Joe Walsh is playing at Riverfest in Little Rock on Sunday. And we are going to miss it. Damn.
I like Joe Walsh. I like the Eagles. One of the things Steve and I have in common is we like the same music. We went to see the Eagles when they played at Verizon a couple of years ago. We went to see Eric Clapton when he played in Memphis.
We saw Gavin McGraw, Train and Maroon 5 at Red Rocks outside of Denver last summer. We went to another concert there, but I can’t remember who it was. That concert we went to just so we could attend a concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. Steve had worked in Denver years ago and he always wanted to go to a concert at Red Rocks. He never got to go because he was working insane hours like 6 or 7 days in a row of 12 hour shifts.
What is so special about Red Rocks? Here is a link to the website. http://www.redrocksonline.com/ABOUTUS/HistoryGeology.aspx
It’s this awesome natural amphitheater with perfect acoustics located just outside of Denver. And it’s made out of red rocks. The beauty of the experience is sitting outside surrounded by nature, with the backdrop of the lights of Denver in the background in a place like no other in the world.
I knew the words to the songs from Gavin McGraw, Train, and Maroon 5. Steve had only heard a couple of them when I forced him to listen to them in the days before the concert. It’s not that he hated them, he just hadn’t heard them before. I’ve got a couple of different stations set in the cars. One is set to the Top Forty station that I listen to. Several stations are set with Rock from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. And Disney Radio for Keely and her friends.
I like all of the music Steve likes. But he doesn’t like all of the music I like.
I know lot’s of guys like that. Some of them are even younger than I am. It’s like they made a decision at some point in their life to not to listen to the top forty and just stick with what they knew. You can’t go to any kind of class (except yoga) at a gym and not hear “Moves Like Jagger” or “Sexy and I Know It”. I like that stuff. When I was teaching class I’d play “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas and everyone knew to get a jump rope. I’d also see my friend Richard Schreiber rolling his eyes because he hated that music. Course he likes Sinatra, so that’s probably to be expected.
I love riding in the car with Keely and her friends, all of us singing at the top of our lungs. And that’s not going to happen with hits from the 70’s. Her friends love my playlists.
Granted some of the current stuff really turns me off, especially Gangster Rap. But there is so much more out there than that genre. All you have to do is switch stations.
So when and how do you decide that you aren’t listening to the new stuff? Do guys do that more often than women? Is it an age thing?
Maybe I just don’t want to grow up.
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: penrose, planting, spring time, vegetable garden, Blossom Festival, raised beds
Keely planting 2012
Last year I killed a lot of plants. Tomatoes, squash, watermelon. The deaths were legion. I’d put a plant in the ground, water it well and find it dead the next morning. No joke. It is so very dry out here, with no humidity, that those plants would die overnight. Sometimes they would make it a few days, but I killed a lot of plants.
The plants were put in on Blossom Festival weekend, which translates to early May. I learned the hard way last year that you don’t plant until after Blossom Festival because it can still freaking snow on your new baby plants. In May. Snow kills them just like lack of water does. Paula told me about the Blossom Festival timing after I’d killed a couple of dozen plants by freezing them to death.
Welcome to Southern Colorado.
This year, we are going about it differently. Steve built some raised beds, we lined the bottom with landscape material to keep out the weeds, placed metal mesh on the bottom to keep out gophers and moles, and then we wound soaker hoses throughout. Good garden/potting soil on top and we were good to go.
Tomatoes, cantaloupe, butternut squash, peppers and celery are in the ground and doing well. I haven’t lost a plant yet and it’s been two weeks. Fingers crossed.
Keely has planted marigolds in the beds. I handed her some carrot seeds and we discussed where to plant them.
“I guess this means you are going to want me to start eating healthy now.”
Smart girl she is.
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: Canon City, white water rafting, red canyon, Great Sand Dunes National Part, Skyline Drive, Tunnel Drive, Calvillos Mexican Restaurant, Alamosa
“The Boys” at Tunnel Drive, Canon City
We had four young men as our guests this week. My nephew Paul brought three of his friends for a graduation celebration trip. All four have graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. That is something of an accomplishment nowadays. I know a lot of young people struggle with college, many start and stop several times before they get through the process. I give them all a lot of credit.
