Monday, April 28, 2014

April 28, 2014 Fort Collins, Colorado

We headed back to Fort Collins today, over two passes. We managed to squeeze between snow storms.

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They had Vail pass closed last night for a few hours, then they opened it with the chain law in effect. We have no chains for the bus, plus have no desire to drive it on slick roads anyway. At 9 am they lifted the chain law and around 11 John and Mandy, who had left before us called and said the roads were only wet. More snow was predicted for this afternoon and tonight, so we chanced it and left. Here we are heading up Vail pass into a storm.  The snow beside the road on Vail pass, and it was snowing and in the 20 degrees.

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At the summit it was still snowing, but the road was wet, not frozen.  Copper mountain ski area just to the east of Vail pass is closed, but still has plenty of snow and it was snowing.

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Heading up to the Eisenhower Tunnel, temps dropping back  into the 20’s and snowing. The windshield started freezing up. At the west tunnel approach, snow, blowing snow and freezing windshield, but the roads were mostly still wet.

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The east side of the tunnel had more snow, the road was starting to turn white, and some slush, but no ice. Loveland ski area at the west side of the tunnel has an 86 inch base and just got 15 inches of snow over the weekend. It is still open and the parking lot was full.  By the time we reached Denver it was partly sunny and green. But there was high winds. We made it to Fort Collins exhausted. I was totally freaked out in the snow, but John stayed calm and we arrived without incident.

John and Mandy stopped at Loveland and skied on the way back. They called when we were almost back and said I-70 was a sheet of ice and there were accidents all over the place. Glad we made it through when we did.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

April 26, 27 2014 Carbondale, Colorado

Quite the fun filled weekend.  First kayaking.

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Mandy, John and John- going,going, gone. We put in at the park right by Martha and Jimjim’s house and boated first on the Crystal river, which ran into  the Roaring Fork. We got in and out before the storm started.

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John, Mandy, Martha, Jimjim  and John on the Roaring Fork. We saw Canadian goose goslings from the river. We counted 18, we also saw an elk on the river bank and deer on the way home.

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Here I am with my inflatable kayak. The water is so cold I wore my dry suit.  Jimjim and John piling the boats on the car afterwards, Martha is supervising.  My boat is rolled up on the ground behind Martha.

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We got back from kayaking just in time to get to the 5 point sports adventure film festival in Carbondale. We saw a movie called Damnation. It is about the unused dams they are taking down and restoring salmon habitats and of course great rivers for boaters. Afterwards they had a discussion with the film makers and Katie Lee-who wrote the book All my rivers are gone- about beautiful Glen Canyon before they flooded it with Lake Powell. She is in the movie. She is in the pink dress in the photo. We went to many more cool films about surfing, biking, skiing, rock climbing and roller blading that evening. Excellent movies, great photography. Sunday we went up to Aspen Mountain to ski in a full on winter blizzard.

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Mandy and I. I am wearing my hiking rain gear from the car, borrowed gloves, goggles, and Martha’s ski’s, boots, and poles. I can still ski, but my legs wore out before the day was over. Out of practice.  Mandy getting a chair massage in the lodge at lunch. I got one right after her. Francisco the  massage therapist is fabulous.

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The aspen are rimed with ice and snow. Jimjim, John Gross, Mandy and I at the Jerry Garcia shrine on Aspen mountain. Besides the photos of him hanging on the trees there is a guitar , snowboard boot and  other mementos. John stayed home and shopped for  and cooked dinner.

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Half way down the mountain, and under the clouds you can see the town of Aspen below.  Martha in the car on the way home. Fat Albert has his head in Martha’s lap, Zoe has her head on Fat Albert and Martha has her head on Zoe.

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Sue using Fat Albert as a foot warmer and John serving the first course of dinner, roasted pesto tomatoes. It was followed with butternut squash bisque course, then pizza and salad course , next course sautéed chicken breasts. Finished with Martha’s home made cookies.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

April 25, 2014 Carbondale, Colorado

We made it to Colorado. It was touch and go, the bus developed a diesel leak. We had it looked at in Moab. The guy said it was around the fuel pump, but it would be ok to drive to Grand Junction to have it fixed. We drove to Grand Junction to the Cummings shop and they said it was some small fuel pump, not the big expensive one, and it would be ok to drive it to Denver to get it fixed. the bus is going in for routine maintained anyway in Denver. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

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Arches National Park entrance just north of Moab. Long line to get in today. Welcome to Colorful Colorado.

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Zoe, Martha Moran, John Moran, Fat Albert and Jimjim. The bus at Martha and Jimjim’s, plugged into the house.

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Sue and Martha dueling hula hoops.

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John, Jimjim, Mike, Martha, John Gross, Mandy Kotzman and Martha having dinner at Martha and Jimjim’s. Salmon, rice, salad and truffles made by Mandy . Yum. Jimjim with his new buff on. You can always count on Jimjim for a great photo op.

April 24, 2014 Moab, Utah

Heading back to Colorado. Stopped in Moab to visit some friends.

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We stopped in Green River, Utah to dump the bus, and John washed it. He had to move the bus, the hose was not long enough to reach both ends of the bus. But it is much cleaner. Desert Flavors in Green River, Utah.

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We had lunch at John’s favorite place in Green River, Ray’s Tavern.  Yummy burgers and fries.

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The bus parked at the old airport in Moab. Other occupants of the old airport.

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We had dinner with our friends Jim and Wes at their mountain top villa. My name for it, it is a beautiful house in a beautiful place. Wes, John and Jim having dinner on the deck.  Paco is under the table.

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Sunset from the deck.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

April 23, 2014 Chute Canyon, Utah

We decided to hike something easy and pretty today-after our grueling hikes we have been going on. We picked Chute Canyon. About 8 miles round trip, little wider of a canyon, but still pretty and a walk in the park.  It only got into the 60’s today, but was mostly sunny.

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John walking next the  yellow sandstone walls.

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A pinnacle on the canyon wall. Sue in a portrait  rock.

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John is the dot at the bottom of the exclamation mark! The canyon narrowed up a bit.

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Some water worked canyon wall. This is a butte where the canyon widens up. We stopped here and had lunch.

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Heading back. The canyon was mostly in shadow now. The yellow wall with shadows from the jagged wall on the other side.

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Reflection in a pool of water. Cool ridge at the mouth of the canyon.

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More wild rocks. Blacking sticking out of white rock, chocolate cookie dough looking rock, wild lines in the rocks, more cool stuff sticking out of the rock, the black thing is a big bolt of some kind driven way into the rock.

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More lines and circles and shapes. There is so much to see in these rocks. Fascinating.

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Some of the flowers.  White flowers and purple and fuchsia penstamen.