Visit to Delta - End of February 2008

     Wednesday morning I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to get on the road or not.  We were waiting to hear from the Tire Shop to see if our wheel had arrived.  They told us that it probably would not arrive until around 1 p.m. by UPS.  Around 9:30 a.m. we got a call letting us know the wheel was there and that we could come by anytime to have it put on the car.  Yeah! 

       We decided to take Maddy to the doggie ranch first without all of our stuff packed into the car, so she would not know what we were up to.  Mat took Maddy for a walk and I put Maddy’s food and dog bed in the car.  Then we loaded her up for the trip to Crested Butte.  We dropped her off and went back home to pack up our stuff then got on the road by about 2:30 or so.  The trip went pretty quickly to Delta as the roads were all clear.  Luckily, we didn’t end up taking any detours on our trip unlike the other travelers of the day, Sarah & Rachel.      Thursday we got to hang out with Sarah and Rachel for awhile while the parents’ were at work and then Sarah and Rachel drove Dad over to Richfield so that Spencer could check on Dad’s leg pain.  Mat and I barely finished up our taxes by the time Mom got home from work.       On Friday, we borrowed mom and dad’s hometeacher’s van and Mat drove us all to SLC for an acupuncturist appointment.  After the appointment, we went to Provoto play with the Scoville Family.  We had loads of fun at the park playing with Lily and Oscar.  They knew lots of the little kids there.  After a nice spaghetti dinner with french bread the family loaded back up in the van for the drive home.  Mom, Dad, Sarah and Rachel were able to watch a movie on the way back.  (We found it was easier to keep them out of each other’s hair and stop the fighting by providing this distraction! J)  Joking, it was just an extra luxury that was in the van.        Mat and I ate lots of delicious cinnamon rolls while we were there.  Thanks to Jonene for such a delicious recipe. Sarah, Mat and I went to Leo's and had a shake. Mat hadn't ever been to Leo's so we wanted to have him experience the pleasure of a Leo's shake. Then we headed out to the Gunnison Bend Reservoir for the 2008 Snow Goose Festival. It was a pretty windy day and cold, but we did see some. Not up close though and we didn't have our binoculars along. :(    We had a great time visiting with everyone and were sorry that we couldn’t make it to Henry’s baby blessing where we would have seen the Muir and Spencer Scoville families.        Mat and I hope to see everyone (from Utah, at least) on our next trip.  The plan right now, is to leave the Crested Butte area on the 29^thafter checking out of our place and driving to the Canyonlands area where our friend Sam is a Park Ranger.  If he is around we hope to visit with him for the night, then head to Delta on March 30^th.  Then we’ll be camping out in the yard with Maddy until Thursday or Friday.  Hopefully, the weather will be nice so that we can all hang out in the yard.  Barbara, dad’s secretary, was also really nice and offered to let us put Maddy in their dog kennel.  I am just not sure how Maddy is going to feel about hanging out in someone else’s yard.   

     At the doggie ranch, Maddy had a great time all day playing with everyone, but in the evenings when she was put in her own room, she barked a bit.  She definitely likes to be with people and wherever the activity is going on.  Luckily, they had a bark collar that emitted a citronella spray.  So…she’d stop barking and start whining.  And then they plugged in a high pitched noise maker that only she heard and she was fine.  She is welcome to come back to the doggie ranch, but without those items on hand I don’t know if we should have her sleep over in someone else’s yard for them to have to listen to her. 

     We are really looking forward to seeing out house in Asheville again and getting our garden ready to go for the summer.  It has been a nice winter out here in Colorado and it has been awesome getting to be able to hop in the car to head out and visit the parents a few times.  

lunar eclipses, skiing and life...

When we were walking to change our laundry out we saw the lunar eclipse on Wednesday night.  It was pretty cool to see and we are glad we caught it, since it was the last one until 2010.  I am glad we walked out the door when we did...I had read about it during work and was planning to check it out, but as soon as I got home it slipped my mind.

