November 12
Well it is now five days after the first snowfall and the snow is still on the ground. People said to us before coming over here, yes it snows but it will only be on the ground for a day at the most. Yeh sure…. Anyway driving in the snow the first day was a slow process. We managed it okay but the next day was the problem. The snow that was melting on the roads during the day had then turned into ice overnight with the extremely cold temperatures and now driving was even more difficult than in the snow. Lots of accidents everywhere, freeways stopped and some people unable to get to work.
Today I dropped Amy off at pre-school and the temperature had increased to a whopping - 4 C. At least the sun is out so it doesn't feel too bad when you are in the car or in the house. We have found appropriate snow gear and the kids are now ready to attack it in force. Kyle spends more time in the snow than on top of it, especially now that it is becoming firm and icy.
On Monday it snowed all day, or at least until 3 in the afternoon. The following day the wind picked up and as the snow was dry it looked like a sand storm (I grew up by the beach remember), the wind picked up the snow and blew it across the roads and up into the air. You couldn't see anything in front of you. It looked quite amazing.
This past weekend saw the weather improve dramatically. It reached a top temperatue of 21 C yesterday which was a big improvement from last weekend. Being such a good day we decided to head off to the Denver Zoo for the day. The zoo was quite old looking from the outside and we discovered that it has been around for quite some time. The bear enclosure was built in 1908 and was considered state of the art in the construction of the fake mountains. A number of other enclosures were showing their age, being small and dark. A few new areas have been established but it was a bit depressing seeing some of the larger animals in small enclosures, including the elephants and the rhino. Anyway we had a great day in warm sunshine and the highlight for me was watching the playful polar bears swimming around. The only disaster that occurred this day happened to the pinball of course, he fell down a concrete step onto his forehead and a golfball size lump appeared not too long after.
Prior to leaving on our Thanksgiving weekend vacation we heard the news that our sea shipment had arrived and will be delivered on December 1st. Great news, everyone is looking forward to having their own beds to sleep in.
We headed out Thursday morning on our 4 day holiday, looking forward to seeing more of the state of Colorado. We drove down the I-25 interstate highway before turning west at a town called Pueblo. We didn't encounter a lot of traffic so it was a very easy trip on a six lane freeway. We passed through Colorado Springs, a very big city at the base of Pikes Peak, a 14,000 ft mountain. We are going to head back here after Xmas because there seems to be a lot to do. Colorado Springs is home to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum so that should be reason enough to return, don't you think!!!
Anyway back to Pueblo. A medium size city spread out on the flat plains and surrounded by distant views of magnificent snow capped mountain ranges. Pueblo is home to the 17 day Colorado State Fair held in August and apart from this there isn't a lot on offer over the winter months. From Pueblo we followed the Arkansas River all the way to Cañon City where we did stop to visit Royal Gorge. Here a very big suspension bridge spans a 1,200 ft gorge across the Arkansas River. We walked over the bridge and went down to the river level on an incline railway. Very impressive. Forgot to mention that on this trip Craig was trying out the new video camera. He thought it would be good to capture the kids and our trip on video so he tested it out at Royal Gorge. I am not a big fan of video cameras so I spent a lot of time avoiding him.
After Royal Gorge we headed back to the main road and continued to follow the Arkansas River. By now we had decided that this area would be filled with tourists in summer as it was the hub for the white water rafting businesses in Colorado. If there was one there must have been 50 various tour operators with bases along the river. Each one was shut down for winter but the gear and the buses they use to transport people up the river were all still there. One big operator had about 40 buses parked at the side of his place so you can imagine the numbers of people that come to this area in the summer months. The river offers class IV and V rapids in summer. Travelling for another 40 minutes we reached Salida and turned north to Buena Vista. All around us now were the Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges, famous because of the number of peaks here that reach over 14,000 feet. Because of the good weather we had terrific views of these ranges, most of which were covered in snow.
We stayed Thanksgiving night at Buena Vista, finding it hard to find anything open for dinner. After an unforgetable dinner at Jan's restaurant (Craig had Chicken fried chicken, a name taken from the chicken fried steak dish where you grill the meat in egg and flour), it was back to our motel and as we had cable it was on with the Disney channel and an exciting night followed. Kyle fell out of bed but that was minor now compared to what else he has done to his little body.
