Moving toward the flat lands - Fort Collins, CO

We left Steamboat Springs on Friday and drove the 3.5 hours to Lizzy's other house in Fort Collins. This visit is part family and part 'work'. Our plan is to video tape Dr. Lizzy (my sister is a veterianarian) speaking on several pet related topics. Before Lizzy started on her Power Point presentation she ran a test on Muffy's urine. Muffy hasn't been eating quite as much and has been even a little listless. Muffy had oral surgery in April and got a bit dehydrated; Lizzy said that could effect her kidneys.

Have you ever tried to collect urine from your dog? It is an interesting process; for Muffy I needed something low and with a rim, a plastic lid seemed to be the right tool. Then you have to follow the pet around the yard which seems quite odd to your pet. Finally you have to slip the lid under the behind of the dog and hope you have it in the right spot. Well, I was successful and got a good specimen for Lizzy. Here's Lizzy doing one of the tests.

Good news, Muffy tested in the normal range; how great is it to have a sister who's a vet? Pretty darn great I can tell you! I call her all the time with questions about the pets.

So Lizzy set us up to film in an actual clinic setting, so we took all of our equipment and set it up for the filming. Our car is packed to the brim and frankly, most of it is electronic equipment. We have two video cameras, microphones, headphones, a TiVo player and more. We actually have very few personal effects, how ever if you ask hubby he would probably say everything in the car is 'junk my wife brought'!

Here are a few photos of our production set up for our video 'shoot':

All of yesterday was planning to film or filming; Lizzy did films on about 9 pet related subjects that will be posted to YouTube. It's so great that she is willing to give us this much time and professional information for our viewers.

Today the weather is starting out pretty nasty, but it's suppose to get better later. Our plans are to take all the dogs out for a nice long walk. Here's a really adorable picture I took of the dog cousins yesterday. My sister's dogs are border terriers and their names are Annie and Strider.

We will leave tomorrow heading for Columbia, MO where we met while hubby was in college. We will be staying with my dear friend Brenda. From there will be heading to Orlando, FL where we will stay for about a month.

We are currently looking for a place to stay near Disney World on Craigslist. We'll keep you posted.

John Denver is right, it does rain fire in the sky here in Colorado

Today the dogs and I decided to pack a lunch and go on a little adventure 'seeking grace in every step we took'. This is a line from the song 'Rocky Mountain High' by John Denver. One of the other lines in that song is 'I've seen it rainin' fire from the sky'; frankly I always thought John threw that line in either because he was 'Rocky Mountain High' himself or just needed a line that fit.

Well today as we ventured into the off roads around Lizzy's house I discovered what I think John met. It is the height of color in the aspen trees here and today it was quite windy. As I watched the wind whip through the aspens, the golden falling leaves reminded me of the line in John's song. Perhaps it was the color or the glistening; most aspen leaves are a brilliant yellow, but occasionally you find groupings of aspens that have orange leaves. The combination of the bright yellow and the bright orange coming down seems to be an appropriate metifore for the words of the song.

If I could capture today in some manner and share it with you I would; it was a combination of the peace, the sun the wind and the colors. Here are the photos I would like to share with you; maybe you too can see it 'rainin' fire in the sky' here in Colorado.

As for the rest of the day, I did some cleaning in my sister's house, which is the least I can do for her letting me stay here. Ever notice how it's so much more fun to clean someone else's house?

Later I edited a video for my mom; while all the sisters were together we video taped a message to our mom. I added a little slide show and now it's ready for me to copy to a DVD to send to her. I think she will really like it.

Tomorrow we will leave Steamboat and head to Ft. Collins to Lizzy and Dave's other house. So it's time to hit the road again and leave this little piece of heaven.

Rocky Mountain Solitude and the International Space Station

One of the things I was hoping to do while I am here in Steamboat was to view the passing in the sky of the International Space Station. With no city lights, this place would be a perfect spot to watch the station.

I had the opportunity to see the station while I was on my fishing retreat in OR. We were all out around the campfire during one of our sharing times and one of the women had an alarm go off. She apologized for the disruption but explained that the alarm was set because it marked the time the station would be viewable in the sky.

We all watched and sure enough the station appeared; it's pretty darn big and it moves pretty fast and it's a lot closer to the earth than I imagined it would be. I was fascinated. I wonder how many people see the station and call it in as a UFO, it sure looks like one with it's blinking lights.