This past weekend, some friends of ours from Boulder came to visit.  While Mat was at work, we went cross-country skiing out along Slate Creek. It was wonderful. I put up a couple of pictures on flickr. Somehow, I no longer have the flickr picture roll in here to be able to pull up and put pictures in my blog. :(

On Thursday night, I hopped on the bus for my ride home after work and got about halfway home when I realized that I left my house keys in the drawer at work. This made me very anxious as Mat does not get home until about 12 midnight on his telemetry days and it was only 6:30 p.m. Luckily, the resort that we live at has an emergency phone and the man at the other end didn't mind that I only wanted a door unlocked. I was afraid I was going to be sitting out on our front porch all evening looking at Maddy through the window!

Friday, I went snowboarding up at CBMR and it was a beautiful day to go riding. Not too cold or windy. Yeah! Then I bent the wheel on the car going to Madera's interview at the Oh Be Dogful Ranch (pet boarding). So we weren't able to check the place out and see if Maddy is a social dog.

Tomorrow I get to spend the morning tracking down a wheel to replace the one I destroyed. Then on Tuesday, Mat will probably take Maddy up to her interview. Hopefully, she'll pass it, since we are planning on keeping her there during our trip to Utah. The place sounds like doggie heaven. They say that she can go in or out as she pleases and play with other dogs all day long and then at night she gets her own room! Luxury...she's probably not going to want to come home when we get back!

We are hoping to head to Utah on Wednesday if all goes well with my quest for a new wheel for the car!

Snowy Winter

We hear that this is the biggest winter that Crested Butte has had in about 15-20 years.  Somehow we got lucky when we picked this as our destination spot for the winter of 2008!  The few weeks we have been here have been an adjustment to our way of life.  No longer can we just open the door for Maddy to spend some time outside.  We get to go with her every time and usually she's on a leash, unless we are headed out cross-country skiing.

As I've mentioned before we are fortunate in having a nice trail to ski for miles just out our door, so we don't even have to get in the car.  That is a very appealing feature for me so I don't have to pack up the skis and gear and then drive for a bit...it's just nice to put it on at the house and head out the door.  Maddy loves this ski as well, she is the happiest when she's rolling around in frozen blood and urine that she finds along the trail.  I have no idea what the blood is from, but the urine is probably other dogs' and elk urine.  (The things that keep a dog happy!)

I am getting settled into my job.  It is a nice ski town job...I stand at the front desk of a really nice hotel and wait for people to check in and check out or to call about maintenance issues or for laundry detergent, etc. 

I must be getting older because I have no idea how I survived working as a lift operator for 6 months!  Standing outside ALL day long.   I now have a cushy job, where I am only standing outside when I wait for the bus.  This area has a sweet bus system that is free, so I have been taking advantage of it as much as possible. The other morning while waiting for the bus at 6:30 a.m. I saw a small mountain lion cross the street just a few feet away from me and then he crossed it back.  That morning I was just thinking it was a bobcat or a baby lynx (not really), mostly a bobcat, but it had a really long tail.  I probably would have been way more freaked out if I'd realized that morning it was a small mountain lion, because that would have meant a mom mountain lion probably was near.   I have not seen it since, although I would like to.

Mat has been working hard with his job.  We are really looking forward to having a few days off together this week and getting out skiing and snowboarding.

