To Boulder

June 20, 2010

So where are we? Oh yeah – in Hermosa, South Dakota, visiting friends. It’s now Sunday, three days into our road trip. Gees, at this rate summer will be over before I get us home again.

We had left Idaho Falls on Friday, May 28, spent Friday night in Cody, Wyoming, and driven to Hermosa, South Dakota, just south of Rapid City, on Saturday. My last blog ended with us taking over the whole bottom floor of the Langerman’s house, which is built up into the side of a steep wooded hill. A flock of wild turkeys regularly gobble-gobble and peck at the dirt on the hill that continues to ascend just beyond the Langerman’s back door. But I’m in such relaxed vacation mode I don’t have my act together to take a photo of the turkeys. I do, however, photograph some wild lilacs at the bottom of the Langerman’s hill:

Today, Sunday, May 30, we visit the Journey Museum in Rapid City, which is several museums in one. (Check out this link) It has a large Geology and Paleontology display and a stellar collection of Sioux (or Lakota) Indian artifacts. Here you see a couple of photos I take inside the museum.

There’s Megan peering out the Indian lodge or Tepee, which the Indian women were responsible for dismantling, transporting, and setting up again whenever the tribe uprooted and moved to new land.

On Tuesday morning, June 1, we load up the car and say good-bye to the Langerman’s. We’re headed to Boulder, Colorado, to visit our son, Ben. It’s about a five-hour drive. David drives, Megan dozes, and I take photos. Except the landscape doesn’t offer much photo fodder – we head south toward Cheyenne through some pretty barren terrain.

Take this little forest, for example…

Does it have a name? Total Wreck National Forest? Maybe these trees were growing fast and fine along Dead Tree Creek until the creek turned venomous and killed them. We had already passed Dead Horse Creek Road:

There’s probably some dead horses around somewhere.

Fodder for photos?

We’re roaring along down the highway at a pretty good clip when Megan starts freaking out over a fly that had gotten into the car – I guess while we were loading up – it was buzzing around and ricocheting off the 4-Runner’s back window.

“AAAAAAAAH! Get the fly!” She yells in my ear from the back seat. I crank my head around to scope out the little bugger.

“Megan, it’s just a fly, for heaven’s sake. It’s completely harmless.” I say, trying to calm what I consider to be her irrational fear of bugs, any and all bugs, dead or alive.

“It’s just a baby fly, Megan.” (Which it was) “It’s just hatched and is exploring its world.”

“Get it out!” AAAAAHHHH!”

“Megan, with warmer weather and summer and all, comes bugs. Not to worry. The fly won’t hurt you. Here’s a newspaper you can arm yourself with, to kill it, if you must.” I tell her.

Twenty seconds later, I’m out of my seat belt and leaping around the back seat swinging the rolled up newspaper at the fly. I kill it.

Whew!

We drive through Lusk, South Dakota. Population 1447.

One of the bigger towns.

We sail past a train with about 50 freight cars carrying coal.

Through vast nothingness.

“Aaaaaaaah! There’s a moth back here!” Megan yells in my ear again, flailing the rolled up newspaper through the air as the moth flits around and then settles on the floor by her feet.

“Megan, it’s just a harmless tiny moth.” I tell her. “But you can just step on it and kill it if it bothers you.”

Which she does. Whew!

The bugs ARE getting thicker and bigger…

I’m going to have what looks like a small tornado descending into every scene I photograph through our front windshield.

Entering Cheyenne, Wyoming now.

It’s becoming more scenic.

Past Loveland, Colorado.

Where did that camel come from?

Here you see the Rocky Mountains that run along the west side of Denver.

We’re in Boulder, Colorado, now – just northeast of Denver.

The ‘Flatirons’ hover in plain view just to the west. So called, because of their huge rock faces, each resembling the flat end of an iron.

We pull into Ben’s driveway. We will stay with him for a couple of nights. Megan and I are getting stuff out of the front of the 4-Runner, while David and Ben are hauling bags out of the back. Suddenly David and Ben back away from the truck, and away from the bag they had just dropped on the ground. Did they break something? Was there a bottle of liquid spilling?

“Whoaaooooow!” They exclaim in unison. I run back there to see what the fracas is all about.

There scurrying on the ground behind the truck is a gigantic hairy spider.

“It crawled out the top of the food bag through an opening in the zipper as I was lifting it out of the car,” said David. “It must have crawled into the bag back in Hermosa. It rode the whole way with us.”

My God! You’re kidding! What if that thing had gotten loose in the back while we were driving! What if it had crawled up the back of Megan’s seat and suddenly popped up, say, near her shoulder? Holy #$%@&*!!

By this time the spider had jumped up on the back wheel of the 4-Runner. I capture a picture of it with my iphone:

No kidding! Oh, and did I fail to mention that its legs were striped? Nice touch. Anyway, we just leave it alone and go into the house and not speak another word about it, or bugs.

It’s Tuesday evening and we are heading now to the Pearl Street Outdoor Mall in Boulder:

To meet Ben for dinner. We walk to one end of Pearl Street (don’t know which end, there is so much to process) and I shoot this photo:

Pearl Street Mall offers great places to eat, shop, and people watch, while you’re entertained by off-beat sidewalk musicians. One grungy homeless-looking group bangs out vocals to the banging of what looks like large pots and pans.

On Wednesday we all visit my sister, Susan and her husband Jim, who live in Westminster, just a few miles from Ben. Meeting up with them proves tricky, as their first grandchild, ‘Olivia’ had been born the day before, and Sue and Jim are busy visiting their older son, wife and grandbaby. They host a nice dinner at their house and we hang out there for several hours with them and their younger son, Greg, and his fiance, Tess. Here you see a picture of them:

Greg and Tess.