The next morning we hiked in the hills opposite Mt Princeton (14,169ft) so that we could get a closer view of the mountains. There was a series a five peaks, all named after colleges, Mt Harvard, Mt Yale, etc. After our hike and having morning tea we headed off to a road described in our "Backroads of Colorado" book as a must do. This time we were on the other side of the Sangre de Cristo ranges and the first part of the trip was incredibly pretty. Dropping down into Walsenburg it took us a bit longer than we thought. This backroad by the way was more like a highway than a backroad and it took us through some pretty hick towns which maybe why it was declared a backroad. We didn't stop at the Barbed Wire Museum in Walsenburg, I know it may be a pity but maybe next time. We were eager to keep travelling while the kids were asleep and we still had a fair way to go. Arriving at Alamosa, our destination for the next two days, we found our B&B and settled in before going out for dinner.
Up early the next morning we headed out to the Great Sand Dune Monument and spent most of the day there. It is really a National Park, I'm not sure why it is called a monument. The sand dunes cover an area of 55 square miles and have been created over time as the wind passes over the San Juan range carrying sand particles to the base of the Sangre de Cristo range where it accumulates, the wind unable to carry it any further. Quite incredible to see all these sand dunes surrounded by mountains covered in snow. It just didn't make sense, we kept looking for the surf. We spent a little over an hour and a half hiking the dunes, thinking we were getting closer to the top but realising it was a long way away yet. Jane (carrying Kyle in the backpack) and Amy decided to have a rest, and wait for Craig, who was keen to go further on. After some time Craig disappeared over one of the dunes and then re-appeared not long after in the same spot. He started heading back down after realising that we were just too far from the top. The distance was so deceiving, 700 feet tall. We all headed back down, much easier to descend than to climb, but glad we at least tried. After drinking copious amounts of water and eating tangerines we started our next hike, this time in the hills opposite the dunes. It was a marked nature trail and the further we climbed the more snow there was on the trail. This time we had hats and gloves on because we were shaded by the trees, the difference in the temperature was very acute. Not a difficult climb but a bit tiring after the sand dunes. When we got back to the car it was more water and more fruit.
By this time Kyle is still raring to go, it's easy when you get carried. Miss Amy was obviously getting tired but there was one more hike we were keen to do. So now we started with the bribery and corruption. Against Craig's better judgement he agreed to take Amy to Ronald Donald's (there was a McDonalds in Alamosa) for a play so our next hike wasn't a problem. It was a short hike, only half a mile up hill to the Zapata Water Fall. And boy were we glad we did it. It was an amazing sight to see a frozen waterfall, it is hard to describe it was so beautiful. The walk into the falls was bit treacherous as you were walking on a creek that was frozen on top but still running water underneath. After negotiating the creek you walked to the back of a cave and there before you was this 20feet of frozen water that still looked like it was flowing. It is hard to describe so I hope Craig's photos turn out. There was water running down the water fall but it was under this spectacular ice structure, eventually falling into a crystal clear pond and then flowing outside the cave and downstream. It really capped of a great day at the park and is one memory we will never forget. Back to the car and all of to Ronald Donalds. I think Craig's words as we walked into McDonalds were "great". Miss Amy felt liked she had achieved a lot that day, especially getting dad to McDonalds.
We all slept well that night. We went to dinner at the True Grit steakhouse, a restaurant that idolises John Wayne, with memorabilia covering the walls and all the meals named after one of his movies. Great food and wonderful margaritas.
The B&B worked out well, we met nice people each morning at breakfast. We met a couple from Colorado who had just spent a year on an exchange teaching program in Bellingen, NSW. They were lovely and we agreed to keep in touch. There was another couple from Texas who were very American. It must have taken the wife 2 hours to get ready for breakfast, she was immaculately groomed. We were discussing Thanksgiving, turkeys, etc and the owner of the B&B made the comment that she didn't really believe in celebrating the demise of the native Americans. Anyway the conversation continued and as Julie went into the kitchen the lady from Texas said under her breath that she had read a book that said the Pilgrims and the native Americans worked together. I am not familiar with the facts but it was just the way she said it that made me laugh. It is so interesting to be on the outside looking in.