But many don’t even try. They are too busy getting high and sleeping until 2:00 in the afternoon to even think about college and their future. And some are in a minimum wage job because they are waiting on a court hearing to find out if they are going to jail or not. Several of my friend’s kids are in this situation. These are kids that have been brought up right. Their parents are successful, moral people. It’s like their kids get a big ole dose of stupid somewhere between age 12 and 14 and they are going to completely submerge themselves in stupid for a couple of years. Some of them never get out of it.
But “the boys” as Keely called them are good kids. These are young men that any parent would be proud of. They were polite. They thanked me after every meal that I cooked. They told me that they loved our house. They told me Keely was really cute and really smart. They told me they thought I was in my mid 40’s. They cleaned up their own mess. They listened when I got Steve to talk about some of his war stories from work and show them pictures. In other words, they did everything right. Paul didn’t even say anything when I was driving his 2WDrive Jeep on rocky paths that weren’t even roads trying to find our way out of Red Canyon. He did hold his breath a lot though.
Their first day I took them to Red Canyon. It gave them a chance to see some awesome scenery and adjust to the altitude. We climbed on some rocks and hiked a bit, then went into town to eat at “The Owl”. A drive on Skyline Drive and then we headed home. Dinner on the deck, then they cleaned up and went into Canon City to check out the nightlife. Evidently there is some nightlife, because they didn’t get in until 3am.
They went whitewater rafting on Thursday. They had met a “river rat” in Canon City the night before so they decided to go with him. Evidently Dominic decided to see just how cold the Arkansas River is and went head first into the water. Paul helped pull him back in and they all got really wet. Steve took them up in the plane that evening so they got to see the Royal Gorge from the air as well as rafting under it. They came home to a spectacular sunset. It was great sitting out on the deck that night listening to them talk all over each other describing how awesome it all was.
Friday we took the top off the jeep, loaded up our friend Boris and one of “the boys” into the jeep. The other guys took the 4WD truck with no air conditioning or radio. We piled tents, sleeping bags, leftover brisket and baked beans and lots of bottles of water into the bed of the truck. Then we took off for the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
We went up to Westcliffe, then over to State 559. Then we went off road into the San Isabel Forest and later the Sand Dunes National Forest. It took us about four hours to go 30 miles.
The weather was perfect, and the guys had never done anything like that road before. We drove over rocks, went splashing through streams, bounced all over the place in the vehicles and just had a blast.
Offroading to the Dunes
We got to the Dunes, the boys dropped off their camping stuff, and then we drove to Alamosa. We discovered Calvillos Mexican Restaurant on our last trip. They serve a buffet. I’m not usually a fan of buffets, but this one is really unusual. They have dishes made out of cactus that I can’t begin to pronounce. All I know is that it was all really good and you can have all the sopapillas and honey that you can eat. Now you have to understand, Steve is not a “foodie”. He always rates what I cook on a scale of 1 to 4. Mostly I get 3’s and 4’s. If he gives something a 2 that recipe goes in the trash. He raved about the food at this place, even took pictures of it and posted about it on Face book. He has never done that before. So of course we all had the buffet. Boris, who is from Guatemala, said he was going to be coming back real soon. He also found out that the chef is Guatemalan, so maybe that is the difference with the food. It’s not the typical Tex/Mex that we are used to that’s for sure.
Sunday morning we had breakfast and then they all piled into the jeep for the 12 hour ride home. Lots of hugs. I’m going to miss them.
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: Michael Schuller, white water rafting, zip lining, Heidi Mullins, Kevin Stockwell, Carla Hazlewood, Paul Schuller, Terry Brake, Mandy Brake
It’s visitor season at our house. I love it. Last summer we had a grand total of 12 days that we did not have someone staying with us. So far it looks like we will have a bit more free time this year, but not much.