It’s now Thursday, June 3rd and we’re planning to hit the road for home. But not until after Ben takes us on a drive up Flagstaff Mountain, in that range of the Rockies that runs west of Denver. I capture this view with my iphone:

David and Ben are too courageous for my comfort with their boisterous rock climbing:

I had to yell at them, “DON”T FALL! HEY, DO YOU FEEL SMALL?”

Ben regularly goes ‘bouldering’ up here on Flagstaff Mountain. He points out some of the hand holds on this boulder.

Shall we climb this one? –

Ben climbs it – and captures this photo:

We’re driving back down Flagstaff mountain now, looking over Boulder:

You can see Highway 36 from Boulder to Denver shooting off in the distance toward the right.

Here you see a closer view of Boulder:

and closer still, where you can clearly see the campus of the University of Colorado:

We come down off Flagstaff mountain into Boulder and Ben takes us on a driving tour through the University of Colorado campus.

It is 12:30 p.m. now on Thursday – June 3rd. We are back at Ben’s house, and ready to say goodbye to Ben and his roommate, Nate. I get them to pose for a picture on their back porch with Megan:

It’s time to hit the road now, for our 11-hour drive back to Idaho. Of course, David and Megan are in the 4-Runner, with the engine running, waiting to go, while I … use the bathroom, find my purse, fill my water bottle, change my shoes, check the premises one more time for left items, say goodbye to the kitty, and

snap a photo with my iphone of the poppies and irises that are blooming along the walk in front of Ben’s house.

Okay, so I snap two photos because there’s two different kinds of poppies blooming – both of them stunning. Plus, they are the first poppies I have seen all year.

“Are we going?” David calls to me from the front driver’s window.

I hop into the truck. I think we have everything. Well, everything sans the spider. Hopefully. Which does beg the question – where, at this juncture, perchance would that big, creepy crawly, hairy thing be? (Ben, if you are reading this, you might want to check your bed.)

At least we’re headed north back into colder weather, where there’s fewer and smaller bugs. Now, who would have thought I’d mention colder weather with even a hint of cheerfulness. Maybe it’s relief in my voice – I’m not fond of meeting up with giant bugs or hairy, striped, tarantula-like spiders.

Tags: , ,
Posted in travel | 4 Comments »

Onward to So-Dak

June 12, 2010

Saturday, May 29. We wake up at the Holiday Inn in Cody – one day into our trip. Today we are headed to Hermosa, South Dakota, a small town just outside Rapid City, to visit old best friends, the Langerman’s. Here you see the rest of those nifty no-sew window treatments in the motel lobby –

“Hey, let’s go! What are you doing photographing the curtains in the lobby when we have a six hour drive ahead?” David says, anxious to hit the road. I’m, admittedly, firing on about two cylinders, being deprived of my usual dose of strong morning coffee.

Here’s another photo I took of Wild Bill Cody in statue form in front of the Museum.

The base of the statue has his birth and death dates.

We’re on the road now. We pass a bumper sticker that says:

Wag more
Bark Less

Which seems do-able, at least for the moment, as I gaze at the scenery …

What reason do I have to be cranky? Even if I am coffee-deprived.

The clouds have their story to tell.

Mother Earth meets Father Sky.

Which keeps resonating with me as we drive. ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Father Sky’ are honored and revered by the Plains Indians – which I had learned much about at the W.F. Cody Museum.

We’re rolling along, listening to The song, “We’ve only Just Begun” by the Carpenters:

We’ve only just begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we’re on our way.

I’m wagging.

Before the rising sun we fly
So many roads to choose …

Of which, we apparently chose the road

to Dirty Annie’s. (????)

We’re now entering the Big Horn Scenic Byway…

It’s scenic all right. Are you kidding? Buses and outbuildings?

Entering Greybull now.

Even this tiny town has an interminably long stop light.

We turn left on 14 toward Sheridan.

94 miles. No problem.

Oh boy …

Rain.

Entering Shell now.

Population 50. Where?

Who is putting on more of a show? Mother Earth?

or Father Sky?

The clouds greet us

as we ascend into Bighorn National Forest.

Through rock cliffs …

Hey! How did that car get there?

We keep climbing

until we reach the snow line.

And a warning:

Did you see it flashing? I’m not exactly hot on the idea of spending the night back in Greybull.

Didn’t think to bring our skis.

Good thing we didn’t make this trip any earlier this year.

We’ve reached the Granite summit.

Elevation 9033 feet.

We’re heading back down now.

Oh boy. It was inevitable:

Road construction.

Yeah, pay attention because fines are doubled in work zones.

Going down, down, down, uh, how many miles?

Smokin!

Watch for fallen rock? Great. I suppose we should watch for falling rocks, too?

Clouds add an element of mystery

as we reach Bighorn Overlook.

We look down into the valley toward Sheridan.

Headed down … .

Through rock cliffs

that are 280-325 million years old.

Descending fast

into greener pastures.

Past drowsy horses.

June Earth meets June Sky.

How many June Earth-Sky scenes can you process at once?

We pull into Dayton now.

It’s a quaint little town.

Home of the Crazy Woman Saloon.

In the heartland of America.

We head on to I-90 with the pedal to the metal;

Toward Buffalo and Gillette.

Buffalo just ahead now.

We can tell we’re there because, uh,

of that herd of buffalo in the median?

Well it sure looks like it.

Ancient petrified buffalo? Guess that makes sense. In ‘Buffalo’.

We finally arrive in Gillette. Starving. With our food stuffs depleted.

There’s nothing but empty wrappers and garbage left in the food bag up front by my feet. Okay, so, maybe I’m not as starving as David and Megan.

We pull off the freeway into the Flying J, where we gas up and enter the restaurant.

“Hey Megan!” I say. “Sit across from me in the booth and I’ll take your picture.”

“What are you doing, mom?”

“Well, I wouldn’t turn around and look just now, but there is a whole baseball team of strapping young men just about your age sitting in the four booths behind you. Pose for a picture with them!”

