Happy Halloween

As most of you know I have been working part time in a Halloween store. It's been a hoot! There are some people that try on the sexy costumes and shouldn't be. As Robben says, "Halloween is an excuse for people to go out half naked." We ate our usual Papa Murphy's pizza smothered in my home grown tomatoes (which are probably the last until next summer) and watched movies. I couldn't help dressing up. I did decorate Lynn's truck. He bought me a spiny oyster pendent, because it is orange. Oh, Lynn's wearing an aviator scarf along with his devil horns (the flying devil).

Biking in Picket Wire

It was a glorious day so we decided to sneak one one more day in the outdoors. The bikes were loaded and off we went to the Dinosaur Tracks near La Junta. 13 years ago we were exploring with 12 year old Robben in tow. Her maiden voyage on her grown up bike which she still has today. Well the ride down into the canyon has deteriorated. Instead of a nice smooth road, the path is small with lots of rocks and boulders. Needless to say, I walked most of it trying to keep myself and the bike from going over the side. Once in the bottom, most of the trail is pretty mellow with a few challenges. We managed to have 3 flat tires with Lynn crashing once on a steep incline. A couple of skinned places and a bruised ego was the damage. I had 2 of the flat tires cause I was close to out of control going down a small rocky hill. We had to ford the Purgatoire river past our knees to get to the tracks. I don't remember hardly any water the last time we were there. It had rained a lot so the tracks had mud in them so they didn't look as spectacular. Alosaurus and Brontosaurus had meandered along the side of the prehistoric lake before the canyon was formed. Going back up was rough with me walking my bike again with many timeouts. Lynn did ride part of the way up. He's my Popeye. Great Time.

Okay One More

Although a lot of the meanings of the drawings are not known to us, the spiral means abandoned. This was at one of the ruins.

Newspaper Rock

This is a famous cliff wall where the Indians left probaly messages to each other. I was being artsy and did sepia on this shot.

The road in the Needles National Park

We had to get a back country permit to go out on this road. Only 8 are given on any day. Part of the road was deep sand and part was a river. It was very cool.

The Campers

Aren't we cute?

Our Camp

We sleep in the back of the Cruiser. This is our favorite spot, because there are some fabulous ruins in the cliff walls and on the top. So far I have been too chicken to go to the ruins in the cliffs. You have to drop down on a rope.

Ruins

These were my favorite ones of the trip. Most of the ruins that we hike to are smaller not like huge ones of Mesa Verde.

Pictures from Utah

Here are some of pottery shards that people had picked up and left for others to see. I looked in the trash middens which are usually down below the ruin. When I was a kid I wanted to be an archeologist. Haven't grown out of it.

Utah

I'll add the pictures when I get the cd from Walmart. Robs computer doesn't have the right port for my camera chip. Utah was great. The first day we drove there and camped near some old tower ruins. The next day we hiked in south Mule canyon and found some really cool ruins. There were pottery shards everywhere in their trash heap. We found 3 more ruins. One had very little left of it. There were 2 graineries high up in the cliffs, but I was a little bit leery about climbing up that high on the slick rock. We slept under the stars again to wake up with rain! We four wheeled most of the day. The dirt gets almost like grease so some of the roads got scarey cause if you went off you would end up in a dry creek bed stuck. We decided to go to a motel to clean up. I didn't think too much of the place. The next day we went to the Needles National Park and got a back country pass. The only give out 8 a day. The only 2 campsites had already been taken. The 4 wheeling was awesome. One road was washed out so we took off hiking with the sun coming out finally. We saw fresh bear tracks and scat on the trail which made me nervous especially since the gun was in the cruiser. We didn't have time to get the the ruins which are some of the best. There is always next time.We stayed in a cute motel with pink bathroom fixtures, but it was clean. The next day we went home sadly.

September News

Lynn turned 61 in September, and he hasn't slowed down a bit. Since our good insurance was going to go away at the end of the month, he talked his doctor into a heart cath to check it out. The test showed his heart to be better than 4 years ago when he had stents. It's been 20 years since his by pass so things are good. Kimo had a bad month. He was bitten by another dog and I panicked cause of all the blood and the closeness to his bad eye. He's good too, but 2 weeks ago, a skunk squeezed through the gate and the fence. Kimo chased it into a window well and in the process got sprayed more than once. I washed him with everything even some stuff from the vet. It's almost gone (the smell). On top of that I had to pay a pest guy 70 bucks to come and get it out, but I would have paid ten times that. The house smelled bad too. I am going to post some pictures from our trip, but I 've got to figure out how to on this computer.

