Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

We as we were headed out of Taos New Mexico, Renae says, "Oh I didn't know we would end up that close to the Sand Dunes." I said oh really. She mentioned she hadn't been there since she was a kid and the slid from the sand into the water. "Oh by the way did you know you could board the dunes?" What the freak are we sitting around for then I said, will they rent boards there, should be have brought ours? So we decided to go see the Sand Dunes. I'd never been and it was only a 30 minute divert from our original travel plans. We got there and it was 360 degree of mountain views, how awesome. But they didn't rent boards there so we made plans to come back with our old snowboards some time in the next 2 years. We spent about 40 min running up and down the Dunes (ok maybe not the entire time running, but we spent 40 min on the Dunes).

Roswell (What the Hell) New Mexico

I was super excited to finally get to see Roswell after all the hype from RJ and the kids. We got there, parked right in front of the International Space Alien Museum and I payed the $5 per adult entrance fee for me and Renae (cuz I was the one that wanted to go). What a tremendously stupendously disappointment for me. I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I got wasn't that, I wanted my 10 dollars back. Newspaper clippings and paper mache didn't hit it. So I spent 30 dollars in the gift store buying alien lolly pops for the kids and a bunch of crap I really didn't need.

So then we walked up and down the street looking for possible space aliens and a good place to eat. Nope either of those appeared. So we walked back to the car and ate at Applebee's. Another disappointment. There water tasted like it was from Mars. The waitress took our order while smacking gum and I had to go to the bartender (yes just like Beaujo's) to get different drinks. We left a .70 cent tip and ran (literally) from Applebee's fearing that the waitress would chase us down and throw the tip on the car like Idaho Springs. We were laughing the entire way to the gas station. At least it wasn't 110 degrees like it was in Texas, it was only 92.

I did get to see a tarantula crossing the road. We turned a U'y and tried to get back to take pictures but it had already gone. On the trip from Texas to Sante Fe (where we stayed the night) we saw: antelope, hawks, deer, tarantula, two suicidal birds that nearly hit the windshield, ground squirels, 2 Penske trucks (Renae's traveling good luck charm, a snake, and a couple of other animals that I can't recall now.

Things we didn't see: Area 51, alien life forms, space ships, good service, good water, and open stores.

Swimming in San Angelo

Swimming at the Rodeway Inn in the middle of the afternoon while it's 102. 

New Jeep

This last weekend Renae and I went and picked up my jeep that I just bought. The guy I bought it from is a big Avalanche fan, hence the stickers and plates, I think I'll keep it a while. I bought it for backpacking and hunting so it won't get used very often. For you car buffs out there it's a 86 CJ7 straight 6 285 with 31 inch tires, a tow package, a 2 1/2 inch lift kit and winch. 

Open Track Meet

We put Katie and Kaleb in the first open track meet. Here are some pictures.

Camping on the Grand Mesa

View from Atkinson Lake the morning of the 7th.

Me and Zeus "fishing" on Atkinson Lake on the 6th. In my defense it was 50 degrees and the wind was blowing 30 miles per hour.

Renae checking out her balance on a downed tree.

Picture of our campsite on the Grand Mesa.

This past weekend we decided to head up to the Grand Mesa and do a little hiking and camping. It was quite the little adventure with falling snow, blowing wind, and ATV's, but no fish. We were going to head up on Friday but after a stressful day and wind advisories we decided to head up first thing Saturday morning. What a beautiful morning. We got up there around 10 and started figuring where we wanted to camp. This trip we went up the Colbran side of the Mesa, lot less people. We found a good camp spot, although after hiking around, found many many more campsites should we come back. We set up camp and took off for a hike up the road, across an open field of stink weed, and saw lots of wonderful things. Some of the early flowers are in bloom and it was very pretty. We stopped for lunch after 3 miles of hiking and I cooked spaghetti and meatballs. Then we headed back to camp which was two miles back. We took a short nap, although I'm sure Renae would say differently cause I kept waking her up (I was so exhausted I couldn't sleep, so I kept moving around the tent). So we got up and walked over to the lake and went "fishing". I don't think any of the lakes on the Mesa have fish in them this year because this is the third time I've gone and not even one nibble. I was freezing my butt off and Renae kept saying it's not that cold. We went back to camp and tried to start a fire in the fire pit, but it just smoldered with an occasional flame. I cooked on the ole Coleman camp stove and we went to the tent at 630pm. This is the second time we've used the new car camping tent. It is about 1/2 mesh, so on a cold evening with blowing wind it was quite cold. We had the dogs covered up, and all of our clothes on just to keep warm. We both woke up around 1am and had to go to the bathroom and it was like 30 degrees warmer outside than it was when we went to bed. How crazy. We went back to the tent and slept till morning. We tried the fishing thing again but to no avail, although the water was much calmer at 7am. We got back to the tent and packed up and headed into Colbran. Ate some breakfast and had a good time listening to the locals. It's a pretty nice town.