“Mom! Stop taking pictures! You’re embarrassing me.”

“Yeah, well I just got that young man’s attention.”

David intercedes: “Settle yourself down, Jody. Maybe we should have dropped you off back there at the Crazy Woman’s Saloon.”

Not to worry. I am able to settle myself down with some comfort food from the menu.

and some comfort dessert.

I refrain from taking more photos. Well, except for this one.

During which, at this point, Megan is obviously ignoring me.

We order and eat. Along with the team.

The team is the Rapid City Stars. An American Legion team. Are they on their way to a game or had they just finished? Judging from their exhuberance I’d guess they have just won a game.

They are leaving now, I know, because my iphone captures them in abstract.

They pile into that dark van and speed away.

Time for us to speed away too.

On the rest of our trek to Rapid City we pass trains, oil wells, road construction, cows, deer crossings, and the threat of icy bridges. I know because I captured them all in the next 30 photos on my iphone.

We enter South Dakota

into more awe-inspiring landscapes.

Something in the front seat is gnawing on my leg.

We finally arrive in Hermosa, a hilly, wooded community about fifteen miles south of Rapid City. The Langerman’s greet us with their usual generosity and let us take over the newly completed bottom story of their three-story home. We enjoy their 5-star accommodations for the next three nights.

Here is Megan in vacation mode, sitting opposite a big screen HD TV.

Life is good.

Oh, did I tell you that from here we head to Boulder, Colorado?

Posted in travel | 3 Comments »

Trekkin’ to Cody

June 6, 2010

Friday, May 28. Spring has finally sprung in our great city of Idaho Falls. Here you see the giant May tree in our front yard blooming in its full glory.

Our tulips are blooming too.

Stunning trees decorate the town.

Albeit, admittedly, this tree looks in dire need of a shave or something there on its lower extremities.

But anyway, no time to smell the trees and flowers – we’re headed out on another road trip, this time to visit old friends in South Dakota. Today our destination is Cody, Wyoming, to our estimation, about a six-hour drive. Our route goes north on I-20, through Yellowstone Park and the Absaroka mountains.

Good thing we’re wearing layers and have our coats on hand in the back seat.

Because it’s chilly – and wet – as we pass through Island Park. We might be grateful for our 4-wheel drive vehicle through mountain passes.

We’re at the west entrance to Yellowstone now. We’ve already been to Yellowstone several times and are just passing through today. We’re interested in making the 83-mile trek across Yellowstone Park as quickly and smoothly as possible. No pulling over to gawk at distant animals, or standing by Old Faithful waiting for it to blow, or hiking through geyser basins and such.

No. We’re thinking, FAST. Our minds are on Cody.

Except the speed limit throughout Yellowstone Park is 45 miles per hour. Which is fine, and necessary, because you really don’t want to maim or kill any wildlife with your vehicle,

or fly past so quickly, you don’t realize you’ve passed a herd of animals to your left, what were they, anyway?

We are enjoying the scenery

amidst the line of cars.

“Honey, I don’t recommend passing five cars at once.” I say to David, who is driving.

“Uh, well, okay, so it’s possible.” Hold on to your seats …

Oh, oh. Road work next 11 miles.

The traffic has come to a complete stop.

Which, road construction, I’m sure, is necessary, albeit, it doesn’t mesh that well with our ‘fast and smooth’ plan of passage through Yellowstone.

Speaking of which, are we next in line to be hassled by that crow?

This is where my iphone shoots an abstract.

Which captures the mood and colors of the sky and holds its own in the chaos category, I’d say, too. But I’m no critic.

Anyway, the roadside is geysery.

Mmmmm … sulfur …

Oh boy, rough road ahead.

It’s rough all right.

This drive through Yellowstone is taking longer than we had anticipated.

We spot several herds of buffalo.

The forests are looking a little thin. And significantly dead.

Yellowstone is obviously still recovering from the ravaging fires of 1988.

And, obviously, several more recent fires.

Some scenery reeks of violence and chaos.

There are healthy forests in Yellowstone.

Statuesque lodgepole pines accompany us on our drive along the highway.

Ushering us up to higher ground

into snow. Great. Like we just can’t get enough of it. We can’t get away from it! Well, at least the road is clear.

Yellowstone lake is still frozen.

As we wend our way through the southeast end of the park we spot the majestic Absaroka mountains awaiting us in the distance.

We have reached the east entrance…

and exit the park.

Here’s where things get a little squirrelly. We’re out of the park now. Who knows what the speed limit is? We’ve got some time and distance to make up.

Gees! Now we’re churning upward at a 60-degree angle. Honey, you might try driving a little slower.

We’ve entered the Absarokas now.

More wondrous terrain.

What an awesome drive!

The landscape is painted in June hues.

We enter Buffalo Bill State Park and reservoir.

Where we tunnel through rock,

exit back into daylight …

then tunnel again,

and emerge into more magnificence.

We’re entering Cody now –

named after the one-and-only William F. Cody, alias, ‘Buffalo Bill.’

This is a pretty cool statue of William F. Cody

outside near the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. We grab the couple of hours left of our day to visit the Historical Center before checking into our motel.

It’s a gigantic museum that you could spend three days in. Check out this link. We spend half of our visit in the Firearms section of the museum, driven by David’s curiosity. We snap some photos in the ‘Western Art’ section.

Here you see Megan posing with some buffalo, which,

she’s looking positively buff, wouldn’t you say?

David gets his head scratched

and is oh so happy to be relieved of his gargantuan scalp itch.

There is a huge section on the Plains Indians that is really fascinating and, well, you’ll just have to add Cody to your ‘must visit’ list and go see that museum.

We check into our motel for the night. Which, good thing, because the Holiday Inn in Cody is completely booked. We pass swarms of perky adults in the hallways, gathered in groups, wearing name tags, engaged in boisterous conversation and such. As it turns out, there is an Alcoholics Anonymous Convention going on at the motel. One guy passes us wearing a t-shirt, which, splayed on the front it says,

I’m a defect
in search of
character.