The main part of the house had the dining room where we would congregate and as it was a gallery as well there was plenty of local art work to look at. Kyle managed to keep his hands to himself and didn't break anything although there was an old fashioned type writer in our room that was very tempting for busy fingers. Our room or apartment had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a large kitchen. Very nice.
After breakfast on the second day we said our good-byes and headed back to Superior, this time through the San Luis valley. The weather wasn't as good as previous days and as we climbed one mountain range we passed through a storm and had snow falling. By the time we reached home it was warm and sunny again. It was a very enjoyable trip and well worth doing.
Back to work tomorrow and then on Tuesday the excitement of unpacking our belongings. We hope everyone is well and looking forward to the festive season. Till next time,
Other little differences (the things that make this country interesting):
A lady won $17 million in a lottery and took home only $4 million after tax.
You are encouraged to dob in a driver you think has been drinking, there is a special DUI phone number for you to call displayed on freeways.
We have now received six change of address confirmation letters for our visa cards, but the funny thing is, we are yet to receive our visa cards.
The "horses for sale" in the weekend papers are interesting. Prices start at $1000, with Arabs and Thoroughbreds averaging $3000, you can get a Hanoverian for $12,000. The prices of horse floats are bargains compared to the horses with 4 horse trailers selling for around $1,500.
The survivors of the Oaklahoma bombing lost a court case recently. They were suing the owners of a fertiliser company, the producers of a fertiliser that was used in making up the bomb. The judge said that the owners had no way of knowing that when they made and sold the fertiliser that someone would use it as an ingredient for a bomb and therefore could not be held responsible.
The Fosters Beer that is sold in the USA is made in Canada.
I brought some cream to whip and happened to glance at the ingredients list: cream, milk, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, carrageenan. Now I'm not really sure if we were eating just cream.
Our first phone bill came and it includes four taxes: federal, state, city and county.
A 300lb bear decided to climb into a man's car parked outside his home in Boulder. Apparently the bear saw some food wrappers on the front seat and opened the door of the car to get the food. The door closed behind him and he proceeded to chew the inside of the car instead. The man heard the car horn and called the police after seeing the bear in his car. The police opened the car door and fired rubber bullets into the poor bear's butt to give him some negative reinforcement. The police suggested to the man that he get a bear proof trash can and clean his car more often. (notice the good american speak….)
In looking for places to visit in New Mexico over Christmas we came across a town by the name of "Truth or Consequences", its true, look it up on a map.
We are now in the countdown to Xmas and Miss Amy is very excited that there is only one more day to go. Our Australian friends are coming over tonight for drinks. They have just returned from 5 days in Aspen to find their apartment soaking wet and their furniture in the hallway. Apparently while they were away a water pipe broke due to the extreme cold, sounds more like exploded based on the extent of the damaged plaster on the opposite side of the room. The manager of the apartments was very disparaging in her remarks about the trouble they had caused, only to retract all of these statements after it happened to four other apartments as well. Apparently the word is if you go away during the winter you are to leave all taps dripping and the heater on a minimum of 65F. Now we know….
In the lead up to Xmas we went to a Parade of Lights in Louisville. Everyone lined the main street to watch marching bands, scout groups and various trucks lit up like Xmas trees roll by. It was cold but good fun. We also went to a Winter Wonderland party up in the mountains. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was snowing and absolutely freezing, but we had a great time. The one disadvantage of the cold is the amount of clothes you need to put on and then take off. You even need to have different shoes, the ones you wear in the snow and in the car and then when you get somewhere the shoes you wear indoors. It all takes time and the kids have been very tolerant with it all.
After one of our supermarket trips just prior to Xmas, when it was -22C, we were packing the groceries into the back of the car when a man walked out of the supermarket in a t-shirt, overalls and bare feet. I couldn't believe it, I initially thought he must be someone who lives on the street but then he got into a big pick-up truck. Anyway, Miss Amy saw him and of course at the top of her voice said, "mum, that lady is going to freeze" (this guy had long fluffy hair and she thought it was a woman). I quickly got her into the car before she could say anything else.
