Archive for Colorado

{ June 30, 2008 @ 10:01 am } · { Colorado, DrivingHabit, Home, MON. MOMENT }
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Lisa, at Lisa’s Chaos has this little ‘quirk’ of a challenge this week for us with a Fun Monday topic that took a little thinking on my part. Oh ya baby, it hurt; so many ‘thunks’ and not enough time. I thought I’d share a part of American-wide road rage! And, most certainly, I can experience it – not often, but I have! So I guess it’s a quirk for me as an individual. [Insert me looking over my shoulder and making sure no one is following me down the street that I know in blogland.] “I’ve blurred my license plate number today on purpose, even out on the streets!! You can see me, but you don’t know it’s Hootin’ Anni!! Got it? Okay, good!!

Ask Bud; you don’t want to p!ss me off when I’m behind the wheel, and we’re supposed to be sharing the road, equally. There was one time, while driving back from the Stapleton International Airport in Denver [now defunct since DIA opened years ago] – on our way home from a long long and stressful trip with United. Interstate 25 and we’re heading north and west to get out of the Interstate 70/Interstate 25 interchanges. Someone pulled in front of me as I was picking up the correct speed to get to the Northglenn Exit. There was no way I could get around him…it was building up to rush hour traffic. I was really wanting to get home, but I was still very stressed from the flight. Lots of turbulence and some scary moments coming in over the Rocky Mountain Range from San Diego. Just a bad day. The kids were bickering constantly from an early morning wake-up call, etc. etc.

So, then this ol’ geezer pulls in front of me as I was nearing 70MPH [back then at the time it was 75 for top speed limit on the 'fast lane']. And he was poking at 50MPH! To make a long story short, [well, not in distance I tellya] —when I finally DID get around him I was still headed NORTH…I ended up driving at a speed that was something I wouldn’t do anymore, I got the car up to nearing 100MPH on I-25, and guess what? We ended up in Wyoming before I finally cleared my head.

Kids were quiet as church mice heading back south and Bud still tells everyone that will listen to him –”Y’don’ wanna tick off Anni when she’s behind the wheel. Y’never know what country you’ll end up in.” Yep, still…to this day he’ll regale you with this old tale!

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And another thing, if you see me coming, and you’re on the merge ramp? —Speed up. Trust me. Oh and one more? If you know I’m going at the posted speed limit and you decide to change lanes and end up in front of me…don’t make me slow down! I’ll tail gate you wherever you’re going. And the other extreme, if you speed up behind me and I’m doing the speed limit and you tail gate ME —I will deliberately slow down!

So, according to Lisa’s explanation of ‘quirk’ as ‘odd behavior’

    A quirk is defined as a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism. We are all unique individuals, having quirks that help make us who we are. I would like to know what your quirks are. Confess to one, confess to ten, you decide. Just come back Monday ready to spill the beans, the rest of the world may look at you like you are from Mars, but you‘re among friends here. We won’t laugh, in fact that eccentricity just may endear you to us more.
—this is totally me. Quirky. But just this one thing. Other than that, I’m genteel. Kind. All and all a real super dude-ess!!!

U R Olive is hosting next week.

{ June 3, 2008 @ 2:34 am } · { Colorado, TUESDAY }
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HEADS – Royal

Naturally, with living and growing up in Colorado, the first thing that came to my mind was Canon City’s infamous Royal Gorge Bridge! Now let me get this out of the way…When we went up there after marrying and in later years after the kids were born, the THREE of them walked the bridge! It has slats! You can look down from the gaps, and see the gorge……A LONG WAY DOWN! I took two steps, and stopped. I froze. Finally able to step backwards and wait for their return! One more thing—the BRIDGE sways. Yes, if you’re dumb courageous enough to actually drive over it…more power to you! I stood and watched in fear for my family’s well being when a car drove over it with all those people WALKING across and looking down! Oblivious to the danger!!

Even today, it’s the highest expansion bridge in the world! I say to that ditty…. big whooptie doo!!! Big deal. I like LAND under my feet thank you very much!! Colorado is a beautiful state with the majestic Rocky Mountains, and the largest amount of mountains over 14,000 feet above sea level. But to actually see this phenomenon and look down into one of the deepest, narrowest ravines and watch the river rushing under you…uh, uh….[insert negative head shake here] Not me! No way José!!!

