Power Outage

Here's my Lift Master!.

As promised - Strange & Weird!

We ran across this display on the eastern side of the Continental Divide.  The dirt side road was marked private and do not enter but we couldn't resist getting a picture.  What's the story behind this effort??

Two Continental Divide Passes in one day!

At 12,095 feet elevation.  Sorry about the porta potti....Pro Challenge Cycling coming to town tomorrow and there will be lots of people at the summit to cheer them on.
We chose Hagerman Pass to return at 11.095 feet.  It's a 4 wheeler off road pass and quite slow and a real bouncer and jiggler.  Notice that there still snow in the background.  This pass was used by miners and others looking for a better life back in the 1880's traveling by horseback, wagon or foot.
The Continental Divide separates water from going east to the Atlantic, or west to the Pacific Ocean.

Totally STRESSED OUT! Featuring Gunnar.

Boating at Ruedi Reservoir

Coming in for take out at the boat ramp.  That's Patti waiting with the trailer in the water to hook us up to the Tahoe.
It was a lovely day to just hang out, listen to music and munch down on Patti's gormet creations, watch the sailing regatta and enjoy.

The Bureau of Reclamation built the Ruedi Dam and Reservoir in 1968.  Ruedi is part of the Fryingpan- Arkansas Project which diverts water from the head waters of the Fryingpan and the Roaring Fork Rivers to the Front Range (Denver).  The dam is 285 feet high and 1,042 feet long and impounds 102,000 acre feet of water with a surface area of 997 acres.

Use your imagination

Bruce and I were out on the deck just chatting away at near sundown when he just pointed to the area by the deck and the vertical post.  I said "what?".  Turned out to be a 200 pound bear just looking up at us, as stunned seeing us as we were seeing him.  He turned around and ran down our access to the river path, jumped in (splash) and swam/waded to the other side.  Sorry I could not get a picture but it all happened so fast.  This pic just illustrates how close(3') he was to us.
He was very  healthy and obviously non-aggressive.  We see Yogi, Blackberry and now Boo-Boo 6 of   7  days.

Ducky Derby

Annual Ducky Derby in Aspen on the Roaring Fork to benefit local charities.  We adopted 3 ducks for new main sail for the Chicken boat.  Thousands were released and nonetheless, we did not win the 1M grand prize, nor the 10K prize that would have bought us a new main sail.  Betting on ducks is a lot like betting in Vegas, only worse. 

A Different Kind of Bear....

Our newest little hanger on-er

This little bat is only about 3 inches long.  Bruce found him when he was out spraying the cracks in the logs for spiders.  At 11pm, he's long gone for his nightly insect feeding.   We like bats here.  Very cute, don't you think?
Depending upon the species, most hibernate for the winter when there is no insect food source, and some migrate.  Can't tell if this is a horned bat or not.

Romney stop in our little town of Basalt

Lines outside our little Basalt High School waiting to get in.  The gymnasium was all ready full with 650 people.  We were more than 750 waiting outside.  Since there were sooo many people waiting outside, they set up an audio feed out on the lawn.  We were hoping to have a cameo appearance of Romney but it didn't happen.  They send out R-governors Virginia: McDonnell and  Utah: Herbert.  They left via the bike trail that runs from Aspen to Glenwood Springs in Black SUV's.  We did get a peek of him when some nice person parted the curtains for a five seconds glance but not enough time to get the camera on. 
The place was jammed, and probably the biggest "event" Basalt High School will ever host.

1st ANNIVERSARY for the new knees

August 18, 2011 after replacement on August 1st.

August 1, 2012

B