Backpacking in the Collegiate Peaks

It's been a year since we have packed, and I really wanted to go before it got too cold in the mountains. So off we went. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The hike seemed to be straight up. I carry about 35 pounds and Lynn 50. He was trying a new internal frame pack instead of his 25 year old external frame pack. I thought he would love it, cause I love mine. Not! We didn't drink enough water so in runner's terms, we hit the wall. A couple of funny things. We forgot forks. As I was looking for a good camping place I found some metal utensils that had a knife, fork, and spoon. Also we didn't bring sugar for the coffee, but used the marshmallows from the smores after we had thrown the leftovers in the bushes. They weren't too dirty.The night was cold, but comfy in the bags. Next day we hiked around without the big backs, came back to the camp, had lunch, packed up, and walked back out. It was a lot of fun!!!!!

Funny Kimo

Just a funny thing that Kimo did-Lynn had started to work on the running track that he made for us around the 40 acreas when his 1932 tractor ran out of gas leaving it on the track. The next morning I went running with Kimo in tow. He doesn't want to go as much since he is 11 years old now. When I got to the tractor I went around it. I was about 1/8 of a mile away when I noticed that the dog was not there. I turned around and couldn't find him so I started back and found him sitting behind the tractor just staring at it. I had to coax him around it. Silly dog!

The Pitman Motorcyle Gang

We went with Greg and Margot to the car show at Gunnison on Saturday and ended up in Leadville on Sunday where we spent the night at the Delaware which is haunted. Lynn planned a beautiful trip driving over Heaven Pass as we call it. Fun places like Paonia, Redstone, and Aspen. We like to stop at old bars to talk to the locals. Greg had a problem with his chain, but between the two Pitman Brothers it was fixed.

That's a picture of Margot. Greg needs to hang on to her. She's fun to be with and love the motorcycle. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the scenic picture. Great Time!

Another Sturgis Picture

You see Lots of Wierd things in Sturgis.

Motorcycle Trip to the North

Devil's Tower

Tuff Me

Craters of the

Moon

Silly Lynn

Lynn planned a wonderful trip on the motorcycle. Part of the reason for the time of year was that I would have been going back to school , but wasn't cause I am retired. Also I wanted to see the action at Sturgis MotorCycle Rally. We went for 8 days through South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and of course Colorado. The weather was mostly warm with some cold mornings where we had all of our riding clothes on. We stayed in Sturgis for an afternoon and saw some wierd people. Our favorite part was the ride along the Green River. The ride over Bear Claw was beautiful, but cold and scarey cause the road was very narrow, gravelly, and in need of repair. Lynn was very tense driving. There were white posts along the road showing where there had been fatal wrecks. I can't believe people whould walk around with painted on clothes in Sturgis!

The picture of Lynn and the sexy girl is from the Full Throttle Bar which is the biggest biker bar in the world. It's about 5 acres with most of it outside with wierd things like a bus upside down and 2 old bridges. The seating is old couches and chairs. We wished we had planned more days and gone to Canada since we got passports last year. It's another trip. We can cross Sturgis off of our Bucket List. The picture of the black rocks is from Craters of the Moon National Park which is a Cinder Cone activity area. Don't I look like a biker chick in my all black? I really appreciate Lynn planning all of this for us. I am sooooo lucky so back off you women.

Oh no Tattoos

Well, Robben finally convinced her dad to get a tattoo aand because I couldn't help myself, I did too. Lynn got Popeye since he was in the navy and he's seems to be like the famous character. I go Olive Oyl cause we have the same great fashion sense and we love our guys. I think that we are truely in our second teenage hood as Robben is firmly convinced of. Oh and by the way, it hurts. We are going to the Sturgis Motorcycle rally so we had to fit in with the Harley people.

Pictures from Lynn and Greg's trip

I love the smile. Nice glasses.

Houston

Robben and I went to Houston to see the Lopezes. The hurricane delayed our flight, but we got there. We had a ball. Forever Plaid was a great stage play along with Mamma Mia movie. (Maggie and I want to kiss Pierce Brosnan) Shopping and pedicures! Of course the plane was delayed going back. And then I forgot where I parked my car. Finally got home at 12:30 and was wide awake. Lucky Lynn. Speaking of Lynn, he and Greg went on a trip to Crested Butte on their dirt bikes which he says was a lot of fun. Kimo was the only one who didn't have any fun. He was so sad when I got home.

Can you guess which are Steve's feet? The red shoes? Hee Hee

Redstone Inn, Colorado

We took a motorcycle trip to the Redstone Inn in Redstone. The hotel was built in 1874 for the unmarried steel miners. The married miners lived in the one street town in row houses. Of course it's haunted by a lady in yellow. We didn't see her. Rats