Imagine There's No Snowplows...

... it isn't hard to do.

Fort Collins received 23 inches of snow in the recent blizzard. That doesn't sound like much, but it's among the Top Ten snowstorms in the city's recorded history. The city's snowplow fleet is woefully inadequate to handle this kind of snow. In fact, if the plow makes it to our street (sometime in the next 1-3 days), it will be the second time in seven years.

Our neighbor Gus cleared our sidewalks and driveway with a snow blower, but we dug ourselves a path to the road:














Now the road isn't plowed, but enough big trucks have been down it to flatten it down a bit. With a shovel in the car, we will try to make it out later today with the Subaru Outback.

Drifting on the (covered) back porch:

Thanksgiving Weekend

Taking a year off from insane Thanksgiving air travel, Dorinna and I drove down to Southern Colorado to ski at Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is known for having the highest snowfall of any Colorado ski area, and especially for good early season snow.

On Thanksgiving day, we had respectable conditions: packed powder on the groomed runs. Wolf Creek has alot of great glades skiing (one entire lift serves nothing but tree trails). Conditions here were variable- where people had skiied it was packed powder. If you went off the tracks you had a mix of fluffy knee deep powder- and hard sun crust- and everything in between. Good practice in the backcountry. The picture below is from the top, but is NOT a ski run- there were no rocks on the ski runs.


Wolf Creek is really in the middle of nowhere. It took almost 7 hours to get there, and after skiing we had to drive another 20 minutes over Wolf Creek Pass to the town of Pagosa Springs. Pagosa is mostly a tourist town at this point, with a small but nice downtown. While I wasn't able to find any turkey, I got by with a steak dinner.

Our early season ski legs weren't in very good shape, so the next day we slept in, went out for lunch, and explored the town. That afternoon we visited the Pagosa Hot Springs. The main spring is a scalding 145 degrees, but a resort manages a set of cooler pools next to the river. Temps in the pools ranged from 92 to 108, although if you count the river the low value drops to 35 or so. And yes, I count the river, as I briefly dunked myself partway in, and then dashed for a hot pool. Ahhhhh... A very relaxing way to spend the afternoon.


Friday night it snowed 4 fresh inches, so Saturday's ski conditions were fantastic! The trails were good, but we spent almost the entire day skiing the trees for the untouched powder. Dorinna skiied her first double black diamond run...


Sunday we packed up and headed for home. The drive was incredibly scenic- back over Wolf Creek Pass, through the San Luis Valley, framed by the Sange de Cristos, through South Park, and back over one final mountain pass to the plains. We made it home in just under 6 hours.

Hot springs in the early morning:

The Kids Found the Candy

I came home from work to see that Bunny and Llama had apparently helped themselves to our leftover Halloween candy. Here's Bunny with his head in a bag formerly filled with Swedish Fish.

Llama trying her best to look innocent.

I think they may have eaten too much, because they didn't seem to be feeling too good afterwards.
 

Blame Mark

In a comment to my post about my high school reunion, my friend Mark wondered why I didn't include a scanned yearbook picture. Mark, my good friend, I accept your challenge:

And to keep you from coming up with any more "great" ideas:

Happy Halloween from Das Haus von Ruh!

Bunny, Llama, and friends- dressed up in their Halloween costumes 

Our Thrilling Weekend

Saturday: rent sod-cutter, pull up turf

Sunday: dig 70 feet of trench for landscape edging
 

The World's Happiest Countries

An interesting article by BusinessWeek online lists what it calls the "World's Happiest Countries". I was interested to learn that 4 of the top 5 are in Western Europe, including Austria at #3. The United States comes in at #23.

Pinkerton Class Reunion

Last weekend, we traveled to New Hampshire to attend my 20th high school reunion. It was fun, but also very surreal. I was a bit surprised by how few people I remembered- but 20 years for me is over half of a lifetime ago. It was emotionally interesting as well- I was very shy and insecure during my high school years. Seeing those people brought back those memories, while at the same time I now have the tools to deal with it.

