FOUND PICTURES, COLORADO WILD HORSES AND ON TO AZ

I had forgotten these photos in the difficulty I had with my computer and its subsequent one month vacation from me.  Aileen has been struggling with her old computer and we were going to get her another basic laptop as she doesn't need a high powered machine.  However, after being without the ability to edit my photos for a month, we decided to replace her computer with a much more capable laptop.  She now has a Toshiba with an i7 processor and 12 GBs of ram.  I will load all my photography programs on it so it will be ready to use should the need arise.   

We had another card game with friends last Saturday and were able to sit out in their carport to play.  I continue to ride two or three days of the week and Aileen comes out one of the days.  We've been having frosty mornings so it is a little cool to start.  Aileen walks every morning and as the weather cools, she sees less people. 

Four couples of us in two cars with Ken as our guide, ventured up to the Little Bookcliffs area northeast of Grand Junction, CO.  After several hours of scenic touring, we found some of the wild horses that inhabit the area.

This one appeared to be the chief

I had gone down from the road to get some closer shots of the herd across the draw when I was surprised to meet three horses up close.

It was difficult to get a clean shot with all the dead juniper trees

We went past an area of neat clay type geology

After leaving Grand Junction, we drove through Moab.  This is a few miles south of Moab and I was excited to see the fall colour in the red rocks.

We spent our first night in Bluff and after supper, I took my cameras for a bike ride.  This old truck advertising the Twin Rocks Cafe and Trading Post made for a good subject.

I was following an old obscure trail when I met a couple of photographers from California.  The lady showed me some photos she had taken of some petroglyphs.  They gave me sketchy directions and told me it would be too dark for good shooting and that the access was very steep and tricky.  Fortunately I had my Canon 6D that will autofocus in very low light and I was able to handhold steady enough to get a few images.  Of course, there is evidence of more modern artists although their quality is severely lacking.

The petroglyphs were at the base of a cliff accessed after a rough scramble through boulders on a steep slope.

Historic Bluff Fort had some really good displays.  This hogan looked so nice inside compared to the drab exterior pictured below.

I thought this display was well done!

There were a number of these little cabins each one decorated differently

There was a pull off spot for us to park the motor home so I could take some photos of these neat rocks

As we got nearer to Flagstaff, this was what we ran into.  Going over the final high  spot before Flag, the snow was about 500 feet above us and the temperature was only 4C (less than 40F) mid afternoon which is why we decided against staying there and carried on to Verde Valley and a few thousand feet less elevation.

SECOND THANKSGIVING FOR US

Some of us Canadians do a little double dipping when it comes to Thanksgiving.  North of the border, we celebrate it in early October.  We will be cooking a nice gluten free turkey first thing tomorrow morning and will take it to our friends, Jim's and Judy's, in Florence Gardens an adjoining park. There will be nine of us there for a late lunch.  Aileen is also doing gravy, Brussels's sprouts and dessert.  The others are all bringing food too so we will not go hungry!  

I led a small group of six machines on both Monday and Tuesday this week.  Aileen came along on the Tuesday ride and enjoyed her day.  That was her first time riding with the main group and specially with Blue.

There was a pretty good sunset here tonight and I was out with my SX50 while my supper got cold on the table.   Later after nearly full dark, I took my 6D out and took a few handheld shots.  This was at 1/20 second and was possible because this camera will auto focus in extremely low light.  The SX50 would not have handled this image.

I thought this group of saguaros looked neat erupting 

Here's 86 year old Blue enjoying yet another ride in the desert

We managed to find one saguaro blooming on our Monday ride.  We passed by thousands of other cactus and not a bloom to be seen.  I took the Tuesday group back to the same saguaro and again there was one lonely bloom, but on a different arm.

I've been seeing lots of roadrunners this year so far but none have stopped for a photo.  This guy crossed in front of me then stopped behind a bush.  By standing up on the ATV seat, I was able to shoot over the bush and catch this image.

This was a new species for me.  He is a Zone-Tailed Hawk.

