Thursday

Thursday morning, after second cup, we drove into Golden looking for the brand of dog treat we use for "training".   My internet search told me that Golden Mill (a nice, very complete feed store next to Clear Creek in Golden) carried them.    Don't believe everything you read  - they did not have what we were looking for.    A wasted trip.    But.....it was a beautiful day so we decided to walk through a nearby park and down to the creek.  It was filled with summer flowers and geese, lots of geese.   We picked our way, carefully, to the trail along the water.

Our mundane trip into town turned out to be a lovely and unexpected stroll along the racing creek, we even got to wade in and get our feet wet!     Cold.....it gave us an ice cream headache after just a few seconds but it was so worth it.     We saw people (mostly young people) tubing down the fast moving creek, they must have been absolutely frozen!

As we approached the Washington Street bridge, really the Washington Street bridge underpass, the path was roped off because water had come up over the path.     Do we behave or do we step over those ropes and continue our walk?

these fish are actually on the sidewalk
but Tuesday they were
swimming in the creek!

There were interesting brass sculptures along the water, swimming fish, deer, and a sweet gold miner kissing his mule (I couldn't get a good picture, too many people around it).

The sky was darkening and the wind began to pick up so we turned around and retraced our steps.    Yes, we did walk in the water a bit more on the way back.

We made it back to Beluga before the rain arrived,  but its imminent arrival made for a dramatic sky through our windshield.

I just love these days...the ones where you plan on doing one thing and then end up somewhere completely different - and way more fun!  Plan A, plan B and serendipity!     This retirement stuff is pretty good.

Thursday evening Erin had an appointment for a wedding gown fitting and she invited me to join her, her mom and "aunties".  She looked so beautiful in her chosen dress, I'm glad I got to see her in it before she walks down the aisle.     When the deed was done we drove up to Boulder to meet Dave and Jesse for dinner at "Basta", the restaurant that is catering the wedding.    The bride was beautiful, the food was delicious, I can't wait for the big day!

Tuesday

Safelite called to say they could come early, a wonderful thing because lately the afternoons have brought rain and thunderstorms.    The job was over and done in minutes, although I don't know what they would have done if we didn't have a ladder available for them, the tech. didn't bring one.....  Poor Lewis, he rushed back to the bedroom when he saw a stranger suddenly loom into view outside the windshield.  His terror was amplified by the hideous hose like contraption the "Monster" wielded.    Too late we closed the front curtains, but he knew what was out there, lying in wait, so he made himself as small as possible and kept very still next to the bed until it was safe.

That early appointment left the afternoon free, tra lee, tra la.    After lunch we decided to see what nearby Dinosaur Ridge had to offer.    We're camped on the edge of the Dakota Ridge, a long hogback ridge which is at the eastern fringe of the Rocky Mountains.  

 Dinosaur Ridge is an outdoor museum and visitor's center where important dinosaur discoveries were made in the 1800's.   There is a free hiking/walking trail up the ridge side with placards every so often describing what you are seeing.

There is also a shuttle to take you up and, keeping an eye to the ever blackening sky, we opted for the ride up.   There were 3 children and their parents on the "bus" with us and it was so very interesting and amusing to listen to their enthusiastic questions.

the bulge Dave is touching was made by a dinosaur's huge foot
sinking into soft mud or sand, making an imprint

I think on a better weather day, it would have been good to walk up the trail and absorb the atmosphere more privately.    That being said, our guide was good and pointed out things we may have missed on our own.

There were fairly unrecognizable bones embedded in the sandstone everywhere.   Once pointed out, we could see them but they would have been missed otherwise.    I didn't try to photograph them for you.

a huge concretion

We learned that approximately 150 million years ago Colorado was ocean front property!    We saw familiar sand ripples forever preserved in rock.

We saw footprints surely made by a family of Iguanadon enjoying a day at the beach, 100 million years ago!

Iguanadon replica

these prints were colored with charcoal
to be more visible for us

Pretty neat stuff........

Birthday weekend

We had a lovely, low key birthday weekend with Jesse and Erin.   Three great dinners in a row, two at new restaurants in the city and one at their house.   Jesse was gracious enough to share his home baked strawberry rhubarb birthday pie with us tonight.  