Unfortunately the station has been passing over Steamboat in the early morning; if you'd like to see when the station is viewable from where you are, here's a link:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States

You won't see many pictures of me today because I didn't bother to do my make up. I finished some projects today. One of my projects was to shorten my sister's blinds in her kitchen and laundry room. You know those kind of white plastic blinds that come way too long for the window? Well I am a master at shortening them and taking out the unneeded slats that just get in the way. I told hubby I should do a YouTube How To on those suckers. Most people give up and just deal with the extra slats and cord that gets tangled, but not me!

The other project I finished was the repair of the quilt; here are some pictures of the tear, the patch and then the finished repair up along the top border. I couldn't hide the boo boo completely, but it blends in pretty well and makes this cute little quilt usable again.

 I had to do everything by hand, which was fun. My sister had enough supplies for me to work on the patching job.

The dogs and I took a nice long walk today; I will share a few pictures I took on the walk:

Are they not the most adorable animals ever?

My sister said I needed to wear an orange vest when I go out walking or biking. I just do what I'm told, but apparently there must be a bunch of Beaver fans here in the woods of Colorado and they must be testy buggers because apparently they will shoot you if you're not wearing orange:-)

Rocky Mountain Solitude

Hubby and the dogs and I are staying at my sister's home in Steamboat Springs; we'll probably leave Friday morning. Until then we have the house to ourselves and we are 12 miles from the closest town which is Oak Creek, CO.

Before she left, I asked my sister Lizzy to make a list of things for me to do for her at the house. Since she left, I've intertwined doing the chores with relaxing in the quiet solitude of this beautiful area.

I like to think that doing chores around this isolated home is like living like a Walton, but in reality it's probably more like Green Acres.

One of the tasks on my sister's list is to repair a quilt she bought; it is torn in two places and they are not clean tears. In order to repair it I needed to find some fabric that matches as closely as possible. I decided to go to a second hand store in Oak Creek and sure enough they had a small room in the back filled with fabric. I found a small piece I think will work. I've started hand stitching the repair and hope it won't be too noticeable.

Today hubby and I worked on planting bulbs for my sister at the front of the house; hubby's job was to dig and my job was to plant and cover the bulbs. Our little dog William watched as we did this and I'm sure he was wondering why we would dig up the ground like that and not hide bones, he seemed a bit perplexed.

I hope these bulbs do well next spring and that my sister thinks of us when she sees them.

I took time today to write to David Taylor; he's the man who lives in Steamboat and who created the beautiful quilts on display at the art museum. I asked if he had a DVD of his technique and also told him how much I enjoyed seeing his exhibit. He wrote back and said I'd made his day with my compliments; I'm hoping to attend one of his workshops someday.

All in all it was a very full day and I'm getting a bit sleepy, so I guess it's time to say 'Good night John Boy'.

First blog entry of 2010 Fall Trip - out of sequence

Hubby, Muffin, William and I left Corvallis for our annual fall trip. We had a pretty long day of driving and took a very different route out of Oregon to Winnemucca, NV. When possible, we like to vary our routes to ones we haven’t done before, after all, life isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey, right?
We left Corvallis at approximately 10:30 AM, Tuesday September 28, 2010; since we’re probably going to be gone over a month, packing the car and leaving the house the way we want it takes some time. We have checklists that we are constantly revising and of course leaving Corrie on her own for that length of time takes some additional planning. Frankly the weeks before our departure are a bit stressful. We both usually have projects we’re trying to complete, so once we’re actually in the car and on the highway there is a calm that descends, at least until we realize we forgot to pack something or finish something. Thank heaven for cell phones and computers and wonderful people in our lives.
So we took Hwy 20 to Burns and from there we took Hwy 205 south through Oregon. Both routes are very isolated but stunningly beautiful. In some areas we didn’t see another car for quite a while and I’m sure our cell phones wouldn’t have done us much good if we had broken down. Thankfully the little packed Prius kept us safe.

