These vintage bottles were in the windows of an old school house in the ghost town of Custer, Idaho. The building now serves as a museum.
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on the road
July 25, 2010, Arco, Idaho
After a day trip with crystal clear skies for most of the day, it turned cloudy and very blustery as we were getting back to the campground. 
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On the way to Mueller State Park, Colorado, August 28, 2004
Gaillardia (pronounced /ɡeɪˈlɑrdiə/), the Blanket flowers, is a genus of drought-tolerant annual and perennial plants from the sunflower family (Asteraceae), native to North America and South America. It was named after M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name refers to the inflorescence’s resemblance to brightly patterned blankets made by native Americans. (Wikipedia)
(click on image for larger version)
Gallery: Mueller State Park – August 28, 2004
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Phantom Canyon Road, Gold Belt National Scenic Byway, Colorado, August 26, 2004
Cleome serrulata (Rocky Mountain Beeweed, Rocky Mountain Beeplant, Bee Spiderflower, stinking clover, Navajo spinach) is a species of Cleome, native to western North America from southern British Columbia, east to Minnesota and Illinois, and south to New Mexico and northernmost California. It is also naturalized further east in North America. (Wikipedia)
(click on image for larger version)
Gallery: Gold Belt Byway – August 29, 2004
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Dane County Farmers’ Market on the Square,
Madison at Wisconsin State Capitol, 9-20-08
Gallery: Dane County Farmers’ Market on the Square – Madison, Wisconsin, September 13 and 20, 2008, on the streets around the state capitol building
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Clicking on the any following images will open a larger copy of the photo.
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Commentary and images from the road
image and information from September 12, 2009
This post is being simultaneously published
on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About
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Travel Day — September 7, 2009
We had intended to travel a relatively short distance on Labor Day and camp in the mountains south of Glenwood Springs. A few days before, though, we changed our minds and decided that we wanted to travel a little further and camp near Ouray, Colorado.
Ouray is one of our favorites. A small mountain town, it has escaped most of the commercialization that many Colorado towns have experienced, yet tourism has helped keep it from withering away as has happened to many other old Colorado mining towns. Ouray is situated in a small valley and is surrounded closely by high mountains.
Our trip for the day took us along the foothills through Boulder, but west of Denver, to I70, then across the state to US 50 South out of Grand Junction and then US 550 to Ouray.
I took a few photos at stops along the way, but, unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention to the camera settings and they didn’t turn out. Karen took a few pictures as we were moving down the road and I’ve included three of them below.
Photos:
(click on any of the following photos to view a larger image.)
Along I70 east of Grand Junction
Approaching the San Juan Mountains
Rocky Mountain National Park
House and yard atop a barren hill
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Ouray, Colorado
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Commentary and images from the road
image and information from September 7, 2009
This post is being simultaneously published
on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About
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<h4 style=”text-align: right;”>Commentary and images from the road</h4>
<p style=”text-align: right;”>image and information from September 7, 2009</p>
<h4 style=”text-align: right;”>Commentary and images from the road</h4>
<p style=”text-align: right;”>image and information from September 7, 2009</p>
<p style=”text-align: right;”><em>This post is being simultaneously published
on <a title=”Exit78 blog” href=”http://www.exit78.com/weblog” target=”_blank”>Exit78</a> and <a title=”Haw Creek Out ‘n About” href=”http://hawcreekoutdoors.com/blog“>Haw Creek Out ‘n About</a></em>
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From our campsite
Trail from campground to Moraine Park meadows
Elk on the north lateral moraine, west of campground
One of the younger large bull elk
Rocky Mountain National Park — August 31, 2009
Our last day of travel on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park should have been our shortest of the three days. However, the GPS showed us getting to the park at 5:30 P.M., about the same time we stopped each of the first two days.
We were traveling mostly on two-lane highways, missing most of the freeway traffic — and bypassing most of the urban areas along the eastern slope of the Rockies, though I made one change to our route while traveling that had us going straight into Denver until I got it straightened out when we stopped at a big box store — (WalMart).