Made it at last and with snow still on the ground. We started the morning with the usual mad rush to open all the presents and both Miss Amy and Kyle did very well. We sat down around 1pm for a roast lamb lunch, and spent the afternoon lounging around watching videos. We ended up eating the Xmas pudding for dinner as we were too full after lunch. It did feel a little strange celebrating Xmas in the cold weather but it was great being able to cook without over heating ourselves.
Miss Amy received a new dolls house that is in kit form so Craig and I will be spending the next few weeks (maybe months) putting it together. It is in the style of the older American architecture, complete with a shingle roof and verandah. The shingle roof is just that, the kit comes with 500 individual shingles that we have to paint and glue into place. Maybe we should have looked into this a bit more before commencing. Kyle was lucky enough to get a Hot Wheels car set that Craig put together in about 30 minutes and no painting was required.
Craig had three days off work so we headed north to Wyoming and Nebraska on one of those days. It is only a two hour drive to Wyoming on the interstate freeway which was a flat, pretty uninteresting trip. From Wyoming we headed east to Nebraska and found Cabela's, an amazing camping and outdoor store. Inside the store they have these amazing stuffed animal exhibits, animals including bears, moose, lions, big horn sheep and ducks (Craig has included some photos on the website). Amy and Kyle were fascinated and I was amazed because after being in the store for a while you realise how big this place really is. They cater for all types of outdoor recreation, including fishing, hunting and camping. As it is hunting season there was a huge range of camouflage gear on display, we don't have anything quite like it at home. They also cater to fishermen and there was an indoor aquarium containing examples of the local varieties of fish. (Sally, tell Alan and the boys I will put the Cabela's catalog in the mail for them, I think it might be interesting reading for them). We probably spent about 3 hours just wandering around. I managed to pick up a cheap Polartec jumper that has been doing a wonderful job keeping me warm.
We also drove back down to Colorado Springs and visited the Air Force Academy, the Garden of the Gods and the site of the Pueblo Indians cliff dwellings. The Academy was really interesting and the visitors centre had an interesting display about a day in the life of a cadet. There was an actual B-52 bomber on display and you could tour around the chapel, a building made of steel and stained glass.
The Garden of the Gods is a park like area that contains a variety of sandstone structures that you can walk or ride around. You could see where the rock climbers favourite spots were because there were a series of clips (??) left in the rocks, probably for the next person to use. From here we went to the cliff dwellings, on original site where the Indians made their homes under an over hang. They actually made multiple roomed structures under the overhang, sometimes they were 2 storeys high with a ladder at the front. Excellent use was made of the natural structure.
The other thing I achieved after Xmas was to get my Colorado driver's license. It involved taking a written test (multiple choice questions, mostly a matter of eliminating the obvious, like What is the best method to remove alcohol from your system, 1. Take a cold shower, 2. Drink black coffee, or 3. Allow time to pass). After passing the test I then had to take the driving test, but I couldn't do this without first showing proof of registration and insurance for the car. And guess what, these were back at home. So I drove home (about 20 minutes) and returned with the proof. The registration was okay but they wouldn't accept my insurance form as proof. So I delayed the drive test till later that afternoon and went home again to sort out the insurance. Couldn't contact our agent so I rang head office who said that they had no record of us being in the system. Does this mean I am insured or not?? No-one could tell me. Head office tracked down the agent who said everything was fine, his secretary had stuffed up (yeh sure) and proof of insurance would be provided. Back to do the drive test and we drive out of the car park in our car, turn right, then right again and back to the carpark. Is that it I was wondering, no 3 point turn, parallel park, nothing. Sure enough that was it, and I had my photo taken, my finger print taken and got my license. I don't know what I was so worried about.
