Nice day

Here we are again at the top of the hill. We are lucky to have another
nice day! You can see the tractor and some of our tools in the
background. You can also see Joe and Orion behind me. I am sure the
doggies will have fun today!

Bunny in bunny...

Here we are on the property again...Joe is doing some work and Anne
and I are doing non-strenuous work, like taking pictures:-) When we
were still in California, Anne had the guy off the I-215 that makes
metal sculptures work up a bunny that is based on my likeness. We
brought him with and Joe installed him right on the top of the hill.
When you drive by on HWY 54 from below, it looks like the bunny is
floating above the earth - very cool! I like how he turned out. Looks
like he is running. He even has shoes!

Tractor!

Hi all - just arrived at the property to check out all the work that
Joe has been doing all the weekends for the last few months. Here I
am, sitting on the new tractor! It is pretty neat - it is bigger than
a regular riding lawn mower, but smaller than a regular tractor. Just
perfect for our property as it can do a lot of work (mowing, hauling
debris, and small grading) but it is small enough to be maneuverable
around all the trees. There is even a cup holder I can sit in! I like
tractors!

Little Joe - Bunny Fan!

Here we are at Joe's Mom's house to visit and have some supper. We are
done eating and looking through Joe's baby books. Several times we
have cone upon bunnies that Joe drew when he was little. This one is a
cool yellow one! Joe really liked magic, and still does...sometimes he
drew rabbits coming out of a hat. I guess Joe always liked bunnies and
was destined to have one (me!) someday!

Mississippi River - Iowa/Illinois

Here I am, gazing out on the Mississippi River as we cross over from
Iowa to Illinois. Neat sunlight and blue skies. Apparently, there are
some clouds and rain ahead by the time we get to Orland Hills, but we
don't really see too much in the way of clouds ahead. We will see!

50,001...

Just outside of Lincoln, NE and the Hummer rolled over to 50,000
miles! It was a hard to get the shot, so we got it at 50,001. It is an
awesome ride!

Fat Dogs - Part II

Here we are on a refuel break in Western Nebraska. We happened to stop
at another Fat Dogs gas station. Good to know we are 'nowhere' (look
above the sign).

I am pretty sure we have an old post out there somewhere where we held
up Orion to take a shot with me:-) Very windy here - Orion needs to
learn NOT to pee into the wind!

Colorado/Nebraska border

Here I am, crossing into Nebraska. Snapped a photo at 80 mph...If you
look carefully, you can see two red and white pillars on either side
of me on the side of the road. I think these are to close the
road...we've been down this interstate when it has been windy and
snowy, so I can see why! We are actually experiencing it now - as
soon as we crossed into the state, the wind started blowing harder,
blowing us sideways and tumbleweeds started flying across the road.
Nebraska can be very treacherous!

Leaving the Front Range

Got some breakfast at Einstein bagel and on the way out of town. We
are east of Denver now, looking back on the snowy mountains of the
front range. We won't be seeing any big snowy mountains for awhile,
but neat fall foliage awaits us! I love fall! It is my favorite
season!

New Tilt-up in Broomfield

Here we are hitting the road on Wednesday morning. We stayed in
Broomfield, CO (a suburb between Denver and Boulder) for the last two
nights at the aloft hotel. Very nice, modern, and new hotel that takes
pets! The doggies loved it there...

Broomfield was an interesting place. We learned that it was formed
recently over a number years by annexing more and more land.
Everything is new and there are a lot of technology jobs/companies
here. At first, the city was in four different counties and in 2001,
they formed there own county. How interesting is that!?!

Right across the street from the hotel someone is building a new
tilt-up structure of some kind. Behind me you can see the workers
lifting a piece into place. Over two days it was neat to see the
ground go from nothing to take the shape of a building so quickly!
Hopefully our home will go up as quickly in the coming years! I like
to see things get built.

Dream House, Boulder

Here we are north of Boulder. We just finished a hike in the foothills
southwest of Boulder with the doggies. Very nice trails here! We must
have hiked for over an hour!

Since we were in Boulder, we thought we'd try to find the home of
Christopher Herr, the architect that designed and built his own modern
place that was the topic of one of the first seasons on Dream House
that Joe, Anne, and I watched on HGTV. All we knew is that it was
north of Boulder and we remembered it was on a slope that had just a
few trees. Lo and behold, we found it! I like the Dream House show on
HGTV and new modern buildings!

Johnson Tunnel

Going through the Johnson Tunnel! This is my favorite tunnel! The
eastbound is the Johnson Tunnel and the westbound is the Eisenhower
Tunnel. It was hard to get a shot this time. I tried to get the
temperature reading in the rear view mirror in the shot - it was 34
degrees. Winter is fast approaching! And there is a crazy twinkle in
my eye on this shot.

So I didn't realize it, but the Johnson the tunnel is named after is
Edwin Johnson. He was a governor and US senator for Colorado from the
30's and 50's. Neat to know three interesting facts...