Keely goes to Little Rock to spend the summer with her dad. We miss her a lot when she is gone, but it’s important that she get long stretches of time with her dad. It helps us because we don’t have to worry about dragging her along with us everywhere we go, or making arrangements for her to spend the night with her friends. She goes to Camp Lake Nixon every summer and gets to spend her days swimming and doing camp things. She has a group of friends and counselors that she reconnects with every year. What a great experience for her. In the evenings she gets to hang out with her dad and they do a lot of cooking. Escargot, Mussels in White Wine, and Veal Zurichoise are the current favorites. She for sure is her father’s daughter.
Back at the Ray/Cox B&B we are doing a lot of grilling and sitting on the deck in the evenings. Sunsets are spectacular, and because of the lack of humidity we can actually stay outside a lot. In fact most mornings and evenings a light jacket is a good idea because it gets pretty chilly.
Thomas Milbradt was a new friend that we met at an annual gathering of martial artists in Castle Rock known as The BBQ. He is from Germany and training to be a policeman. What a wonderful polite young man he is. We hiked, white water rafted and had a lot of great discussions about every subject you can imagine.
The Brakes, our friends from Great Britain stayed for 10 days. It is always so interesting seeing our country through their eyes. I met them at a dude ranch in Arizona over 20 years ago. They visited Arkansas several times, we did a trip to Cancun together and I’ve lost count of the times we have stayed with them in Wiltshire. We went to Taos, did some shopping and a lot of eating, drove into the mountains to Ouray, and even took in a rodeo (that one was for Terry). Terry and Steve are both big Louis Lamour fans. We have a huge collection of Lamour books, Terry always had several with him to re-read. Then he and Steve would get into discussions about them while Mandy and I rolled our eyes.
My daughter Kat stayed with us twice last year. I saw more of her last summer than I have since she moved to Louisville.
I’ve known Carla Hazlewood for over 30 years. She was a fellow student when I first started taking Taekwondo in the 1970′s. She has been out to visit a couple of times. Her last visit coincided with a visit from Heidi Mullins. I also met Heidi through Taekwondo, she was one of my students, single and new to Little Rock. We really hit it off. Both women live in Little Rock but had never met. The three of us had a blast and now they are good friends and see each other frequently in Little Rock. I feel like a matchmaker.
I’ve lost count of the times my brother Michael has been out. He’s bringing his motorcycle again this trip and plans to leave it here. I guess that means he is planning to come back? He’s also bringing his fiancée Patty and will be getting married while in Colorado. How cool is that?
My “Asian Daughters” were out for spring break. I wrote about their adventures in the Blog “Fear and Adrenaline”
Heidi was here last week with her boyfriend Kevin. They were only here a few days but we packed a lot into the time we had. Probably another blog on that subject….
Next week my nephew Paul (Michael and Kate’s son) will be out with three of his friends. They have all just graduated from U of A Fayetteville and are using this trip as a graduation celebration. Zip lining and rafting, hiking and camping are on their agenda.
Next out are Leslie Herrington and her daughter Anna Kate. Again, another TKD connection and Anna Kate is one of Keely’s best friends. They will be here for four days then will take Keely back to Little Rock with them.
Michael and his family arrive the next week. The will be staying close to two weeks and we may have as many as six in that party. That takes us until the end of June.
Will have a one or two day break then Heidi and Kevin are coming back in. Not sure how many others will be with them, Heidi was sending out text invitations when she was here. I don’t know any of the invitees so that means we will get to meet some new people. Could be as many as 10 so I’ll have to pull out the air mattress.
Next we go to Castle Rock for our annual BBQ. We will cut that a bit short as one of Steve’s former co-workers and his family will be coming in on Sunday July 15 for a week.
After that, two weeks or so to ourselves and then we get our Keely back. School starts and summer is over.
I love living in Southern Colorado where there are so many great things to do. I love living in a house that allows us to have it full of visitors. I love living with a man that enjoys having friends stay with us.
I love my life.
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: hiking, Canon City, skydiving, snowboarding, white water rafting, red canyon, zip line, monarch ski, penrose, danny dring, kickboxing
Kayla, Allie and Nicky at Red Canyon
We have some new daughters now, we call them “The Asian Chicks”. Actually that is what they call themselves.