It is pretty much back to normal life for a while now. Craig is busy at work, they have asked him to re-structure the department he is in so that is providing a challenge. Miss Amy has moved to a new room at pre-school and is having a wonderful time. Her new teacher, Miss Tonya, has made her feel so welcome. She has made new friends and is sometimes overwhelmed by the reception she gets each morning. We have started the process of booking her into school. The school year starts in September 1999 and attending kindergarten assumes that you attend 5 times per week, 3.5 hours per day. If you want full days it means you are attending the kindergarten enrichment program and you actually have 2 teachers, one for the morning session and one for the afternoon. At this stage we will probably take the half day option. The school that is closest to us has underestimated the number of children in the area and if there are more applicants than places available they will use a lottery system to assign places. If you miss out on a place they then bus the overflow up to a school in Boulder, about 35 minutes drive by bus. This really isn't what we were after so I am putting her name down at other schools close by.
Kyle has started swimming lessons this term and he has a great time. His skinny little body looks so cute in speedos, we call him the spider monkey. We celebrated his second birthday earlier this week and we invited some friends over for lunch. He chose the train cake out of the birthday book so I did my best but I will have to improve a bit before next birthday. My cake decorating skills definitely need some more work.
On Friday we headed down to the Western Stock and Horse show, a three week extravaganza of horses, cattle and other assorted livestock. The facilities are out of this world, with all the arenas and exhibit areas indoors. The newest building was the horse pavilion and we saw some showjumping. It was so good to smell horseflesh again (I know, I'm weird). We were given tickets to the rodeo and it went for about 2 1/2 hours. There was the usual bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing, etc. My favourite was the cutting horse competition. There were so many breeds of cattle that we had never heard of, including Tarentaise, Braunvieh, Gelbvieh and others. There were sales for elk and yak as well. The presentation of the cattle was immaculate, I always remember being impressed by the cattle at Royal Melbourne but these cows and bulls must spend half a day being prepared before being shown. Not a hair out of place and they seemed to be clipped so that their hair didn't lie flat against their skin. They did look wonderful.
This weekend the Denver Broncos are playing for a spot in the superbowl final. Craig and Amy have headed off to a friends house to watch the game and Kyle and I are hanging around home for a well earned rest.
I hope that everyone has survived the Xmas rush and are enjoying the New Year. Go Broncos.
Other little differences:
Bottles of Baileys, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, etc are known as cordials at the liquor stores. You cannot buy alcohol on Sundays, but if you forget, the liquor stores are open till 11 pm on a Saturday night.
The snow creates a whole infrastructure around Colorado. When it does snow out come the snow ploughs (generally big trucks and smaller vehicles with ploughs attached to the front), they drive around clearing snow from the roads with the larger trucks dropping dirt at the same time to help you get traction when driving. The footpaths are cleared by ATVs with tiny ploughs attached to the front. When the snow melts and the roads start to dry out, the road sweepers appear to sweep and vaccum the dirt from the roads (I wonder if the dirt is recycled??). In some counties it is law that you must clear snow from the footpath in front of your house by 9am.
I did something very silly. I put some handwashing on the clothes-horse and put it in the garage in case it dripped. I went out later in the afternoon to find the clothes frozen stiff. Miss Amy's cardigan even had icicles hanging from it. Had to bring it inside to thaw out. Won't be doing that again.
The other silly thing I did was when Amy, Kyle and I were at the swimming pool, we had just finished swimming and were in the change room I asked them both to put their thongs on. I realised it was a faux pas when everyone in the change room turned around to look at us. A thong is actually a g-string here, so you can imagine the kind of looks we got.
Many products contain MSG, you really need to read the labels well. The kids yoghurt (blueberry and cherry flavoured) is coloured with beetroot juice.
New movies are released here on Xmas Day. It seems that due to the large Jewish population they celebrate Happy Holidays to cover both Hannuka and Xmas.
If you want to buy a horse and are allergic to horse hair there is a curly haired breed advertised that doesn't shed hair.
There is also a breed of dog advertised called the Australian Shepherd, not really sure what they look like but they are quite popular it seems.
A major chain of coat stores in the US has been made to recall coats with a fur collar that were made in China. It was discovered the fur was actually dog hair.
One of the ski resorts received 54 inches of snow in 3 days. They were suggesting that people didn't ski out-of-bounds because of the risk of avalanches. Craig has now skied at Keystone and Winter Park. This coming weekend he has a snow boarding lesson at Loveland.
The FDA here in America has approved two new drugs for use on dogs. They are to be used for dogs suffering separation anxieties and old age dementia.