The weather on Jesse's birthday has always been perfect, quintessentially summer weather - warm, sunny, blue sky.   It was glorious out this weekend, the record is still safe.   We celebrated that with a few good bottles of chilled Rose.  We're so lucky to have him in our lives, Happy Birthday Jess.  

Waiting

Its a good thing we stopped to smell those roses when we did.....its pretty much been raining since then.

We've been waiting for Safelite to come and repair Beluga's chipped windshield since our original appointment on Monday.    They don't give a specific time for their arrival, just 8-12 or 12-5 so we've just been sitting here waiting.   No show (they called) on Monday because of rain.  

That was actually a good thing because it allowed us to sneak out and have lunch with Ingrid and Al (of livelaughrv.net) before they moved on to their next stop.   I'm sure we had a great meal, but I don't remember even tasting it for the non stop gabbing we did!

Tuesday we ran a few errands and tied up a few loose ends, then waited for the Safelite man.    Rain again.

Today, Wednesday, the same thing happened.  At least we're getting some paper and phone work done while we're waiting.    I even had time to put a juicy rhubarb crisp in the oven for tonight's dessert!

No pictures this week, you've all seen rain.

Back home

We arrived "home" on Friday afternoon after a longish drive from Raton, NM.  We'll be here in Golden until we take off to explore more of Colorado in mid-August.  

We all had a quiet 4th of July, the way we like it.   Sasha has always had real problems with thunder/fireworks (the reason she was released from Guiding Eyes for the Blind all those years ago), so we didn't want to leave her alone while we went to watch the 4th of July displays.    Not much of a sacrifice really.    Dave grilled some delicious shrimp and then we settled down for the evening.

It was hot and very windy last night so we had the windows closed,  air conditioning running, and the tv on.    It must have been enough insulation from the banging outside because she slept soundly in front of "her" fan all evening.  What an exciting couple we are!

Today, while our searching for somewhere to buy rhubarb (someone's traditional birthday pie) we came upon an unusual and fragrant local attraction.   A rose garden.

 A rose garden planted and cared for by inmates in the Jefferson County Jail.

no...this is not an inmate

 A rose garden on the site of a former landfill.

A rose garden with over 400 varieties

Hmmmmm, I seem to have only taken pictures of pink varieties, I wonder what that means.....   Perhaps it was the black sky and rumbling thunder that caused me to only really linger in one area, the pink section, before hi tailing it back to the jeep.     There were whites, and pale yellows.  Deep crimson, neon yellow, pale lilac and salmon.   Red stripes, yellow stripes, most any color a rose comes in was represented.  

Sadly, it seems there must be a waning interest in maintaining this garden.  Maybe there are no more inmates in the jail?    Budget constraints perhaps?

Weeds are taking over the rose beds and prickers are invading the stone walkways.   The grass needs mowing badly, and the edging is....well not edging anymore.    Too bad because these roses are growing valiantly despite their recent neglect.    Maybe the rose inmates have been reassigned, released, escaped?

This afternoon we enjoyed the traditional 4th of July meal of hot dogs and macaroni salad with Jesse and Erin at their house in Denver and right now, Dave is happily watching the rain delayed NASCAR race on network tv.   Since we don't have cable or satellite tv he hasn't been able to see a race in quite awhile, so its a good end to a good day.

Tomorrow Beluga gets her chipped windshield repaired, oh goody!

Sugarite Canyon

The drive from Santa Fe to Golden, Colorado would have been too many miles for us to drive in one day, so I looked for an overnight stop somewhere near the New Mexico/Colorado border.    We've never spent any time in the north east corner of New Mexico, so I thought Sugarite Canyon State Park would be a good place to spend a couple quiet days.     We found an empty spot in the Lake Alice (yes, Mike, another Lake Alice) campground and shoehorned big Beluga into it facing the wrong way.    This is a tiny little campground and if we had backed into the designated back in site, our door would have opened right into the campground road.

I was a bit skeptical about our surroundings, the woods were deep and untamed and our particular site looked quite unkempt.    The steep canyon sides that rose up around us showed the devastation of a recent (2011) forest fire.

 No cell, internet or tv signals reached us at the bottom of this canyon.   Hmmm, I wondered if staying here was one of my best ideas.      We were tired, so decided to just deal with things for the night and reevaluate in the morning.  

