Golden

Okay. I was wrong. I said we had not sent out any flyers lately to account
for that many website visits. It turns out Jamie sent out a supplemental
mailing to the Denver area. That's the reason for the most recent bump in
website visits. Nice going Jamie.

Time to move on from Glenwood Springs/Carbondale/Basalt. Been here two
weeks.

The third job went well enough they volunteered to take us over to the local
public radio station to meet the Executive Director there. That was fun. A
referral before we even finished. The Roaring Fork Valley is turning into
our Western Slope home base.

Time to head for Golden. Need a kid fix. Need a few things fixed. We have
a few days.

Golden

A quick week on the Front Range. Time for a couple fixes. The
microwave/convection oven quit convecting. We needed a seal replaced in the
plumbing. Richard the RV guy took care of it for us.

I've taken over the built-in dinette in the motorhome as my office. We used
to pack up all the work stuff every evening before dinner, eat at the table,
then put it all back after. After a while, we just started eating off TV
trays in the living room and leaving the work stuff where it was. The
dinette worked as an office, but it looked messy.

We remodeled. The built-in dinette is gone. We replaced it with a small
oak table. It takes up less room. There is room for my office chair to
push up under it when we drive. It makes the room bigger. It works.

Golden

And nobody really thought we would drive over the Continental Divide without
taking a picture of Dillon Lake did they?

Web site

Last week I was totally snowed by the web page hits that came from other
countries, Ireland and Canada. This week is a riot! Check this out.....

Eighteen countries.

Carbondale

What would a trip to Carbondale be without a picture of Sopris?

Colorado

Woke up to a great bird morning. House finches, black capped chickadees,
downy woodpeckers, and white-breasted nuthatches. On the tree outside our
bedroom window and the feeder below. We took some pictures.

Remember the mountain chickadee?

This is the black-capped chickadee.

Colorado

Still in Basalt.

Got a question for motorhome drivers. What is the best way to lubricate the
tow mechanism? Especially the telescoping part. When we park near the
beach, all the parts dry out and rust really fast. I've oiled it, but then
it gets all grimy with road gunk and the telescoping sticks and it gets on
any clothes that touch it. I've cleaned it all off and protected it with
silicon spray. That doesn't attract so much dirt, but it doesn't last very
long. Just a couple days. I'm back to wiping it down and oiling it again.
Any suggestions?

Here is something cool. We haven't sent out any mailings inviting people to
look at our website since January, but people are still looking at it. I
get a weekly update from the statcounter and page loads have been as high as
fifty per day this last week. There is another interesting statistic as
well. Country of origin. Of course, most of our hits came from the United
States, but 7% came from Ireland, and 2% came from Canada. Pretty funny,
huh?

I might need some help getting the motorhome to Ireland.

Colorado

Did the job in Glenwood Springs. It couldn't have gone better. Did the
fieldwork, had the exit conference, then did the board presentation on
Friday. All our jobs should go like this.

Next week. We'll continue to stay here. The first half of the week, we
have a job in Carbondale. The second half of the week, we have a job in
Carbondale. We have two jobs in Carbondale this trip. This summer we come
back to do a bigger job in Carbondale that will take two weeks. We've
talked to another organization here that just wants their tax return done
this year. What a surprise to get so many jobs in one of the smallest
towns. Guess we stumbled into an area that really needs what we do.

Last week was a battered women's shelter. This week, an affordable housing
agency, and a theatre group. Variety in our work. They're all nonprofits,
so they're the same in that regard, but very different kinds of nonprofit
organizations.

Colorado

Know how, in small towns, you see signs with unlikely combinations? It
might be the hairdresser and hardware store, or the attorney's office
advertising legal services and fine silver jewelry. We've seen these. We
saw the sign in Ridgway, a little sign by the side of the road, advertising
Mexican food and lodging. It pointed down a dirt road. We drove past.

Another time, in the hot springs, we asked around for recommendations on
Mexican food. Guess what. Mexican food and lodging. The Adobe Inn. Down
the dirt road.

Wow! Was that good Mexican food!

Well, we can't just stay at Ridgway. We had to move on to Glenwood Springs.
Actually, Basalt. The next job is in Glenwood Springs, but we're going to
stay down the road in Basalt. We get better hookups for the motorhome in
Basalt this early in the season. Ridgway to Basalt, by the direct route,
over McClure pass, down into Carbondale, and turn right for ten miles to
Basalt. It's an easy pass, a winding road. No problem.

Of course we could go the long way if we wanted, straight north all the way
up to Grand Junction, then east on I-70 to Glenwood Springs, and up the road
to Basalt. We ran the options through the CoPilot on the computer. The
long way adds fifty miles onto the trip. Estimated travel time? A half
hour less. Much straighter faster roads.

We went the long way. A nice drive to Basalt. Basalt is a good place to
be. It is a twenty-mile commute to Glenwood Springs. Ten miles to
Carbondale. It is at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and the Frying Pan.

Ridgway

And Judy.....

Judy thinks that any bird that comes to visit, comes to visit her.....

Colorado

Mountain bluebird, western bluebird, white-breasted nuthatch, black capped
chickadee, mountain chickadee, house sparrow, house finch, magpie, scrub
jay, stellar's jay, red winged blackbird, downy woodpecker, clark's
nutcracker. We're back to Ridgeway State Park for the weekend.