Nicky is a fighter. I mean a real fighter like in kickboxing. She hasn’t gone pro because she wants to keep it as a hobby, but training and fighting are what her days revolve around. I met her at Danny Dring’s several years ago. We didn’t talk a whole lot, mostly because I didn’t have a lot of breath after working out in one of his classes. We actually started talking more the last couple of months I was still in Little Rock than the couple of years before. Isn’t it funny how that happens? When you know you aren’t going to see someone on a routine basis you start talking a lot more.
I got an email from Nicky a couple of months ago asking if my invite to come visit was still open. And could she bring a couple of friends? Spring Break?
So we hosted Nicky, Kayla and her sister Allie for a week. Kayla and Allie are part Thai. Nicky is Filipino. Kayla is actually a professional kick boxer. All three girls are sweet and fun and drop dead gorgeous.
Steve now has a new nickname…STEVE O! Always with an exclamation mark. I think he is ok with it, it’s better than the special nickname that Keely has come up with. I’m not permitted to tell anyone that one and she is the only person in the whole world that can call him that.
When we were driving to Salida we got into a conversation about dinosaurs. Nicky had us all laughing until we cried about some of her comments and questions. That’s when I came up with my special name for her…”The Incognito Blond”. If you know Nicky, you’ll understand why that is a really good nickname for her.
Here is what those girls did in one week
Sleep (OK, they had to get over jet lag and fatigue from messed up flights, plus the altitude out here takes some getting used to)
Snowboarding at Monarch
White Water Rafting in Canon City
Zip line in Salida
Skydiving in Penrose
Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
Hiked Red Canyon and Skyline Drive
Steve and I didn’t participate in the skydiving or snowboarding, but we did all the other stuff with them. And we had a blast.
I wasn’t too sure about the skydiving adventure. But I figured they were all adults and they could make their own decisions. So I took a lot of pictures and video. They all said that skydiving was one of the highlights of the trip.
The next week someone died skydiving at our airport. The skydiving master that Kayla jumped with was critically injured and his jumper died. Obviously one of my first thoughts was that it could have been one of my girls. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see them falling through the air with no parachute. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the other two to watch that. I can’t imagine making a phone call to their parent.
Look at the list of things that we did. Death or injury was possible in every single one. Well, driving through Garden of the Gods is a bit of a stretch but we could have had a car wreck going to or from.
There is something about risk, about danger, that gets the adrenaline going and makes us feel alive. Nicky was much more of a risk taker than Kayla, Allie and me when it comes to jumping around on rocks. She is a lot like Steve actually and I had to go into Mom Mode a several times and tell her “no you may not jump 10 feet from one rock to another!”
Everybody has their own threshold of fear and an acceptable ratio of fear to excitement. Some people live here and have never been whitewater rafting, while I’ve been 7 or 8 times. They have looked at the stats, evaluated the risk, and decided not to try it. And that is ok.
Kayla, Allie and Nicky after skydiving
I see people jumping out of airplanes at our little airport down the road from us almost every day. Watching the girls jump made me strongly consider doing it. In fact, Steve and I talked about it a couple of weeks before when we met the owner of the new skydiving business at the airport. We talked about it again after visiting with him last week and talking about the tragic accident. Bottom line is it is a sport, with inherent risks. And we may give it a try. Sometime.
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: Beaver Creek, Colorado, cowboys, Haunted Stagecoach House, Horseback
Michelle and Maestro at the Haunted Stagecoach House
There is an area called Beaver Creek that runs along the edge of Penrose, Colorado where we live. The creek used to be a whole lot bigger than it is now, its dry most of the year. It also used to be the route for the stagecoaches to run back in day.
Last year Steve flew over the area and spotted a road. The next day we were out in the Wrangler searching for it. After a few hours we found the road-path. It is NOT easy to find. We bounced down the rock filled one lane dirt road on the side of a cliff, Keely yelling “woohoo!” all the way down. That was the first time we saw the brick building open to the sky. We took some photos and then drove over to the butte a few miles away. Climbing that slate filled hill is a whole other story.
