The Camera Trip as i am now calling it; or The Picture Trip depending on the circumstances.
Between the four of us i am certain we took over 1,000 pictures easy. And if my pictures are any indication, about 40 to 50 good ones; well, ones worth showing to people. Why is it that a tree or mountain or flower looks cool in person but then the picture it just looks boring? i am, of course, being a little facetious but of the 250+ pictures i would say 50 of mine are really good.
The Rocky Mountains were amazing. We saw a coyote (a 'beggar' coyote we think). It looked like a big white/grey fox; some elk including a few walking around the town and across the street right in front of us; more elk grazing about 20-30 yards away; an elk herd chillin' by the RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) Visitor Center; no snakes; no mountain lions - Thank God; and no bears - Thanks Al.
Al was our official bear-scarer. Al made sure we had no morsel, no crumb of food in our rented Jeep Commander so as not to invite any 'just-finished hibernating' hungry bears to us. When we hiked, which was seldom, Al brought up the rear thinking this to be the safest place in a line of hikers but not realizing it is actually the position most likely to get mauled. We, of course, neglected to tell Al this tiny morsel of information.
During one of our longest hikes around a pond-lake (about 1.4 miles around it), we nearly lost Kevin to a snow drift. With one leg knee deep in snow about 3-feet from the edge of the lake, Kevin good-naturedly 'posed' for pictures before we extricated him from his predicament.
We let Jason drive briefly on Friday night to drop Al off for his massage/moon-lit bath and then to the movies (to see Speed Racer b/c i am a huge 'Speed' fan and wanted to see this movie on the weekend it opened - it did not disappoint, but then again it also did not live up to its potential). And we quickly realized why he was not driving more often. In the matter of about 15 minutes of driving, Jason nearly ran a stop sign, BLEW through another stop sign w/o even hesitating, and almost turned up the wrong (left) side of the street. He nearly gave back all five of his points he earned w/ the group the previous night when he noticed as someone else, whose name will remain anonymous...but it was NOT me...nor Al...nor Jason, was driving that the gas gauge was on E which sent a shock-wave through the car. The gauge was, in fact, below E. Regardless despite the worry from some, the likelihood of us running out of gas was remote; still there particularly given that we were somewhere b/n Denver and Santa Fe in the New Mexico desert w/ nothing but the blackest death of night surrounding us for miles and miles and miles.
Speaking of driving, i drove the majority of our tours to RMNP/Boulder, Pike's Peek - or at least to the COG Railway that took us up to Pike's Peak, 2/3 of the way to Santa Fe, and to Alberquerque. This may not seem like much but those that have driven with me previously know that this is sometimes more nerve-wrecking than facing a mama bear who is looking for her cubs...or a hungry mountain lion as i can...sometimes drive beyond the legal, posted speed so-called 'limit.' The drive after RMNP through Denver during rush-hour on toward Santa Fe was, i would hazard a guess, the most...'interesting' for my passengers. The only likely exception to this was Al who particularly liked my actually driving below the speed limit through the meandering hills and mountains of RMNP. I did try to warn my passengers early on, though, by informing them that i am very, very good at getting from point A to point B in a minimal amount of time and suggested they not, i repeat, NOT look out the front window while i am driving. But, not everyone headed my warning.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. i half expected to experience those 'Arggghhh' moments when personalities rub the wrong way after traveling together for 7 days but...was pleasantly surprised to find that there were none (at least not for me save a few times when i nearly dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on Al b/c he woke me up w/ his incessant snoring). Now if you asked my travel companions you might get a completely different response but i enjoyed a very relaxing and fun-filled trip w/ very little, if any, aggravations. We, of course, had our moments that all travel will present to travelers but none were travel companion(s) related.
i think we set the tone of our trip when during our very first venture we were in search of our hotel. Following the direcdtions of Kevin's "Magic Phone" (that would be an i-Phone w/ Internet access), we found ourselves first behind a biker's gang then driving through Denver's projects which was located precisely where the "Magic Phone" said our hotel should be. As we passed a few more questionable characters, the command came from the captain's chair to, "Lock'em UP!!"
We then used the 'old-fashioned' means of directions: we called them w/ a cell phone to get directions directly from them. A short time later, after breaking out of Denver's down-side, we arrived at our hotel which turned out to be out all by itself sitting just outside the parking lot of Denver's new football stadium.
In the end we all chipped in, Jason w/ pre-planning-hotel reservations-directions; Kevin with pre-planning-directions-on-the-spot directions w/ the Magic Phone; and Al with Jennifer and the Rockies game and inviting me in the first place; and my driving and planning the Jeep Tour.
All-in-all i think the highlights of our trip were up front and at the end; meeting Al's friend Jennifer in Denver and the Jeep Tour with our guides Roch (pron. Rock) and Jerry south of Santa Fe where the Rocky Mountains begin at Valle Caldera - the result of an old volcano. i will post the best of my pictures soon - as soon as i can figure out how to upload them.
(Let me know what you think of this post or what questions you have.)
ALL MY BEST!
Brian
Carpe Diem: Making the Most of Every Moment
Carpe Diem = Latin for Seize the Moment!
Maxbps = Maximum ME, Maximum Bits Per Second, My car, Maximum Basis Points, Maximum from/of MY Life!
Making the most of and figuring my life out one paragraph at a time!
Maxbps = Maximum ME, Maximum Bits Per Second, My car, Maximum Basis Points, Maximum from/of MY Life!
Making the most of and figuring my life out one paragraph at a time!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
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