Life of Brian

1389 miles from home.

We were supposed to spend a second night in the Casita in Madrid, but it was a bit more rustic than they lead on in the lovely web site for it, so we moved up the road 30 miles to a HIE in Santa Fe, NM.

Donna and I walked through downtown Madrid early this morning and the main drag through town (20 MPH) is lined with artsy type galleries and stores. Quite a bit of it is way out there and brief glimpses of the artists/residents leads me to believe we have stumbled into a LOST like time travel event that dropped us into the late 60’s. The town must put up gates and travel en masse to Burning Man every year.

The photo is of the 1830’s San Francisco Church in Golden and is reportedly the most photographed sites along the Turquoise Trail and I was just trying to do my part.

Speaking of the Turquoise Trail, we did find 4 caches along NM14 today in between visits to see Donna’s brother Scott, his wife Beth and nephew Baby James at the Lone Mountain Cattle Company’s ranch.

1394 miles from home.

Took this photo on our early morning walk from the hotel to a bagel place a 1/2 mile up the street. Pikes Peak dominates the western sky line of Colorado Springs. You can kind of see why someone would want to live there. I might even like it if the population could be reduced by 90% and they didn’t have snow and winter weather and, oh nevermind, I wouldn’t want to live there.

Today was a long day of interstate travel and even though Donna helped with the driving (don’t tell Dollar Rent A Car that) it still left plenty of time for me to come up with topics from the trip I want to post about, but just don’t seem to have the time to tell them.

• Ford Mustangs
• Satellite Radio
• Lunch in Hullet, WY
• Three Corners
• Winds May Be Gusty signs

We had lunch in Vegas, baby. No we didn’t take a wrong turn in Albuquerque, it was Las Vegas, New Mexico.

We only stopped for 2 geocaches today.

LOST was on tonight, but we didn’t watch it because we have no TV here. We didn’t think we had internet access here either, but it turns out we do.

1334 miles from home.

We spent breakfast, and an hour after, trying to convert our B & B hosts into geocachers. I don’t think we succeeded, but they instantly grasped the business end of it. They might try and hide a B & B themed cache in their little display for the Inn at the end of the road they are on .

We then spent the next three hours geocaching (found 3 of 4) in Scottsbluff & nearby Gering, Nebraska and visiting the Scottsbluff National Monument.

We spent the next 5 hours driving to Colorado Springs via I-25 and the outer loop around Denver. Why we ended up on the Interstate and not the planned back roads is a good story, one that involves the corners of multiple states coming together that I hope to all about write later, but as usual there is not enough time in the day to do it now. This vacationing is hard work.

1365 miles from home.

We have been as far away from Aiken as we will be on this trip and also the farthest north, both of which occurred today. Now we start to work our way south. Up until this afternoon it has been cloudy or rainy or cold or some combination of all three, but around midday blue sky started to show up, so now we are just down to cold, but just at night the days should be pleasant (about like early February for Aiken.)

Speeding north on I-25 in Wyoming yesterday there was a large quantity of black animals off to the west, at first we thought they were cows, but then realized they were buffalo. At the posted speed limit of 70 MPH they were gone from view before my synapses could register that maybe I should take a picture.

Speeding east on Wyoming 24 this morning they was a large quantity of small black animals not far off the road to our right, at first we thought they were goats, but then realized that they were wild turkeys. At the posted speed limit of 65 MPH they were gone from view before my synapses, etc.

The deer up here are fearless. They stand along the side of the road grazing and pretty much ignore us. That ignoring thing works both ways though, as there are quite a lot of dead ones along the road too.

So far I am 0 for 2 when asking for Coke in a restaurant, they have had Pepsi, which I have politely declined.

Devils Tower is awesome. On the way up the rain was sporadic and occasionally the clouds would thin out enough that we would almost need sunglasses, but mostly the skies were gray. I told Donna that I thought it would be cool if I could get a shot of the thing with the top half shrouded in clouds. She didn’t want that at all, she was hoping for a nice blue sky. Turned out we both got our wish.

Three geocaches today.

1429 miles from home (as the crow flies.)

Jackalopes appear to be bigger than either jack rabbit or antelope. Unfortunately we weren’t here during their hunting season, June 31st between midnight and 2:00 AM, or I would tried to bag one.

Don’t ever rent a car from Dollar Rent A Car in Denver. Very slow counter service, I was eighth in line and it took nearly an hour. To amuse herself while I waited, Donna called the 1-800 number for the company and complained.

There are cattle gates at all the interstate entrances.

I-25 in Colorado is straight as an arrow, but when you get to Wyoming it starts to have a bend or two every 5 miles or so.

I think they need a census recount in Chugwater, WY. The sign on the way into town said there are 244 residents, but when we drove through it didn’t seem like anyone was home.

We found 4 caches along the way from Denver to Douglas as excuses to stretch our legs.

50 miles from home.

We were up early and on the road to Columbia to meet Donna’s sister Sandy, her husband and his mother. They drove up from Florida and came here for the same reason we did, to meet with a cousin of theirs from western Canada that they hadn’t ever meet before. The Canadian contingent was in South Carolina visiting some of the cousin’s husband’s family who live in Charleston. There were nine of us at the table for lunch at California Dreaming. Only Donna, Sandy and cousin Margaret were actual blood relatives (the same great grandfather), but it was a lively fun group to have lunch with. It was over all too soon and everyone promised to keep in touch and drop in on each other if we were ever anywhere near each other.

After lunch Donna, Sandy and I went and tried to grab a couple nearby caches with hopes of dropping off a travel bug. Wouldn’t you know it, but we couldn’t find the first one we attempted. It was a regular size and in a garden by a SCDOT building. After a few minute of looking we attracted the attention of an employee. She asked what we were up to and Sandy, who just learned what geocaching was, gave her a briefing. We had just about given up when a women who works at the credit union came out for a smoke break and asked if we were geocaching. She probably knew what we were up to because she is always out grabbing a smoke when people come poking around in the plants.

After that we went over to the state capitol building to complete a sure fire cache, a virtual one. With a virtual cache there is no hidden container to find, it usually entails emailing the owner a photo of you in the location or the answer to a question that can be there.

We had three caches picked out for the Charlotte area, but spent so much time with family that we crossed them off the list and headed straight for the hotel. Mark, lunch was also so big and late you dodged a bullet, that we didn’t have the room for Razzoo’s either.