Today being cloudy and fairly good light for flower photography, I took my bike and rode around much of Florence Garden Mobile Home Park to see what I could find.  These small flowers were on top of a tall cactus.  Since the sky was so crummy looking, I blacked it out to better show the blossoms.  I didn't spot the bee until I was looking at it on the computer screen.

Cactus fruit from last summer's bloom

This one was about head high so I was able to actually do a macro shot nice and close up

YIPPEE!, MY COMPUTER MADE IT BACK!!!

My computer arrived on Thursday this week and after being without it for twenty nine days, I was quite behind in many things.  I did get most of my photo editing caught up already and have sent out several emails with photos to my ATV friends.   

We were saddened to hear the news this morning that our daughter-in-law's father had passed away in the night while in the cardiac unit in Victoria, BC.

We've had three card game evenings so far this season here in the park.  We took the turkey out of the freezer this morning and will be cooking it for several of our friends for the American Thanksgiving which is November 26.  We already have turkeys in the freezer for the ATV December potluck and for Christmas with friends here in the park.  This will be our first Christmas in the park in several years rather than being out in the desert near Quartzsite.

Sacred Datura also called Angel Trumpet

My friend Donna pointed this flowering Barrel Cactus out as we were on one of my first rides 

These wild bees nest in cavities in the cliffs in some of the washes.  These were taken from 35-40 feet away with my little Canon SX50 at 1200mm then 200X digital zoom on a tripod with image stabilizing turned off.  When digital cameras first came out, I used to scorn people for using the digital zoom but boy have they improved!

This butterfly image was taken from behind the wheel of our RZR side by side at about 20 feet handheld

One day last week, Aileen and I went to Queen Creek shopping and drove through a couple of heavy showers.  This is after we drove out of the rain in a locality known as Little Mexico

A little further down the road we noticed this neat phenomena which I believe it called a Fire Rainbow also called an Iridescent Cloud.  That little bit of mountain visible in the lower left is Superstition Mtn east of Phoenix.

On our ATV ride Thursday, I was crawling around in the rocks above our lunch spot at the base of Grayback Mtn when I spotted this Desert Tortoise.  He remained totally motionless except for a couple of eye blinks

On the hillside across the wash from the tortoise, I found this beautiful flower with the not so beautiful name of Prairie Spiderwort

This Red Tailed Hawk posed on a power pole on our way home from the ride Aileen and I led yesterday

HEY GUYS, I'M OK

There has been some concern because I haven't posted a blog in about three weeks.  Aileen and I are fine.  The problem is my computer.  It suddenly died on me on October 23 and I am still without it.  I had taken it to the Geek Squad in Grand Junction but they declined to work on it as it wasn't a plain regular old laptop.  I would have thought most parts to be interchangeable.  I contacted the store in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island who built it for me hoping they could find me a repair facility in the Phoenix area.     What they came up with was his supplier in Fremont, CA so I sent it to them from Grand Junction, CO before we left there.  I finally heard that it was a burnt chip on the mother board. After not hearing anything or seeing a charge on my Visa by six days after faxing them the number, I called and got them moving.  Then I got another email telling me my 8 GB ram is not working and needs to be replaced.  OK, share my Visa number again and now I wait some more.  I am able to make this post from Aileen's tired old laptop but  don't have the ability to edit photos.  I am scratching my head trying to come up with what steps to take to prevent myself from being without a working computer for my hobbies in the future.
We had a great time visiting our friends in the Grand Junction area and stayed there two weeks and two days.  There were lots of card games, meals out, meals in and even a couple road trips.  The best one was when four couples of us took two cars and went looking for the wild horses up in the high country.  Our guide, Ken, finally came through and we got to see some nice looking horses. Lots of great scenery too!   When I get my computer back, I will begin catching up with my photos.
We arrived at our winter digs in Caliente on October 30 and we have been busy getting back in the groove.  The last night on our way down from Colorado we were going to stay in Flagstaff, AZ but the snow was about 500 feet above us as we came over the last pass, it was 4C and it was raining hard.  Since Flagstaff is about 7,000 feet elevation, we decided to continue on down the hill toward Florence and stayed in Camp Verde at about 3,800 feet.  Good thing as Flagstaff got five inches of snow that night.
I've been out riding several times already and we attended our first ATV potluck last night.  Aileen put on a nice party here for my birthday on the fourth with a bunch of the neighbours over. We had cooked a nice big ham and there was lots of good food prepared by Aileen and brought by others. Tomorrow night Aileen is putting on supper for friends Ken and Marie and their friend Robbie as it is Marie's birthday.  We will be having a card game afterward.  Today when we went grocery shopping, I bought a 20 lb gluten free turkey for the ATV December potluck which we will prepare and we also bought a 19 lb one that we will cook for the US Thanksgiving on November 26.  We will be sharing it with several Colorado friends.
We have pretty much decided to stay here in Caliente for Christmas this year.  Jacquie and Jim are staying home this year continuing to work on their house.  When they come down to Quartzsite in January, we will probably head over there for a while.  My ATV group is already wondering if I would lead some rides over near Quartzsite again, so we'll have to wait and see.
Thanks for sharing your concerns about the lack of blog posts and I hope to get back to it soon.  Just can't live and function without these darned computers anymore!

