Football...

… is a stupid game. Pro football anyway. The Broncos couldn’t beat the Colts. Their strategy was to stop the run and make Manning throw the ball. They didn’t stop the run. They didn’t stop the throws either.

College football is still good… unless you’re a Texas fan. They got spanked.

But baseball… Baseball is still good. The Rockies get a 163 game season this year. They won 13 of their last 14 games, which sets them up for a one-game playoff with the Padres tomorrow to see who goes on to the post season.

I have a question

If fruits and vegetables are nature’s most perfect food; the building blocks of healthy diet; our first line of defense against disease; our balance and protection against that dreaded animal flesh …

Why are Eskimos still alive? They live on fish and sea mammals. They eat meat. There isn’t anything else out there to eat.

They’re not following a proper food pyramid.

Lathrop

We’re on the move again.

Dinner and laundry at Becky’s house. A visit with Matt and the boys on the way out. A drive south on Interstate 25 in the wind. A stop for the night at Lathrop State Park in some weather.

A good sports day. Colorado beat third ranked Oklahoma in Boulder. That makes Colorado number two, doesn’t it? If a person was interested in baseball, the Rockies would be fun to watch. They’ve won something like 11 out of their last 12 games; fifteen games or so over 500; but they have to win their remaining games and the Padres have to lose theirs for the Rockies to have a shot at the wildcard spot in the playoffs. Tonight the Rockies are ahead 11 to 1. The Padres lost in eleven today. They both play games again tomorrow.

Go Rockies.

Now the Broncos…. Yesterday’s newspaper announced their strategy for tomorrow’s game against the Colts. They mean to make Manning throw the ball. Nice strategy Broncos. How bad could Peyton Manning hurt you throwing the ball?

Tomorrow, we head for Cortez. We’ll go west on highway 160, through Alamosa, the San Luis Valley, South Fork, over Wolf Creek Pass, through Pagosa Springs, and Durango. If we leave early, we should be able to catch all of the afternoon Bronco game.

Staffing

Last year we made great plans for 2007. We would find another person who wanted to travel around like we do, working with nonprofit organizations and split up the traveling audit load.

We found that person early in the year but he didn’t work out. We kept after it though, and Casey Lynch found us. Casey is a CPA in Durango who has twenty-five years experience auditing nonprofit organizations so he is a perfect fit with us. He has worked with me off and on all summer. These last two weeks Casey has done the audit jobs and I have provided support; the week before from right there in Glenwood with him; this week, digitally from farther away.

I have four more jobs scheduled this year. Casey has four more jobs scheduled this year too

Now we’re making great plans for 2008.

St Vrain

We’re not in Glenwood Springs. We’re at St Vrain State Park again. Almost ready to head for Cortez.

Meanwhile, we have these neighbors to contend with.

Motorhomes

Our coach was so new you could tell just by looking at it. Four slides; weren’t many of those around. The big single piece windshield; that was distinctive; not many of those. Now, two years later, it’s not so special. It is still shiny and nice, but no so unique. Almost all new coaches have the big windshield and four slides. There are plenty of new coaches on the road now.

We can look at twenty-year old motorhomes, and no matter how well they have been taken care of, you can tell they’re old. The designs have changed. They don’t have any slides. The windshields have a big bar down the middle. The resting position for the windshield wipers leaves them up in the driver’s view.

Which leads us to wonder: what will coaches be like twenty years from now? We can see ourselves still in this coach in twenty years. People will see us driving by and tell their children, “Kids; that’s what motorhomes used to look like.”

Along the way

I liked Shaffer’s response to the motorhome picture mystery:

“I don't have my plumbing license, but that stuff has never flowed uphill.”

Unexpected encounters

A late night moonlit walk in the dark by myself. On the trail down to the river, I can just barely make out a bicyclist at the side of the trail, working on a rear wheel by the light of a dim headlamp. I scuffled my feet on the sidewalk as I approached so I wouldn’t startle the person, stopped and made a sympathetic comment about having to work on a wheel in the dark. The bicycle rider burst into tears. She had crashed ten miles back and hurt her back. She was just trying to get home and the rear wheel came off as she was pedaling up the steep hill. She had just broken up with her boyfriend and thought a ride through Glenwood Canyon would be a good idea but she got caught out in the dark. She had just given up getting home on her own and called a friend to come pick her up at a nearby highway rest stop.

There was nothing I could do to help so I listened. I walked her up the trail to the highway rest stop and listened some more. I didn’t feel good about leaving her there alone in the dark so, with her permission, I stayed and visited with her until help arrived. She wondered why I was in the vicinity and I told her about our life on the road. She reminisced about traveling the country in a VW Bus and I described the VW busses we’d had over the years: the 1966, 1972, and 1978 busses, culminating in the giant VW bus we drive today, big flat steering wheel in the front, engine roaring in the back; we just have a little more space between the two now. The real rescuers came and took her away. I finished my walk. When I got back Judy observed how long I had been gone and I got to tell her “I met a girl”.