On that note, guess I’ll put a wrap on this. Oh. I also took a picture of the stunning window treatments in the motel lobby.

Granted they aren’t so stunning in this picture. But what is so stunning besides the color is that they are just bolts of fabric draped over hooks. Well, that’s what they look like. I’m not going to try and reproduce that no-sew treatment in my living room just yet.

I’ve got a bunch of flowers to plant.

And, uh, about 400 more photos on my iphone to sift through so I can tell you about the rest of our trip.

No? You’d prefer watching a real movie you rented from Netflix? AWWWWWW….

Tags: ,
Posted in travel | 6 Comments »

Fast in Vegas, zooming home

May 17, 2010

It’s Sunday, May 16. We have been back from our trip to Phoenix for five days. Temperatures are warming, spring is springing, grass and weeds are growing like wildfire and calling to me from our back gardens.

Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah
Mum mum mum mah

I wanna roll with him a hard pair we will be
a little gambling is fun when you’re with me …

Huh? Gambling with the weeds? Okay. That’s not the weeds talking. That’s the music playing in my head – Lady Gaga’s song, ‘Poker Face’ – the song blasting through the car speakers as we were roaring down the highway toward Vegas. Where I left us in my last blog.

To continue the story:

The scenery is exquisite as we approach Hoover Dam:

Lake Mead looks a little low:

We’re driving over the dam now.

And soon that magnificent new bridge above us

will be completed. And traffic will flow over it, high above the dam.

Only thirty miles to Vegas from here!

We follow the electrical grid for several miles.

Through more beautful scenery.

It’s now 7PM and we’re in Vegas – caught in traffic, trying to get to the Mirage Hotel/Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. Gees, should have taken a different exit! What does that sign ahead say? Oh – turn here! Get in the other lane! Quick! Oh oh, we should have gone further up and turned. Well, not to worry – we’ll just have to get to the Mirage and then we can relax and settle in! This place is a zoo! Swarms of people and cars buzzing every which way.

And it’s windy as hell!.

We pull up at the entrance to the Mirage and are greeted by the valet. The winds are gusting to 60 mph. David’s out with the valet guy unloading the trunk – I’m collecting stuff from the front seat to carry in. Just as David’s about to tip the valet, and send our car off to be parked somewhere, I can’t find my iphone. It’s not in either zipper front pocket on my purse where I normally keep it.

“I CAN’T FIND MY IPHONE!” I say to David, through my hair, which is blowing sideways. I look frantically for it in the car – with my feet in the air and arms flailing, as I search under the seat, between the seat and console, between the seat and door. I dump my purse out on the seat and search through the contents – twice. No iphone! It isn’t in either zipper front pocket nor is it anywhere inside my purse or in the car. It has disappeared.

‘”I CAN’T FIND IT!” I yell back at David, Megan, and the valet, all standing stiff as pillars on the sidewalk, completely wind whipped.

“IT’S IN YOUR PURSE!” David yells back, as he dials my cell number from his iphone.

“Bling-bling-bling-bling-bling” rings my iphone from inside my purse. Oh! It’s In the third exterior zipper pocket on the side of my purse! Stupid purse. Wily, annoying iphone.

Gees, great arrival here. Just loving Vegas now, aren’t we?

We are checked in now. With a view of the strip from our room.

We are beginning to relax.

Over dinner at ‘BLT Burgers.’ With drinks. Yum!

We head to the 9:30 P.M. show at the Mirage – only a short walk from our restaurant through the casino. Past The Beatles Revolution Bar

and into a huge line – to see Cirque du Soleil’s production of ‘Love’ – A show created around a compilation of original Beatles songs with acrobats, singers, and dancers, dropping down from the ceiling, rising up from the fog or fire in the floor, flying across the set, all in surround sound. It’s pretty cool.

After the show Megan and I head straight to our room, and bed. David checks out the poker tables …

It’s morning now, the mob has cleared, and I snap a photo of David and Megan at the entrance to the show.

We are outside now, in front of the Mirage

And the wind is still blowing 40 mph.

That’s the Venetian you see across the street. Whoopie! We’re outta here. The wind makes me crazy.

Making the 600-mile drive home now.

I capture a photo of Caesar’s Palace on the way out of town.

In completion of our virtual visit to other parts of the strip in fast forward.

We jump on I-15 North, which will take us all the way to Idaho Falls.

The scenery is magnificient.

Especially through southern Utah.

What’s that thing we’re passing – does it say, Cube on the back?

Who the heck makes a Cube anyway? Peugeot or something. Does that car look French to you?

In that 600 miles …

The beauty could overwhelm you.

So could the rain

Which soon turns to snow.

We encounter road construction,

low-hanging clouds,

gloomy cows,

And finally – we enter the great state of Idaho!

Which greets us with a mixture of everything.

Zooming up I-15 and we are just a few miles south of Pocatello now.

The sun is dropping in the west.

And in the car, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young are belting out one of their greatest 70’s hits in perfect harmony:

Carry on.
Love is coming.
Love is coming to us all.

Just a few miles to go now.

Another classic hit from that same CD is playing now:

Our house
Is a very, very, very, fine house.
With two cats in the yard.
Life used to be so hard.
But everything is easy
‘Cuz of you.


And I look over at David as the sun sets behind him and shines on him through his window.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Arizona, here we come

May 14, 2010

We decided last Wed night, May 5th – to take a road trip to Arizona. We would leave the next day. David’s 97-yr-old mother, Marie, lives in Chandler (just south of Phoenix) with his sister, Pauline. His sister, Margaret, was also there visiting. We decided to see them all for Mother’s day.

The view out our back door Thursday morning was no surprise.

May 6, 2010

Boycott travel to Arizona? Are you kidding? How else were we going to warm up? We had endured about thirty straight days of this kind of weather. Megan looked out and said, “I can’t wait till spring is over!”

