Badger? Wolverine? Big Foot? Swamp Ape?

Remember that mystery creature Joel and I saw on our camping trip? Maybe this is it!!!

http://www.gazette.com/articles/wolverine-56853-colorado-wildlife.html

We should alert the authorities that there are now TWO wolverines in the state- maybe we'll make the news!

Friday

Another work week for Joel is coming to an end. This week has been decently uneventful...his work has been going well, and I even got to eat lunch with him yesterday and meet his crew! Wednesday night, we had our friend from State that is here doing the Focus on the Family course over for supper. She brought a friend with her, and we had a great time visiting with them.

Joel and I went on two field trips yesterday. When he got home from work, we walked up to Palmer Park. This is a 730 acre park in the middle of the city, and it is only about a mile from our house. We walked up (and uphill) to the park and hiked to the top of a rock and had some great views of the city. The park has a playground and sports fields, but most of it is undeveloped and has hiking and mountain biking trails.

When we got home, we packed up a picnic supper and headed to Manitou Springs. We found on peakradar.com (local calendar of events) that a brass band concert was being held in a park in the town of Manitou Springs, and since the weather was so nice, we thought we'd give it a shot! Little did we know, Manitou (as the locals call it, and it is pronounced manitoo) is a hoppin' little place, and it took us about 20 minutes to find a parking spot. We were able to hear about 3 songs from the brass band before the concert was over, but it was a nice outing and we were able to walk around the cute town a bit.
Joel checking out the picnic basket.
Downtown Manitou Springs.

We were alos able to see where the Cog Railroad (train to the top of Pike's Peak) and Barr Trail (hiking to the top of Pike's Peak) begin. We also got an upclose view of "The Incline." We've only been introduced to the Manitou Incline this week. We just thought it was an old scar on hte mountain leftover from some mining operation, but it is also a trail you can hike. At some points, the slope is 50 degrees.
A view of the Incline from downtown Manitou.

A couple of images from manitouincline.net:



We'll add this to our list of things to do when our bodies get used to being hypoxic.

Not sure what the weekend holds for us yet...Joel has to work for about 1.5 hours Saturday and Sunday mornings, but he'll be done by 8 or so, so we'll see!

I'm back! I had a great week at home, got my Mississippi veterinary license, and flew back out west Friday night.

Not much happened here while I was gone...rain, chilly weather, and work for Joel!

We visited Village Seven Presbyterian Church again yesterday and attended a Sunday school class. We really enjoyed it and met a few couples. Oddly enough, most of the people we met had some type of Southern connection- this really is a melting pot!

Here are some Colorado Springsisms to enjoy today:

• http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10527645

• According to Wikipedia, Orville Redenbacher went to Colorado College (in Colorado Springs).
  

• Serbian-born American physicist Nikola Tesla built a laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899 for his experiments in the wireless transmission of electrical power. The site of the lab, the present intersection of Foote and Kiowa streets, is now a residential area.

A new (used) car, internet, and multiple trips to Monument, all in one day!

(pretend like you're reading this on Friday, because I wrote it Friday in the Houston airport and I'm just now getting around to posting!)

Joel’s week two of work has almost come to an end! On Wednesday morning, a couple of hours after I dropped him off at work, he called to ask me to bring him some extra gear. Joel left the house in a fleece, Carhartt jacket, baseball hat, and hiking boots…I had to take him waterproof pants, a fleece hat, a waterproof hat, and fleece gloves. Remember that this is early June!!! But it was sooo cold and foggy the extra layers were certainly justified. The local news said that Pike’s Peak has received about 2-3 feet of snow this week….that is FEET…and in a WEEK. June, huh?

Thankfully, that wasn’t the most exciting part of the week though! Thursday afternoon, I met our car seller at the CO DMV and we finally got our Subaru! It will be perfect, and it drives great! Joel let me drive it to meet Aunt Bev in Monument so that I could have my turn before I left for the week. Speaking of Monument…we met my aunt for dinner and afterwards, I headed north with her to Denver and Joel headed back south to Colorado Springs. Just as we neared our destination, Joel called to inform me he didn’t have keys to the house! So, we each turned around and met back up one exit away from where we had dinner. Since I’ve been taking Joel back and forth to work for two weeks, he hasn’t even been carrying keys with him, so when I turned over the Subaru keys, we didn’t even think about house keys. Oh well! We’ll know that stretch of I-25 well now!

