand, leaves me
convinced that there is room for improvement. If only I can discover what
goes right when I hit that occasional great clean powerful shot.

I think I got it! It's all in the wrist. You have to come through the ball
flat at the point of contact, just like you do with the forehand, but after
that, it's all about the wrist. If you keep the wrist flat after you pass
through the ball, it restricts the follow-through. If you let the wrist go
right after impact, and let it roll palm up, it allows a full follow-though,
which provides that missing ingredient for a smooth powerful shot.

It's not quite ready for prime time. If you let the wrist go a little too
soon, you just hit the ball into the floor. It'll take a few thousand more
hits, just drilling, so it happens naturally. But when I do get it, look
out. Although my new backhand may not actually result in any more
points scored, it will make a better noise when the ball hits the wall.

Judy thought she would have loads of leisure time on her hands, but not so.
She is busy every day with errands, people to meet, meals, laundry, hot
springs; you know. She'd better quit messing around and stay home and do
some laundry soon. The clothes hamper is full.

Motorhomes always have a propane hot water heater. It's not very big, but
it has a very fast recovery. When we bought this motorhome we were pleased
to discover that not only do we have the propane hot water heater, we have
an electric one as well. When we're plugged into shore power, we don't have
to use any propane for the hot water heater at all. If we want to take two
showers in a row, though, and make sure we have plenty of hot water, we can
run both hot water heaters at once, and improve the recovery rate. In fact,
the recovery rate is so good, I got to wondering if I could run it out of
hot water at all, so I took a hot shower, and timed it. A ten gallon hot
water heater, electric and propane both running, fifteen minutes. It took a
fifteen minute shower to run out a ten gallon hot water heater! I'm
enjoying the luxury of full hookups.

Did I mention my new birding binoculars? My new wonderful birding
binoculars? Thanks to our friend David from Wild Birds Unlimited, they were
waiting for us at the Pagosa Riverside Campground when we arrived. My old
ones were 8x35. These are 8x42. The 8 magnification is the same, but the
42 relates to more power at the light gathering end. Good optics. Great
clarity. An additional bonus is the close focus range. These can focus on
something only five feet away. Judy's, by comparison, can't focus any
closer than twenty feet away. She sometimes finds herself too close to
birds to see them well. Not me! It's nice to have binoculars specifically
designed for what we're using them for.

A scrub jay visited the feeder today. We had a nuthatch on the tree, a
grosbeak on the seed feeder, and a hummingbird on the hummingbird feeder.
Then the hummingbird flew over to the seed feeder and landed on it. The
grosbeak flew to the hummingbird feeder. It reminded us of Annie and Rags.
Neither will eat their own food. They each just want to eat whatever the
other one is supposed to be eating.

Now the white-breasted nuthatch is on the seed feeder again. What's he
doing on a seed feeder? He's not a feeder bird. He eats bugs from the bark
of trees. Nevermind. I just looked him up. He likes sunflower seeds too.
We're feeding Wild Birds Unlimited "no mess" seed. It includes sunflower
seeds. No shells. No mess on the ground.

Ooh. Just spotted a house finch. That's the first one we've seen here. I
never heard it, so I didn't' even know they were here.

Oops. There's a brown-headed cowbird.

A two dozen deer day.

Durango

_____________________________________________

The WanderLodge.

Pagosa Springs

The riverside sites.

Pagosa Springs

It's a funky old campground. But we're getting to love it here.

The pondside sites.

Durango

Tuesday

Okay. Made some serious progress on the assets and liabilities. Got
started on the income. This job might work after all.

Discovered a robin's nest in the tree right across from us, next to the
river.

When we're plugged into shore power, we can watch an electronic display of
how many amps are being used. The electric hot water heater uses a lot: 12
amps. The humidifier and air filter we use take less than 1 amp. The
television doesn't take much. The furnace fan only takes an amp. We have
an exact count of how much electricity we're using, when it doesn't matter.
When we're boondocking, running off batteries, it doesn't trigger the meter.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were an amp meter in the system that would tell
how much electricity you were using when you had limited electricity to use.