We threw our stuff together, boarded our dog Rudy with a friend, gassed up David’s 4-Runner, and hit the freakin’ road, man. It was now 4PM Thursday.

We packed along cases of our favorite CD’s and otherwise searched for FM radio stations. We were in for a long haul and could rock to music the whole way – about 900 miles to our destination and then the 900 miles back again. Here we are south of Pocatello, about 80 miles into our trip.

with the heat on full blast and the radio blaring out Megan’s favorite new hit song by Taio Cruz, (featuring Ludacris). We were belting out the chorus in our best singing voices:

I’m only gonna break-break-your
break-break-your-heart

I’m only gonna break-break-your
break-break-your-heart

We pulled over in Nephi for the night. Shot directly to our room to seek refuge from the 40-mph wind.

Bounced up the next day (now Friday) and before we knew it we were in southern Utah.

Incessantly on the tail of some slow-moving vehicle:

Oh goodie! In another 130 miles we’ll be in Flagstaff!

Then further south to

Bumble Bee?

We sailed through Sedona toward Phoenix. Oh we are getting close now!

Close to a complete stop in traffic, that is. Couldn’t have a road trip this long without a 40-minute delay in traffic somewhere now could we?

We’re crossing Phoenix now.

Does traffic look less daunting through the rear view mirror? At least the traffic jam appears further away than it actually is. I’m glad David is driving. It’s freakin’ nerve wracking!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Ocotillo in Chandler, but spent most of our time at Marie and Pauline’s place in Sun Lake’s retirement community.

Where we hit the golf course.

David drove the ball,

While I drove the cart. With Megan’s help.

David and I had this discussion about golf. I asked him, “What is the difference between a slice and a hook?” (remembering these terms from my previous attempts at learning to golf). David soon demonstrated what each term meant, slicing one drive way right, where it hit a tile roof and bounced into oblivion, and then hooked a ball way left into a sand pit.

Megan and I had to make a lot of snake-y turns in the golf cart to get him to his ball for the next shot.

David hit some beautiful shots too, sailing high and straight in the direction of the hole, even missing things like small lakes, with his cheering section (Megan and me) exploding in exuberant “yahoo’s!” and “whoop-ie’s!”

But mostly, even he had to admit, he hacked his way through the course. I captured an action photo of him teeing off on the 6th hole:

Hey! So this explains his slices, hooks, duffs, gouges, toppers, lake shots, shanks, and misses! His club turns into a wet noodle when it hits the air behind him!

Okay, so it’s my cell phone messing with us, doing it’s abstract thing. Couldn’t exactly publish a photo like this in Golf Digest.

Back at Marie’s place, which sits near the tee on the fourth hole, Megan got her cast signed:

By “Gran”, Pauline, and Margaret.

Here you see all of us beautiful women celebrating Mother’s Day:

David had his hands full, being the only male there, keeping us all “Happy.” But we weren’t picky. He was smart to allow me a win at Scrabble.

We took a walk and I photographed some blooming desert plants:

Nature has a way of combining male with female. Extremely virile males with fragrant, passionate females.

It’s Monday now and we’ve hit the road north – on I-60 – toward home. For some reason I can’t stop thinking about our dog, Rudy,

who is always devising new ways to impose himself into my consciousness, trying to make me feel guilty for neglecting him. Get down from there, Rudy – this is not funny. We promise we’ll come get you when we arrive home.

We are traveling now through Joshua tree forest.

Past lonely bikers.

Through endless nothingness.

I captured this photo:

which prompted this song (a classic from 1974- by Maria Muldaurto) to start playing in my head:

Midnight at the oasis
Send your camel to bed
Shadows paintin’ our faces
Traces of romance in our heads.

Okay so that ain’t no photo of a midnight Oasis. I should be singing,

‘Sunshine on my kneecap
makes me happy’

in my best John Denver voice, because that’s what it is – my knee in the front seat captured in another abstract by my iphone.

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. Should we take the road to Las Vegas? Or…

the road to Bullhead City?

Vegas it is. Besides, we had already booked a room at the Mirage and purchased three tickets online to a show scheduled for 9:30 tonight.

We were well on our way to Vegas now – flying down the road – with a song by Lady Gaga blaring through the speakers from Megan’s CD: “Poker Face”:

I wanna hold em’ like they do in Texas Plays
Fold em’ let em’ hit me raise it baby….

Yep! We’re headed to Sin City.

I just hope it’s warm.

Tags:
Posted in travel | 2 Comments »

Trends in footwear

May 5, 2010

Trend alert! What will you be wearing on your feet this summer? Okay, so you’ve dragged out and assessed your last year’s summer shoe assortment. How dreary is it? Any of them downright smelly? Let me guess … Some shoes never did fit right, or were clunky, or impractical, or were just something, because you never wore them. Are you gonna get rid of a few pairs? Buy some new replacements for the new summer you?

When walking the mall, shopping for shoes, you might want to be mindful of, um, how much your thighs are jiggling underneath your shorts and whether you should spring for a pair of FitFlops. Because, hey! They tone and tighten your legs with every step! And they have eye-catching details like sequins and patent leather. Shop to it!

Then there’s these OKA b. shoes and sandals that were suggested in Parade Magazine as a gift for Mother’s Day. They are antimicrobial, (Really? Is that possible with anything outside of a bubble?) slip-resistant (pertinent if you wear one), and recyclable (As wall insulation?). Okay so they are made of poly vinyl chloride – which is made from salt and fossil fuel, which, well, we have plenty of that floating around now don’t we? Anyway, Soothing massage beads comfort your feet with every step. (Now your feet jiggle too?) And they’re washable – you can wash most styles on the top rack in the dishwasher. (Next to the glasses. Except then you might not want to use the glasses.)

