After a fabulous week in Colorado I have returned safe and sound to the great state of Iowa. I probably don't need to inform anyone that it was rather windy today. Turns out it was windy from the moment I left Colorado Springs to the moment I pulled into my driveway. This made what should have been a fairly boring but mindless drive home somewhat of a challenge. Especially in the beginning.
Monday I was driving back to Juanita's place from a coffee shop and saw a tumbleweed, which I was pretty pumped about because I had never seen one before. Juanita was surprised by this because "they are everywhere". In the short time from Monday afternoon to Wednesday mid morning, I went from loving tumbleweeds to hoping I never see one again.
As I drove down I-76 today (which on a side note has to be the most desolate stretch of road I have ever been on) I saw a tumbleweed. And in a moment of excitement in my car I said "TUMBLEWEED!" (Yes people it's THAT boring out there). Then I saw another and announced it again (what can I say entertainment is hard to come by out there). Pretty soon there were three at a time. . .woohoo. . .then five. Soon I felt like I was in a tumbleweed mine field. Tumbleweeds coming dozens at a time flying across lanes of traffic and me flying down the road just praying that they will tumble out of the way before my car meets them.
As I am dodging tumble weeds like Mario dodging banana peels I see a fairly large tumbleweed come into the left lane. Okay if it just keeps moving it will be out of the lane by the time I get there. As I come closer the wind dies for a just a moment and the tumbleweed pauses in the road. SPLAT! The front of my car makes contact the with the weed. Now tumbleweeds don't have a lot of substance to them however they are very branchy. When the tumbleweed met the front of my car. . .it got stuck. So now I am flying down the interstate at 80 mph with a giant tumbleweed stuck to the front of the car like a spiny. . .spidery looking hood ornament.
As anyone who has been to Eastern Colorado/Western Nebraska can attest to there aren't a lot of places to get on and off. So I had to drive down the interstate for a good 10 miles before coming to an exit where I could pull over and remove the weed from my car. After narrowly escaping being shmucked by a semi getting back in the car, the car was weed free and we were on the move again.
Like I said, if I never see a Tumbleweed again I will die happy.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Pikes Peak
I had the distinct pleasure to viewing the world from atop Pikes Peak this week. I must say it was one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen. They say on a clear day you can see all the way to Kansas from the top. However they could be lying because really it's not like you can distinguish one things from another up there, it all looks like a very small ant farm, so small you can't even see the ants just the buildings, and barely that. Anyway I digress.
I knew that I wanted to see Pikes Peak while I was here but I also know that I have a paralyzing fear of heights so I was curious as to how this adventure would go. I also knew that we were on a little bit of a time schedule because we had to be off the summit by 4 and off the mountain completely by 5, we didn't get to the front gate until 3.
So first things first, we pull up to the gate and pay our 12 dollars a piece, a little ridiculous in my book but whatever, they tell us when we have to leave the summit and when we have to be down completely. Then they tell us that the temperature on the top is -2. WHAT!!!!!!. I mean I knew it would be colder but that is like the dead of winter in Iowa, yikes. But it's okay we can manage we have coats and sweatshirts and what not. So we get our receipt and head up the mountain.
The first little bit is going great I can tell we are getting higher but so far nothing to bad just trying to keep my eyes away from the edge of the road. About the time we reached the point where we were above the tree line (meaning nothing grows up there), the road got narrower, and the drop off steeper, I can feel the color leaving my face. I interrupt Juanita and tell her if she doesn't start talking about something very entertaining I am going to loose my lunch.
So we quickly change topics I close my eyes and hang on to the "oh shit" handle for the remainder of the ride. We reach the top and Juanita tells me I can open my eyes, after asking her twice if she was sure I peeked one eye open and saw the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. There are really no words to describe what that looks like. I took quite a few pictures and I am not sure any of those will do justice either but we are going to find out.
Now -2 not matter how beautiful hits you like a ton of bricks and the wind up there was ridiculous. And there is almost no oxygen in the air, which can be a little problematic but all of those things are so totally worth it.
So the moral of the story is this kids. Sometimes it is more than worth it to push through paralyzing fear, you just never know what beauty may be on the other side.
I knew that I wanted to see Pikes Peak while I was here but I also know that I have a paralyzing fear of heights so I was curious as to how this adventure would go. I also knew that we were on a little bit of a time schedule because we had to be off the summit by 4 and off the mountain completely by 5, we didn't get to the front gate until 3.
So first things first, we pull up to the gate and pay our 12 dollars a piece, a little ridiculous in my book but whatever, they tell us when we have to leave the summit and when we have to be down completely. Then they tell us that the temperature on the top is -2. WHAT!!!!!!. I mean I knew it would be colder but that is like the dead of winter in Iowa, yikes. But it's okay we can manage we have coats and sweatshirts and what not. So we get our receipt and head up the mountain.