Colorado

A week in Creede. The Creede Repertory Theatre. Stayed in South Fork.
Commuted to Creede. Twenty miles. The weather was warm in the day, cold at
night, clear, and not windy. Fifties and twenties. Brilliant with all that
snow. In South Fork, we could watch the snow melting off each day. There
was still plenty of snow left when we left. There was several feet of snow
on the ground to begin with.

Juncos, sparrows, finches, bluebirds. Deer, elk, bald eagle, bighorn sheep,
magpies, crows, ravens (when we can't tell which, they're cravens).

Time to move on.

Creede

An ominous "beware of dog" sign.

Creede

Images from Creede.

Creede

Every year we stay right outside Creede. We stay at the Antlers Ranch.

This is the entrance to Antlers Ranch. We decided to stay somewhere else
this year.

Colorado

The camp at South Fork.

Colorado

A little weather sets in on the high country.

Colorado

Know what this is?

Colorado

It's a high country marina.

Colorado

The Ridgway view.

Colorado

The campground at Ridgway.

Colorado

Well, the computer works. I didn't get it fixed. I doubt I will find a
Toshiba repairman in South Fork or Creede. I got one of the keys to stick
back on, the "U". I can type if I stick my finger in the hole where the key
is supposed to be for the "I" and the "O". It's not fast, but it works.
Maybe I can get it fixed in Glenwood Springs or Grand Junction next week.

Colorado

We won't drive much this next month or two. We'll stay in Colorado and just
move from town to town once a week. But we have driven a lot lately, and
some may wonder if we get tired of driving long distances. In fact, some
have wondered out loud if we wouldn't rather have an autopilot to turn it
over to sometimes.

Good question. We just drove two thousand miles to Florida in five days,
worked for five days, then drove two thousand miles back to Colorado in five
days. If we were going to get tired of traveling, this would be the time.

We got springtime in the south. Green grass in full springtime growth
spurt. Wildflowers and flowering trees. We went from the beaches and pine
forests of the Florida south, to the bayous and bays of the deep south in
Alabama and Mississippi, to the gulf coast of Texas, then the piney woods,
prairies and plains, hill country, and windmills and wildflowers of flat
west Texas, followed by the high desert of New Mexico, up though Four
Corners, and sliding back into Colorado though the unknown, uninhabited west
side on a road we'd never been on before. All of this only during daylight
hours from a very comfortable chair with a very good view of all that goes
by, with Judy who talks to me and gets me coffee and club soda whenever I
want.

Do we get tired of it?

We savor every sight, sound, fragrance, and mile.

Colorado

They have racquetball courts in Montrose. Three of them. Judy got one for
me last Thursday after work. Usually all I need is a court. If I go lurk,
I can get someone to play. I didn't actually get to play anyone this time.
I had several possibilities, but no takers. Maybe it was the shirt I was
wearing. It says "old guys rule". Maybe no one wanted to go there.

Or maybe they all thought it said "old guys drool" and they really didn't
want to go there.

Colorado

-h Sh-t. The cat chased the d-g acr-ss the lapt-p wh-le - wasn't l-k-ng and
r-pped --t three keys -ff the keyb-ard. They w--ld be the letters that
f-ll-w H, N, and T -n the alphabet.
-nterest-ng. All v-wels. We d-n't really need v-wels when we wr-te, d- we?

Colorado

And back to the Colorado High Country.

Colorado

Headed for four-corners, approaching Shiprock.

Colorado

Flat Stanley crosses the Mississippi.

Colorado

I'm a little behind on pictures. Passing through Texas, we managed to stop
at a park we really like outside Kerrville in the hill country. Buckhorn.
It's just a regular RV Park. Not a state park or anything.

Colorado

While we were at Buckhorn, Annie met a new friend. Louie. These people
travel with Louie in their motorhome.

Colorado

We chose the southern route. Warmer and dryer.

Lake Charles Louisiana. Lakes, rivers, bridges, bayous, riverboats, oil
refineries, forests. There's a lot here. Driving from east to west, every
time we drive into a new state, we get an instant countdown to the next
state. The mile markers on the highway count from west to east, and south
to north. We had a few miles to go through to get out of Florida, and a few
each in Alabama and Mississippi. It's intimidating to drive into Texas and
see the first highway mile marker read 880 miles. You know you'll be
driving through Texas for days.

Two large cities to drive through. Houston. San Antonio. Both in the same
day. But, both on a Sunday. There's an accomplishment. Even with the
complete closure of Interstate 10 and rerouting around the middle of
Houston, we got through them both in the same day. And San Antonio. How
hard could it be to follow Interstate 10 through San Antonio? You can't
imagine how many ramps and changes it takes to stay on the same freeway you
came in on.

Junction Texas. "The front porch of the west." That's a nice slogan.

A rest stop in West Texas. House, white crowned, and black throated
sparrows. House finches in full voice. Cactus wren. Curve-billed
thrasher. Pyrrhuloxia. And a crow.

A fast two weeks. In those two weeks, a drive to Florida and back, with one
of those weeks devoted to a job in the middle. If you count long days
driving as work, we've worked a lot of long days. We're back in the home
state. Montrose Colorado. Got a new job here. A land conservancy.