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Joel’s work rig:

Our new (used) vehicle:

At home:

I’ll be home (Mississippi) for the next week as I take my Mississippi state vet board exam, so I won’t have much exciting news from my end…but we have internet at our house now, so Joel may can post some updates!

When in Rome, do as the Romans...

...when in Colorado, buy a Subaru?

Yes, we're joining the club of Subaru owners in Colorado Springs. We knew we'd be needing a second car pretty soon, but our trip up the mountain this past weekend made it abundantly clear that the second car would have to be a little tougher than the Contour. So, we scoured craig's list and found just what we were looking for!



We'll be picking it up this evening (we hope)...which means I won't have to wake up at 5:30 to take Joel to work tomorrow!

A typical CO weekend?

The cold, rainy weather is back, but we had a few perfect days in between! Joel’s finished his first week of work on Saturday. They don’t normally work on Saturdays, but the rain and Memorial Day holiday put the company a bit behind on maintaining the properties, so Joel worked Tuesday through Saturday!

Friday night, we had a little night on the town and went to eat at a great Greek restaurant in Old Colorado City- we were able to eat outside and stopped for ice cream afterwards. This is the part of town where we ate our second day in Colorado Springs, and it is a neat old area of town with lots of shops and restaurants.

Even though Joel had to work, we tried to make the most of our first real weekend, and went on our first of (hopefully) many Colorado camping trips. One of Joel’s co-workers gave us a general idea of where we should go, so when Joel got home Saturday afternoon, we packed up and headed up the mountain. Our poor little Ford Contour didn’t know what hit her as the road got steeper and steeper and quickly turned to dirt.

Nonetheless, we made it to a spot that looked good for camping, and had a great time! Check out the view from our tent:

It was a beautiful weekend! We didn’t wake up until 9:00 on Sunday morning, and after packing up camp, we hiked up the road for a couple of hours until a storm started rolling in and we decided to heed the warnings we’d heard about lightning strikes in the mountains and headed back to the car. On the way back down, Joel was walking in front of me and jumped about 10 feet sideways when he looked over and found this figure staring at us:

We spent the next few minutes watching this deer graze through the woods. We ran across some other creature that remains a mystery to us. I even got out my Complete Field Guide to North American Wildlife when we got home, and we still don’t have a clue what animal we saw dart off through the woods as we rounded a turn. It was mainly black with long hair and a long hairy fluffy tail…it was bigger than a skunk, low to the ground, and sort of hopped like a rabbit. Maybe it was a baby Big Foot?

The quick camping trip was a perfect escape that made Joel’s one day off feel a little more like a full weekend.

Not much else to report here…I’ll be headed home Friday to take my state board exams early next week, so I’ll be packing the freezer for Joel as this week goes on.

A great local restaurant we found Sunday night, and there is a location right around the corner:

Sunshine!

We finally have nice warm weather- the bait and switch must be over! Yesterday started sunny and warm. I even had to take my sweater off to eat my breakfast on the back steps at 10:00 a.m., and previously we've had fleece on 24 hours a day. It didn't even rain yesterday, and today is stacking up to be more of the same! The Air Force Academy had its graduation yesterday, and my aunt called to let me know there would be "a flyover" around 12:45. I drove north a bit to find an open area to watch, and little did I know that flyover really means 30 minutes of fighter jets. It was pretty amazing:


Joel's work is going well! He did a bit more hands-on work yesterday, and the nice weather for me meant things were a bit warm for him. He is slowly getting acquainted with the properties that he is in charge of, and he is falling into the groove of things!

A few Colorado Springs idiosyncracies we've noted:

• What we'd consider a poorly maintained lawn is considered "native" here
• Rocks are an acceptable substitute for grass
• LOTS of people here smoke, which is especially surprising since this is the fittest city in America
• You have to find your own garbage collection service here...this really irks me, as it is one of the most inefficient things I've ever run across. The city doesn't do trash collection, so there are tens of companies. Not only is it inefficient in terms of trucks driving around the neighborhood, but I've had to call all of these companies to compare prices and packages (yes, there are different levels of trash removal...2 cans, 2 cans + 2 bags, their can, your can, recycling, no recycling, and the list goes on!). Early this morning, I just decided to throw a couple of bags on the curb to see if anyone picked them up....they're still sitting there...
  

Well, I'm at the local library that is just a short distance from our house. I'm taking advantage of their free wi-fi and a good selection of DVDs to rent with my new library card!

A few more views (sorry if all the pictures seem to look the same!):