I've been thinking about racquetball. I miss playing with Woody, even
though it's like being a rich kid and paying the other kids to be your
friend. If I give him money, I can play with a pro-level player, and he'll
play just hard enough for me to feel good about my game.

Living in limited space. This is a nice big motorhome, but it would be a
pretty small apartment. 300 square feet. That's not a very big house. I
like it. We have a nice living room. The bathroom is a little small, and
the bedroom is plenty big. I was reluctant to get slides. I thought it was
just more space than we needed. I like the coziness of the smaller space.
For life on the road, however, I'm a believer. The slides go out, and the
feeling changes. It moves us from traveling mode to living mode.

Judy found a big-rig-friendly motorhome park guide and bought it. It will
help us pick the sites we can fit in. This park is listed.

We like our motorhome so much. We have liked every motorhome we've had.
That's why it is so startling to hear people talk about how unhappy they are
with theirs. We had a neighbor with a new Holiday Rambler Endeavor. He
didn't like it at all. He had just come over Wolf Creek Pass and had smoked
the brakes. It's a diesel pusher, but it doesn't have a Jake Brake like the
Bounder. It has a PAC Brake. He describes it as a potato in the tailpipe,
and ineffective. He is going to sell it and replace it as soon as he gets
home. We rolled down Wolf Creek Pass in the right lane at 35 mph without
using the wheel brakes at all.

Another guy is driving a 35 foot gas Class A. He didn't get what he wanted.
They were moving up from a Class C. He wanted a pusher, but couldn't bring
himself to make the jump all at once. He's had it less than a month and
it's not what he wants. The repair guy in Durango is living in a Monaco.
He doesn't think it's very good.

Rags escaped. His getaway was thwarted, however, when he stopped to roll in
the dirt and I walked over and picked him up.

Pagosa Springs

Wednesday

A good day at work. Pretty much finished up the numbers. Now I have two
days to do the federal compliance work.

The hummingbirds found our feeder. Now we have hummers at the sugar water,
and grosbeaks at the seed feeder. Warblers. Orioles. Jays. Geese.
Magpies. Blackbirds. Grackles. Nuthatches. Swallows. Mergansers.
Mallards. Killdeer. Dippers. Spotted sandpipers. White-crowned sparrows.
This is a great bird place.

The guy next to us last week in the WanderLodge said it was too big. It's a
forty-five footer. Too much stuff.

The weather couldn't be any better. High seventies during the day. Thirty
degrees at night. It's a very fast temperature swing as soon as the sun
goes down. Great sleeping weather.

Our commute for the Durango job was seven miles. Pagosa is a smaller town.
Our commute here is two miles.

Regularly, I am startled by the mouse. It's a little gray mouse, and it can
show up anywhere at any time. It never wiggles or moves by itself. It's
filled with catnip. But several times a day, Rags discovers it, terrorizes
it, throws and catches it all over the place, and leaves it somewhere new.
We're not always there when he does this, so we never know where it will
strike next.

I'm already looking forward to the drive to Silverton. We'll get to drive
an entire hundred miles to get there.

When we arrived here on Sunday, we could see the high water mark along the
river. Just like looking for the last high tide mark on the beach at the
ocean, you can tell the highest point the water has been recently by the
rubble along the edge. The river was down significantly from the high water
mark when we got here. I had imagined the spring runoff to be constant and
predictable. The snow starts melting, the water rises, the snow runs out,
the water recedes. Not so. The water was up. The water went down. Now
it's back up again. Guess rivers have more complicated cycles than I was
imagining.

Found the racquetball court at the Pagosa club. Had to drive all the way to
the other side of town, though. It's a nice glass court right at the front
door, so I could challenge everyone who walked in and out. No takers. The
nice lady at the desk even made several calls for me to local racquetball
junkies, but couldn't hook me up. It felt good to hit a little bit.

Good coyote music tonight.

Pagosa Springs

Monday

Started the next job. Another scary one. Might have a large prior period
adjustment. Spent the day setting up, and working on fund balance issues.
If I got a job where I only had to look at the year I was auditing now, and
they had the current year all together, it would seem like a vacation.

