Fear the Caribou, er Deer?

The NBA Finals start tonight. I guess there's a handful of people I know who are excited about it. 

The Milwaukee Bucks are taking on the Phoenix Suns and that's all I know about that. This is a Boston Celtics house. And that's only two-thirds of the human population. Me... I know nothing.

Well I do know the Bucks have a least one catch phrase or motto or hoopla: Fear the Deer. 

So I immediately thought of the real "fear the dear" signs in Alaska. But those were for caribou. Or in this case, a deer packing some extra!

Also in this non-Bucks house... we are grateful we (again, not me at all) mowed the grass yesterday. Today, in the hour after work alone, we got 1 inch of rain. And we'll get more as the overhead faucet in the sky turns on and off repeatedly tonight. That's our excitement.

But yes, for all you Bucks fans – and I know there are more than a handful of you – good luck! Go Bucks! #fearthedeer and stuff.

Wild West Warning Signs

 

When people tell you to watch for signs, you really should. Even though I just created the one above, something tells me, it may be warranted. Oh the reality of work re-entry after a nice vacation!

We did see our share of warning signs out West. Some typical, some scary and some entertaining...

You know you're in the wild west when you see this! (Actually in Black Bart's restaurant, but worth a chuckle nonetheless.) Speaking of horses...

If you love horses, like you'd see in any cowboy movie, there were a lot of places with marked and unmarked trails for riding. This one was a steep, rocky, uneven trail that Carter and I couldn't imagine attempting to navigate with a horse or bicycle. Crazy.

This was just a warning that John Wayne or Clint Eastwood could come galloping down the hill and around the cactus. So keep an eye out!

Not to be confused with horses, but there were mules, too. You can see from their forward ears and silhouette of a rider looking like Alice from the Brady Bunch Grand Canyon episode. Just sayin'. By the way, the mule rides are not available until May, otherwise we'd have been all over that.

And this sign just warned us of a political convention up ahead. Or filming of another Jackass movie??

Then there was the wildlife I actually wanted to see... like big, bad elk!

There was even one sign warning of elk for the next 30 miles. Do you think we'd see one? No.

Not even these fat ones on their way to a Weight Watchers meeting in the Grand Canyon.

The animals I am glad we did not see were the snakes, scorpions and sunscreen boy.

Especially glad we stayed on the trail and did not encounter the clown making balloon animals! (Or something.)

Not everything was about animals...

Here you just figure you better hold your horses... or someone else will!

What don't cars like? Heat AND elevation. Since we were climbing, drivers had to be careful about overheating engines on the way up and overheating brakes on the way down. Our highest elevation of the trip was 8,000+ feet, which is 4 times the highest point of elevation in Wisconsin. (In case you read this blog to actually learn something.)

Loved these signs. First, you gotta love towns named Mystic and Hog Wash! Secondly, wouldn't it suck to lose your drone over the Grand Canyon? Pretty much no way you'd get it back. Ever.

I found this "no rock climbing" sign amusing because there is no apparent place to even get a foothold to begin your ascent! But people will try anything. I mean anything...

The only reason they have warning signs anywhere is that someone already tried it – and it didn't turn out well. So whoever drank the toilet water in Arizona, thank you. You spared me a bad decision about hydrating.

And it gave me the perfect sign to signal vacation is in the toilet and I must go set my alarm for work tomorrow.

Signing off.

Rocky Mountain Memories

After sorting through hundreds of photos from our long weekend in Colorado, here is a vacation scrapbook in a nutshell. A rather large nutshell, but you get the picture (or pictures) anyway...

Exit to Pete and Dawn's place!

Our lodging for the weekend! You can see the mountains and Denver from every room.

View off the deck of our bedroom.

Our co-host Rudy.

Our co-hostess Annie. They. Are. So. Fluffy!!

Walking the dogs down (and back up) the Apex Trail. That's the one Dawn and I ran later that weekend.

Time to rest for the evening while the guys play!

Evenings were made for cribbage, which these two have been playing together since high school. Isn't that board beautiful? Pete made that. Nice!

OK, I did have one trip to Wal-Mart... Only because it was so pretty with its log cabin look and metal roof. (Looked the same inside, by the way.)

Bison Lookout near their house but we were unsuccessful.

