The Continuing Story of Bob Travis

Somewhere west of Rye, CO...













We enjoy visitors and it seems we have a lot of friends who come visit us in our various locales. One of the more regular/loyal is Davey who we met quite by accident.

Several years ago while living in Sarasota, FL another friend was coming to visit...we got a call
"We're at the border."
"Good to hear. Did you say 'we'?"
"Yeah, I brought two friends."
"Cool."
And so it turned out that Davey was one of them. While on that trip he spent bits of free time on the computer messaging some chick. Not long after the initial visit, Davey comes to visit once again, with Rachael. They visit us onboard our sailboat, Davey has crewed with us for several days, we've thrown him from a waverunner/tube and given black eye/concussion, and this time he came to visit for a three day week-day weekend. His wife Rachael and son Griffin stayed behind, travel with a 1-year old must be rough. But, we've seen the evolution from the initial awkward IM's to the marriage and birth...and all from thousands of miles away. The great thing about good friends and family is that distance does not matter, a good relationship is good regardless of the miles.

By this point you may be asking yourself "If Davey visits then who the hell is Bob Travis?" This is where the good old-fashioned weirdness comes in. After a good night's sleep sans 1-year old, Davey gets up...
"I feel like a new man."
"Who are you then?" asks Heather
After a brief pause... "I'm Bob Travis."

Hence, our Adventures With boB...palindromes are cool.

Bishop's Castle is one of our favorite places to take company. It is a one man project in the mountains and if you're lucky you'll run into Jim Bishop himself working on some feature of the castle, moat, or such and he'll give you a full blown, full volume rant on some news of interest or politics. I won't direct you to a particular website but if you Google Bishop's Castle you'll find a bevy of conflicting information and some fantastic pictures. Oh, look, here's a couple of them now...












































While in the area we also hiked part of Mt. St. Charles. We had no intention of making it to the peak but hiked for about an hour and made it to probably 10,500' or so and headed back to the vehicle for lunch. It was a gorgeous hike and we'll head back soon and shoot for the peak. It's about a 5-hour hike so we have to plan and prepare well. While in town, we also took Davey & the atv up to Penrose Commons and spent some time buzzing around the trails.

Three days and a few brain cells later, Bob returned home (safe and sound, no injury or seasick...) to his wife and child rested and relaxed and ready to take on a 1-year old who is learning to walk and talk. He'll (they'll) be back. And it will be fun.

What's New In Our World

One of our Bullock's Orioles with an identity crisis...










Life continues on and I just don't know where the days go. Summer is just fantastic...warm days and cool nights for sleeping. Although we've been in the 90's on a regular basis, almost every afternoon the black clouds come tearing down from the mountains and with them come a fantastic breeze and occasionally rain. Somewhere to the north of us gets rain on a regular basis but almost daily for us the winds ramp up and the clouds drop the temps from 90's down anywhere from the 60's to the 80's...it is fantastic to feel thirty degrees shaved off in a half an hour. That is when we retire to the front porch after grilling dinner for a little sit down.

Speaking of that...

The front porch is where our 'feeding station' resides. The birds love it and the word is out. Multiple hummingbirds visit the feeder as do the orioles, as can be seen above. The suet feeder is attractive to most everyone else including sparrows, finches, quail, and so on. The quail now have babies, little two inch critters running about. The birds are becoming accustomed to us sitting on the porch and are beginning to visit the feeders regardless of our presence.
Thankfully, we've found that the rattlesnakes are not that bold. While doing some landscaping today, a small (18") rattlesnake came out of the bushes and promptly turned around and went another direction. That was a much appreciated gesture. But it's a good reminder for us to be vigilant.

Farmer's Market

Pueblo holds its Farmer's Market on Thusday from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm from late June to late August. Along the Arkansas river, vendors set up and we enjoy. The riverwalk is lined with watermelon, tomatoes, squash, corn on the cob...all fresh and local. Other vendors sell homemade jellies and jams, local honey, and some fabulous tamales. There's nothing like heading downtown to the Riverwalk after work and grabbing a few tamales, sitting on a bench and eating one hot and fresh, then shopping for the week's produce. There's not much better.



Historic Arkansas Riverwalk, downtown Pueblo, CO








Technology Plays Hide & Seek

We got a weird kick in the pants from technology... after a long period of resisting valiantly, we gave in and signed up for Facebook. Not long after, we were flooded with people we hadn't been in contact with for ages...one of them being B's old roommate from about 13 years ago. He and his family just so happened to be vacationing about half an hour away and so we got together for a cookout. It was fantastic to catch up and after such a long time of not seeing one another, it was like old times...easy conversation and lots of laughs.

What's Next???