Additionally, to avoid becoming a total fitness flop, you might consider the Skecher’s shape-ups for women and men. And let them work their magic – all you do is put them on and, well, walk, I suppose. They purportedly improve posture, strengthen the back, firm the buttocks muscles, tone and firm the thigh muscles, firm the calf muscles, improve blood circulation, tighten abdominal muscles, reduce knee joint stress, smooth out neck wrinkles, and eliminate multiple chins. Okay so I added the bit about the neck wrinkles and chins. What would be the point of toning all that other stuff when mostly what I look at in the mirror is my sagging face, excess chin(s) and crinkly neck? These shape-ups are all well and good, but is there some contraption I can wear on my head to produce a face lift while I watch, say, an instant download from Netflix?

Another shoe option would be one of the fine selections from Merrell. They’re super feet-friendly, and come in unique styles. You can actually walk reasonable distances in them, from my experience. That’s why when I found a pair in my size at a super sale price last winter I snatched it up. I was sure I’d be wearing them come spring. Here you see them:

The beauty of these shoes is that when you put them on they compel you to go bowling – Great! – because bowling involves exercise! Except, I don’t bowl. Even if these shoes do save me a few bucks shoe-rental fee at the bowling alley, I believe I will never advance ten feet beyond my bedroom with them on. They ruin your posture as you walk in them, staring at your feet. I think I’ve pinpointed the ‘something’ that keeps me from wearing these shoes. It’s called “extreme ugliness.” Even my inner 15-year-old has branded them butt ugly.

That about wraps up my blog on trends in footwear. Oh, except I do have a pair of slippers that might interest you. The beauty of these lies in their facility for multitasking. You can accomplish so many things at once while wearing them:

First, you have to curl your toes to keep them on, which strengthens your feet and stretches your heel cords. Second, you can glide them along smooth floor surfaces to exercise your legs and improve balance, while trapping dust bunnies. And thirdly, and most importantly, at the same time you are exercising and cleaning the house, you can yak on your cell phone to your heart’s content – to your BFF, or sister, or whomever you like.

If and when you soil the dust mops on the bottoms you can just rip them off and toss them in the wash. This builds hand strength and works the tendons and muscles up to you armpits.

So what are you waiting for? Shop it up.

Work it out. Buy a pair shape-ups. Or FitFlops. Or footsie dust mops.

Or wear stilettos. Keeping upright on them is a whole body experience.

Me? I’m going to chase after dust bunnies in those slipper genies when I’m at home. And keep my cell phone charged.

And I might take up bowling. Either that, or get rid of those Merrell’s.

Try to keep myself from becoming an unfit fop.

Tags: ,
Posted in Exercise, Fashion | 1 Comment »

Trekkin’ Home

April 24, 2010

To continue where I left off about our last (hopefully) trip to Boise for Megan’s surgeries, uh, where were we? Oh yeah, still in Boise, and headed homeward to Idaho Falls, with David as pilot and Rudy as co-pilot, Megan as sleepy passenger, still sedated from her surgery that morning, and me as front seat passenger fiddling with my iphone.

I captured this picture right off the bat.

One of my abstracts. That iphone is wily. Maybe it just captures a Matisse when it sees it.

We weren’t too enthusiastic about the four-hour drive ahead, having already made this trek three times. I wasn’t in the mood, either, to photograph 40 more trucks and no scenery. So about twenty minutes into our drive, at ‘Mountain Home’ (not ours) David exited off I-84 onto I-20 east to take the ‘scenic route,’ which runs along the southern edge of the Sawtooth National Forest.

We started to climb in elevation.

There was still a lot of snow. But a lot of water, too.

Nice, beautiful water! The spring melt down!

Megan was immediately asleep.

All comfy in the back seat. Well, maybe.

David and I were both exhausted from the crappy night’s sleep we were operating on. I was keeping an eye on him. Hey, is he … sleeping?

He’s fading, for sure. Where are the toothpicks?

Oh, I see now…

Rudy is driving.

Good thing we have him along as co-pilot. I am sleepy too. And busy managing my iphone, which seems hellbent on capturing its own photos. Like this one –

an abstract that defies gravity.

With the shape we’re in maybe we should just pull over and find some lodging for the night. After all, we still have two hundred miles to go. Oh look! Lodging ahead!

Airport Inn? Where’s the airport? Where’s the Inn? Where the hell are we?

Oh here! What does that sign say?

Light Industrial Space Available? Huh? In my head, maybe.

Look there! On the left! Zooming toward us! – you suppose that’s a bed-and- breakfast?

Should we pull over and knock?

No?

Keep driving? We’re driving, we’re driving …

Semi’s approaching us head-on at combined speeds of 150 mph should keep us awake.

Ah! Look!

The Arco Motel! It’s such a rigorous little town, which, where did it go? Oh, it’s behind us now…

Keep driving. We can make it home!

We had to find ways to entertain ourselves. I started fiddling with this:

It was a giant …

barf bag, compliments of St. Luke’s Hospital for the road, in case Megan falls ill from the car motion, combined with sedation. The beauty of this bag is that you can vomit in it and then use the lines on the side of the bag to measure how much you vomited and then write it down. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Rudy is fading now, too.

We’ve lost our co-pilot. He has resorted to lifting his head every so often and gazing at me with his pleading eyes …

as if to say, “Can we please be home now? I’ll even try to get along with that despicable cat, Tee-Box.”

Hey, look there! A cabin! Honey! Pull over!

Looks a little lonesome. You have to take whatever lodging you can get out here in rugged ‘ol Idaho, but why don’t we pass on this one? Like, where are we gonna go for dinner?

Our last chance to pull over and bunk is up ahead, flying toward us … another cabin, a little more rustic

and weather-beaten. It’s available, for sure.

All right so we can make it home. But not until my iphone shoots another abstract of the inside of the car:

What artist is it this time?

We are home now. And Megan is up on her feet.

Yay!