Rabbit Valley pit stop

Here we are again at Rabbit Valley. There is a very neat 1.6 mile loop
trail around some sites that arceologists dig up several artifacts,
mainly dinosaurs! There was a neat exhibit and a restroom not even a
quarter mile down the trail, so we all got out for a break to stretch
our legs. Here I am with Astro and Orion checking things out. Really
nice out today - sunny and 62 degrees. I love unexpected stops that
turn out to be very cool!

Rabbit Valley!

Here we are at Rabbit Valley. I am pretty sure I've blogged this
before, but feel the urge to do so again...it is just a mile after you
cross into Colorado from Utah...so neat that things are named after
rabbits!

Double Arch

Double Arch, coming right at cha! Another neat arch. This one is
adjacent to Turret Arch. It is like Zorro's mask...neat!

Turret Arch

Checking out the arches now. Here I am at Turret Arch. Joe is taking
some cool pictures of the tree at the base of the larger arch while I
blog this. Arches are so cool!

Arches National Park

Here we are on Columbus Day at Aches National Park. I'm at the
visitor's center where there are some more cool metal creature
sculptures.

We stayed in Moab, UT last night at the Super 8 motel because they
allow doggies. It wasn't a good experience for us...it was older and
there were cigarette and blood stains on one of the blankets. Then the
TV went out. And then Orion went crazy sniffing on one of the beds -
which was a little scary thinking what it was he was he might be
sniffing...needless to say, we decided to check out early and will
head to either Gand Junction or Boulder tonight. I love adventures.

Bryce Canyon - Sunset Point

Another shot of Bryce Canyon, this time from Sunset Point. This
overlooks the same area as Bryce Point, but to the north of Bryce
Point. What a neat place to watch the sun set! Now off to drive to
Moab, around five hours!

Bryce Canyon video

Also took a cool video of the view of Bryce Canyon from Bryce Point.
It is almost almost a 360 degree view of awesome formations, but I had
to walk across the narrow ridge to get all sides of the canyon. If you
look closely, you can see Joe in his red jacket taking some pictures
among the other tourists. Very awesome view here!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Here we are at Bryce Canyon National Park. We are at the Bryce Point
lookout near sunset. There are so many neat formations down below! We
almost didn't come here as we have a long drive to still get to Moab
tonight, but it was so worth it! We should have skipped Zion and come
straight here! I love Bryce Canyon!

Red Canyon

Here I am about 20 miles away from Bryce Canyon. Just on the side of
the road there were some neat formations. The area is called Red
Canyon - which makes perfect sense as the rocks are about as red as
they get! It really makes the sky such an unreal color of blue. This
is way cooler than Zion Canyon!

Weeping Rock, part II

Here is another video of Weeping Rock, taken from further back into
the overhang. All of a sudden, there was a short window that most of
the tourists disappeared, so we took advantage of that. You can see
Joe taking some neat timed exposures of the water/rock. You can also
see cool plants growing in the cracks of the overhang above me.
Beautiful blue skies and perfect weather today.

Weeping Rock

Here we are at the one stop we made in Zion at the Weeping Rock. It is
a crazy overhanging rock that has a large amount of water draining out
of some fractured bedrock that is above the overhang. It creates a
cool weeping waterfall that you can view from under the shelter of the
overhanging rock. This was the only cool thing in Zion...we wouldn't
recommend spending time here, if your time is limited, as we found
that just driving on the main highways is much cooler. Weeping Rock =
cool; Zion = nothing special.

Ringtail

Here I am at the Visitor Center at Zion National Park. There are cool
metal creatures outside near the area you get on the shuttle bus to
tour the park. The park people don't let you drive into the park
(unless you are disabled), so you have to take the bus.

This creature is a ringtail. He is pretty cool. Our eyes are very similar...

Zion National Park

Here we are on our first major stop at Zion National Park! Nice day,
57 degrees and sunny. I like all the neat colored rocks here...

Metal Horse Sculpture

Driving through Las Vegas now. There is road construction on the I-15,
so the freeway is pretty much stopped for about 20 miles! We decided
to get off and travel on surface streets on the west side of town -
very bad drivers in Las Vegas! And very tiresome to run into that when
on a long roadtrip!

As we were pulling off the interstate, we snapped this shot of a cool
metal horse sculpture on the off ramp. There are several creatures
around town including rams and turtles. Very neat and three
dimensional.

Cajon pass

Cajon Pass, here we come! Anne got me a new hat for me to ride in -
pretty neat. We are going to take our time on this trip. So far the
plan is: St. George, UT; Moab, UT (2 nights so we can check out
canyonlands national park); Boulder, CO; Lincoln, NE; then Chicago.
yeah!

Leaving for our road trip

Here I am in Riverside at Angie's place. Joe is here. He was able to
cone out to California and get me and Anne and the doggies for awhile
- at least until Anne has the baby (did I mention we will be having an
addition to our family:-) There is a chance we could come back, we
will see...I like road trips! Especially in the hummer!

Strange creature!

Here I am heading up I-15 near Ontario, going with Joe and Anne to
Target regional office and we came upon this interesting creature...I
like interesting creatures!