USAFA Golf

     The phone rang at 0605.  It was Phil Catalfamo to tell Durelle that they had an 0715 tee time on the silver course.  We had had a wonderful dinner at their place last night, and the game plan was for them to meet at the course at 0730 to use the waiting list.  Then...the phone call.  I dropped her off by 0700, and met them for lunch at the clubhouse by noon.  The first picture is taken from the deck of the clubhouse.  The second is a clubhouse plaque showing past champions.  Hopefully you can read the name on the plaque three down in the second column.  Durelle was the club champ 39 years ago.
     Weather is nice, occasional sprinkle, and a forty degree swing between the day's high and the overnight low.
    

USAFA...one week

     The first picture should have been used when we arrived a week ago showing our current location.  The second picture shows the new house that was built on our old site in Douglas Valley three years ago.  We moved in there 42 years ago.  The big building on the hill in the background is the hospital.  The rocky promontory behind it is called the Eagle's Nest.  It tops out at 9300 feet.  Some of you have heard the story of how the kids and I would load up our packs and walk out the back door and arrive at the peak several hours later.  We'd roll out our bedrolls, grill a steak or two and, at an appointed hour, flash a flashlight at the house, and Durelle would respond by flashing the porch light.
     We arrived here on 2 June, and the maximum stay is 30 days.  That has us leaving on Saturday of the Fourth of July weekend.  We wanted to stay in the area for a bit longer and Cheyenne Mountain State Park was booked.  We were unsuccessful with our attempt to extend here, so today we took a ride from here to an RV park in Falcon and then north to another in Castle Rock.  Castle Rock is on I-25 about halfway between here and Denver.  We made reservations there for 2-7 July in Castle Rock.  We are still tweaking the itinerary.  After Castle Rock we will do Estes Park and/or Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, WY.  When it solidifies, I'll post it.
     We still have some of Arizona's smoke which has cost me some photo ops.

The air has cleared

     As you can see, the air has cleared.  The first picture was taken this morning when I drove up to the community center to get our morning paper.  Yeah, I know...old school.  The building is the commissary and the rocky mountain behind it is Blodgett Peak.  As I recall, it is at about 9500 feet.  Forty years ago the family, Cloutier, climbed it with the help of Dan Buehler.  I asked Durelle if she wanted to try it again.  Fortunately, she said,"I don't think so".  The second picture was taken on the way back to the campground.  You can see the upper part of Falcon Stadium, the same Blodgett Peak, and to the left, Pike's Peak with the snow on it.
     The temperatures have been in the low nineties during the day, but down around fifty at night.  With everything open and the fans on, we have not used the A/C.  The Arizona fires continue unabated, but the wind has shifted to westerly, so the smoke has diminished significantly.

Colorado, Day 4

     I haven't had any classic scenery shots yet because the persistent south wind, although it has eliminated the need for air conditioning, has raised dust and has brought in some smoke from the wildfires in Arizona.  The classic, cobalt blue, Colorado sky has not appeared, so I have included some small local pictures.  Two of the three are self-explanatory.  The third one is a dark haired, tufted ear, squirrel that has always been common here.  I don't know the species, but I don't think it has a large domain.  We haven't yet seen any of the larger wildlife that are so prevalent.  Tonight we had a grilled steak, baked potato, and a Caesar salad.  It doesn't get much better than that.
     I spent some time on the ladder cleaning the windshield and the front of the bus.  Durelle did several loads of wash.  We are gradually getting back to an appropriate level of relaxation.

Colorado, Day 2

     For the last nine days we have been running one or both air conditioners continually.  It makes the bus seem smaller and more enclosed.  Last night we shut them both down, opened all the windows and turned on the fans.  Guess what?  We had to get up at 0200, put on a blanket and turn off the fans.  This morning the outside temperature was 54 degrees.  Today was a wash day and commissary day.  For lunch we went down to find the Mission Bell, our favorite Mexican restaurant from forty years ago and which was still operating in 2008.  They had a hitching rail out back for the Sunday morning trail riders to tie up while they came in for breakfast.  Today the immediate vicinity is paved and the building is for sale.  The north end of Academy boulevard was one lane each way, and now it is four.  We found another Mexican restaurant for lunch (excellent).  Halfway through the meal up walked Jim Dill.  I was his faculty advisor at USAFA in the early 70's, and he later worked for me at Wright-Patt and Hanscom.  I attended his retirement ceremony when he retired as the first non-rated Base Commander at Edwards AFB.  What a surprise that was.  I had alerted him that we were in the area, but the meeting at "On The Border" was completely unplanned.
     I still plan on some good pictures, but today was still dusty and hazy.  Our weather center says that the humidity is 24%.

USAFA

     As you can imagine, This place is not short of photo-ops, but they'll have to wait.  We pulled in here after 1500 having spent eight of the last nine days driving.  We got set up without all the accessories that accompany a thirty day stop.  We are going to crash for a few days until we start connecting with our C'Springs friends.  The winds today had to be gusting to forty.  When I refueled,   I had to lean into the wind.  The resulting dust blocked our view of the mountains until we got onto the Academy grounds.  The winds and the climb to 6600 feet conspired to knock the day's mileage down to 7.3.  Today was a thousand dollar day; four hundred for diesel ($3.949) and six hundred for thirty days at USAFA.   
     After some rig rocking winds and rain during the night, we got away from Garden City about 0930.  We headed west on US50 to Pueblo, CO (about 225 miles).  Again, it was mostly one lane each way.  The difference was that there were more towns that required decelerating to 30 or 35...memorable places like Deerfield, Lakin, Syracuse, and Coolidge in Kansas and Grenada, Lamar, Hasty, Las Animas, La Junta, Manzanola, and Pueblo in Colorado.  
     So, here we are, happy to settle in one spot for a while.  All systems are working fine.  Keep in touch.

Garden City, Kansas

     The Great Plains.  Draw a line straight north from Shamrock, TX to Garden City, KS generally following route 83.  That was the bulk of our day.  The pictures were taken in the north end of the Texas panhandle during our lunch stop.  It is flat with the horizon ten miles away in all directions.  For the most part the road is one lane each way with a 65 or 70 mph speed limit.  One must squeeze right when a semi approaches because the gusts between two large vehicles passing in opposite directions at those speeds require one's full attention.  We have been in this sort of terrain before, but it is still impressive to see the extent and the desolate nature of most of it.  There are still scattered pockets of activity: large feed lots with thousands of cattle, clusters of huge grain silos, and oil wells with about half of them still pumping.  I think we saw two(!) other RVs on the road all day.  Colorado tomorrow.
     We hope that our friends and relatives in central Massachusetts are managing the rare tornadoes that are blowing through this afternoon.