Our New England trip Autumn 2007

Way before daylight on Thursday, Mat and I awoke to throw our bags into the trunk of Sara’s car. Our plan was to arrive in Woodstock, CT by 6 or 7 that evening at some family friends, Mitch and Margaret. After 15 hours of driving we arrived in time for a shrimp scampi dinner with homemade butterscotch pudding and Oreo cookies for dessert. After dinner, we watched the Red Sox game. (Since we were in New England, everyone was a fan.) In the morning we got a tour of their wonderful yard and Margaret’s studio…she carves beautiful wood pieces and has started silversmithing. Everything she showed us was beautiful. Their home was built in the early 1800s and about 40 years ago, they moved it to their current location. Then we hopped in the car and drove through Rhode Island to Massachusetts to have lunch with some cousins. It was wonderful to get out and stretch our legs while they gave us a tour of their property before feeding us a great lunch of bbq chicken, salad and brownies. Sheila gave us a tour of their home which was built in the 1700’s and she showed us the most recent addition to their home (circa 1860). Sheila and Dom’s daughter, Diana, came over with her son, Benjamin for a quick visit as well. They were all really excited over the Red Sox win the night before.

After our visit with Sheila and Dom, we headed over to uncle Jerry’s and unloaded our bags from the car and Uncle Jerry took us out to Plymouth, MA. We saw Plymouth Rock, but could not touch it. It is now barricaded in because people were taking pieces of the rock to have for themselves, so the rock was getting increasingly smaller.

We also got a closer look at the Mayflower II which sailed across the ocean blue. It is not the original Mayflower, but one that was built in commemoration and then they sailed it across in the last 30 years or so. Then we ate at a local fish shop. I was daring and had fish and chips, Mat had lobster bisque which was yummy.

Saturday morning we woke up early and drove to the Science Museum in Boston to go on a Duk Tour. It was kind of a rainy day, but we had a marvelous time. Duk vehicles were built during WWII and are designed to be driven from land to water. So we got a tour of Boston with our tour guide, who looked like John Lennon and was dressed up as Sgt. Pepper. It was a great way to get a tour of a city. Then he took us into the Charles River, all the while telling us tidbits of history and also telling us when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 he was driving his rig out in Fenway Field and stuffed his pockets full of sand. Boston is a beautiful city, lots of old homes and character. We found out that there are 94 Dunkin’ Donuts in the 5 mile radius of Boston…one of which has a sushi restaurant as part of it…no, not next door. In a Boston Bay, we watched a whole bunch of guys out kiteboarding. It was great fun to watch, we all determined that we would like to try it out.

 

On Sunday, we went to Rhode Island to pick up Gram. I received a tour of the place she lives. It has a workout room and a computer so that residents can do their emailing, but best of all she has a gorgeous view out to the harbor which has sailboats and ferries going up and down it. After picking her up we headed to New Hampshire to see Josh and Sue and their two children.

 

It was loads of fun to meet them and see their home. Then we hurried home so that we could watch the Red Sox win the World Series. (I was kind of hoping the Rockies would at least pull through and win one game or two, so that it wasn’t over so quickly. Not to be.

On Monday, we went out to visit Gram for a bit and had lunch at her place. We sat at our own table, not at her regular one so her friend, Maria came over and asked please for Marcia to come back to the table soon, without her it was like a morgue! After lunch, Sheila and Diana came for a quick visit.

 

After that, we went into Newport and toured around there. Then we met back up with Gram. Jerry and Marilyn came down and we all went to dinner at Gram’s favorite restaurant.

Tuesday morning we drove to beautiful Vermont. On the drive up to Vermont, Jerry left a message saying that he saw our Duk tour guide driving the Boston Red Sox in the parade celebrating the victory. Barrett and Rose were awesome and immediately took us on a hike up Mt. Elmore to a fire tower where we looked down over the area. It was awesome.

 

We stayed at Rose and Jay’s cabin one night and ate moose tacos for dinner and the next morning enjoyed a lovely walk to the river. The next day after Barrett was done teaching school, we went over to his house and he took us on a paddle around the lake he lives on. Which in the winter time he cross-country skis on. A pretty sweet set up.

Then we drove to Franklin, NY and stayed with Mark’s parents for the evening. They have an awesome garden which they showed us. Then next morning we got up early and drove 13 hours home. Mat and I were pretty stoked to go pick up Maddy from Mat’s parents. I don’t think Maddy even knew that we were gone…she was having such a great time at her grandparents!

