Up to 10.2.10

When we were walking up to the hanging lake we saw several of the most striking birds I’ve ever seen. Bright blue, the size of a magpie, and wearing a cute little black crest on the top of their heads, and they were pretty well oblivious to our presence. Having Googled them (what did we do BG?), I find they are called Steller’s Jays and I present one for your delight.
While on the bird theme, I had a moment of inspiration. We have been putting out various crusts, dead pies, bread rolls etc for the birds, and we now have a resident magpie and two little birds that look like blue tits that have been in a too-hot wash and had all their colours rinsed out. The inspiration took the form of a 3 litre milk container, an empty tonic bottle, a sharp knife and half an hour’s careful carving of both, and the end of my forefinger. Once the blood stopped I was able to load the tonic bottle with a variety of bird–seed (or more accurately seed for birds), and we now have a weatherproof automatic seed dispenser. The word has gradually got around and we now have five of these tit look-alikes which I believe are actually called chickadees, a fellow that is the size of a robin but has a thrush’s flecked breast and an orange bib and cap, a couple of extra magpies and two crows. Job done!
Update on injuries: Sue’s shoulder is no better but is usable, my shoulder is slowly getting better but still hurts when I least expect it, and my leg muscle damage has reduced to a lump in the middle of the calf muscle with yellow bruising from ankle to knee. One curious effect has been that it seems that the released blood has dropped through the muscles and is sitting around my foot which is now purple. Very strange!
We have had two more lots of guests, two couples, so we are now feeding 14 including ourselves and feeling like we are definitely earning our crust.
One of them has been coming to Colorado for the last fifteen years so is a rich source of good places to visit when go touring. Apparently there are ancient Indian-built cliff dwellings, the box canyon where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed out, aqua tunnels that carry water through them from a reservoir that double as a roadway when the pass is closed in winter, the atomic retreat for the US Government which is a monster hole in the mountain and features in many a film. As well as stunning red canyons, oil shale deposits, Molybdemon, Gold, Silver and Lead mines, one of the most famous waterfall / ice climbs in the world at Bridal Veil Falls, and lots more natural phenomena that need to be seen - we will be spoilt for choice.
I suppose all these curiosities are the result of the way the Rockies have been formed. First the limestones were formed on the seafloor, then they were carved by the rivers as the Pacific Tectonic plate that subducted the North American Continental Plate and heaved it into the air, then they were injected with volcanic intrusions as the plates slipped and slid some more, then more alluvial rocks were added from river estuaries, then they were glaciated, then continued to be lifted to the current heights which are increasing each year as North America slides Westwards by 3 cm each year. Add enormous quantities of snow, subzero temperatures for four months of the year, spring snowmelt floods and it’s no wonder they look well-wrinkled and exhausted!
While we were walking up the trail to the Hanging Lake, we heard a deep wailing noise which turned out to be the Glenwood Springs to Denver Passenger train that goes once a day in each direction. It was blowing its horn and it was echoing all around the cliffs so it was very difficult to decide where it was coming from. It was enormously long and had the Amtrack silver double-decker passenger cars some of which had the viewing glass roof. When we had finished the walk we went to the Amtrack office to see if we could ride it to the coast. It seems we can and as an aside, the section between Glenwood and Denver is reputedly the most beautiful in the country so definitely worth trying. On our way back to Avon we drove alongside one of the goods trains that also use the line and seemed to go every couple of hours. It was running up the Glenwood Canyon at about 35 mph and had three engines pulling at the front, two in the middle and three more pushing from behind! It was about one mile long and we couldn’t count the trucks being lugged along.
Despite dire warnings, two of the guests had to report a blocked toilet. Out with ‘THE SNAKE’ which is a contraption that is wound down the toilet and rotated vigorously. After letting the guests have the first go I went up to see what was going on. We tried in pairs to wrestle the snake down the loo and failed time after time. After a while, we had to admit defeat so called in the blocked drain guy who turned up with a variety of tools similar in style to our snake and set to - and failed. Next phase was to lift up the toilet from off its exit pipe and tackle it from below. I had decided that this was all way above my pay-scale and was very glad to leave it to the expert who managed to finally clear the blockage although he didn’t endear himself to Sue by walking through the house in the same boots that he was standing in, in a flooded toilet floor, but the job was done.
We also had a team of Roof Icicle Boys come around and start to clear all the build-up of snow from the roof and knock off the icicles that have been growing during this warm spell. This meant the end of our ‘pet’ waterfall outside our bedroom window and I took a farewell photo before they hacked it all down. I was a bit worried by the apparent lack of Health and Safety as they stood their ladders in the deep snow on sloping roofs to get at the ice and snow on the higher roofs, and without any measures that I could see to stop them slipping away down the roof. Still, they all had the right number of arms and legs so I guess it was OK.
We had a day off and we were invited to join the guests for a meal at a franchise chain called ‘Outback’. It has lots of kangaroo burgers, Alice Spring rolls (actually I made that up but you get the picture). The food was superb and we all had a jolly time with the only fly in the ointment being that Sue arrived home minus one amber earring that I had given her about 30 years ago. Perhaps if I had given her the pair she would have taken more care of it!
The upshot was that the following morning we retraced our steps back to the restaurant and then home again and Hawkeye spotted it at the edge of the pavement. Much relief all round.
We had stopped off at Denny’s, which is one of a fast-food restaurant chain, on the advice of Bill the Builder who had called by to measure up a job. Apparently they have two advertising slots during the Superbowl that was last Sunday (which costs them over $2.2m), advertising the fact that they provide free breakfasts on the following Tuesday. It was packed as you might imagine and I was told that last year they served over 2 million free breakfasts Nationwide. There is the inevitable data-capture-competition-entry-form and also some coupons for reduced meals through the rest of the year but it must still be worthwhile for them to do it. The meal was OK, bacon, sausages, egg and pancakes with limitless coffee, but I don’t think we will try it again (it might be breakfast Jim, but not as we know it). The waiters had neat t-shirts on though.
Our Policeforce guests left us, although we weren’t sure if they would be back as Chicago airport was reputedly snowed out, so we are down to four guests temporarily, which makes a nice change.
One of the new guests has cerebral palsy and has been having skiing lessons which look wonderful on the video. The instructor leads, holding what looks like a hoolah hoop behind him, and our intrepid guest holds the other side with both hands and follows him down with his skis between those of the instructor. The instructor can alter this arrangement by going backwards (clever chap), so he is face to face with his charge, and give instructions while looking over his shoulder for hazards. It is typical that there is a very special rate for those with handicaps such as being blind or having other physical challenges, that includes the Instructor, skis, helmet and boot hire, ski pass for three days and all for about $270 which is a fraction of the cost for the normal skier, which can be $645 per day for a one on one lesson.