I spent about a week with Annie, Chris, and little Luke. My first day babysitting Luke, we went over to Grandma Betty's house. Annie and I made cheese quesadillas, and Luke had a lot of fun playing with the cars. Betty and Luke played ball for awhile, and then we put together a training bike for Luke (who was kind enough to help give us the pieces rather than put them in his mouth), and he went outside to ride a 2-wheeler for the first time. Needs to learn how to steer and balance, but he had a blast!!
After work, Annie and I took Luke and the dogs on the Ribbon trail to hike up to Moon Rock. This is the largest rock I think I've ever been on! We call it Moon Rock because of all the craters, but I don't really think that's the name...
The dogs were brave enough to walk right up to the edge of the cliff and look down. I got as close as I dared. Luke enjoyed the puddles as much as the dogs did. :-)
More than anything, Luke wanted to race around as fast as he could on the rock like the dogs, as well as to pick up small stones. While running downhill he took a little digger and landed right on his nose. Poor guy! He was great about it though and only cried for a minute before wanting to continue running. Annie and I were worried that he might have broken his wrist or nose, but it seemed to just be a bruise and cut.
We met Chris at a restaurant after the hike for dinner. He saw Luke's nose and gave him a big bear hug.
I drove back to their home with Chris, and on the way, we saw a black Ferrari testa rossa.
Finally, it was the weekend!! :-) Luke enjoyed breakfast, and in his attempt to use his little spoon, ended up dumping the contents of the bowl all over. Gotta love a kid who enjoys food and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. (Wait a minute, isn't that all kids???)
Annie wanted to go for a "short" jog with the dogs down by the water as she's training for a 1/2 marathon, and Chris and I decided to take Luke on the bikes and go with her.
I haven't worn cycling shoes in years and had to remember to unclip them from the bike pedals before stopping. Sounds easy, right? Uh-huh. Knowing myself, I wore a helmet and Luke went in a little covered wagon at the end of Chris's bike. We started off going through the neighborhood and past the playground to the water.
In order to get to the dirt road by the water, there was a "little" but VERY steep hill. Chris made it. I didn't. My tire sank into the soft dirt 3/4 of the way up the hill and my bike stopped. I forgot to unclip my shoe, but luckily as I moved my foot to set it down, it unclipped itself. (Fall averted!)
The bike ride was uneventful for the most part (which is a good thing). There was a lot of sun and a few small hills, but it was easy riding. Annie went at a decent steady jog, 45 minutes each way. Impressive!! Duke (Chris's mutt) dipped his feet in the water, and occasionally got his belly wet, but that was as far as he went. Daisy jumped right in and swam off and on like a fish. LOL
The best part was watching the military plane that looked like a C-130 Hercules do touch and gos on the runway. You couldn't see a runway, so it looked like the plane - which made no sound and was flying super slow and low - was landing in the desert. (Wish I had my camera with me!)
There was one time I wanted to stop and remembered to unclip my shoe. The embarrassing part is that I unhooked my left foot but tipped my bike to the right when I stopped. Needless to say, my right foot was still clipped and I fell. Oops. No problem. Just got up and kept going.
I was amazed at how far Annie went, especially since it was hot out! The girl is in shape!!
To celebrate, we went out for ribs at what I call the "pig place". Luke liked the pig out front and Annie and I split a full rack of BBQ ribs. They were very tender and we enjoyed every bite!
On Sunday before church, Annie, Chris, and I started a garden in their backyard. After much debate, they decided to put the black weed guard over the existing weeds rather than removing the weeds first, but we did remove as many as we could while planting the seeds and small vegetable plants. There are herbs, flowers, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, and probably a few other types of veggies. We then went to church to listen to Annie cantor and play guitar.
Early the next week, Luke helped me write a children's book about cool cars. :) Can't wait to see the illustrations from Jean!!! Then Daisy helped me come up with another series of children's books that will be called "Daisy the Red Neck Dog". I finished the first couple of books in this series and am sending them also to Jean for pictures. Giving her lots of work to do!! :) I then took Luke to the National Monument of Colorado. We only made it through a few overlooks by Grand Junction. I loved the canyons and rocks. Luke liked the sand, stones, and ants. LOL We made quite a pair! Yes, I'm wearing scrubs and little Luke's toddler hat (like I keep telling people, I have a pea-sized brain). :-)
In this picture, you can see a huge boulder that slid straight down the canyon wall about 100 feet, hence the name "falling rock".
At night, I told Annie that I bought bread. She asked why? Apparently, she has a bread maker. (Do people really make their own bread from scratch?) I guess so!!! She gave me the recipe and the ingredients and let me try to make some white bread. As you can see, it worked! In addition to bread, they also ground their own coffee beans, which I've never done before. I think this is more work in the kitchen than I've done in years, but it sure tasted good!
I went out one night and when I came home, I noticed that Annie took up most of the driveway, so I parked behind her and to the right, as far over as I could. That night, I had a dream that she hit my car and left without telling me. I kept trying to confront her about it and she kept denying it. It was an odd dream, and perhaps I should have told that dream to Annie in the morning before she left for work. Ironically, she actually did scrape my car getting out (but did tell me about it). Not bad, but I'll need to get a little paint touch up, which I'll do once I'm in South CA.
On my last day with little Luke, I took him to Fruita. We thought the dinosaur museum opened at 9, but it opened at 10. With an hour to spare, we went to the CO River State Park in Fruita. The CO River was nice to look at, but the best part (for both me and Luke) was the pond with little minnows and algae, the sand, and the swings.
We then went to the dinosaur museum, where there were a lot of exhibits that Luke could participate in. He dusted off dinosaur bones, learned about flowing water using the balls, and of course was drawn to the truck... Overall, his favorite part of the museum were the long nosed fish. He loved looking at the dinosaurs until some more small kids came in and started pushing the buttons to turn on the dinosaurs. Once they started moving and making sounds, Luke got scared. He never hugged me so tight!!!
After the museum, we were hungry and went to McDonalds. Luke didn't eat much, but really enjoyed the play area, even though he was a little too small to go through most of it. He started with his socks on, but once I took the socks off, he was able to climb more and go through the slide. :-)
At 5:00 PM, I called Annie and asked if she still wanted to climb Mt Garfield with me tonight. Of course she accepted the challenge and came over right away. :) We dropped off Luke at Grandma Betty's house and drove to Palisade to the mountain. It was 6 PM when we started the climb. A little late, but what the heck!
The first 1/2 mile was pure torture!!! The spines were so steep that without Annie's ski poles as hiking sticks, I would have been on all 4. My lungs burned by the time I got up the spines and there were still rocks to climb before we made it to the first flat area.
There are wild mustangs that run through each of the flat areas on the mountain. We did not see them, but they did leave behind quite a bit of poop!!!!! The dogs were with us and loving all the freedom to run as much as they wanted.
The trail was so eroded in this section, about 1500 feet up, that one misstep and you'd tumble down the edge.
At the top and then the climb down... :) It was getting late on the way down. So late, in fact, that we watched the sunset from the rocks even before getting to the spines. As you can see, we made it down just in the nick of time. By the time we were at the car and I took a picture of the spines, it was dark!
Annie and I celebrated by going to a beer bar in Palisade. I had the Laid Back Blonde beer and Annie had the High Desert Red. :-) There was music - open mic - and they were actually great! All of the tables were full, so we sat next to a guy named Tony.
After talking to him a bit (and according to Annie, breaking every rule about what to say when meeting a guy), I found out he loves cars too and we exchanged contact info. :-)
My last day in Grand Junction, while Annie and Chris worked, I went to finish the CO Nat'l Monument (from the Fruita side). First, I hiked up Dinosaur Hill. I'd done it before, but enjoyed the hike. There was a young boy and his dad that reminded me of Luke and Chris hiking it as well, and seeing all the red ants reminded me of Luke. :) I was hoping to find a rattler, but still no snakes...
Dinosaur Hill is where bones from an Apatosaurus was found - 70 feet long and 30 tons!!! The femur outline below is of a large 25 ton Diplodocus.
After that, I went back to the Nat'l Monument from the Fruita side. You can see Balanced Rock, which looks like a rock balancing on top of another. There were also earthquakes millions of years ago that created the redlands fault, dividing the rock. What looks like a landslide changed the view of one of the sides of the canyon.
On the historic trail, you can see with the 2 images below the place that they used to bring cattle through and travel across (before we cut open the rock and created a man-made road through the area). Talk about a scary passage!!
Then I went on the Window Rock Nature Trail, which had scenic views of the monument canyon.
On Canyon Rim Trail, the Window Rock Trail, and the Otto Trail, you can see different rock formations, such as: kissing couple, the island, independence monument, praying hands, and the organ.
I was wearing my cowboy boots not thinking I was going to be hiking. I know Crocodile Dundee runs through the backlands of Australia with rocks and all other kinds of things in similar boots, but it was hard not to sprain an ankle with them! As you can see from the pictures above, I also took pictures of some of the flowers and cacti I spotted along the trails, and the lizard.
John Otto was a trial builder I guess you could say, who tried to protect the monument area as a national park. He rallied for this dream, and once realized, he became the park's first custodian when it opened (with a salary of $1/month)!!!
John Otto, as well as his photographer and climbing partner, were the first people to climb Independence Monument. Now, people rock climb up it all the time (though I didn't see anyone while I was there)!
I met a group of 50+ year old men and women who were biking through the strenuous 23 miles of this Rim Rock Drive. They all seemed to be in pretty darn good shape and I was tired just thinking about the incline on the road!! They were all in great spirits though and very close to reaching the highest point when I met them. We actually saw each other at a few stops due to my hiking and stopping at a few overlooks. :)
There are rock formations that look like coke ovens (which I have never seen before.) This is, of course, where they got the name "Coke Oven" rocks. :-)
In the canyon, if you shout out really loud, you can hear the echo of your voice. I learned that the amount of time it takes to hear your echo can help you determine the distance of the canyon from one side to the other. In the one below, the distance was 760 feet (about 1.5 seconds). Not exactly, but similar to how bats tell distance using sound waves. :-)
Also in this canyon you can see a rock formation that looks like a mummy...
That last night, when I returned to Annie's home, the wind was howling! I heard a sound and looked over, and the two trees next door came down. The owner was quick to get rope and tie it to his truck and the tree to either free it (which he couldn't do) or move it out of the street (which he did successfully). Crazy winds!!! And they brought a little bit of cool weather!
As you can see, by the time I left, Luke's nose was getting much better, but his eating habits remained the same. :) I'm really going to miss the little guy!!!!
That evening, Tony got in touch with me (he's the guy Annie and I met the other day). He had bought a modified 1934 Ford truck that had been turned into a hot rod with a 302 engine. The seats were basically on the floor, there were no windows on the sides, no wipers or side mirrors, no seat belts, etc. However, it was fun to ride in! Tony took me through the city (Main Street), which can only be described as "artsy".
We stopped at a little wine bar and had Italian and Palisade wine before heading back to Grand Junction. The wine was nice; the company better. He talked about his road trip when he bought the car. He and his brother picked it up and drove it from NY through WI and IL to CO. In IL there was a bad rain storm, and rain filled the car almost up to the seats while they were driving! There is no fuel indicator on the dash board, so they had to mark down the mileage for when they filled up with gas so they didn't run out. We had a nice time and I would consider getting in touch with him again if I was back in CO. :)
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