It’s great to be sleeping in our own beds.

I took a picture of the flowering crab in our back yard on April 20, the day after we got back, with our lilacs in the background:

Yes, that’s a flowering crab tree. It’s still ‘sprinter’ here in southeast Idaho.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Back to Boise!

April 21, 2010

It’s Sunday, April 18th. The day has arrived! Megan has had her casts on for six weeks and it’s time to get them off. We make the 275-mile drive back to Boise today! 6 AM tomorrow morning Megan will check in to St. Luke’s Hospital for surgery to remove the pin in her left foot. Then another cast goes on her left foot for 4 more weeks. The cast on her right foot comes off completely. She will be able to walk!

It’s noon now and we are loaded up, ready to go. Megan and Rudy are in the back. We have purchased a harness for Rudy and strapped him in next to Megan. Good dog!

Except he hates it. He tells us by whining, yipping, and howling through the first 45 minutes of our drive. We stand our ground. He must stay in the back, in his harness. After all, he’s a dog and we are his masters.

Until we relent and finally let him have his way. He knows where he belongs – on the console between the two front seats – to help drive. He spots dogs, squirrels, pedestrians, bicyclists and blowing leaves ahead and and lets us know by leaping across the car frantically yelping at them through the window as they pass. This is why we tether him now. He could sail like a missile across the interior of a car traveling at 80 mph, especially if we have to slow down suddenly. So we have tethered him at his post and yes, he is helping David drive.

We shoot to Boise across I-84, making it in four hours, and check into our motel. We enjoy a lovely dinner outside on the front patio of a restaurant in downtown Boise. Here is a picture of Megan at dinner:

The girl at the table behind her posed for the photo, too, because she knows what a special evening this is.

Megan took a picture of us sitting across from her:

… Big ‘D’ and me. Why does he look so much bigger than me?

After dinner we take a stroll downtown. The weather is exquisite with temperatures near 80 degrees. We pause at the fountain in the square –

And walk to the Capitol building a few blocks away:

Back at the motel I get the worst night’s sleep ever. The room is too hot (or were my hot flashes too hot?), the bed too soft, and all night I worry in the haze of my semi-sleep about having to be awake by five, to get her to the hospital by six.

But we pull it off. Here she is at 6:15 am, her usual cheerful self, waiting to be admitted:

She’s gone into surgery now. David and I grab the time to take a walk outside around the hospital. And discover this garden –

transplanted from Holland? Wow! Spring is sprung in Boise, Idaho! David checked out the aroma of this tree:

Does a cousin of the southern magnolia thrive here too?

Megan’s surgery went beautifully. Here she is in recovery, sleepy, but happy.

Who says hospital gowns don’t look sexy?

We check out of the Hospital by 11 AM and decide to grab lunch downtown.

A perfect pair, we are at lunch – Megan, sedated, and I, sleep-deprived. But we do enjoy lunch. Next, we return to the car to head for home. But wait! The dog! He’s been cooped up in the car most of today and will surely give us fits on the long drive home if he doesn’t get some exercise.

So last stop – Ann Morrison Park, home to a fabulous Frisbee golf course. Megan is not so enthusiastic about the Frisbee golfers, or the walk-

However, the exuberance she lacks has been tamped down but is now overflowing in Rudy.

… fetching the tennis ball. We walked about a quarter mile, while he ran a good two miles, retrieving that ball.

The flowering crab (?) trees are putting on a show as well:

Spring here is unfolding a good three to four weeks ahead of Idaho Falls, where winter can, more likely than not, turn to ‘sprinter’, with spring arriving so late you’re into summer by the time you even notice the trees.

Anyway, it was time now to head back to the car

through this beautiful park, savoring the sights, sounds, and smells of spring.

And hit the highway for our 4-hour trek home.

Megan and Rudy are in the back seat again, ready to go.

Yeah, like that’s gonna fly. How long do you think Rudy will last tethered to the back seat?

It lasted about three blocks.

He’s gotta help David drive.

Do you wanna hear about our trek home?

Tags: ,
Posted in Boise | 1 Comment »

‘Rudy’

April 5, 2010

I’ve spent a lot of time in the house these past four weeks, keeping Megan company while she’s in her two casts. We’ve done okay. Pretty well, actually. I’m trying to read more, write, dream …

However, quite often as I’m settling in my chair to read or relax, I’ll get distracted by something, like the furniture arrangement across the room –

which just doesn’t look right, and I’m compelled to get up and rearrange it.

Then some other form of bad feng shui catches my eye, like this scene in the same formal living room:

That sharp purple corner of Megan’s bed sheet is emitting poison arrows which look to be shooting into the carpet, but in reality, the arrows are ricocheting off the carpet through the air toward my face. Bad feng shui! Bad energy! I must tuck that in.

However, whether minor or major, most distractions at home seem to involve our dog, Rudy.

For starters, I’ll be at the kitchen table trying to read when there he is at the back door, wanting in:

I don’t even recall letting him out. But I get up and let him in. Three minutes later, he wants out:

and back in.

I get up and let him in again. And try to ignore him. But it’s impossible. Because he’s bored. And hyper-energetic – he hasn’t been getting his walks. What Rudy needs is vigorous extended play with his ‘punky-monkey.’

Except a few weeks back, while I wasn’t looking, he ripped his punky monkey apart and de-stuffed it all over the house. I gradually collected all the scattered bits of white stuffing into a bag and shoved it and the limp monkey into the buffet. Well maybe now it was worth putting the thing back together. After all, this house confinement has been hard on the dog.

So I pulled the stuff out of the buffet and set it on the kitchen table. Was it really worth the effort to put the punky monkey back together?:

I had a little coaxing from the dog:

Off he goes!

He loves his punky monkey!

Hump the monkey!

This helps him compensate for the problem he has with our cat Tee-Box –

who dominates him, posing as ‘evil kitty’ daunting Rudy to just try and pass him on the stairs.