The first little bit is going great I can tell we are getting higher but so far nothing to bad just trying to keep my eyes away from the edge of the road. About the time we reached the point where we were above the tree line (meaning nothing grows up there), the road got narrower, and the drop off steeper, I can feel the color leaving my face. I interrupt Juanita and tell her if she doesn't start talking about something very entertaining I am going to loose my lunch.
So we quickly change topics I close my eyes and hang on to the "oh shit" handle for the remainder of the ride. We reach the top and Juanita tells me I can open my eyes, after asking her twice if she was sure I peeked one eye open and saw the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. There are really no words to describe what that looks like. I took quite a few pictures and I am not sure any of those will do justice either but we are going to find out.
Now -2 not matter how beautiful hits you like a ton of bricks and the wind up there was ridiculous. And there is almost no oxygen in the air, which can be a little problematic but all of those things are so totally worth it.
So the moral of the story is this kids. Sometimes it is more than worth it to push through paralyzing fear, you just never know what beauty may be on the other side.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Altitude
So one of the most important things I learned on this trip is that a difference in altitude makes a huge difference on your ability to breath. Considering breathing is an essential part of life it is a fairly essential lesson but one I learned the hard way when I got to Colorado.
On a side note when I arrived in Colorado last Thursday night the very first thing I noticed was how dry it was not the altitude. A warning to anyone coming to Colorado see if you can get your doctor to hook up and IV line of saline to keep you hydrated and make sure you bring about 100 tubes of chapstick. It's that dry.
Anyway when I finally met up with my dear friend Juanita and made it into her apartment (yet another story for another post) one of the first things she asks me is have you noticed a difference in altitude. I said no because really at that point I had not. The next day we went for our little rain hike (see "Adventures in Hiking") and still I hadn't noticed much of a difference. Now at this point I was feeling pretty awesome like maybe I was a immune to the difference in altitude. I quickly learned the next day that that was not the case.
Saturday we drove a ways up into the mountains for a hike. We take off up the trail and are having a good time messing around and playing. At one point Juanita did or said something funny I let out this fairly boisterous laugh and all of the sudden it felt like someone had drained ever molecule of oxygen from my lungs. You know if feels when someone kicks you in the gut and you loose your breath, pretty much the same feeling. I thought to myself wow that was weird, still not making the altitude connection. Later that day I was messing around with Juanita again and went to lift her off the ground and that same thing happened. Still thinking that's weird. But in terms of hiking and stuff I still wasn't feeling all that effected by the altitude. Then it happened.
Later that night we were having a bond fire out on a ranch. We were down in a valley to have this bond fire to stay out of the wind. At the end of the night a few of us were walking up the hill (a fairly steep hill at that). Now I noticed that I was having trouble breathing but I figured that was due to lack of exercise and the steepness of this hill. Juanita kept asking if I was okay, and I kept saying yes. It wasn't till I got the top that I realized I was not okay. I could not catch my breath and really thought for a minute that I was going down. For those of you hoping the next sentence is that I did go down. . .sorry to disappoint, I managed to catch my breath (or at least enough breath) to prevent any face plants in the dirt. But I did learn in that moment that I am not as awesome as I thought.
The next day we tackled Pikes Peak, and let me tell you the air is so thin up there that sometimes even when you are standing still and not talking it gets a little challenging to breath. But let me tell you folks it's beautiful up there.
Moral of the story, no matter how awesome you are you WILL be effected by an altitude change. So if by telling this I can prevent anyone from over doing it and doing an actual face plant than I have done my job.
On a side note when I arrived in Colorado last Thursday night the very first thing I noticed was how dry it was not the altitude. A warning to anyone coming to Colorado see if you can get your doctor to hook up and IV line of saline to keep you hydrated and make sure you bring about 100 tubes of chapstick. It's that dry.
Anyway when I finally met up with my dear friend Juanita and made it into her apartment (yet another story for another post) one of the first things she asks me is have you noticed a difference in altitude. I said no because really at that point I had not. The next day we went for our little rain hike (see "Adventures in Hiking") and still I hadn't noticed much of a difference. Now at this point I was feeling pretty awesome like maybe I was a immune to the difference in altitude. I quickly learned the next day that that was not the case.
Saturday we drove a ways up into the mountains for a hike. We take off up the trail and are having a good time messing around and playing. At one point Juanita did or said something funny I let out this fairly boisterous laugh and all of the sudden it felt like someone had drained ever molecule of oxygen from my lungs. You know if feels when someone kicks you in the gut and you loose your breath, pretty much the same feeling. I thought to myself wow that was weird, still not making the altitude connection. Later that day I was messing around with Juanita again and went to lift her off the ground and that same thing happened. Still thinking that's weird. But in terms of hiking and stuff I still wasn't feeling all that effected by the altitude. Then it happened.
Later that night we were having a bond fire out on a ranch. We were down in a valley to have this bond fire to stay out of the wind. At the end of the night a few of us were walking up the hill (a fairly steep hill at that). Now I noticed that I was having trouble breathing but I figured that was due to lack of exercise and the steepness of this hill. Juanita kept asking if I was okay, and I kept saying yes. It wasn't till I got the top that I realized I was not okay. I could not catch my breath and really thought for a minute that I was going down. For those of you hoping the next sentence is that I did go down. . .sorry to disappoint, I managed to catch my breath (or at least enough breath) to prevent any face plants in the dirt. But I did learn in that moment that I am not as awesome as I thought.
The next day we tackled Pikes Peak, and let me tell you the air is so thin up there that sometimes even when you are standing still and not talking it gets a little challenging to breath. But let me tell you folks it's beautiful up there.
Moral of the story, no matter how awesome you are you WILL be effected by an altitude change. So if by telling this I can prevent anyone from over doing it and doing an actual face plant than I have done my job.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Adventures in Hiking
As many of you know I am currently on vacation in the great state of Colorado visiting a very dear friend of mine. For the protection of all those involved we will call her Juanita. You must understand that Juanita loves the outdoors sometimes I think more than life itself so I knew coming out here that there would be a fair amount of hiking involved in this trip. What you can never prepare for with Juanita is the adventures you will find yourself in.
Friday morning we arose from our beauty rest bright and early around 9:00am :). After a hearty breakfast we set out to explore a new park that Juanita had come across. As we pulled out of the parking lot frozen droplets of water (aka hail) started to fall from the sky. I looked at Juanita with a questioning stare but she assured me that it never rains for very long in Colorado. After a short drive we pulled into a gas station to quench Flash's (the truck's) thirst. As Juanita is standing beside Flash waiting for the pump to stop, while it is still raining mind you, she pops her head back in the door and says "Just so you know Colorado has the highest rate of death by lightening strike". She then smiles. Excuse me what. First you tell me it never rains long in Colorado (It's now been raining for 30 minutes at least) and now you tell me if ever I were to be struck dead by lightening it would be here. Suffice it to say I am not having a good feeling at this point.
But I trust my dear friend Juanita, after all we have been friends for many moons so we continue on. When we arrive at the state park it has indeed stopped raining but the clouds are still looming. So we hop out of the car make one last pit stop before heading off into the wilderness, and of course sign at the trail head in case you get eaten by a bear or mountain lion the rangers would like a heads up you are missing.
So we take off up the trail to explore, now we are taking it kind of easy cause the elevation in Colorado is a little higher than Iowa, but more on that in another post. So we mosey for about an hour and every once in a while there is a divide in the trail with a map and we mosey this way or that way. When all of the sudden we heard thunder. Juanita informs me that is when we turn around, so we head back down the trail (remember the high rate of lightening strikes). We probably made it no more than 10 steps when the sky opens up and the floods come down, so we start truckin it as fast as we can, when the frozen droplets come back. So Juanita says lets stand under this tree. Is anyone questioning whether or not that will help. I kind of did but I figured what the heck might as well try it. It did keep the frozen droplets off but when it started raining harder we figured we weren't gaining much and continued down the trail.
At this point we are soaked, our feet weighed 5 pounds more each because of the mud and my OCD is on full force. I can not stand the feeling of wet clothes touching me. We finally get to the point where we can see the trail head again and the rain stops. SERIOUSLY???? Mother nature has a terrible sense of humor.
Definitely an adventure to remember. We got home dried off and had a great afternoon, inside. The next day however was a fabulous hike, and much drier.
Friday morning we arose from our beauty rest bright and early around 9:00am :). After a hearty breakfast we set out to explore a new park that Juanita had come across. As we pulled out of the parking lot frozen droplets of water (aka hail) started to fall from the sky. I looked at Juanita with a questioning stare but she assured me that it never rains for very long in Colorado. After a short drive we pulled into a gas station to quench Flash's (the truck's) thirst. As Juanita is standing beside Flash waiting for the pump to stop, while it is still raining mind you, she pops her head back in the door and says "Just so you know Colorado has the highest rate of death by lightening strike". She then smiles. Excuse me what. First you tell me it never rains long in Colorado (It's now been raining for 30 minutes at least) and now you tell me if ever I were to be struck dead by lightening it would be here. Suffice it to say I am not having a good feeling at this point.
But I trust my dear friend Juanita, after all we have been friends for many moons so we continue on. When we arrive at the state park it has indeed stopped raining but the clouds are still looming. So we hop out of the car make one last pit stop before heading off into the wilderness, and of course sign at the trail head in case you get eaten by a bear or mountain lion the rangers would like a heads up you are missing.