No one in sight for miles

As you know if you’ve been following this blog, I am intrigued by unusual signs; which translates to mean that I plan to share these signs with my readers of this blog. The first sign that caught my attention was at a rest stop in Oregon. Like most rest stops we looked for a pet area where Muffy and Willie could potty and we found the sign pointing the way to the area we needed, but we also saw a sign we hadn’t seen before and here it is:

Seen at remote Oregon rest stop

The terrain we saw was predominately open range flanked by mountains. It was very open and periodically there were warning signs with different types of animals on them. This is common, so when I saw a sign for an elk crossing or a demure cow that might cross it didn’t seem out of order. However, when I saw a warning sign with a bull that looks like it is ready to attack, I took notice:

Attack bull?Gentle elk crossing warning sign

I was hoping I’d see the agngr bull; and hoped the Prius could out run him!
This morning we took our time leaving Winnemucca to begin driving to Salt Lake City. Again, my attention was captivated not only by the beautiful scenery but this sign:

Very dangerous hitchhiker, don't stop!!!

You really have to be on guard when you’re traveling!
Shortly after crossing the state line from Nevada to Utah on Hwy 80 we saw signs for the famous Bonneville Salt Flats where land speed records are set. You drive about 5 miles off Hwy 80 and then the road just ends and you are driving on the salt flat; sweet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnyUFCycrv4
Tonight we’re settled safely in a Salt Lake City motel and it’s time for lights out. Tomorrow we’ll travel to Park City, UT. Good night for now.

Utah and Colorado

Note, I am trying a new blogging service, I hope you can easily follow along:-)

I’m now at the Steamboat Springs, CO house my sister owns; the reception for wifi and phones is lousy. I’ll compose this post and then try to upload it. I may have to go into town to upload.

Since last writing, we drove from Salt Lake City to Vernal, UT. Vernal is a small town, but they have to have more petunias per capita than any city I’ve seen. Here is a picture I captured of William and the flowers outside our room.

The morning we left Vernal, we drove to Dinosaur Monument Park where they offer a walking tour of fossilized remains from millions of years ago. It’s stunning to see these remains still encased in the rocks and to think about the life forms that preceded us. We too often only focus on our tiny lives and very small span of time we think we own. There is so much behind and beyond us to occasionally consider.

After the dinosaur park it was time to drive to Steamboat to rendezvous with my three sisters. Hubby and I got to the house first; my sister’s house is about 20 miles south of Steamboat in a sparsely populated area. In fact, my sister bought us bright orange vests to wear when we hike so that hunters won’t shoot us! It is elk season here and also the height of the aspen color.

The rest of my sisters arrived safely and we enjoyed just being together the first evening. Some of us took a bike ride around the area, here’s a picture of me, two of my three sisters (Lizzy on far left, and Jill in the middle)

My sister Jill had brought 2 dozen crème filled cupcakes from our favorite bakery in Muncie and 2 lbs of chocolate from Lowery’s Candy in Muncie. We junked out believe me!!

The next day we decided to drive into Steamboat and explore a bit. There was a wonderful display of David Taylor quilts at the museum. His work is very detailed and actually they are quilted wall hangings that look like photos. I was inspired and I plan to try my hand at this when I get home, only on a much smaller scale to start.

While in town, we bought some fishing licenses and got some great advice from the local fly fishing shop in downtown Steamboat. My sister’s house is near a reservoir that has been partially drained to do work on the shoreline. According to the guy at the shop, this was the place to fish because the fish in the reservoir are now concentrated in a smaller area, which makes sense.

So this morning we headed out to the reservoir; we took my new fly casting rod and a traditional reel and rod my sister has at the house. We fished for about an hour with no luck, but then we got word from folks walking by that there were some guys who were doing great not too far away. We picked up camp and hooked (excuse the pun) with the fisherman around the bend and sure enough the fish were practically jumping on shore. The guys were about to leave and they helped get us started by giving us some of their bait and two fish.

Sorry to say we didn’t catch any fish with the fly reel, but as soon as we cast the other pole we got a bite. We caught four fish; three were keeper trout and tonight we have a total of 5 beautiful trout to grill. It was a hoot and a great sisterly experience.

Sunday night we recorded a video for our mother; the four of us together at one time is a rare wonderful occurrence and we wanted to capture and share it with our mom. Mom lives in FL in an assisted living facility and will really enjoy the personal messages we send to her.

Lizzy my youngest sister and the owner of this house left early this morning; my other two sisters and Amy left around noon. So sad to see everyone disperse to their own worlds, but one must appreciate the precious time we were allowed to share together. I am very lucky to have my three wonderful sisters and of course my baby Amy and our wonderful dogs.