Which, overall, can be a good thing. Because Rudy is liable to get into something when he knows we’re not looking. Like the upstairs bathroom trash. He knows he’s being bad. He’ll sneak up to the trash bin and snatch the largest and most disgusting thing he can find and race into our bedroom with it and and dive under our bed

for a private chew fest. He’s in heaven here and I’m on my knees cleaning up his mess.

He’s humping his punky monkey again, mostly to raise his alpha index:

Uh oh! Punky monkey is giving out again.

There is only so much abuse a little stuffed monkey can take. It’s back to the clinic for the punky monkey.

No problem because Rudy has a second-favorite monkey, his “new monkey.” He has found it now.

Throw the monkey!

Which, I do, of course. Wish I could throw it five blocks.

Because, sure enough, he’s right back with it. I’ll throw it again. Anything to wear him out.

Oh no!!

Poor new monkey is nearly ripped to shreds. It’s off to the clinic for him too.

Luckily, David is home now and can take the dog for a walk.

In the Idaho spring arctic temperatures.

Hooray! The dog is finally worn out.

Okay, so we are too.

It’s a new day.

Here we go again.

Ah! Except we have invited Rudy’s girlfriend “LA” over to play with him.

She’ll wear him down!

I may not be writing a novel, but at least maybe now I can grab a few minutes upstairs on the computer to write on my blog.

Oh! I’ve just received a text message from Megan, from her recliner downstairs in the den:

“Rudy wants in.”

What? Dang! You’re kidding.

I pull myself away from the computer to go down there and see for myself:

Rudy and Little Angel are wanting in all right. Well, I surely don’t remember letting them out.

Tags:
Posted in pets | 3 Comments »

… Truckin’ On Home

March 23, 2010

So, to pick up where I left off with Megan and her surgery – we were still in Boise – and Megan was ready to check out of St. Luke’s hospital.

Oh, wait! Before we do that, I want to share a few more photos I took of downtown Boise.

I took this photo standing on the second floor of the Capitol Building, looking out through the columns over the city, down Capital Avenue:

Far in the distance you will see a tower poking up in the sky. That’s the old Boise train depot. We decided to drive to the other end of Capital Avenue and check it out:


The Boise Depot

We stood in front of it and I snapped a photo looking back over Capital Ave:

Follow Capital Avenue back, toward the center of the picture, and you will spot the dome of the Capitol Building.

I got David to pose in this picture I took of the back, track side, view of the Depot:

There are some well-preserved old buildings downtown, like this one on Idaho Ave:

Okay, so now Megan has checked out of the hospital and it’s time to hit the road for the 275-mile trek back to Idaho Falls.

Megan is in the car ready to roll …

And get back online texting her friends.

It had been three days since we had driven to Boise – and now, on our return, I was hoping to glean from the landscape some fresh signs of spring …

The signs were fresh, all right. With more snow clouds on the horizon.

Then we passed this rig:

What are those things stacked upside down in the back – giant dog kennels? Who bought this stuff?

I spotted something that might be photo-worthy in the field ahead, advancing toward us at 80 mph, an old barn and … OOOO! Where’s my iphone? … fiddle … fiddle …tricky to capture it!…”Click!”

What? Trucks? Where did they come from? I never even got another glimpse of that barn. By the time we got past those two trucks that barn was a good half-mile behind us.

A few miles down the road I took this photo. Any buds on the trees? Or did the leaves recently fall? I’m suddenly confused …

This sure looks like November to me.

We kept driving and driving, with David at the wheel and me making sure he wasn’t dozing. I had a strategy in place for keeping him awake. If I saw as much as one eye lid droop I would begin chattering at him non-stop. Or he would have to pull over and let me drive.

He stayed alert.

Here I captured a typical southern Idaho landscape:

Is that truck following us?

I glanced at Megan in the back seat …

“ZZZZZZZZZZ”

Okay, so I was bored, too, and trying to keep myself awake, in case I had to start chattering …

I captured this picture:

Do people actually live here? How far is the mall? Does that truck look suspicious to you?

I was determined to capture scenery with my iphone. I’d have the camera function ready and I’d be focusing on some subject of interest, but then we’d accelerate into the passing lane, I’d hear the loud roar of a truck, and …

…”Poof!” – shoot an abstract of the inside of our car.

Here I captured another farm, pretty close to Idaho Falls. You gotta take what you can get.

I wasn’t going to demand David to “Stop the car now and let me out!” to take the photo, especially given that the odds of getting run over by a truck might be pretty high.

Okay, so we’ve pulled into our driveway now. We’re home! Whew.

Time to get Megan out of the car and into the house …

… without being impaled by crashing icicles on our way to the front door. Ahhh! A fresh sign of spring!

Flowers arrived!

So did the new faucet for the main floor bath –

It’s a perfect fit – with the holes in the sink, that is. David spent most of a Saturday adapting and attaching the plumbing, with several trips to Lowe’s for various sized plumbing pieces.


Is that you, honey?

He proved himself a handy plumber. The faucet works great. That pull-out hose is handy for washing hair, or rinsing out bins.

Or if you are a grandparent or parent of young children, I say, out with rubber duckies and squirt guns. This faucet could offer hours of great fun for small children and immature adults. So if you think you might want one of these for your bath, for whatever reason, it is made by Delta – model number 550.

We’ve been home for almost two weeks now. Megan has long since settled in. So has the dog …

… until she boots him off.

We’re just hanging out, mostly. She in her recliner with cell phone, books, music, art supplies, and TV controllers and I with my iphone. Hey I’ll photograph anything. And post it on my blog.

I just took a picture of our new dining room table arrangement:

It turns out, you need the leg supports off the wheelchairs more than you need them on. But you also need to put them somewhere handy.

Interesting still-life there.

Maybe I should take up painting?

Tags: ,
Posted in Boise, Idaho | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »