A few days with our friends at their Eagles Landing Ranch in Colorado -- Colorado Holiday Part II

The second of three parts of our Colorado Holiday in July, 2008. (Part one) (Part three/TBD) (All Colorado Holiday posts)

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This is our friends' ranch near Telluride, Colorado, where we would relax for a few days. The home site sits on a hill and looks out over the beautiful San Juan Mountain Range (link).

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Mrs. Jim is getting the lowdown from our hosts. From left to right, Roger, Mrs. Jim, and Mrs. Roger. Also in the picture are Luke, their (from the pound) rescue dog, Luke, and the John Deere Gator. Behind us is the barn, which is mainly used for a horse barn.

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Looking out from the porch are a couple of views, to the left first, then to the right, of the San Juan Mountains. The picture on the left is a deer we spotted on the road looking into the ranch. Every evening a group of deer would come down from the groves to graze. Also in the evenings, the doe would gather their young ones that had been 'parked' for the day. Isn't that cheap day care? And a nice and tender feast for a coyote! The elk would come in the early morning light to graze. During the day all wildlife was pretty scarce unless we went out to the hills and trees. But we didn't see anything but birds on our picnic hike to a neighboring ranch in the forest.

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You can see the 4-wheel vehicle we had traveled to Colorado in was no match for where we were headed. The original plan was to ride the horses over here. That was scrubbed because Roger had a lingering back ache. He thought the walk would do him and us good. We could have taken the Gator but those things are hard on backs as well. You can see the ladies (and Roger, well out of sight) had gotten ahead of me. I had stopped to take this cow pie picture. Please click on it to see how big, fresh, and juicy it was. We never did see the cows. Could it have been an elk pie?

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Finally we reached the top. Somehow I didn't get Mrs. Roger's picture taken. Perhaps she was pouring the wine and didn't want any kids to see that. Even Luke had a nice lunch, we all did. Didn't we have a wonderful view from this future home site! But better views were still to be had further up our hill. (All told, this was about a three mile hike.)

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. So off we went. Again, I was bringing up the rear, taking a record number of pictures. The wildflowers and crusted tree limbs were beautiful.

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You can see the Misses got tired trying to keep up with our leader, Roger. He was out of sight by this time. Probably he was already looking at his favorite view from his favorite vantage point.

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And off we go again, with Mrs. Jim in the new processional's lead. You can see Roger in the left picture sitting on the bench enjoying the sights. They all were up there already when I took the second picture, they sent Luke back to see if I needed his help. With Luke's help I made it. And shared the rest of my drinking water with him. Here Mrs. Jim and Luke are sitting on the bench also enjoying the hilltop view of the mountains across the hills and valley below.

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. It was worth the climb. We all rested and enjoyed. I think the ladies finished the wine while Luke and I finished my water.

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Roger asked me to take a picture of this 'worm fence.' Worm fence posts are not anchored in the ground. Instead the design of the fence with it zigzag pattern holds itself up. Also there are no nails or bolts used. Drilling into the rocky soil for fence posts can be done but it is really hard on the equipment. And because the rocks must be dodged, the fence won't be straight anyway. We approached the farmhouse. I didn't tell of some stops in between our hike and getting here, in general we were just enjoyed the aspens, hills, wildflowers, lakes, and the likes that Southwestern Colorado has to offer. Luke is happy, he can attain his position, on the lookout for deer, elk, coyotes, and birds. I suppose other creatures like chipmunks and ground squirrels would get his attention as well. All good things have to come to an end. Roger and Mrs. R. drove us to the airport in Montrose, the daily flight to Houston leaves at 11:30 AM and gets in at 2:30. We gained our lost hour back.

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. Doesn't Luke look sad to see us leave? He is a nice dog, he minds sooooo good. And he was really glad to see his long lost neighbors come for a visit with him. He showed off accordingly. Luke, we will see you in Montgomery come November. Of course, the Jim Bunch eats, wherever they may be, at home, in town, on the road, or like here, in the air.

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This is Continental Airline's snack. If this is a snack, my definition of a meal may change. We had crackers with peppercorn Parmesan cheese and beef salami, a bag of tail mix (I pulled the peanuts out for Mrs. Jim), a bag of M&M candy, and a whole can of Diet Coke. Then there was another Diet Coke (my fave soft drink) and two cups of coffee for after dinner time, and an ample supply of water for my meds.

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I read my Blogstock '08 book, made by Ralph, from cover to cover while in-flight. Here I am reading Ralph's bio, it is most interesting, especially after meeting him and Mrs. Ralph. Note also that I had my GPS on continuously when the all clear for electronic gadgets was announced. This picture was taken while we were over Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. I like to look at the sky views and the different clouds. I took a lot of pictures, these beauties were to be found over the Houston area.