Unlike the previous day, there was virtually no wind. Unfortunately it was very hazy and we had no chance to see the mountains until we were almost up to them.
This was the worst day, so far, for delays due to road construction.
On the last stretch of road heading into Estes Park, we had to wait for a lead vehicle to guide us through the construction area.
We were the first in line and a long line of traffic built up behind us. We tow a small car behind our small motorhome and I was a little afraid that I would have to pull over to allow faster vehicles to pass on the hills.
It didn’t happen. I was able to maintain the speed limit going up hill and, after 2 minutes, there was only 2 cars behind us — and by the time I pulled over to let the faster vehicles by, there was only one. The other cars must have all turned off — or got hung up behind a slow vehicle.
As we got closer to Estes Park, the haze began to look more and more like smoke. In other years, when we’ve been in the mountains, there were many forest fires in the mountains to the west of us, which isn’t the case this year. We were wondering if it might not be the fires in California.
Our campsite in Estes Park is wonderful. The campground is on top of a lateral moraine — built up from the debris that was pushed to the side by glaciers during ice ages.
A trail next to us goes down into the meadows where the elk feed and breed during the fall of the year. We’ve already been able to see quite a few elk after supper when we took a drive. It wasn’t until we got back that we realized that they were actually quite near to where we’re camped.
We also drove up to Bear Lake. There are a lot of good trails in the area. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some hiking in.
Oh, and the GPS was wrong. I’m not sure what error I made, but we were in the park and set up by the middle of the afternoon.
This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About.
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My anticipated “weekend” away from work is being extended by a planned 3 week vacation.
We are currently camped at a KOA in La Junta, Colorado. Yesterday, we camped at Sandy Cove Corps of Engineers campground on Canton Lake in Oklahoma.
Tomorrow we will be traveling on for a week in the Rocky Mountain National Park area. We’ll be camped in the park for four days. When we reserved our campsite for the park, there was nothing available for the Labor Day weekend, so we made reservations at the Estes Park KOA. We prefer to have spots reserved for holiday weekends rather than trying to find a campsite when there will likely be a lot of other people camping.
After Labor Day, though, we shouldn’t have any trouble finding a place to camp.
We will be traveling on Labor Day, though…, and will probably be traveling I40, which brings back memories of another Labor Day on I40.
In 2001, we were headed from Steamboat Springs to Estes Park and decided to go by way of Golden to see a quilt exhibit. We didn’t even think about the fact that there would be heavy, heavy traffic heading from the mountains back to the cities.
We ended up in a traffic jam backed up for miles.
Fortunately, this time, we’ll be heading away from the cities, going west.
Here are a few photos from yesterday at Canton Lake:
The following “drawing” of boys at play in Lake Canton was rendered from a photograph using Corel Paintshop Pro Photo X2.
While I will be “off-line” and away fro the internet until Friday, there will continue to be daily posts that have been “pre-published.”
I plan to have more photos to share later in the week.
This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About.
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Journaling, blogging and traveling — with a new solution
September 22, 2009
On my blogs, I like to share some of what we’ve seen and done while we are traveling. I always seem to get behind and come up short with what I had planned hoped to do.
The same thing goes with my photos, but then, perhaps, that’s part of the problem. I’m doing fairly well this time with the photos. I have 3 1/2 days worth of images to go through. Unfortunately, I’ve not finished with going through the photos from several prior trips.
I have a new solution that I think will work rather well.
Instead of trying to keep up with blogging while we are traveling, I will be journaling and photographing as we go. The journal will be a pocket-sized moleskine notebook, where I will keep both brief notes as well as extended entries. These, along with photographs, will be used to develop blog posts with “Commentary and images from the road.”
I am publishing all posts specifically related to our travels on two blogs, Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About. Apart from our travels, these two blogs otherwise have different focuses.
Some of the days of our trip warrant more than one blog post. I will be mixing mostly topical posts with mostly pictorial.
We got back home on Friday and Karen headed out today for a week in Wisconsin where she will be taking care of the grandkids while our daughter goes to New York City with her husband on a business trip.
I get to stay home and go to work.
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This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About
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