Back at the ranch, we have the constant background buzzing of hummingbirds,
but they haven't found our feeder yet. We have to walk up to the feeders at
the office to get a good look at them. Black-chinned, just like everywhere
else we go in Colorado. Some broadtails. I'm hoping to see a Rufous while
we're out this trip. That's a good possibility, but I think they arrive a
little later. Some grosbeaks found the seed feeder we set up across the
way. That's the best look we've gotten at them.

The orioles are such large, graceful, colorful birds. They have a nice song
to sing, but they also make a startling squawk. It is surprising for such a
beautiful bird. When you hear a parakeet squawking off in the distance,
that means there are orioles around.

Took my flyrod over to the pond to see if I could bug any fish. What I
found was a riot of swallows swooping all over the surface. Violet green,
cliff, and the occasional barn.

Figured out the bird we didn't recognize. It was a female western bluebird.
It would have been easier to recognize if a male had been around.

Judy bought a week's pass at the hot springs.

Durango

Saturday

Funny thing. The furnace worked perfectly all evening, last night, and
again this morning. Yeah. Right. Hosing off the battery terminals is
going to fix the furnace. Interesting coincidence, though.

Up and off early to get to the train on time. Three and a half hours up
through spectacular scenery. Two hours in Silverton to wander around.
Three and a half hours back, checking out the backside of all that gorgeous
scenery. A lot of motion. A little tired tonight, and the boat is still
rocking, but a nice way to spend the day. A ten-car train plus a boxcar.
Right at the maximum capacity of the locomotive. There are coach cars, open
cars, and a parlor car. The parlor car gets hooked onto the tail end of the
train. We got to stand outside on the back porch as much as we wanted to
get the best view. Full service inside. All the coffee and cokes and
goodies we could eat. Rugged inaccessible gorge that they somehow laid
track through, then they followed the Animas river the rest of the way to
Silverton. Most of the trip goes through land with no roads. There are
some houses and cabins in there, but the only access is by this train, or
horseback.

The locomotive is a living breathing awesome beast. Standing next to it,
you can feel the life. It radiates heat, smoke, and steam. Even at rest,
it pulses and pops and creaks and squeaks.

There is an interesting tradition. Every Memorial Day. The Iron Horse
Classic. It's a bicycle race from Durango to Silverton. Fifty miles, from
Durango to Silverton, and an elevation gain of three thousand feet over two
mountain passes. They race the train. The bicycles follow the road. The
train follows the tracks.

And the winner is.....

The train has never won.

Carol, Michael's wife came by to walk Annie a couple times while we were
gone all day on the train. She said Annie was good for her.

The motorhome next to us is a WanderLodge. It has an interesting feature.
They have a free-standing barbecue outside, with a propane hose plugged into
a fitting on the side of the motorhome. How handy is that? You never have
to mess with propane bottles.

Tomorrow, off to Pagosa Springs.

Durango

Friday

Judy went to check out the "spa services" at the hot springs. Hot oil
massage.

Last day of fieldwork on this job. Spent a fair amount of time discussing
options with the client about how to deal with the $100,000 problem, and the
$50,000 problem. They both belong in previous years, but only partially in
the year immediately prior to my work. We can either: ignore them and
issue a one-year report, or we can deal with them. We decided to deal with
them. That requires more work, but ultimately, is more satisfying.

You know, sometimes you can't always get what you want. I don't find myself
saying that much, but it is true for this job. I want to do the entire job
in one week, wrap it, and deliver a completed product to the client before I
go, but it just can't be done this time around. Too much to sort out. With
some follow-up work, however, we'll make this job make a lot more sense for
the next time around.

A very flushed, relaxed, and limp Judy reports that the spa services at the
local hot springs are just fine.

A little more racquetball therapy was in order tonight. Got in some good
work on the backhand. No new victims, though.

Michael the local RV repair guy came by tonight. He took a look at the
furnace controls for us. They both still work, but the back furnace
controls aren't quite as responsive as the front furnace. Sometimes it will
stall out before it gets all the way up to temperature. He figures there is
nothing really wrong with the thermostat controls. He thinks it's more
likely that it is a voltage thing. He went straight to the outside battery
compartment. The water in the batteries was a little low. We had the
beginning of a little corrosion on the terminals. He said that was enough
to disrupt the digital systems. He says I need to clean and fill the
batteries once a month. I pointed out that we weren't even using the
batteries; we're plugged into shore power. No matter. He says everything
goes through the batteries and the inverter. I didn't know that!

