a mountain, a sweatlodge, and a sacrificial deer

First, we had to wait for Wolfgang to run up a mountain...

FREE official photo

Last Saturday was the annual running of the Pikes Peak Ascent.  Thirteen miles up the mountain.  (The marathon - up and then back down - was run on Sunday).


This was Wolfgang's third time doing the race, and he managed a new PR of a very respectable 3 hours 15 minutes, being the first of his buddies to finish and taking 6th in his age group











Eventually, his two friends crossed the finish line, and they all got off the mountain.  In the meantime, we'd been packing up the van for our trip north to the eclipse.  We made it out late Saturday afternoon, arriving in Chugwater rest area late that night.  Good ol' Chugwater.

It wasn't much further to Manters Camp, so we had most all of Sunday to play around and explore after we set up the large tent and got our campsite humming.  All of us except for Chaco, who somehow managed to get a decent sleep at Chugwater, needed a siesta.

We napped in the tent, not realizing that we hadn't removed the outer coverings of our windows, so the breeze did NOTHING.  We awoke in pools of our own sweat.  I just decided to refer to it as Sweatlodge time rather than naptime.  Supposed to be healthy, right?

Thusly refreshed, we trekked out to the surrounding boonies and found a real pretty getaway spot.  As it happened, Wolfgang had a gimpy foot that he'd injured while training for the Ascent, and the foot was really whining after running the thing.

As such, we didn't traipse around as much as we might have so as to not "leave the cripple behind".  Still, Chaco got in a bit of a climbing fix

Spot him?

That tippy top scared me, but I got close.


We were in an area of national forest and  broke out our camp cookware and ended up having our dinner there and just hanging out.

By the time we'd cleaned up and packed up, it was nightfall...  *foreboding music goes here*










Chaco was driving the country road back to our campsite, about 10 miles away.  Suddenly, a deer went scampering across the road in front of us.  Immediately, I thought,

"Hmmm, usually where there's one, at least one more is behind it"

Yup

We got him.  The sound was horrible.  I was pretty sure he was dead since we hit him just as he was emerging onto the road - in the head.  Chaco pulled right over to inspect the van and to make sure the deer wasn't suffering.

As expected, it looked like the deer had died instantly - hardly any blood.  His body lay "peacefully" parallel to and alongside the road, facing behind us.  I'm pretty sure we hit him in the head, and he spun around.

He took our passenger side headlight with him, but didn't damage the engine and only left a couple of small dents in the side door.

A clearer view in the morning,
after the late night duct tape job

We'll have to have the panel surrounding the headlight fixed before we can repair the light, but all in all, the damage was pretty minimal.

After we returned home, I took the van to the shop for an oil change and a once over.  As I explained the deer incident to the service guy, a young man in the waiting area chimed in.

"That happened to me once!  I wasn't sure if it was an elk or a moose, so I called it a 'melk'!"

So I replied, "Oh.  Yeah?"

I mean, what else do you say?

Silver Liningness Sunday

I'm thankful that our road trip across Nebraska was a goodie!  

I know that when one thinks "fun destination point", The Cornhusker State doesn't immediately pop into mind, but we learned that there is a lot to be said for Nebraska!  About a year ago, a friend of mine touted its attributes, so this year we decided to check it out.

One drawback road trip-wise, however, as my friend put it, "There is nothing between here and Omaha".  I think Magnum took that as a personal challenge, and he found stuff!  He does things like that, that's why he was appointed "Official Road Trip Planner".

Our first stop was actually in Northeastern Colorado - the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  It's over 700 acres of sanctuary for lions, tigers, bears, (do NOT say "Oh my!", don't say it, DON'T!), wolves, and other wild animals that have been abused or otherwise can't survive on their own.

Fat lion down there

It was really a great facility.  Visitors follow a raised platform and get amazing views of the animals.  Apparently, being on ground level with them makes the animals agitated and defensive, but they don't feel threatened by humans walking overhead.  We were advised that, should we drop something from the walkway, we would not get it back.  Hats, cameras, etc. would just become "enrichment toys".

Cars, cars, cars

Eventually we made it into Nebraska and miles and miles (and miles and miles and...) of corn fields.  This was a sight for us mountain folk.  I will admit, however, that it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off.  Magnum came through again in finding the Harold Warp Pioneer Village.  It's "The largest private collection of Americana anywhere",   and I believe it!

RCA pooch

????

<----Any guesses as to what these things are?  The answer is at the end of the post, for those who make it that far.

Female Orangutan looking for an Alpha male

In time, we traversed the state and made it to Omaha, which incidentally became the home of the College World Series in 1950.  So happens, it was College World Series time while we were there, and luckily our Official Road Trip Planner had made advanced reservations.  



We spent all day at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and still feel like we didn't see everything.  Anyone who enjoys a good zoo needs to go to this place!  Even our teenaged boys sung its praises.

In addition to the expertly maintained displays and habitats, there is a skytram and zoo train driven by an actual steam locomotive (neither of which we rode).