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I’m thinking of a color. It’s a compound color. Of two primary colors on the color wheel. It’s associated with the week’s prompt. Can you guess? Clue: It’s listed on my favorites list on my sidebar. I love the color. Our master bedroom is painted a rich deep off-set hue of this ‘royal’ color.

Historically, the color purple has been associated with royalty and power, but the secret of its power lies in the glands of tiny shellfish creatures.

The earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of purple dyes points to the Minoan civilization in Crete, about 1900 B.C. The ancient land of Canaan (its corresponding Greek name was Phoenicia, which means “land of the purple”) was the center of the ancient purple dye industry.


Queen Elizabeth II in her Royal Purple Robe


Tyrian Purple, the purple dye of the ancients mentioned in texts dating back to about 1600 B.C., was produced from the mucus of the hypobranchial gland of various species of marine mollusks, notably Murex. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye. Legend credits its discovery to Herakles, or rather to his dog, whose mouth was stained purple from chewing on snails along the Levantine coast. King Phoenix received a purple-dyed robe from Herakles and decreed the rulers of Phoenicia should wear this color as a royal symbol. Although originating in Tyre (hence the name), man’s first dye chemical industry spread throughout the world. Rome, Egypt, and Persia all used purple as the imperial standard. Purple dyes were rare and expensive; only the rich had access to them. The purple colorants used came from different sources, most from the dye extraction from fish or insects. The imperial purple of Rome was based on mollusk from which purpura comes. Emperor Aurelian refused to let his wife buy a purpura-dyed silk garment, as it cost its weight in gold! Insect and snail animal-based colors were mentioned in the Bible for use in textile furnishings of the Tabernacle and for the sacred vestments for the High Priest Aaron, and they also were used in King Solomon’s and King Herod’s temples in Jerusalem. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the use of “Tyrian Purple” also declined, and large-scale production ceased with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. It was replaced by cheaper dyes such as lichen purple and madder. Pope Paul II in 1464 introduced the so-called “Cardinal’s Purple,” which was really scarlet extracted from the Kermes insect. This became the first luxury dye of the Middle Ages. Dyes were exported extensively from Central and South America during Spain’s exploration of North and South America. Among these were Cochineal from Mexico and Peru. The chemical birth of the synthetic dye industry can be traced to the discovery of an aniline-based purple dye, mauveine, by William H. Perkin in 1856, who accomplished this while searching for a cure for malaria. Perkin was an English chemist who changed the world of his time by making this purple color available to the masses. It became quite fashionable to wear clothing dyed with “mauve,” and Mr. Perkin became a very wealthy man. In 1909 Paul Friedlander determined the major chemical composition of Murex dye as 6,6′-dibromoindigo. Today, genuine “Tyrian Purple” remains the domain of the rich and famous. However, synthetic dyes and pigments that meet various purple color requirements have removed the mystique of the color purple.

{ May 26, 2008 @ 2:47 am } · { Colorado, Home, Mexico, Missouri, MON. MOMENT }
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Alison wants to take a trip around the world for Fun Monday!!

    Vacations…this is the time of year when most of us go on vacations. Show us and/or tell us about your favorite vacation – where you went, what you did, etc. Pictures would be great. Let’s all take a trip around a the world via our FM friends!!

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Neither Bud nor I are ‘much on travel’ anymore. We once had a motor home, and after we retired, we did a lot of driving, and it was expensive upkeep for that vehicle with very poor gas mileage, tax to even own it, maintenance, and the lack of good areas where we could actually drive it ’cause it was large…it burned us on driving while vacationing! I’m really glad we decided to sell it way back when ’cause now-a-days there’d be no chance in h e double l that we could sell it…no one wants the gas guzzlers anymore!! Then, today, with all the security freaks and the extra cost of baggage and delays and dropping flights…we just don’t like to do trips anymore! It’s not worth the effort. And of course now the cost of fuel…outrageous!! But, from the past, I have so many ‘favorites’ this is going to be hard to choose. I’ll have to get my scanner primed and dig in the closet for certain photo albums. As Southwest Airlines states: “You’re now free to move about the country”…….

