Springtime in Colorado

Ok, enough already with the friggin snow. It's the 1st of May. It's still snowing. I think it's God's way of getting even with me. Last year I spent a good portion of the winter in LA. I recall talking to people in Oklahoma at the time - (January - February) and relating the fact that in LA the temp was in the 70's or so, while at home (Okla) they were freezing, cold, and having a general winter of it.

So, now, here I am still in Colorado and it's still snowing on May 1st. While the weather is somewhat freaky even for this area the locals indicate that snow this time of the year is "not all THAT unusual"... Enough already.

I did take a quick ride up the mountain this morning. It was dry here at the hotel when I left and a couple of my co-workers and I took off for a short adventure. The idea was to run up to the Broadmore Hotel. A local landmark that was built in the early 1900's and is one of those old great hotels, still running and is a nice place to stay. We did make it to the hotel and did a short walking tour of the place and it is an impressive place. The owner of the place built a shrine for him and his wife way up on the side of the mountain. According to the local hotel folks, it was decided that it wasn't in good taste to build yourself a shrine - this is where he and his wife are buried. Anyway, since it wasn't a cool thing to do, the owner dedicated the location to Will Rogers - of Oklahoma fame. Apparently they were pretty good friends.

Today you can take the tour of the "Shrine of the Sun" as it's known for about $12 bucks - which we did attempt to go see this morning, but due to snow / fog and probably generally bad roads the place was closed. Maybe next time. I'm not sure I want to spring for the fee in any case.

In order to at least salvage some of the morning we did take off up the mountain. The truth is we thought we were headed to the Shrine, but took the wrong road. We don't need no stinkin maps! That trip took us up and around the mountain where I did get a couple of photos that will be posted out on my Yahoo site. ( http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kwh5999/my_photos )

As the altitude rose and the temperature dropped the road became some what slicker and we got to a point the tires were just spinning. So rather than risk sliding off into the ditch we opted to turn around and ease back down the trail. And it was a trail as we were on a fairly narrow dirt road and the car - a little Ford Focus which by most car standards isn't really considered an 'off road' vehicle. Even though it is a rental. I thought rentals were always 'off road vehicles'.. .guess not. I did, however, manage to get dirt and mud all over both sides of the car. Gives it a lot of character. Hertz has people to clean them, so I’m not too worried. I feel it is my give to Hertz to help people remain actively employed. It’s the least I can do.

Well, Guess that’s my latest update for now… Y’all take care out there.. and thanks for checking in.
Joe