The only buffalo I saw. Dang.

Speaking of Buffalo... Our first view of the Rockies came while visiting Buffalo Bill's grave and museum site, just up the road from "our home."

His grave marker.

 

I guess people make wishes there and toss coins. Maybe they're wishing they don't get caught by a posse and strung up somewhere? Who knows?

Beautiful sight for at least one person we know! Just down the "hill" from Lookout Mountain.

Other interesting sights: Haven't seen a speed limit sign with "darkness hours" on it for a long time.

Driving by a pot shop. No, we did not stop.

Saw plenty of deer and elk, thankfully not on the road. The "No Bicycling" sign is significant since we saw bicyclists just about everywhere, including these ultra-athletes pedaling up the mountain roads. Wow. Crazy.

 Speaking of elk... Saw plenty at Elk Fest in Estes Park, as I previously mentioned. Check out the gang hanging around downtown!

After Elk Fest, we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park. View from a prairie in the canyons.

Hairpin turns were fine as long as there was a guard rail!

Due to snow-covered roads, we were limited on how far up we could go in Rocky Mountain National Park. Still could take some pretty pictures and selfies, though.

The UW-Whitewater grad is very serious about people his sweatshirt. Ask him about it. :)

Our hitching post.

 

Funky clouds over the mountains.

Trees can grow out of rocks but Robyn can't grow anything!

Just as we were leaving the park, this big guy was sitting by the exit.

He stopped traffic... for photographers anyway! How cool is that?

When we trekked over to Evergreen on Sunday, we stopped at Little Bear, a bar allegedly frequented by Willie Nelson.

The Red-Headed Stranger did not make an appearance that day. But we did see lots of license plates (which Carter the collector would love) ...

And bras... hanging from stage where previous patrons had let loose.

Checking out the the Red Rocks concert arena area.

It's like we are in a Flintstones episode.

Left-side seating with stage below.

Right-side seating with stage in lower left. How funky.

Appropriately named Table Mountain in the distance.

From this sideline view, you can see Denver way in the background, too.

I mean waaaay off.

Caught the end of a free concert that day.

Fred and Wilma.

Besides running down and up the mountain that day, we had steps to deal with here and at our next stop!

The Mother Cabrini Shrine was a statue of Jesus located up on a hill. A very, very tall hill.

A few "rest stops" along the way.

Almost there...

Beautiful.

Our last day... All aboard for Pikes Peak!!

Heading up the mountain.

Pretty scenery on the way up.

OMG. Where does the track go??

Whatever you do, don't look down!

Quit leaning to the left. I don't want us to tip over now!

Vegetation just sort of stops as we near the summit.

Still pretty views though.

Two other trains on their way down are coming our way. What do we do??

Give the conductor a timeout in the Switch Box until she gets them on the right track.

View of sheep or mountain goats or something while we wait.

View out "my" side was prettier.

Jim and I were glad we didn't drive up. There are 150 hairpin turns and it would take just as long getting up the mountain. Plus, we'd probably burn out the brakes on the way down!

We made it! Thank you, Little Engine that Could!

Our fellow train passengers took a picture for us. Should have waited for the school kids to get done first.

Oh well, good thing there was another sign in back.

Did you know this view inspired the "America the Beautiful" song? We didn't either.

The view up top. Don't ask what we're looking at. We were just trying not to get blown off the Peak.

Chilly with snow on the ground!

Minus 14 degrees with the windchill. Why did I even bother curling my hair that morning?

Another view from up top.

One final pretty look on the way back down.

Random ridge of rocks that I thought was cool. I suspect from an airplane, it looks like a dinosaur napping.

 

Going through rocks to get where we need to go! Funky.

Almost back to Pete and Dawn's and we see this just down the road from their house.

 

This dude peeked out from behind them and strutted his stuff for the camera.

Then, just like when I try to take a picture of Carter, he was uncooperative and stuck his tongue out at me. The nerve!

I much prefer this "wild" animal. By the end of our stay, Rudy stopped growling at us and let me snuggle with him on the couch. He's. So. Fluffy!

I already miss Pete and Dawn... and the kids!! They. Are. So. Fluffly!!

And one final look from our bedroom deck. Goodnight and goodbye from Denver!