We topped off the water in the batteries. We hosed them down. He sprayed
some battery cleaner on the terminals. We hosed them down again. He said
that would fix the furnace thermostat. Yeah. Right.

Tomorrow, the steam train. We've been watching it go by all week. Tomorrow
we won't be able to see it because we'll be on it. We'll be right there,
watching all the scenery go by. We reserved space in a parlor car. That
could be good.

Durango

Thursday.

Bright and beautiful. Not too hot. I worked "at home" today. Judy did
morning chores, fed me lunch, then headed out to check on the local hot
springs. Later, a very relaxed Judy pronounced them to be just fine.

Steam train.

Be careful today. Friday the 13th falls on a Thursday this month.

Met with Jan Milburn, of the Milburn Foundation here in Durango. He spends
most of his time in the Copper Canyon in Mexico, working with the indigenous
Indians there. He doesn't need an audit yet, but we'll do some work with
him in the meantime to help him get everything in order.

Afternoon birds:
Crows
Ravens
Magpies
Unidentified hawk
Turkey vultures
Red winged blackbirds
Brewer's blackbirds
White breasted nuthatch
Black-headed grosbeak
Black-chinned hummingbirds
Stellar's jay
Brown headed cowbirds
Red-naped sapsucker
Cliff swallows
Barn swallows
Yellow warbler
No house finches
No sparrows. That's odd.

Gave up and called David at our Wild Birds Unlimited store in Denver. He'll
send some new binoculars to meet us at our next stop in Pagosa Springs.
Nice new birding binoculars. They will have a lifetime guarantee against
droppage.

FW: 24a

The Parlor Car.

Durango

Wednesday

More work. Steam train. $100,000 problem resurfaced. It just won't go
away. Something the prior auditors didn't get right. $50,000 problem
surfaced. Different issue. Same source.

Had a weather front roar through. It happened while I was at work, so I
didn't see much of it, but Judy did. Impressive wind. It turned the sky
dark. It snapped a cottonwood tree in two at the park. It knocked down
some stockade fence. It flipped a glider and broke it at the glider port
across the street.

Durango

Halfway between South Fork and Creede, anlong the Rio Grande, there is a
campground sandwitched between the river and the railroad. The narrow gauge
is not currently active, but it is still pretty cool having the tracks go
right through the campground. It is easy to imagine the sights and sounds
of the turn of the century steam locomotive chugging through.

Durango

Tuesday

Today they found a different room for me to work in. Judy took her work
back to the motorhome and worked all day there. The $100,000 problem
resurfaced. I'll have to find another place to put it. I think it will
have to go to the income statement.

Watched the steam train go by again.

Racquetball therapy. Judy fixed me up with a court at the new rec center in
Durango. Very nice courts. Got to go hit for half an hour. Then I got
lucky. A guy showed up to play before his partner did and agreed to let me
warm him up. Young guy, twenty-five or so, with a smooth relaxed swing. We
played a few points. His buddy showed up and I thanked him and turned to
leave, and he objected: "He can wait. Let's finish this game." Oh cool!
It took awhile. I got to play him for another fifteen minutes. Good pace.
It was great fun. And I can guarantee he was fully warm for his opponent by
the time I left him.

Durango

Monday

Went to work. Nice friendly people. Small office. Two women and me in an
office just big enough for two women.

This is a real challenge. An A-133 audit, that's a federal financial and
compliance audit, on a client we've never done before, and I only have a
week to do it. Got through the setup. Found a $100,000 problem. Fixed it.
Moved on. I don't know about this one.

Saw the Telluride steam train go by the RV park this morning.

Durango

Our campsite and the sun screen on the windshield.

Navajo Lake State Park

Our collection of stuffed animals.

Navajo Lake State Park

Navaho Lake State Park.