Sloth (x 2)

The hotel clerk in Lincoln told me it was the best zoo she's ever been to and I would echo that.  The only "drawback" is that it's just so HUGE and complete, that it's difficult to take in in one visit.

Hangars!

The Jungle exhibit alone is the largest indoor rainforest in THE WORLD.






So a great trip all around!  And did I mention the SAC and Space museum?

Throw in more corn fields, lots of hotel pool swims, endless rounds of 20 Questions, more educational stuff, and this was another road trip to remember.

If you need somewhere to "get away", I say NEBRASKA.  Who knew??



OH, and about the mystery question... those are "Calf Weaners", yes they are!  Here's one in action...

Now you too have seen a genuine calf weaner.

.

hello! remember me?

We're back from road trip 2012.  Much fun was had, and I've cleaned out the 90 + e-mails.  Now for some quality blog time and a rehash!

War Machine!!!!

First up:  Denver Comic Con.  What a blast!







Really, I had no idea what to expect and was just sort of tagging along to watch, but it was So.  Much.  Fun.  Everyone has already jumped on the bandwagon to go again if Denver hosts another.

Magnum and some new friends

I'm NOT going to say, "Who you gonna call?" in this caption!

I think what made it fun was that there was instant camaraderie among all of the attendees just from the mere fact that we were all at Comic Con together.















There were some really fun costumes and displays.  And the art people were really friendly!

Meego less than impressed with a talking car
he's never heard of

More like it!

He seems a lot bigger in the movies

Okay, this one's big

We have no idea who/what this character is.
Anyone????

So the trip began with a bang.  We could all die happy, having attended at least one Comic Con.  We loaded up the souvenirs and headed out for the second leg of the trip:  Nebraska and CORN!

Excitement abounds!

.

getaway

Greetings blog friends! I'm back, did you miss me?? Did you even notice I was gone??

Anyways, remember how I mentioned we were going to do a road trip to Arizona, but Arizona was on fire, so we didn't? We brainstormed to come up with alternatives and settled on just driving a couple of hours up into the mountains and playing Tourist to Colorado.

We rented us a cozy 2 Bedroom condo and just had a lovely time. About an hour into the drive, we realized we had not one camera between the five of us. Oh fudge! How to visually record the trip!?

Suffice it to say that, through the magic of super high technology, I was able to capture images of the trip and share them here...

Here's us, heading for the hills in the big butt van:

There was a nice pond to rent paddle boats. The geese were bullies. Here's the kids in their boat, playing chicken with a goose... and winning!


Of course there was fishing. Didn't catch a darn thing.





And bicycling!








The educational portion of the trip included a tour of a former Gold Mine. It was awesome and not for the claustrophobes!

Here's me, outside the mine, panning for gold in the nearby stream. I found some shiny bits and made friends with a sweet burro. I don't think I found much gold, but my burro friend did provide a friendly golden shower. *ahem*.

We swam nearly every day.

But mind you, it wasn't just Kidstuff. I purchased some wine for Magnum and me and didn't notice until later that it was named "Menage trois" - from some naughty winery in California.

It wasn't bad, but I couldn't help but feel that something... was... missing....

In the end, a great time. Colorado, you beautiful state you - and not on fire!

indulging

<-- Note left for my slumbering children this morning in the unlikely event that they would awaken and become vertical before my return from walking the dog. "All of China" is a nickname for her, but that's another story...

Week two of summer break. Last week, I did quite a bit of catching up on things, and I'm rather enjoying this week by not doing a whole lot of anything. In fact, my mom called this morning and we had a short conversation:

Mom: Hi Abby, are you in Arizona?
Me: No. Arizona is on fire

Mom: I know, that's why I called. I thought you said something about going to Arizona.
Me: Well, we were, but not this week. Magnum has some training at work, plus, Arizona is on fire.

Mom: Oh, I see. I asked Dad if it was now you were going to Arizona, but he didn't know anything about that, just said, 'Arizona?! Why on earth would they go to Arizona?!'

(I did tell them both that we were going to Arizona... good old Mom)

Me: Yep, you're right. We were planning a trip, but not for this week. Plus, Arizona is on fire.

Mom: I was in Pueblo yesterday, and we couldn't see the mountains.
Me: I know, it's really smokey here too, because Arizona is on fire.

Mom: Well, I'm glad you're not in Arizona.

Me too. I'm having enough troubles dealing with the smoke in Colorado from the fact that Arizona is on fire. I can only imagine what it's like in the actual Arizona. We are currently rethinking our road trip plans.

But in the meantime, I'm just enjoying some lazy days. Blame it on smoke-in-the-atmosphere sloth, but it's not total sloth. For instance, in the past few days:

- I've purchased 2 shirts for myself. Cool ones for summer. I needed them, really.
- I've checked out 2 books from the library and have actually read large parts of them.
- Chaco has peeled large expanses of dead skin from his sunburned body.
- Wolfgang has lost neither part nor all of his new pair of running shoes.
- Meego has kept half of the neighborhood armed from his nerf gun arsenal.
- Magnum goes to work and supports all of this decadent activity.

Why on earth would we go to Arizona?
.