Turns out this little, rough campground was just the ticket for us.    We were met by "Ole Ben" (yep, thats what he called himself) a delightfully scruffy camp host who made sure we were settled and happy.    He offered help if we wanted it, but also told us that he was sure Dave and I knew each other better than he did and could probably get ourselves into site 5 just fine on our own....he was right.

He didn't tell us, however, about the militant little hummingbirds that owned our site.     As we started to get set up they flew in and got right in our faces.  I mean, RIGHT in our faces.   They zoomed in and hovered at eye level just inches away from our eyes.   It was clear they expected to be fed and pronto.    I followed their instructions, found and filled our hummingbird feeder and hung it the closest tree.   They started feeding immediately and left us to our tasks.  

I tried to get a decent picture to show you, but they weren't having any of it.   They zoomed in for a drink, then zoomed up to a bare branch and chattered at us.  In and out, in and out all day long.   Too funny!

We ended up really enjoying this quiet disconnected campground.   We sat outside watching the little tyrants, read, ate, and went to bed when we were sleepy.   Deer moved silently through the deep underbrush next to our sitting area, paying no attention to us whatsoever.  

The next morning, after second cup, we drove further into the canyon to see what we could see.    The fire in 2011 was devastating to this area, but it allowed some lush greenery to grow up and it was filled with wildflowers.

Lake Alice is just a mere wide spot in the creek, but further into the canyon we came upon a much larger lake, Lake Maloya.   We drove over a high earthen dam with a cement spillway letting water out into the canyon.

looking down the spillway from the top of the dam

  Bluebirds, Orioles, Grosbeaks, hummingbirds, and various flycatchers were in abundance around the water.    We often stopped abruptly to whip out the binoculars and follow a flash of color into the low locust shrubs.

We drove around the lake for a bit, then turned up the hill to check out the other, first come first served campground loop.      It was high on the top of the canyon with fabulous views all around and impressive cap rock cliffs soaring above.  Ole Ben suggested a short but straight up and strenuous trail to the top of Little Horse Mesa for stunning views, but we declined.    It sounded like it was right up Pam and John's alley though!

  Soda Pocket Campground is suitable for smaller campers as the long road up is rough and twisty.     The road beyond the campsites kept climbing and became a muddy single track so we turned around and set off in search of the nearby (so I thought) Capulin Volcano National Monument.

We drove into Raton and planned on heading east on route 64, but there were several police cars ahead, turning traffic around so we needed to make a last minute adjustment.   It looked like we could take a parallel road (route 72) and arrive at the Volcano, so thats what we did.   The road was parallel to route 64, but it was narrow and filled with holes and heaves.   It climbed steadily up to the top of a mesa where it continued through hundreds of acres of high, lush cattle range land.    We saw not one house for miles and miles.   Dave is so good;  he just kept on driving, assuming I knew where we were going.    I thought I did, but was beginning to wonder!   Long story short, we arrived at the Capulin Volcano National Monument (via the long route)  at 4:15 - and found out it closes at 5.  

Capulin Volcano

We just had time to drive up the steep spiraling park road  until we reached the top of the cone, 1300 feet above the plains below.   No guard rails, no shoulder, just two lanes and a terrific drop off.      I didn't lift my eyes from the jeep's floor til we reached the rim and then oh what a view I had.   The ranger said we could see 100 miles in every direction.

view of  Sierra Grande from the crest of Capulin Volcano.
Sierra Grande is another extinct volcano
rising 2200 feet above the surrounding plains

There are a number of trails at the Volcano including a rim trail and a crater vent trail where you can actually walk down into the plugged vent of the volcano!   Unfortunately, poor planning on my part made it impossible for us to take either of these cool trails.

Back down the twisty road we went, this time on the inside lane - much better for me!

We both thoroughly enjoyed our stop in the Raton area and would most certainly stop again on our way through this part of the state.    We came with absolutely no plans or agenda and, once again, found many unexpected pleasures.

Last day in Santa Fe, for now

Tuesday was our last day in Santa Fe so we went back down into the Plaza area for one more dose of color and taste.

these paper flowers would look gaudy anywhere else

I couldn't resist going in, could you?

mmmm, bourbon chocolate truffle possums -

colorful entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

Wednesday we pulled away from Santa Fe and drove north to Raton, on the New Mexico/Colorado border.  Our destination was a new one to us, Sugarite Canyon State Park.   More on that stay tomorrow.