Surprise Ending!

Anna's search for a part-time Web job this year resulted in an offer for a full-time Web Developer position. And she accepted it!

Wow! What a way to ring in the New Year!

The Best Gift this Season...

One of the best surprises this season was that the neighbor decided to cut down the monstrous willow oak tree that sat between our houses. There will now be thousands fewer skinny leaves & tiny acorns clogging our gutters and littering our front stoop, garden and yard!

The crane used to remove the huge pieces of tree.

Of course cutting down a tree of this size is quite a feat, and provided some thrilling entertainment to watch...

The tree climber, performing some pre-climbing stretches and mental focusing exercises. (click for bigger picture)

The job was complicated by its proximity to two houses, and lots of wires.

A huge section of tree being lowered by the crane into the cul-de-sac for processing.

Making progress!

Getting ready to cut off a particularly big and heavy section...

There it goes, up and over the wires. Notice the tree climber in bottom of the photo.

If we had gotten a picture of Anna doing a Happy Dance, we'd insert it here...

Christmas Cave Trip

Thanks to the young adult generation of the family -- our nieces and nephews -- the idea of a caving trip over their Christmas holiday was born! This idea turned into a whirlwind expedition: drive to the PSC field house on Dec. 26th, spend the night, go caving the next day and drive home. We successfully accomplished this goal with 13 people; there were no mishaps, much fun was had by all, and many memories were created.

Laura and Marty getting ready.

Karl's 8 year old nephew getting ready for his first cave trip!

Approaching the trailhead in the rain. The trail up (and down) was muddier than the cave.

Continuing the hike uphill...

Hooray for Grandpa! He made it to the top with no problem!

Some of the gang before entering the cave: Laura, Sam, Rick, Rex, Vonnie, Sarah, Karl

Hanging out in the cave!

Karl admiring fossils on the cave wall/ceiling

Post-cave cousins: Sarah, Rex, Laura, Sam

Rick, Paola & Marty emerging from the depths

Vonnie, Stan & Anna -- happy that the trip was a success (and that it stopped raining)

Closing out November...

The weather has been amazing the past few weeks. There have been some cool rainy days, but above normal warm days seem to have outnumbered the cool ones. We closed out the long Thanksgiving weekend with a hike at Buck Hollow/Buck Ridge, one of our favorite loop hikes in Shenandoah National Park.

A long view...

and a close-up view.

Thanksgiving

A great time was had by all, as we reflected on everything we to have to be thankful for.

The hors d'oerves were excellent, and it was a nice day to sit outside
while we enjoyed them.

Niece Sarah and her cousin Rebecca.

The turkey emerges from the fryer. It was very moist & yummy.

Marty & Laura checking on the brisket (it was awesome)!

A few of the side dishes...

When the wood blocks couldn't be assembled into a cube, a tower was created and tested by balancing random objects on it.

Our Big Trip...

We were fortunate to be able to go on the road for nearly six weeks, starting with Old Timer's Reunion in WV over Labor Day weekend. From there we drove to Colorado Springs, spent time with friends, and then explored areas south of Interstate 70.

Our original plan was to visit the Capital Reef/Bryce/Zion areas in Utah, then head to Phoenix to visit friends, and drive home through New Mexico on I-40. We were having such a good time in CO, that we decided stay in the groove and not drive so far. However, we did make it into Moab, UT.

We drove about 6000 miles, did 13 hikes and 17 bike rides.

Here are a bunch of pictures, along with some words describing the scene. Enjoy!
(click on a picture to see full-size)

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Our first stop was Great Sand Dune National Park. These are the tallest dunes in North America, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains as a backdrop, it was stunning and surreal.

It was rainy while we were there, but we managed to fit in hikes between (and sometimes during) rain storms. The one in the distance was definitely an ugly one, and we got back to the van just as the lightening was striking the dunes and the hail began to fall. Notice the person way down the dune, for scale.

It was also on the chilly side, as evidenced by the dusting of snow that the dunes received from the storm. It melted quickly.

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We mountain biked to this lovely meadow, near South Fork, CO.

The unsettled weather continued, and the rainbows were outstanding!

Up in Wolf Creek Pass, the precipitation was snow! They got another huge storm after we passed through here and received over 3 feet of snow. The ski area here opened on October 8th!

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Next stop was Durango. It had been at least 15 years since we'd here. Here's a view looking down onto the north side of town. We mountain biked about 2000' vertical feet to get to this point.

We drove over Molas Pass to Silverton one day, and hiked up to the Ice Lakes Basin. Put this one on your list. It is on the most-spectacular and not-too-hard list! Much of the autumn colors come from the wide variety of ground cover plants...

View from the lower lake basin.

Bob hiking.

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From Durango we drove to Cortez, another town we hadn't seen in over 15 years. Not much going on there, but we did stop along the way and did an impromptu mountain bike ride up the road to Kennebec Pass. The road became insanely steep and rough, and we didn't have enough food with us, so we didn't quite make it all the way.

The views and aspen trees kept pulling us further up the hill.

We went to the Canyons of the Ancients, which is BLM owned, outside of Cortez. You could hike or bike to all these really cool Anasazi ruins. It was quite amazing to get so close, it was very low key.

The contrast between chilly snowy mountains and warm dry desert is one of the best features of southern Colorado.

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We decided it was too hot down in the desert, so all we had to do was drive a few hours to Telluride to get chilly again. The gondola runs for free and takes you to some really nice mountain biking!

Bob whizzing along the single track into the aspen grove.

Million dollar view of sunset from our affordable campsite.

Looking down on Telluride from the gondola.

We drove over toward Ridgway one day to hike to Blue Lakes. Put this one your list also. Here is the view from Dallas Creek road that leads to the trail head. Telluride is on the other side of the mountains straight ahead.

Again we ran into weather. The blue sky above deteriorated into clouds, drizzle, and snow higher up. Looks like winter, doesn't it?

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We left the mountains behind, and headed to Moab, Utah. We spent a day in Arches National Park, revisiting old favorites (we were here many years ago). This is the top arch in Double-O arch.

There are lots of other interesting rocks besides arches...

Delicate Arch, which was originally named Landscape Arch. A cartographer's error resulted in a mix-up that never was corrected. The mountains in the distance are the La Sals, which soar to over 12,000 feet.

And this is what is now called Landscape Arch. You can see it is really quite delicate!

Petroglyphs from the Ute Indians.

We also went to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Here is a view of the Green River from the state park (which has an awesome campground by the way).

The state park also has a sweet 9 mile mountain bike loop with some great overlooks!

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This lovely hike up Negro Bill Canyon features a perennial clear stream, in the middle of the desert, and a natural bridge at the end.

From Moab we drove back into Colorado to Fruita. We did a couple of mountain bike trails that we had done 2 years ago in the summer. Either we were in better shape this time, or the cooler weather made a big difference, but it felt so much easier this time. The views were still magnificent!