Yesterday, at our lunch stop on top of Vail Pass, a tour bus unloaded thirty-three tourists in our vicinity. They milled about, took a few pictures of the scenery, then migrated toward our coach. I ended up visiting for quite a while with the guys outside about the mechanics of the motorhome and tow car. All from Norway, some of them spoke English that I could understand and translated my answers to the remainder. While I was outside, Judy had begun giving tours inside. We opened up the slides so they could get the full effect. They had never seen anything like this in Norway. We didn’t get all thirty in the coach at once, but we got to share our story with an audience fascinated by its novelty to them. The tour bus left before we did, with waves from inside the windows all along our side.

An interesting accumulation of events: our life on the road.

Football

Okay, so maybe the Broncos are only the second best team in football.

College football

CU is not undefeated, they’re 2 and 1, but a 42 to 0 win yesterday!

That’s it. CU has arrived. They can’t be beat. They’re going to the SuperBowl.

College football

Actually, CU’s record isn’t 2 and 1, they’re 2 and 2, but what we really like is that they have a coach we can respect. After the string of liars and hypocrites CU has employed, Coach Hawkins appears to be a respectable human being. Maybe CU can have a successful coach who is also a responsible adult.

Football

Two games. Two wins by the Broncos, come from behind, on the last play of the game.

The Broncos rule! They can’t be beat!

Along the way

What’s wrong with this picture?

Nevermind. You can’t really tell from the first picture. You’ll just have to look at the second picture.

Maybe it could be entitled “just because you can afford a million dollar coach doesn’t mean you always think things through.”

Hanging lake

Hanging lake

It gets really steep at the top, but they blasted steps in the rock and put up a handrail.

Hanging lake

And, after a forty-five minute mile, the reward.

Hanging lake

It is a little steep.

Hanging lake

Today’s walk: Hanging Lake. Not a long walk; only a mile. How hard could that be?

Chickadee

Judy got to hold a chickadee. It wasn’t all fun for the chickadee, though. First, he had to knock himself out cold by flying into our windshield. Judy thought he was critically hurt, so it was upsetting, but over the course of fifteen or twenty minutes, her chickadee regained his balance, perched on his own, and ultimately flew off to rejoin the crew.

Maybe not as dramatic as Brother David’s hummingbird going down in flames, but he isn’t the only bird-whisperer in the family.

Glenwood

Some jays just have a lot to say…

Glenwood

Not many birds here. Chickadees and nuthatches. Nonstop jays though. Scrub jays and Steller’s.

Question

It happened to me!

I took a walk last night and just as I passed underneath the only streetlight in the campground, it went out. Pretty funny, huh? I stood under it and waited for it to come back on, but nothing happened. I walked away and it came back on, so I walked back underneath it and killed it for good.

That proves it, doesn’t it? I too, in the words of Leah Bailey, am a power sucking biped!

Flamingos

Those crazy Lazy Daze drivers. They travel around with lighted flamingos on their roofs.

Football

It’s interesting watching the targeted commercials that appear on different kinds of programming. Saturday morning cartoons; coco puffs. Commercial television; screaming Toyota commercials. Golf and yachting; investment advice, Lexus, and Lincoln Navigators.

We get lots of channels on the television. Got the local California feed for an Oakland Raiders game. Commercials that appear on Oakland Raiders football programming: season tickets in all sorts of configurations (we’re not used to seeing that), and bail bondsmen (we’re not used to seeing that either).

Washing machine

Judy called Splendide. They emailed us easy to follow printed instructions on how to open the washing machine door with a screwdriver after the handle has been ripped off, so we can rescue the clothes while the replacement handle is in the mail to us.

We’re not the first ones to break the handle.

The laundry has been rescued. The new handle is on the way.

Question

My daughter has a question I’m unable to answer. Any help?

---

From: Becky Alexander Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:30 PM
To: Steve Taylor
Subject: Question

So,

I've been doing a lot of walking at night lately, and I've noticed that as I'm walking through my neighborhood, on a two mile or so walk, I'll have an average of 3 or 4 streetlights go out as I walk under them. I've never thought that much about it - figured they were just flaky lights. However, two things happened recently that makes me wonder if it really is random. First, a friend of mine was telling me that her "husband puts out streetlights". If she's walking alone they stay lit, but if her husband is with her they go out. Second, I was walking along Isabelle Road last night, up where it is four lanes, and four of the big lights went out as I approached them. Each time, it happens when I'm around 5-10 yards away, and they will usually go back on right after I pass them. I was paying attention last night, and watching the lights for quite a distance ahead, and never saw one go out unless I was about to pass under it. These were big lights on a main road, and I think they're supposed to be fairly reliable. It wasn't every light either - two were in a row, and one earlier and one later.

So, why is this? Is it random? Do I give off "dark rays"? Would any of your friends know? Am I lying to get attention?