We found out the cool looking building was an old stagecoach house. Legend has it that it is also haunted. I don’t know about that, but it is a really cool building in a unique setting that brings images from all those western movies instantly to mind.
Last week my friend Lisa and I decided to ride to the Haunted Stage Coach. She had never seen it. As the crow flies, the area is not more than a mile or two from our house. But, while Penrose is laid out on a very logical grid of numbered and alphabetically named streets, the logic doesn’t work. We use the expression “you can’t get there from here” all the time when we are trying to get from point A to point B in our little town. The roads just stop. They don’t go all the through. Well, some of them do, but you don’t know which ones until you drive them. Then you have to remember which ones do and which ones don’t. Not so bad if you are in a car, not so much fun if you are miles away from home on a horse and the sun is going down and it’s getting cold. Worse when one of you (Lisa) really has to pee and you are on a 16 hand horse that you can get back up on very easily.
Did I mention it was really hard to find the road to the Stagecoach House? We didn’t make it that day. Lisa called her husband Ted; he drove over and got on her horse Mister to ride him home. Lisa hightailed out of there in the car to get home and to a bathroom.
Yesterday we decided to try it again. We went a different route through Penrose, making a lot of U turns because the road just stopped at someone’s driveway. But we eventually found the road and made it to the Haunted Stage Coach House. Lisa was on a shorter horse, so we got down and walked around, posing for a few pictures to prove that we had been there.
As we were getting ready to mount up a cowboy rode up on a big sorrel horse. Now you have to understand, we are in the middle of this huge wash of dirt, sand and rocks. Cottonwoods line the creek bed; there are cliffs all around us. And here comes this guy on a horse out of nowhere.
We all introduced ourselves. Jim said he rode the area a lot, as he was training horses for folks. He was looking for people to ride with. We both volunteered. He has a horse trailer and likes to go to different areas to ride. Can you say a dream come true for me? He told us that we could ride the canyon quite a ways on horseback, so we followed him down the trail.
Jim told us about himself. He had spent his life raising cattle. Had owned several feed stores, which his children had now. He had been married for 59 years and he was 80 years old. I just about fell off my horse when he told me his age. Suffice it to say he does not look or act like he is 80. This was, by anyone’s definition, a real cowboy.
As we went into the shadows at the base of a cliff we realized it was already 3PM. It gets dark and cold pretty fast out here in the west, so we all agreed it was a good time to head back. We had a good two hours of riding to get home.
As we were climbing up to road to civilization Jim asked if our horses would load in a trailer. I knew Maestro would, Lisa thought Little Bit would. Our cowboy savior then suggested that we load our horses in his trailer and he would drive us home. It did not take much thought or discussion for us to agree that it was a WONDERFUL idea!
The horses loaded like a dream. We made the return trip in the luxury of an F-250 with a heater and it took us about 10 minutes.
Many of us women dream about the knight in shining armor riding up to rescue us. Yesterday I was rescued by an 80 year old cowboy riding a sorrel horse. With a horse trailer.
How cool is that?
Filed under: Life in Colorado | Tags: Canon City, Colorado, hiking, Red Rock Canyon, UBBT
One of my favorite things to do in Little Rock was climb Pinnacle Mountain and run around the base trail. My love affair with Pinnacle began when I started the UBBT (Ultimate Black Belt Test) in 2009. One of the requirements of the test was participation in an Eco Adventure which would involve a lot a hiking. While I was pretty good at gym conditioning, I had not done a lot of outdoor hiking. I had to overcome some fears about heights and falling to my death, but with a lot of persistence and some encouragement from Steve I got there.
On New Year’s Day in 2010 we climbed Pinnacle with a few of my TKD students and Keely.
Yesterday, New Year’s Day 2012 found us in Red Rock Canyon. What a contrast to just two years before. We now live in Colorado and cannot believe how lucky we are to call this beautiful state home. Keely has become much more experienced at hiking and climbing and she doesn’t whine much at all. I don’t feel like crawling on all fours instead of walking when the rocks get steep. We have done some really fabulous hikes all over the country but there really wasn’t great areas close to home. 
