Birthday and Deserts : 2024-04

To celebrate Kimberly's birthday, we had some cake and drove to Taos. The original plan was to fly a bit further, but it was super windy and Taos was a shorter drive. I hadn't been so it was nice to see and nice of Kimberly to compromise. I'm sure we'll make the original planned flight someday.

We found a pretty great room on the drive down and the hotel, The Taos Inn - or now the Historic Taos Inn, was a great spot. Right downtown, two places to eat and live music almost every day. We were lucky to get a suite in the new building. Apparently environment control is a big deal in the older buildings.

It was nice to walk around and see the 'art' scene. And we found a great Mexican restaurant, La Cueva Cafe. They don't have a lot of room, but the food was about as good as you can get! Above left is me listening to Kimberly's wisdom. On the right is a great picture - of her.

On the way back, we drove west for a bit to see the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It was very nice as was the scenery. You can walk back and forth on either side. If you want a rest area, bathrooms and local merchants, those are on the west side. We also saw some bighorns - both in the valley of the gorge and right along the road. They were neat to watch. We were surprised to see a baby with two males and no females in sight.

Since we had most of the day to drive back, we were looking for places of interest. This one was very cool and only because we saw it from the road. It's up the hill west of the oldest town in Colorado, San Luis. It's called the Stations of the Cross Shrine. The only way I know that is because I backtracked in on the web. The sign by the chapel simply reads, "CHAPEL". One very cool part was it was completely empty of people - and the chapel door was open! Another was that it is a Stations of the Cross so there are 14 statutes representing each station.

On the left was a statue of Christ on the cross but not nailed. I had never seen that depiction before. It was not a station. On the right is inside the chapel. It was so great the door was unlocked. When we entered, it couldn't've been more than 60 degrees. That is the benefit of adobe construction.

Jesus on the cross with the sun behind and the front of the chapel.

A side view looking north and Station 11 - Jesus is nailed to the cross.

I thought this was a great sculpture.

Thank you for Kimberly for her adventurous spirit and a great couple of days!

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Museum and Shrimp : 2023-08

Kimberly and I visited the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum or the PWAM. It's a great

thing to do - in particular to fly to - because it's about a block from the airport. K went black

and white on this photo which is a nice pairing to the historic things we were about to see. 

Nice shots of Kimberly on the way there and the way back (right).

K in the Mighty Fighting Falcon! This was a treat since it's normally blocked off.

The two of us enjoying a nice flight in Peachy II.

Peachy is the B-29 at the museum - just a few feet from this.

The stern Airman in the background was a nice surprise.

Before departure - what a great shot.

For supper we had shrimp scampi and K even made some zucchini noodles!

She nailed it for her first try.  She's an amazing cook.

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NE-UT

Took a trip to Nebraska so K could meet the family, celebrate a birthday, and retrieve a dresser. A day later, we were off to Moab to do some Jeeping! It was a lot of driving, but both trips were great! 

I was showing K my childhood bedroom and noticed this glass from my senior prom. How prophetic..."Stay Gold". Gold was my class color from college - KTP! My brother was able to join us in NE so we took a classic shot.

My parents had a dresser for each of their children - which is a great idea. The pic on the left is the preparation to extract the dresser - through the window. I skipped that part. When my parents purchased the dressers the house was different. There was a veranda to one of the bedrooms so it was up a ladder and in. However, year and years ago, that veranda turned into an enclosed sunroom. If you add that up, you have dressers and almost everything that's upstairs trapped in the house. Luckily, my dad is a genius and had an entire pully and extraction system all ready to go! Why is my dad on the ladder instead one of his sons? He's stubborn - like most of us.

Success! The weather broke and the dresser didn't! And I was able to give it to K for her birthday! I can't thank my parents and brother enough. The family that she was able to meet is in the center pic and celebratory glamour shot on the right.

Another fancy pose on the left and some birthday shootin' pics! We went out to the country where my dad grew up and plinked around with a .22 and 9 mm. It was a bit cold, but a beautiful day. We even scrounged up some old barnyard wood straps which I plan to use for future frames.

The birthday girl!  30th, I think. This is a great picture but it's not really conveying the 'extra' happiness we're sharing. We almost dropped the cake, but K made an incredible save! I felt bad because I gave it to her on a slippery plate/surface. It was easy to make those smiles after that save!

We even made it to The Archway on the way back to CO.

I had always wondered what was in there, and now we know!

This was in The Archway. Nancy Glazier's "Restless". Cool painting and she made it in 1995!

Next stop / adventure - Moab!  I had been to Arches National Park, but never to Moab.

K's family has some incredible machines. We got to use the orange one! They were so much fun and impressive that the same time. They can crawl up (or down) almost anything. However, if the wheels can't grab, they can't grab. Speaking of, the gif shows how not to bump a rock! I felt badly about it, but they forgave me.

Us in the orange beast.

These pictures are good, but they are never the same as the real thing. It was epic.

A little pano action. Not only was it gorgeous and with perfect temps, God gave us some shade!

H&M standing in front of a picture-perfect canyon. M's smile is picture perfect, too.

The Jeep-driving clan. From left, Blue Jeep, Yellow Jeep (Yeah Right) and Orange jeep.

Thank you to K's family for the awesome adventure! What a memory!

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Gladiator Glory | 201708

In the Gladiators, my deputy had the brilliant idea of giving out a Rudis for our staff members.  It was brilliant because it has everything to do with Gladiators, it was relatively inexpensive, and then he picked up a laser engraver which really made them awesome. So what is a Rudis?

A symbolic wooden sword which marked that a gladiator earned their freedom.  What distinguished them apart from all others was the fact that they chose to continue fighting, training officers, or serving in other ways.  These veterans of combat were the most honored, and rightly so.

What a perfect present-o for our departing Gladiators.  Soon after, a display rack was made to showcase two Rudes and was placed over a previous gift of earlier Gladiators - a scene from the Coliseum.  These are the first things people see when entering our Coliseum (our tent).  I think the did a fantastic job and the ensemble looks terrific.

A pair of Rudes with our Group designation and what became our motto. 

 The swords and the Coliseum picture.

During my tenure we had a gladiator helmet on our conference room table.  Sometimes we gave them as gifts but it became a bit too pricey.  However, my gladiators were kind enough to give me one. But it wasn't simply "one", it was the one that had been with me most of the year.  Above it is displayed in my current office.  And, yes, that is my Rudis underneath.

A few days after I arrived at my new locale, I received another gift - a rack for my gladiator helmet! I honestly didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but there's no contest.  It looks a thousand times better.  Thanks again to the incredible Gladiators!

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