Also in New Hampshire that weekend were my aunt Anne, uncle Jim, cousin Laura, sister Jen, brother-in-law John, niece Emma, and nephew Jack.

Emma tries on a new hat. That's a "Dora the Explorer" band-aid on my right hand.


Jack is giving some serious thought to crawling

Stillwater Canyon Trip, Day 6

Our final day of the trip was pretty relaxing. After breakfast, we broke camp and moved our bags to the beach. We washed the thick Colorado mud out of the canoes and kayak, and settled in to await the arrival of our jetboat.


Football on the beach after chores were finished


Jetboat arrival

The jetboat was our way back to Moab. They loaded canoes, gear, and people from our group and several other groups. Then we motored up the Colorado river. The boat moved fast enough that in the hot desert sun I put on long pants, a fleece, and a windbreaker. I felt disconnected from the landscape as the shoreline zoomed by.
Traveling by Jetboat

When we arrived at the Potash dock, there was a school bus waiting for us. The jetboat drove itself up onto a trailer, where it was pulled by the cab of a 18-wheeler back into town. We collected our gear, said our goodbyes, and began the long drive back to Fort Collins.

It only took 6 months, but this concludes my series of blog postings about my Stillwater Canyon trip from last May.

More Unrest in Budapest

There has been alot of violent protests in the Hungarian capital after our visit. The most recent clashes occurred on the Elizabeth Bridge, which spans the Danube between Buda and Pest. The photo below, taken from our hotel room, shows this bridge...
 

Rick Steve's Videos

Rick Steves has a video podcast with clips from his show. The download times are long, but they are all pretty interesting. The most recent episode talks about Salzburg and Hallstatt. It includes footage of a classical music concert in Mirabell Hall (where we saw a similar concert) and scenes from the town of Hallstatt (including a shot of our hotel).

Mass Chaos! (Ballon Festival: post 4 of 4)

Most of them haven't even launched yet...


Balloons everywhere


There's over 160 in this picture alone. 

In the Air (Balloon Festival: post 3 of 4)

Almost 700 balloons take off during a mass ascension.


In additional to the traditional shapes, there are lots of unusual ones. Find the basket underneath the dairyland cow.


Did somebody radio air traffic control?


Sunrise at last!

Liftoff! (Balloon Festival: post 2 of 4)

Almost finished inflating...


Liftoff!

Preparing for Lift-off (Balloon Festival: post 1 of 4)

Last Wednesday I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, the biggest event of its kind in the world. We got there at around 6:30, and stayed for about an hour and a half. I apologize for the multiple posts, but Picasa seems to be limiting to me to 4 photos per post.

Laying out the balloon


"I love the smell of propane in the morning"- test-firing the burners


Large fans blow hot air into the balloon


Inflation in progress

Our Stay in Český Krumlov

Talking about our day in Český Krumlov, a town in the Czech Republic, is "out of sequence". But I wanted to put up a link to a news article, because I don't know how long the link will be valid.

The article explains "Disability Day- a Day Without Barriers." This was an event that took place in Český Krumlov while we were there. It's the reason why we had the surreal experience of wandering through a medieval town after dark, listening to the sounds of Pink Floyd's The Wall reverberate off the castle walls...

Still More from New Mexico

For some reason, my blogging software wouldn't let me post these photos all at once.

Red Hot Chili Peppers


View from our hotel last night. This is the first time I saw the Sandia Mountains without clouds.

My conference is now in full swing (I'm blogging this during my luch break), so this should be the last of my Albuquerque photography and blog posting.

More from Albuquerque

Yesterday my alarm went off at 5:00 am, and I staggered out of bed to go see the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, I opened the curtains to my hotel room and saw nothing but rain. The good news is that I got to go back to sleep. Later in the day, I took a short trip to Albuquerque's Old Town area.

San Felipe Neri Church




Scenes from Old Town

In addition to wandering through the art galleries and a few gift shops, I also visited the American International Rattlesnake Museum, which is actually much more interesting than it probably sounds.