Of course some things are not going to change. Keely and Steve are still going to scare the crap out of me getting way to close to the edge of a cliff with a 600 foot drop. I’m not ever going to be the chick on the TV commercial that wants to climb that needle-like rock a gazillion feet in the air.
My surgeon told me when I had hip replacement that I would never be able to run again. That didn’t really upset me; running has never been my thing even when I was doing 40 miles a week. I just thought it was plain boring really.
Then I found that I loved running the base trails at Pinnacle. For some reason trail running doesn’t make my hip feel like it’s coming out of its socket like running on pavement does. I love the challenge of dodging rocks, jumping over obstacles, ducking under branches, knowing that if I fall it is going to hurt like hell. There were some trails around here that were ok…but nothing really great.
I haven’t found a place I connected with like Pinnacle Mountain until yesterday.
This New Year’s Day we found Red Rock Canyon (thank you Paula!) Rock Canyon is breathtaking, similar to Garden of the Gods but without the tourists. We spent three hours there yesterday, Keely in tow and joined by Steve’s coworker Mark. There are lots of dirt roads and trails, and beautiful red rock formations to climb. The park is huge and the terrain is varied, and it’s just outside of Canon City.
I am in heaven
Brandi is our five month old mastiff. If you are familiar with this giant breed, you know that at this stage in her development she is a lanky pony look alike. She has a zany fun way of looking at the world. Everything is new and intriguing, be it Steve putting on his socks or helping him feed the birds. We laugh constantly at her expressions and, yes, her clumsy mishaps.
Bojangles is our seven year old Boston Terrier, a true gentleman. He loves Brandi, and even the cat Smokie Joe. He is stoic about Smokie putting him in headlocks, he just looks at us with an expression that reads…”Do I really have to put up with this?” as Smokie crawls all over his head. He plays tug of war with Brandi; of course he loses every time with the fifty pound weight difference. But Bo is a true wuss, and detests anything cold or wet. If it is cold or raining, we have to push him outside and stand guard at the door to keep him from doing a u turn right back inside. Sometimes, yes, we carry him out in the field to save time. With enough prodding, he will reluctantly venture out far enough to do his business. Misery is visible in every line of his body and he returns to the door as fast as he can. He will then scramble onto the couch and cover himself with his blanket.
We got slammed yesterday with snow and cold. The snow accumulation in our area was only a few inches, but the cold was very real…below zero at night and single digits in the day.
Yesterday Steve came in from taking the dogs out with a new story. It seems Brandi did her normal “oh this is sooooo cool!” reaction when she first saw the snow. . Joyfully she bounced outside, ears, lips and tail flying. She ran in circles, sniffing, tasting, bucking; full of glee at the new adventure.
Bo, however, took a few steps before it dawned on him that the ground was covered with the hateful cold stuff. He immediately tried to return to the warm house. Steve directed him several times back out into the frozen stuff. As he was returning from getting the paper, Steve noticed something new…Bo was lying on his stomach in the snow, with all four legs elevated from the ground. Yes, he was in a Superman Flying Pose in the snow. Evidently he preferred his stomach and chest in the snow rather than his feet. Crazy, huh?
It’s all in the attitude. Brandi and Bo were in the snow for the same amount of time. Brandi considered it great fun, and had a blast. Her feet were pogo sticks and I’m sure she never thought about, or even felt, the cold snow. Bo on the other hand started off with a bad attitude and had a thoroughly miserable time. He came inside with cold feet and a frozen chest and belly. And he couldn’t understand what we found so funny.
2010 was a good year for me. I’m joyful about the new experiences and adventures that have come my way. And yeah, sometimes it’s been a little cold and uncomfortable. I guess that is to be expected when you leave all you have known and travel half way across the country to live. But take a look at me from morning to night and you will see a very happy grin. I love my life, even if it is six degrees below zero. My feet don’t get cold because they are too busy dancing.
