Grand Opening

I rode the motorcycle west on US285 early this morning to visit Colorado's newest state park on its grand opening day.

Staunton State Park has been 30 years in the making. Frances H. Staunton left the initial 1,720 acres to the state in her will; adjoining acreage was acquired over the years through land grants and funds from Great Outdoors Colorado. It is a beautiful park and one I will return to.

I went on one of the guided tours. The tour only covered a small portion of the park; that was a good thing because I was worn out by the time I got back.

Follow me.


Over the Hills and Far Away


The snow covered mountain in the distance is Pikes Peak
however, I may have heard her wrong.


Lions Head


I bought a commemorative pin
The color is off in this photo.

Backyard lamp

I picked up my little Olympus pocket camera and went walking around looking for interesting things to snap pictures of. I came back with a few interesting photos. I think this one is the most interesting of todays photos.

Blue Hi Contrast filter


Antique Light


Original

I Made This

I am not having a second childhood - I'm have a third childhood.

I made this using free Sketchbook Expres for iPad by AutoDesk Inc.  I worked really hard on this so I expect lots of kudos.

Work. Work. Work.

Allright, that should be volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.

Last Tuesday we were working on putting in a path through a new garden behind the visiters center at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. I got to run the dirt compactor to compact the fine gravel we put down on the trail. We've had several weeks of snow delays. It started snowing again that night and snowed all day Wednesday.



This is what I do best.

We were repairing a washed out spot on one of the hiking trails. This was in November 2011.

Has Spring Sprung?

A couple of friends and I had a good ride to Brush and back this afternoon. We had planned on eating at a really good steak house there, but it hadn't opened yet, so we had Tex Mex at the "Home Plate #2" restaurant instead. After lunch we hung out awhile at the the park in Fort Morgan. We had a few tense moments when we found ourselves on a really soft gravel road on the way back, but we stuck with it and made it through. We stopped at Lulu's in Watkins for a beer, but just one.

The forecaster said it could snow again on Wednesday. I don't believe him.

I made an offer on a Townhouse last Friday. I was just notified that the seller accepted my offer, so I will probably be moving to Arvada a month from now.

I'm almost finished compiling my second book. It's a picture book with commentary of photos from last summers travels. I keep messing it up with misspellings, missing Title page, pages numbered wrong, writing in the third person, etc. I almost have everything ironed out and should be able to send it off to the publisher on Monday. It will be 96 pages and have over 180 photos.

And to think I could have been Dr. Who

In honor of Ryan White

Ryan White died from complications of AIDS 23 years ago today. He was one of a small number of highly visible people with AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s who helped change the public perception of the disease. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White

Piano practice

My mother tried to teach me to play the piano when I was a child. I didn't like piano lessons and never did very well. I haven't played the piano in 50 years, but I've always wished I could play.

I picked up an electronic piano that was on sale. I have a Learn Piano DVD course and a music theory book. After the first 3 lessons I can name all the notes and keys, play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" & "When the Saints Go Marching In" without any mistakes, and know some basic cords. I'm about half way through the theory book. I'm actually enjoying it.

Following my nose

This morning I took out my helmet camera and went snooping around the neighborhood to check out the snow storm. I just followed my nose.