Navajo Lake State Park

Saturday

A leisurely leaving from Antlers. Said goodbye to everybody. Patty and her
daughter came down from the office to say goodbye to Annie and pet Rags.
Her husband, Chuck, he's also the attorney for the Theatre, sent his
regards. Wayne the maintenance guy came by on the four-wheeler. Steve, the
foreman came by, walking down the dirt road with a bouquet of anniversary
and mothers day flowers for us from Matt and Kari. They found us way out
here!

Off to South Fork. Lunch at the rest stop. Took on a half tank of number 2
diesel to dilute the remaining number 1, thank you Answer Man. Wolf Creek
Pass. Rugged. Mountain valleys. Raging rivers. Lakes. Wildflowers.
Pagosa Springs. It's green here. Very green. And here we are. A hundred
miles.

Navajo Lake State Park. Another lake state park. Rolling hills. Semi-arid
scrub forest, juniper, sage; right on the New Mexico border. Most of this
lake is in New Mexico. Significantly lower altitude than we've been. Two
thousand feet lower. We're down to sixty six hundred feet. Eighty degrees
when we arrived.

Made good use of the bicycles. My afternoon run consisted entirely of a
bicycle ride with Judy.

Good birds: Wilson's warblers, Bullock's Orioles, Western Kingbirds,
Eastern Kingbirds, Mourning Doves, Red Wing Blackbirds, Chipping sparrows,
Bluebirds, tons and tons of bluebirds, Seagulls, White egrets, Crows,
Ravens, and Brewers Blackbirds. Then it got dark. And guess what! The
Wilson's warblers are new for us. 294.

Traveling from town to town, we can run into some pretty funky water. We
have a routine worked out that, so far, has provided consistently good
drinking water. First, the water system we're attached to does whatever it
will to prepare the water. Then, we run it through a big canister filter,
hooked to the water line, before it even gets inside our motorhome. It goes
through the drinking water filter at the sink. Finally, Judy pours it into
one of those Brita gravity filter pitchers she keeps in the refrigerator,
and the water comes out wonderful.

Tomorrow, we have fifty miles to go to Durango.

Creede

A view of the town of Creede and the valley below, from above.

Creede

The beavers have done a lot of work here.

They're interrupted by daylight, and resume their work at dusk.

Creede

Judy and the Jeep, playing on tamer terrain.

Creede

Rags has found a comfortable position from which to contemplate his next
foray.

Creede

The mighty beaver. And a job well done.

Creede

I hiked down to the edge of the pond and was lucky enough to catch a glimpse
of the beaver patrolling its domain.

Creede

More mountain scenery. Check out this beaver pond.

See the trails leading straight up the mountain? Those are the drag marks
of the trees going down. Nice balance between the beaver and the
fast-growing aspen.

Creede

Friday. Our anniversary. Number thirty-eight.

All through with the job in Creede. Stayed right here at this camp, though.
Got to work on the Glenwood Springs job and finish it. When I get to a good
phone connection, I've got two files I can send back to the office now.

Rags has really adapted well to this trip. He is getting so good about not
dashing out the door. We haven't hit bug season yet, so we can put him on a
leash outside, and leave the door wide open. He stalks about in the grass,
laying waste to tiny critters, and can go back and forth into and out of the
house as he pleases.

When I finished my work, Judy and I took a drive. More Jeep roads up the
canyon north of town. We found the coolest four-wheel drive road. So
steep. So narrow. Right up the face of a mountain. Right up the side of a
mountain, until just before the summit the road disappeared under a snow
bank. No chance of plowing though that. No chance of turning around. Very
very slowly, with Judy looking out one window, and me out the other, we
backed down to a place on the face where we could turn around.

Judy observed that this was the roughest steepest scariest road we had ever
driven. Then she drove.

Back down off the pass, we admired a beaver pond. I'll send some pictures
of our "Beaver Encounter".

Drove down the canyon for a nice anniversary dinner at the Blue Creek Café.
It was everything a small roadside Café high in the mountains should be.
I've got to get me some of those trout shaped light bulb covers.

At Creede, we're pretty deep into southwest Colorado. Saturday, we'll head
deeper.

Creede

The view from the roof.