Next week, weather permitting, we plan another trip up into the wilderness. Somewhere east of Salida there is lots of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land where we can park and hike with no one else, pure wild. I'm sure we'll get lots of photo and video... to be posted soon

For now, I'll leave you with a very short clip of lightning from a storm a few nights ago...

June 22 Outing

We love outings. So, Sunday found us and a friend loading into the Escape Pod and heading West. About 20 minutes later, we made a turn north in Canon City (Canyon city is the way to pronounce it but I can't find the Mexican squiggly n...) about 10 minutes later, we turned off onto a steep incline of a BLM (Bureau of Land Management, read public lands) road.
For the next few hours we took the 4wd up and down, in and out, got out and hiked, drove further back into wilderness, got out and hiked some more... the entire day (once pulled off on BLM roads) we did not see another soul.
We saw the chimney rock (pictured above) off in the distance, unfortunately there was a rugged canyon between us and it, so this is about as close as we got. What a great day!
For unbroken wilderness like this to be less than half an hour away is wonderful. Colorado has 8.3 MILLION ACRES of public lands... free to hike, camp, fish, swim... they are there for us to enjoy...we do and will, for sure.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018999&id=1603875079&l=457a74e0a1 is a link to our photo album from the trip.

It was extraordinarily hot (near 100) but that really didn't phase us. The air conditioning in the Escape Pod (Ford Escape) kept us satisfied between stops. The rose quartz in this region is spectacular but nothing compared to the views that round every bend. The sounds coming from our vehicle must have been comparable to Fourth of July fireworks with all the sounds of "oooh" and "ahhhh" emanating quite frequently. We've learned to carry a cooler with water bottles and lots and lots of sunscreen. At 5,000 to 10,000+ ft of elevation it is easy to burn and especially the reflection from snow and water is deceptive.
We hiked, scrambled up and down rocks, and took tons of photos. Who could ask for a better day?

Formalities

We've missed our blog...it is amazing how therapeutic this thing can be. Silly enough, but true. For about four years we maintained postings on Yotblog.com www.yotblog.com/holdingpattern but now that we're no longer living on a sailboat it's sort of a moot point. After a few false starts on other sites, we've settled on blogger.com. But, I suppose the question begs to be answered "Who is this 'we'?" I'll cover the who, what, where, when, & why of it all...just be patient.
The we is Brian & Heather. We're both about as mid-30's as possible and fairly average in many ways...but we enjoy looking at life from a different angle (not necessarily the same angle every day, but just different angles than most.) We try to be happy and jolly but life tends to have a say in that; we try to be positive but will say critical things...we're human. As far as telling who is who, Heather is the pretty one and I am the wordy one. From time to time she will blog and it will be so noted in the title. There are two other members of our collective, both are cats with identity issues. Vevela (Samoan for Sunshine) and Takara (Japanese for Treasure) round out our little clan. They don't blog much but get referenced often.
We absolutely love the outdoors. From hiking and camping to sailing, snowboarding, skiing, off-road & ATV, and rock climbing to gardening and photography, we seem to like it all. Heather has not been sky diving but it is on the list. Thus abruptly concludes the "who" section of our presentation.
I suppose that leads to where...well, we're in Colorado. We live along the Front Range where the high plains prairie meets the mountains. Out the front window we can see 70+ miles on a good day across the prairie all the way to the Spanish Peaks (TaTa's de la Mundo) and out the back door we can see Pike's Peak and the fabulous spring/summer storms that roll across. I'm not going to be more specific than that on location, we don't want visitors. I will tell you that our house is right around 2,000 sq ft, open floor plan, we painted the east-facing bathroom flame orange to reflect the morning colors, and it absolutely glows. We have a therapist-style chair on our upstairs landing...there is no better therapy after a long day than sitting there and staring out across space and time, often it is nap inducing, for better or worse. We started a straw-bale garden but had some extreme issues with pH being way off...the peppers, herbs, and tomatoes are basically swimming in acid and languishing but the beans, peas, and lettuce seem to be thrilled with it. It's our first and last year with straw bales. Our plan is to accumulate supplies slowly and throughout the winter, build raised beds to go where the bales now sit. In an arid environment such as ours, the straw bales just do not condition properly and it is a real challenge to keep proper hydration...and a soaker hose will be much more useful in a raised bed design. You'll hear more and see pictures as things progress.
Last but not least, we enjoy comments and feedback...however, please keep it civil and at least moderately literate. If you don't like something said, don't flame us...comment, sure but please keep it decent enough so as not to be deleted. Guest blogs are also welcome, I have done multiple ( most recently on an abstract painting blog, the link is escaping me not, may post if I find) and we welcome any guest submissions. Contact for more info.

I need to be getting on to work... many more blogs will follow, lots of pictures, plenty of laughs, and maybe some tears...that remains to be seen.