Here goes–

First, this is just part of the closet where I have all our travel albums stashed! See? I couldn’t possibly chose a certain one. So, I’ll just pick out what is easiest to get to and go from there….

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3-day Weekend Trips:

Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Gunnison River
Colorado

A camping trip
Colorado Mountains

Legendary “Face in the Barroom Floor”
Central City Colorado
Now a Gambling town
Was in its heyday a mining town

Mesa Verde Ruins
Four Corners
USA

Monarch Pass
Colorado

There’s a little story behind this photo. Tho we traveled this highway many times, on one particular road trip, we stopped for a potty break and coke at the summit. On the way down the pass…we’re talking dropping 1000s of feet here….the brakes went out on the car!!! It was my turn to drive, Bud had driven the first 300 miles that day….with the brakes gone, I was down shifting [manual transmission] to slow the car down to make the hairpin curves. We made it safe and sound, thank the lord. But what I like to remember about it all…both our kids, in the back seat…were speechless…no fighting or bickering; at all once they actually realized that their life was hanging by a thread, with their mom’s ability to keep from driving over the steep ravines!! Now, we can sit and laugh at the memory. But at the time, once we were back on ‘flat land’ we opened a beer from the cooler. And yes, I DID drink a couple of gulps while driving back then at that particular time when we were out of the mountain driving—It calmed me somewhat –but, only a couple of swallows. The highway patrol could have ticketed me if they wanted to, I didn’t care at all after that!! The brakes finally did work after they cooled off and we got home safely late that night!

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OLD MEXICO

From the Port of Los Angeles to…Mexico! One vacation we took a cruise to the area that one of my favorite movies was filmed! The Night of the Iguana starring Richard Burton! I fell in love with the story. And the scenery. I think the movie was back in the early ’60s. Anyway, I wanted to see where it was filmed, and walk the cliffs, see the waterfalls, etc. etc. etc. So we went to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We spent a week there in a hotel and took another day cruise through the bay to the area where the movie was filmed. It truly was a ‘hidden treasure’!!

The Cruise Ship

Our Hotel in P V, Mexico

A day trip tour through the old town…
This cathedral was stark and awe inspiring
near the cliffs seen just outside the city

A view from our hotel room!
Beautiful!
Just after a rainstorm!!

This is the hidden, hideaway, Yelapa, where most of the filming took place. At the time, tho Elizabeth Taylor was not in the movie, tabloids and newspapers reported of the hot steamy romance taking place with Richard Burton and Ms. Taylor!! Bud and I hired a tour guide and climbed the cliffs to the infamous waterfall!!

Here we are, the two of us. On the beautiful beaches of Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

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The Great Wide Mississippi

We also have had the opportunity to go down the Mississippi on a Riverboat Excursion!

One stop along the way was Hannibal Missouri! Where the American Author, Mark Twain, was born and raised. Here is where most of his stories of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher was written about…from his childhood. I loved this part of the trip most that year!!! ['cause I'm not much on huge, wide, deep dark water! LOL]

Irene, Erik and Bud aboard the Riverboat.
Where’s Mom? Me? Oh right about now, I was
wishing and hoping to hit dry land real soon!

The Mark Twain Riverboat

One of the many bridges we went under!
Ewwwww.
Water, bridges, not for me!!
But it was an experience none-the-less.

Along the wide Mississippi there are
many islands.
And the term “Mark Twain” originated.
But –the islands ARE LAND!!!

* *

Ah, dry land! Finally!!!

Once off the boat, I was thrilled.
We’re stopping along the way to
tour Hannibal Missouri!
Mark Twain’s home town. This is
CARDIFF HILL

This is J.M. Clemens’s Law Office
Mark Twain’s father.

This is Becky Thatcher’s Home

This house is where
Samuel Clemens [Mark Twain]
grew up. In
Hannibal, Missouri.

This was the best part of the trip for me, the book lover! Hope you enjoyed a little bit of just a few of our family trips. I can’t wait to take the whistle stops here and there while visiting other Fun Monday travelers!! Have a glorious day everybody.

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