Creede

Thursday

It worked. Got the job finished, drove back to South Fork after lunch for
another email exchange, drove back to Creede in time for a long exit
conference, and we're good to go. This is hard work, getting jobs totally
wrapped and done by their due date, but what a way to do it! Hey, guys at
the Denver office, do I really have to come back, or can you just sign me up
for more jobs and leave me out here longer?

Every year we come here, and every year someone asks us if we've been to the
Wheeler Geologic Area yet. It is the local spectacular, but not many people
get to see it. First, not many people come here. Then, even if you start
from here, it's hard to get to. It's a rugged fifteen-mile round-trip hike
if you walk there, or a twenty-eight mile round trip if you drive the jeep
road. They say it's faster to walk the trail than to drive the jeep road.

It was declared a National Monument around the turn of the century. After
fifty years or so, when they still hadn't built any access to it, or
promoted it, they turned it back to the Forest Service to manage. It is a
unique geologic area, but I don't know any more than that. I haven't seen
anything like a good picture of it. All these elements conspire to make
this journey irresistible. We have to go there. We're not going to do the
all-day hike, so we'll have to drive. We have never been able to drive it,
because we didn't tow a jeep, we towed a mini-van. Well, we took care of
that. We tow a Grand Cherokee now. We're ready. We even scheduled this
trip to allow a full day for the adventure.

It's not going to happen. Not this year. Each year before, the road has
been dry the first week of May. This year they got a good snow pack. The
four-wheel drive road is impassable when wet. This year, it's beyond wet.
It's still buried. Maybe we'll pass this way again in the summer, though we
never have before. Maybe next year will be drier again. Maybe. Whatever,
it remains on the must-do list. Meanwhile, we discovered another must-do
this trip. Talking to Mo, the Executive Director, our client, about
Wheeler, he mentioned another barely accessible marvel. Rattlesnake canyon.
Natural rock arches. Remote. It's reputedly west of the Colorado National
Monument, outside Grand Junction, on the other side of the Colorado River
from where the roads are. Who could resist that? Look out, next trip to
Grand Junction.

After work, we drove jeep roads up the canyon. Ended up past the rock ridge
right below the giant marshmallow mountains. They are, by name, the La
Garita mountains; I was just describing their appearance. We got to use the
sunroof as much as the windows to admire the view. Judy observed that was
the roughest road we've been on yet in the Jeep.

Sometimes it's too cold, but it is certainly not now. Highs in the sixties
in the high county is just right.

Back at camp tonight, the two geese do their noisy nightly commute back down
river. We never see them fly upriver, but they fly back down past us every
night. Or perhaps there is an endless supply of geese upriver that would
rather be downriver. Two at a time.

Tomorrow. Our anniversary.

Creede

Creede.

Creede

Creede at high noon.

Creede

Creede at morning rush.

Creede

A final look out the windshield before leaving Antlers

Creede

Some mining reminders.

Creede

Tuesday

This is a good rhythm. Every day Judy drives me to work; about five miles.
Some days we pass a car going the other way on the road. If we do, they
wave. Every time. Every day she comes to get me and we go home for lunch.
I go for a run while she prepares the food. Once a week, Judy goes to work
with me for half a day and does the test work. When Judy goes to work,
Annie goes too.

My daily run here is challenging. We're at high altitude, and my route
includes a serious hill. It's not exactly the Leadville 100...... But if I
did it 100 times in a row it would be.

The motorhome is oriented north/south. We can see the Big Dipper in the
dark every night, pointing to Polaris. Every night the moon shines in our
eyes through the bedroom windows.

Drove to South Fork, twenty miles away, and found a cell phone signal so we
could talk to the kids and send/receive some email. Parked in the little
highway rest stop, standing at the back of the jeep, computer plugged into
the outlet in the back, cell phone connected. It works. Except for the
minor rain delay, while I waited inside.

Drove back into the glaring sun, top open to admire the view straight up.
This drive, along the headwaters of the Rio Grande, through the canyon, the
open valley at the top; the old mining town of Creede six block long and
three blocks wide; the dramatic sheer canyon entrance immediately behind the
town with the old mining ruins strewn about. Of all the beautiful places
we've ever been, this is the most intensely beautiful place we've ever been.
Overload.

Got the assets finished and half way through the income accounts.

Antlers

Antlers.

Cabins along the creek.