GRAND MESA, COLORADO

We had a fairly quiet weekend here.  I didn't go out in bushes as hunting season got into full swing Saturday and they have already shot a couple of hunters.  Yesterday morning we met some of our friends for brunch after they finished attending church.  Last night, Aileen and I visited Ernie and Atha over in Palisade and we played three games of cards.  Today, Aileen and I took a drive up on to Grand Mesa which towers above the Grand Valley.  We saw 10, 384 feet on the GPS and there were bits of fresh snow in the trees.  We drove 213 kms which would be about 133 miles.  We couldn't decide whether to go or not as the weather was iffy but decided to after lunch.  We had some really nice little weather windows that gave me great light to work with as is evidenced by the following photos.

A little storm cell as we were leaving Clifton this afternoon

The orange colours are Oaks and the yellow are Poplars

The above were taken with my Canon SX50 and the below with my Canon 6D

An old homestead above Collbran, CO

Looking through the Oaks down to the Plateau Valley

Lots of Oaks and naked Poplars on the ridge

Above Cedar Edge, CO looking down off the Mesa

I've missed the majority of the fall colour

Just above Cedar Edge City, CO

Surface Creek in Cedar Edge, CO

Great evening light near Delta, CO

MORE CLIFTON

On Thursday, we went to the church that all our friends go to and partook of the chicken dinner.  There was lots of food and we got to be recognized for our anniversary along with several others.   We also “won” a $25 gift certificate to Ace Hardware.   There was a very talented pianist who gave us a great concert after lunch.  She lived near Chernobyl at the time of the blast and had some nasty tales to go with that.
About 4 we took our supper and went to the Colorado Monument for the evening.   We had a nice time up there and a million dollar view at supper.    We got to see nine bighorn sheep in one spot.  It was well past dark by the time we came off the mountain and about 8 when we got home.  I edited a whack of photos then it was suddenly past my bedtime.   
Yesterday I went for a drive toward Naturita on Hwy 141 to look for some geocaches but once again, photography trumped caching and I only got six caches as I spent most of my time behind the lens. We were invited for supper in the house here with Jim and Judy last night along with Ken and Marie.  A rousing game of 2500 was played later and I managed to sneak a win with Aileen right close behind. Today was a mostly quiet day.  I did two loads of laundry and edited photos for this blog.   Aileen called our friends John and Carol in Michigan to see how they were doing.   It sounds like they will get to Caliente about the same time as us.  We are invited out for supper again tonight at Jim and Jane's and it sounds like there will be quite a few people there.   I believe they are planning on two tables of cards later.  It is nice to have so many friends in one place!

A Praying Mantis on the patio ceiling

I spotted this neat old Ford along the highway yesterday.  Note the "dual "wheels on the back.  They welded two wheels together!

The next several photos are up on the Colorado National Monument looking out over Fruita and Grand Junction

Aileen and Mitzy out on a viewpoint

As we were heading down the mountain, the lights of Grand Junction were spread out for our viewing pleasure

These three images were taken yesterday southeast of Clifton/Grand Junction along Hwy 141