Autumn backpack on the Appalachian Trail

This past weekend Mat, Maddy and I were dropped off at Sam's Gap right off of an interstate. We threw on our backpacks, climbed through a gate and down to another highway, walked along the highway for a minute and then we hit our trail. It was an awesome time of year with the leaves changing.

Here is our trail dog...

 

Maddy finally taking a break...

 

After hiking for some hours, we arrived at the top of Big Bald Mountain, which had a great 360 degree view of all the mountains. We were hanging out enjoying the view, when a family with little kids came hiking up the trail to enjoy the view. I was thinking hey, that's cool, they are out for a pretty good walk. Then Mat pointed out that they parked right down below. Maddy and I are on top of Big Bald.

After being on top of Big Bald we hiked up the next hill and we noticed a bunch of nets were set up for catching birds. A few feet more down the trail we ran into one of the volunteers catching the birds and he told us what they were doing. AND that they had caught a sharp shinned hawk (a smaller forest raptor) which they were going to put a band on and take some measurements shortly. Were we interested in watching? Mat and I were like, uh, of course. Turns out that Maddy and I got to walk up and down along the trail while Mat watched them take the measurements and put the band on. They came back out from their research spot behind a rock with the hawk and let Mat release it. I got to see it it up close. It was pretty cool.

Then we continued hiking for another hour or so, set up camp and then the next day we hiked most of the rest of the way, so that we only had a few miles to bust out in the morning to meet Sara by 10 a.m.. It all worked out perfectly. We woke up and hiked for about 15 minutes or so in the dark and then it was a beautiful sunrise to watch while walking out. We ended up arriving at the Nolichucky River trailhead about 1.5 hours early! But it was fine, we hung out at the hostel right near the trailhead and checked out the Nolichucky River.

Independent Thoughts

Food dehydrator

This morning we woke up to the gentle sound of rain falling on our roof. Can you see the rain hitting the road? At this point it is at the peak of the rain storm.

We also awoke to the smell of pineapple. Yesterday at Goodwill, we made an impulse purchase and bought a $12 food dehydrator (as seen on TV). Our only hope was to get home and actually have it turn on. Which it did. So we cut up some kiwi, pineapple and bananas to try out this new toy. By mid-day today they were at a nice chewy texture, so we took them off and we are going to take them out backpacking with us. I also cut up some apples and we'll see how they do. The manual told us to dip the apples in a lemon juice solution before putting on the dehydrator, so we may be eating dried apples with a hint of lemon. :)

Here is Madera with her cone on, I put it on her this morning, so that I have record of how ridiculous the cone is.

And some photos of our yard...

 

I was so excited for this purchase for our house.

 

Planting grass...again

Today Mat and I planted some more grass where we had dug a 3-foot trench from the road to the house in order for Mat to lay pex to bring city water to our house. We planted grass earlier this spring, but either Maddy ate all the seed or it just didn't rain enough to start it growing like crazy. This time we pretty much followed the directions exactly.  Although we didn't have any straw to throw over top of the newly sowed seed, we improvised by putting some leaves over top...we'll see if it works.Last night in the forecast it was predicted that we would experience 50 mph winds and have a 60% chance of rain. We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of this so called precipitation. (I really thought I'd left the arid western states!) I think it is possible that is has rained more out in Colorado and Utah this summer than in this supposed semi-tropical southern state.This weekend Mat, Maddy and I are going to backpack another section of the Appalachian Trail. Our trail head is just off of Interstate 26 about 20 minutes from our house then we'll hike on over to Erwin, TN.  Sara is being a willing driver for us by dropping us off on the side of the interstate and then a few days later coming to pick us up when we get done.  What will take us a couple days will take Sara about an hour to drive between...I really don't think we are paralleling the interstate we head over some hills and mountains and then veer back to the interstate for the pickup.