Colorado

Well I have been to Colorado and come back already. We had a pretty good group of soldiers out there, wish they would have gotten more conversions done, but things take time. The base is right on the edge of the mountain range. I thought it was crazy that when you looked East there was absolutely nothing out there, but turn around to the West and there is Pikes Peak, Cheyenne Mountain, and a bunch of other ridges.





The first place Greg (my fellow instructor and travel buddy) and I went to see was the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Greg used to ride bulls at a ranch down in Georgia, so it was a pretty cool stop for him. I thought it was interesting too and actually learned a few things about the rodeo. This statue of "The Champ" is outside the hall, the rider is legendary bronc rider Casey Tibbs and the horse is Necktie.











Our next stop was on the way up to Pikes Peak.

This view from the resevoir below Pikes Peak shows the slope, the brown spot near the top of the highest ridge in the middle of the picture is what I drove up to get to the top.

By the way there are almost no guard rails the whole way up. I got the T-shirt "Real Women Don't Need Guard Rails" when we made it up there.









This mountain is also visible from the resevoir, don't know what it is for sure, but I liked the view.












When we made it to the top the temperature had dropped about 30 degrees and the wind was blowing, the wind was always blowing in Colorado, but it was pretty wild up there.




This view is westward from the top of Pikes Peak. It seemed like we could see forever. The peak is 14,110 feet above sea level.

After about 15 minutes of walking around I think I was feeling the altitude just a little because I said "The thin is air up here." I realized it as I was say it, but it was oddly funny at the time, guess I was little more light headed than usual.






This is one of the funny sites on the road to Pikes Peak.

We didn't see any sign of Big Foot, but we kept looking.
















After we came down from Pikes Peak we took off for Cripple Creek for dinner and a little slot machine action. That is what happened too, just a little wasted money. But we had a nice drive over there.

The next day we headed over to the Royal Gorge.


This view is either from the bridge or the top of the ridge, I don't recall where I was on this one, but it certainly shows the Gorge depth which 1,053 feet below the bridge.















This picture is from the bottom of the Gorge looking back up at the bridge.


We had a pretty good time. The weather was nice both days and I got some sun.

Actually got more sun tan in Colorado than I did in Hawaii.





Anyway, that is my latest trip. For those keeping track, in December I went to Texas, January was Louisiana, February was Hawaii, March I could have gone to New York with Billy and Gertrude, they left the day after I got back from Hawaii or I would have, April I went to Colorado, May will be Iowa on vacation, and for June I have North Carolina scheduled. If I am not traveling for work I am traveling for fun. Glad I have a nice quiet porch to come home to in between trips!

If any of you are in the neighborhood stop in and visit, Billy will probably be here. HAHA

Left over Hawaii and more

Hello, well I have been home for a month now and am getting ready to leave again so I thought I better start getting my stuff ready. I decided to clean out some old pictures on my camera and look what I found! Old pictures. These are some that I took from the balcony of my hotel in Hawaii the night before I left.



This one is a shot of the fireworks display that they did from the Hilton Resort every Friday night.












This is a palm tree framed by the pool next door at another hotel.
I was on the 32nd floor of the Hyatt, so this was a pretty cool shot. It is zoomed in quite a bit, so it was really hard to get a shot without shaking.

The picture below is straight down from my balcony with no zoom. That pool with the palm tree is just out of site on the left side.


















These pictures were taken by Billy. The mask was made for his art class. It is a pretty good Curious George I think. The steer in the other picture is named Gilligan, Billy thought he looked pretty Cool smoking that piece of hay.




















Well, that is it for cleaning out the camera this time. My next trip is to Colorado so you should be seeing pictures of the Rockies, some falls, and the Rodeo Hall of fame in the next few weeks.