Poudre Canyon fire

 I don't know what these plants used to be but they're burned to stumps now.  I had to go to the dentist today and the highway to Laramie was closed by a new forest fire right close to the road so I had to take the highway over Cameron Pass down the Poudre Canyon... which has been closed for weeks by a wildfire that burned a lot of trees and houses.  Today, luckily, was the first day they opened that road, so I was able to get to Fort Collins to get my tooth fixed.

One good thing about driving down the Poudre Canyon after a raging wildfire had closed it for three weeks ... no traffic!  I thought about stopping to see if I could find some BBQ moose --- but decided that would be in bad taste.

 These pictures aren't very colorful.  Of course, the smoke was still a big haze in the air though I didn't see any smouldering spots on the ground.  Still, my camera card is an old one from another camera that I sat on at the Western stock show a couple years ago.  I think I'll get a new card and see if that helps.  I don't know how many people will be interested in these pictures.  Scenery doesn't work all that well for me somehow.  Probably I need a better camera than a little cheapo digital.

 Here's a picture of the entrance to the Narrows coming from FTC.  Trees burned in the Narrows.  The fire burned big time on both sides of the Poudre River all the way up to Rustic.  I don't know why the news didn't say that.  It was just mostly reported about the fire jumping the river at one spot... at the location of that Glacier housing development.  Like that was the only spot where the fire crossed the river.   Basically, Poudre Canyon burned  to the tops of the mountains on both sides of the river  for almost 60 miles.  Some mountains were burned down to the dirt.  Some burned just in spots.  Others are covered with skeletons of burned trees.

These are pictures of lots of burned trees but I don't know if it's showing up that well.  Oh well, I took these pictures to put in my blog--- so I'm going to use them anyway.

Rodeo Weekend

 This was Rodeo Weekend in Walden...  thus the Oyster Fry!!! ...which I personally hate.  I think it is a really sick thing to make a big deal of.  After cutting them out of those little newborn calves, (and if you've ever participated in a branding you know that it is a dirty painful violent thing to do) acting like you're so macho by eating them...  well, I think it's pathetic.  Anyway, this is Rodeo Weekend in North Park.  And it was a really busy weekend because it's always the Pioneer Reunion the same weekend as the rodeo, and it happened that this weekend there was a Ride The Rockies bicycle tour that spent the night on it's way through town.  2000 bike riders.  There wasn't enough rooms in town for all the people.

 Here are some pictures of smoke from the wildfires down the Poudre Canyon,  viewed from the fairgrounds.

 This is the smoke over the Rawah mountains to the east which you can barely see for the haze.  I didn't count how many horse trailers there were at the fairgrounds for the rodeo.  Maybe fifty.  A lot.  The first time I had been up there for the rodeo since the kids were little.  I like the pole bending and barrel racing but not so much the bull and bronc riding.

 More of the Rawah Mountains.

  We went down to watch the parade this morning.  There weren't any teams of horses this time, Maybe Roy Golobith doesn't work them any more since he's gone to work for Silver Spur Ranch's Lone Pine Unit and left the State Line Ranch.  They used to have that really cool team of black Percherons that always stood there in that pasture at Three Way.  But there were plenty of people riding horses.  I wanted to mention a float that absolutely amazed us when we watched it go by. It was a semi and flat bed covered with bales of hay and people, (Including Joe's 4th grade teacher, Sarah Carlstrom) and a big sign that said "Cowboys For A Cancer Cure".  I was looking to see if I knew anybody on there when I spotted a woman sitting there on one of the bales of hay smoking a cigarette! It was the most amazing thing!  The float for curing cancer.  (Not to mention sitting on a bale of hay surrounded by bales of hay, surrounded by smoke from raging wild fires!)   And none of the rest of them acted like there was anything wrong with that.  Oh well!  That's North Park!.  Yesterday Jay played with the Front Porch Swingers at the Pioneer Reunion and when he carried his electric piano in it's case into the elementary school gym, a kid came up to him and asked, "Is that a gun in there?"  It is absolutely nuts!  And when that float came back by (Walden's parade is so small, it goes down the street twice!) She was not only still smoking cigarettes but was now carrying a pack of cigarettes and lighter!  I didn't see if any of the hay was smoking.

Hannibal, Missouri

 On my way up to Iowa from Bonne Terre, Missouri, I had to stop in Hannibal to see where Mark Twain grew up or Jay would have been really upset... if I happened to accidentally mention the fact.  Because he's a really big fan of Mark Twain's.  So is Joe.  Here is the home Twain grew up in.  They charged $8 for a tour but I didn't see any reason to do that.  The whole town had those signs or plaques like the one above on the buildings.  So you knew what significance it had in Twain's life or his books.  He really included his hometown and stuff that went on there in his stories.  One of the plaques said that using his town in his stories helped him to make sense of his life.  That made sense to me.  The sign says this fence is the one Tom Sawyer painted.

Here's proof that that house above was really Twain's home because here is an actual picture of the actual Twain standing in front of the same house.

 This is the house that was used for Becky Thatcher's home in Tom Sawyer which is right across the street from Twain's home.

This is supposedly Twain's river boat, sitting on the Mississippi River at Hannibal.  There was a light house and I thought I would climb up the stairs to the top of the bluff overlooking the river to get a panoramic view of the river, but after about the 1000th or so flight of stairs climbing on and on forever!!!! I decided it wasn't all that important to get a panoramic view of the Mississippi River!  Anyway, some guy doing yard work at a house on that hillside climb told me you couldn't go in the light house anyway.  So really, what was the use?  At Hannibal I headed east away from the river inland in Missouri and then north to Iowa.  It was 400 + miles from Bonne Terre to Lorimor, Iowa.  A long drive and I'm still tired.

Shirley's farm

 I took a video but I've tried and tried to download it and it won't come on here.  I need to make a you tube account and put videos on there for people to see.  It's disappointing that I can't put it on here.  Joe is showing Amanda's grandmother's home and yard and you can get a better idea how nice it is here.  So lush!  This is the drive coming in to the house.

 This isn't easy to see how far you can see into the distance but it is miles and miles of rolling tree covered hills.  This is part of the yard and drive into the house.

Joe & Amanda move to Missouri

 I don't know if you can see the mountains.  I think they're the San Juan's down by Alamosa.  Anyway, it was REALLY blowing and that is a dust storm obscuring an entire mountain range southeast of the highway going to New Mexico.  It was really blowing. 

Loading up for the move to Missouri from Albuquerque, 1200 miles plus away.  My poor car is really sitting low.  Joe loaded everything in the trailer and was soooo hot and sweating.

This isn't a very clear picture.  Joe is sitting in the car port/porch on his computer and listening to Stephanie Miller.  Amanda's family is very nice.  Her Aunt Jill came over last night and I have to say that I identified particularly with her.  We had a very nice discussion about books... almost all night.  One of my favorite things.  OK.  Amanda's sister just got here so I have to do more later.

Blue doors and rainy mountains

 An artist we talked to in the gallery next to World Cup was interested in all the blue painted gates, doorways, windows, etc. and I thought it made for interesting pictures too, so I took this one of the stairs across from the outdoor table we were sitting at in the Cafe Tazza patio.

 Here's R.C. Gorman's Gallery.  We went in there yesterday.  A lot of pictures of Indian women wrapped up almost to their eyeballs in colorful blankets... and not much else in the picture... just women sitting around in blankets.  A few with minimalist hills behind them.  I didn't count the pictures in there but it was obvious that he certainly could shell them out.

Here's a storm blowing in over Taos Mountain.  It rained a couple of days here.  It wasn't all that noticeable though because it must be really dry since there wasn't any standing water in the morning after an all night rain.  This evening we're driving over to Albuquerque to see Joe.  We're leaving late because Jojo is taking a driving test with our car at 3:45 PM.  He's using our car because it's automatic and he's still nervous with his mom's manual transmission.  We have to come back tomorrow because Jojo is going to prom with his girl friend, Sam, who is graduating.  Visiting Taos, I have to say, isn't the same without Joe here.  The boys are fun and we love seeing and hanging out with them... but Joe is ENTERTAINING!  You're entertaining Joe!!!!

Sunday Sol is fifteen

 First thing this, Sunday May 6, morning, Jay and I got Sol up and headed down to the Plaza for some World Cup coffee.  Here we're sitting in the gazebo in the plaza drinking coffee and reading.  Jay got the Sunday New York Times at the Taos Inn where Joe and I sometimes go to have nachos and to "See and be Seen" in their outdoor seating on Paseo Pueblo del Norte.  Joe's term, not mine.  Though, it did seem very apt.  And I like it, so I always use it.

 From the plaza we proceeded on down Kit Carson Road a couple blocks to our old and favorite hangout, Cafe Tazza.  Apparently, Joe was in town by this time but we didn't know it... because Joe doesn't have a cell phone!   He says we had arranged to meet downtown at some certain place, which he didn't say what that was.   This was during an early morning phone call (before I was awake) Joe made to me saying he was leaving Albuquerque and where should we meet.  I still don't know where that was, but the poor guy was wandering all around town to all the places I like to go, looking for us. 

 Our second visit to Cafe Tazza, this time sitting outside because Joe got here and has Max... who can't go inside... for multiple reasons that I won't mention here.  So this is a picture of the three Joes.  We celebrated Sol's fifteenth birthday this afternoon with an ice cream cake that Janelle and Bea made.  Right now Joe and Jay are at Brodsky's Book Store and Sol and I are going to Wal mart to spend his gift card.

 Here is Jay stealing a sip of my Americano at The Conch House where we had breakfast in Key Largo Saturday morning.  This is where Rhonwyn and Steve always breakfast when they go down there.  The coffee was OK but not great.  Jay had macadamia nut pancakes and thought they were really good.  We spent the night in Homestead at an Econolodge motel.  then came on down to Key Largo where Jay fished in the gulf AND in the Atlantic.  The highway is so narrow going south  from Key Largo that Jay said he could have fished both at the same time, the gulf on the forward cast and the Atlantic on the back cast.  He probably would have hooked someone in a car going by though so it's good that he didn't try.

 We stopped again at the Wide World of Sports just so we could look at Hemingway's boat, The Pilar.  Here Jay's sitting in the EXACT SAME SEAT that Hemingway sat in to catch some of those big fish he's always posing in pictures with.  Hemingway didn't actually own this boat, he just fished in it and liked it so well that he had one built just like it.  On  our way back to Miami from Key Largo we took a side highway, Card Sound Road, so we could eat lunch at Alabama Jack's.  They have really good Conch fritters and Conch Chowder there and there's a deck built right over a canal shadowed on the other side by densely growing Mangroves.  So we had lunch  and sat there throwing crumbs over the railing to the needle fish and some other kinds too.  We also lucked out and saw a manatee swimming by.  I said it was the size of a man but Jay thought it was bigger.

 Today, we met Bryan and Karen for brunch in South Beach.  We were going to go to a Starbucks by the ocean for our after brunch coffee but it started pouring down rain so we went back to The Lincoln Road Mall, which is what they are standing on above, and sat in a Starbucks there.  Karen is on the left above and that's Rhonwyn with the Madeline hat on.Karen is Rhonwyn & Steve's sort-of adoptive daughter.

I'm getting worse at this instead of better

Here's another blog that I can't even download pictures to without some other weird thing going on so you're just going to have to put up with these things I guess.  Though I don't suppose I have to let you know it's been posted.

Well, I didn't mean THAT!  Sorry Jay!

More video

Here's another try at publishing a video.  Can you hear Jay happily whistling there somewhere nearby?  Anyway, it's another couple of alligators.  Hope you can see it.  It's shorter than the last one I tried to get on here.

Everglade Nat'l Park

I am trying to put a video on here as an experiment.  I have trouble with this so I hope it comes out OK. (Alright.  I put it on again so I hope you can see it now.)  This was a place we stopped at in the Everglades National Park on our way down to Flamingo, Florida.  There were so many alligators there that we stopped looking at them unless there were a lot.  I don't know how many were here but there had to be over twenty.  We didn't know why the vultures were hanging around them.  They kept fighting with each other .  Once again, the alligators didn't do anything besides just lay there.  We drove down from Miami about 70 miles to here and are staying in Homestead for the night.  In the morning we will head on down the Keys to Key Largo  where Jay will fish in the gulf and I will visit Lori, Eric and Ben.

Cousins & Alligators

 Today we rode the bikes to Coco Walk for coffee (naturally)  and sat and read for awhile.  Starbucks had music playing that Jay liked better than yesterday, so instead of hearing, "What is this song?  I don't like this kind of music.  Is that K.D. Lang?"  I heard, "This is Miles Davis.  I wonder if that's... is this John Coltrane?  I think this is Coltrane.  Yes it is."  Then he paused in reading snatches from The New York Times to say, "This is Monk.  Do you know what his middle name is?"  I said, "Thelonius."  just to be saying something.  Seriously, why would I know that?  So, then he told me Thelonius Monk's middle name.  "Sphere."  So, anyway, that's what we did this morning.  This afternoon we drove out to Mathison Hammock Park, or whatever it's called.  It's where Jay's mom's memorial was held.  It was one of her favorite places.  It's right on the ocean.  The picture above is him standing on the walk with a regatta of sailboats behind him out on the water.  He fished along the shore but didn't catch anything.  A coon came up to me where I was sitting at a picnic table but I only had a bottle of water so it went away into the mangroves.

 On our way back from Naples we saw an information center along the canal through the everglades and stopped.  There was a boardwalk up a couple feet off the canal and when we went up on it we saw a bunch of alligators sleeping on the bank.  There were 17 in all.  Only a couple moved the whole time we were there.  We weren't sure what the reason for that was.  A few laid in the water or half in anyway.  Very reptilian behavior.

Once again, I meant for this picture to be the first.  You'd think I would learn, wouldn't you?  We're standing on the Naples Pier with Jay's cousin Betsy and her husband Andrew Decker.  They are really nice people and it was so great to see them again.  We want to go visit them in Sarasota next time we're down here.  It's amazing how you really FEEL that you're related to someone even though you hardly ever (or in my case, never) see them.  Betsy's father and Jay's father were brothers.
Jay wondered about the place there that says Ann Arbor . Naples so he went in to ask what the connection was.  All he got was what exquisite taste the owner had, how elegant her vision was, how inspired and blaa, blaa, blaa everything she had in her stores in Naples and Ann Arbor were.  You just wanted to say, "Was I talking to you!!!???"  to that rediculous guy sitting there at the counter, and not BEHIND the counter but at it.  The lady behind the counter was at least somewhat helpful.  I have to say, Naples is a wierd place.  It's, like, totally new!  You feel like you've gone to a fake village where all the buildings are pre-fab construction.  For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, there was not ONE book store!  Tomorrow we are going to Flamingo.

Jay fishing Key Biscayne

 We went out to Key Biscayne to a state park there where there was a sea wall  you could fish off of.  Below where Jay is standing is a steep drop off (no beach here) with huge boulders along below.  He hooked a big fish but his knot came untied and he lost it.

 This is the light house that is apparently a tourist attraction because Jay is pointing at it.  It was closed so we couldn't go inside the fence to see it up close.

This is the Starbucks we went to the first time I came down here to Miami.  It's right across the street from the University of Miami.  We rode the bikes here and met Bryan for coffee.  It's late now, but we are going out to eat somewhere with Rhonwyn, Steve and Bryan when we all get around.  Tomorrow Jay and I plan to drive over to Naples to meet Jay's cousin, Betsy, and her husband for lunch.  Hopefully we will see at least ONE alligator this time!  I don't know if we will be going over on Alligator Alley or Tamiami Highway... but both have to cross the Everglades.  Which is alligator heaven.

 This is a Miami landmark, started selling lemonade here in 1978.  It's on Bayshore Drive.  We rode our bikes to Starbucks and sat there for awhile then rode around till we saw this guy selling iced lemonade and, since we were getting really hot, we stopped and bought a couple.  There are great bike trails around Coconut Grove and everyone is really used to joggers and bicyclists it seems.  But this park here had an old guy that told us we weren't supposed to ride there.  He yelled, "Didn't you see the sign?"  But there wasn't a sign and he was just an old jerk.  I asked Jay why he didn't go over there and punch the guy but he said he didn't think it was appropriate.

This should have been the first picture, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  I thought I HAD gotten the hang of it, but apparently not.  Anyway, this is the place where one of the Burn Notice shows was filmed and this is like the seat they were sitting on... or one of them.  There are a lot of these red velvet loveseats  all along the sidewalk.  It's mostly outside seating.  There's a big warehouse down by the waterfront where Rhonwyn says that Burn Notice has some of their filming.  I still haven't seen that big old building where Michael lives.
Jay wants to go fishing and we spent half the day trying to find a place that sells fishing licenses.  We finally had to drive ten miles way out south and west to get one.  Walden has four places within two blocks that sells fishing and hunting licenses and Miami has one within one million blocks that sells them.  We couldn't figure that out.  But we got a consolation for having to travel forever out there, there was a Denny's in the same shopping mall and so we got to eat supper at Denny's.  Both Rhonwyn and Steve gagged when we told them what we did.  It IS kind of embarrassing!

 Here is our rental car, parked in Steve's Porsche's spot because it's at the garage for it's annual checkup.  Rhonwyn has a Porsche now too... but it's only a two seater and we take her Acura when we all go out together.  She says you have to drive a Porsche to understand what it's like to have one.  I said I would love to!  But... Oh, well.

 Here's the front of Rhonwyn & Steve's house.  It is sunny as you can see, and 78 degrees outside.  This morning we went out to eat at their favorite restaurant... which was in one of the Burn Notice episodes this last season.  I'm going to go down there and get Jay to take a picture of me in one of those seats that I recognized in the show.  Maxine, you have to show Jaclyn the picture.

Here is Jay playing the piano that Steve's parents gave them as a wedding present.  That's their kitchen in the background.  We got here about 5 yesterday evening.  the flight was fine except I asked for a window seat and there wasn't a window in that part of the plane.  Who knew there was such a spot.  Jay didn't care but I did.  Jay didn't remember to bring a book and had to read one of mine to go to sleep the night before when we stayed at Motel 6 in FT. Collins.  It was an Alistair MacLean  book for those of you who are interested in such things... "When Eight Bells Toll".  I don't think he minded it too much.  I packed it in the checked bags though, so he had to read the Georgette Heyer book that I had on the plane.  He said it was kind of like a Scooby Doo mystery.  I had never thought of that, but it is a little.  These two sisters and a brother have inherited a big old manor house that they've moved into and there is a really frightening monk sneaking around the neighborhood that has the locals all spooked.  It's  called "Footsteps In The Dark" for those of you, once again, who care.  Rhonwyn and Steve are really busy with work all week so Jay and I are planning excursions on our own mostly I think.  We are going to go see a winery on the way down to Flamingo, Florida.  Right now Rhonwyn is in the kitchen yelling at her phone.  It's an I phone and to call someone you yell the name into it.  When she calls someone, it's a little disconcerting at first.