So we take off up the trail to explore, now we are taking it kind of easy cause the elevation in Colorado is a little higher than Iowa, but more on that in another post. So we mosey for about an hour and every once in a while there is a divide in the trail with a map and we mosey this way or that way. When all of the sudden we heard thunder. Juanita informs me that is when we turn around, so we head back down the trail (remember the high rate of lightening strikes). We probably made it no more than 10 steps when the sky opens up and the floods come down, so we start truckin it as fast as we can, when the frozen droplets come back. So Juanita says lets stand under this tree. Is anyone questioning whether or not that will help. I kind of did but I figured what the heck might as well try it. It did keep the frozen droplets off but when it started raining harder we figured we weren't gaining much and continued down the trail.
At this point we are soaked, our feet weighed 5 pounds more each because of the mud and my OCD is on full force. I can not stand the feeling of wet clothes touching me. We finally get to the point where we can see the trail head again and the rain stops. SERIOUSLY???? Mother nature has a terrible sense of humor.
Definitely an adventure to remember. We got home dried off and had a great afternoon, inside. The next day however was a fabulous hike, and much drier.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Judges
When I started this blog I promised myself I would use this forum only for fun and silly stories. But lately I have seen some ads with the impending election that I just can not bring myself to ignore any longer.
I am sure by now, whether on the radio or on the tv, all of you have seen one of the ads that is encouraging to vote to have three of the current Iowa Supreme Court Judges removed due mostly because of their ruling regarding granting Marriage licenses to Same Sex couples. Now before you read any further the point of this post is not to argue whether same sex marriage is wrong or right nor is it to tell you all how to vote come November 2nd. It is simply to beg all of you to make sure you have the facts before making a decision.
The group funding these ads not only wants to have these judges voted out but they also want to change how Supreme Court judges are appointed. Right now when their is a vacancy on the Supreme court a bi partisan committee choose a number of suitable candidates and then the governor chooses the one he wants to appoint. The changes being proposed would create a situation where the choices for Supreme Court would become more politicised which will not benefit any of us. The job the Judges is not to create law or run their own agenda but to uphold the law as it is currently written.
Which brings me to my final point. The ruling that came down over a year ago was NOT to legalize same sex marriage it was that it is unconstitutional to deny same sex couples a marriage license. The ruling did NOT pertain to making a decision for all Iowans regarding same sex marriage it was about upholding equal protection under the law, which I think is something we would all agree is worth protecting. Basically it makes it so that the majority CAN NOT discriminate against the minority. Any minority on an issue.
As I said before, the point of this post is not to tell anyone how to vote or to argue the rightness or wrongness of same sex marriage. I simply ask that you know the facts and understand what is really going on before making your decision on November 2nd. And really that goes for all issues and choices made on the 2nd. I think we can all agree that all political ads on both sides of the isle twist facts and take things out of context rather than focusing on telling us what they are going to do for us.
Thank you for indulging me in one serious politically charged post. I promise I will keep them to a minimum.
I am sure by now, whether on the radio or on the tv, all of you have seen one of the ads that is encouraging to vote to have three of the current Iowa Supreme Court Judges removed due mostly because of their ruling regarding granting Marriage licenses to Same Sex couples. Now before you read any further the point of this post is not to argue whether same sex marriage is wrong or right nor is it to tell you all how to vote come November 2nd. It is simply to beg all of you to make sure you have the facts before making a decision.
The group funding these ads not only wants to have these judges voted out but they also want to change how Supreme Court judges are appointed. Right now when their is a vacancy on the Supreme court a bi partisan committee choose a number of suitable candidates and then the governor chooses the one he wants to appoint. The changes being proposed would create a situation where the choices for Supreme Court would become more politicised which will not benefit any of us. The job the Judges is not to create law or run their own agenda but to uphold the law as it is currently written.
Which brings me to my final point. The ruling that came down over a year ago was NOT to legalize same sex marriage it was that it is unconstitutional to deny same sex couples a marriage license. The ruling did NOT pertain to making a decision for all Iowans regarding same sex marriage it was about upholding equal protection under the law, which I think is something we would all agree is worth protecting. Basically it makes it so that the majority CAN NOT discriminate against the minority. Any minority on an issue.
As I said before, the point of this post is not to tell anyone how to vote or to argue the rightness or wrongness of same sex marriage. I simply ask that you know the facts and understand what is really going on before making your decision on November 2nd. And really that goes for all issues and choices made on the 2nd. I think we can all agree that all political ads on both sides of the isle twist facts and take things out of context rather than focusing on telling us what they are going to do for us.
Thank you for indulging me in one serious politically charged post. I promise I will keep them to a minimum.
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