Have a good night.

Love,

Becky

Things not to do while motorhoming

Don’t rip the handle off the door of your washing machine.

Towcar update

I should clarify. That was not our towcar that disappeared from behind the motorhome a few weeks ago. I forwarded a report from a friend describing how they had lost their towcar. Some have wondered why it took so long to see in the rearview camera that the towcar was gone. In fact, they never noticed in the rearview camera that the towcar was gone. Things just didn’t look right when they stopped for fuel.

Our towcar, the Jeep, remains intact, right behind the coach, right where it should be.

Glenwood springs

Wow. That was a cold one last night in Breckenridge. 33 degrees. Warm and comfy inside, though. Tiger Run would be a good place to beat the summer heat, next time there is summer heat. The high was only in the low eighties today in Glenwood. The forecast for tomorrow is in the seventies. Maybe next year.

A field goal to win with no time left on the clock. The Broncos’ undefeated season continues.

Tomorrow: a new job in Carbondale.

Tiger run

I should mention that we are not experiencing an inordinate amount of repairs. Imagine a house, with all its systems, plus a vehicle, with all its systems, plus a towcar. Take them all out together and shake them for twenty-five thousand miles a year. A few repairs once or twice a year are to be expected. No problem. Just part of life on the road.

Tiger run

Another busy week on the front range. All the crews are done with the house. It has been patched up, touched up and spruced up. The kids came by and we all said our goodbyes to it. It went on the market yesterday.

At the same time, we had two Jeep repair days, and four motorhome repair days. Got lots of stuff done. Didn’t get everything done. The twice-yearly oil change was easy. We got a slide latch replaced. After a pause to let the proper parts get shipped, that was easy. The hydrohot got its annual service and some parts replaced. The dash air was a little more difficult. There was more to it than fixing a leak and replacing the coolant. They decided the condenser and the compressor both needed to be replaced. Couldn’t get those parts in time, so we left before the job was finished. We’ll watch for one more opportunity in the next three weeks to swing by the front range to finish the repair before we head south for the winter.

Spending the night at Tiger Run RV Resort outside Breckenridge. Go Longhorns. Go CU. CU has a brand new quarterback, a red-shirt freshman. Last week, with CU behind in the fourth quarter, the announcers had to say, “This quarterback doesn’t know how to lose”. “Right”, I thought, “Announcer hyperbole.” Then they went on to explain that the quarterback hadn’t lost a game since sixth grade. He was 59 and 0 coming into the opening game of the college season. CU came back to win in the fourth quarter. Cody Hawkins. 60 and 0.

We like Tiger Run. We’ve been meaning to stop and stay here for years; and just now finally managed to. Nine thousand feet high; we’re cooler than we’ve been lately. Got the rig washed. Got the cow snot rinsed off the Jeep. It’s all good.

St vrain

We’ve left Taos. We’re back in Colorado.

Drove north, up our newest favorite highway, Colorado 159, through the oldest town in Colorado, San Luis, Established in 1851. Right turn at Fort Garland on Highway 160, over La Veta Pass, past Lathrop State Park, planning our lives as we go. On the freeway at Walsenburg, and a straight shot north through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, skirting Denver on the 470 toll road, and back to St Vrain State Park, our address for the next week. A week ago, it was “move out of the house week”. All last week while we were gone was for work crews. The hardwood floors got repaired and refinished. Some cracks in walls and foundations got repaired and repainted, but not before we had an engineer come in to make sure there were no structural issues. The basement got scraped, patched, and painted. The trash got hauled. The spruce tree got spruced up. The wasps got wiped out. The fence got moved 18”.

This next week is vehicle repair and maintenance week, but not until Tuesday. Today was shed day. Several years ago we rented a shed to hold all the stuff we didn’t want to throw away, but didn’t have room at the house to store. No junk. Nothing to throw away, but a lot of stuff to get rid of. Lots of extra RV stuff from the various RVs we’ve had over the years. Bicycle racks that still work, but didn’t stand the test of time for us. Same with traveling barbecue grills. A Satellite dish setup. Two windsurfers with all the sails and gear to go with them. Two float tubes and flippers. Perfectly good neoprene waders (we both have gore-tex waders now). Stuff we like, but don’t have room for on the road. The shed is empty. It’s all gone. All gone except for the bicycles and boats (and the racks to carry them). Two mountain bikes and two 14’ flat-water kayaks. We can carry the boats and bicycles on the Jeep all at once, but that makes it a little hard to get other stuff in and out of the Jeep. We probably want to relocate them to Texas, but don’t want to carry them around on the car for months in the meantime. As soon as we figure out the boats and bicycle logic, we can get rid of the storage shed.

The Broncos won their game. CU (my alma mater) beat CSU (in overtime). I got my birding binoculars back (freshly tuned up by Wild Birds Unlimited). Hugs from friends and family.

We enjoy the occasional Colorado sunset.