Hi all :O)

  Was in town so i thought I had better check in and say hi.  Cricket and I are doing great, Headed down to salida to pointbar just south of town to go prospecting again.  Got some friends tagging along to help with the digging.  There is a guy that will havea  dredge there for 3 day also and he said taht we can all take a turn on it so that will be fun.   I just hope that its not to hot down there for cricketdog, HAVE TO WATCH ALOT OF THEINGS WITH HER NOW WITH HER HEART CONDITION.   oops, sorry about the caps.,  been one of those days.   when we get back to town i will update things properly on here with some pictures too :O)      Hope all is well   be safe all  :O)

Cricket update :O)

  Cricket still has a heart condition, but we have it under control the best we are going to get it.  She will have to take meds like the rest of us now :O)  We have to hang around here for a few more days to get the meds in her system and after that the vet says that we can start traveling again. We just have to watch the higher altitudes..    He was really happy with the way she had responded to the treatment, you could actually see that he was sincere about it.  All we have heard from people around here is how good he is and how much he truly cares about the animals.  I believe it.   So we are going to hang out here and then probably head to fair play to learn how to carve spirit faces in walking canes.  And finally get back to some prospecting :O)   Talked to a guy that just got back from cache creek today and he said that it is still crazy up there, guess the BLM officers are coming in regularly now to keep things down to a dull roar between certain individuals.   
   Meet some others that were not to happy with the camp host Larry either,  i think that people are figuring out what he is all about now..    Not sure when I will be heading back up there but I still have 9 days on my permit, will have to be before Nov that's when they shut the gate to cache creek until next year.  the Arkansas river is finally going down but is still to high to get to the new gold the flood waters have brought down. there is allot of people waiting to get in the river, all of them are talking about how good the gold will be this year. Might have to pay attention to see just how good its going to pay for them :O)      got to go,  be safe all  :O)

Cricket demanding that I rub her belly,  nothing spoiled about her!!!  lol

Are you tired of the random pics yet? no? cool. here are some more lol

this was the sun set yesterday, had a double rainbow too but the picture didn't turn out very good.

this pictures not a real good one but it will have to do,  on the east side of the Arkansas river I found these old railroad tunnels. Four of them actually, you can see the first three in the top photo and the last tunnel is the pic below.  sorry the first picture is so crappy. 

and if you look up the road alittle you see that huge rock? it almost looks like they split that rock into. not sure if they did or not but it sure is one big rock!!!  wouldn't be anything but a spot left of a person and their car if it fell on them..

Found this little "Twenty" caterpillar  just outside of buena vista, really good shape and it still runs by all indications.  Sure makes me want to get dads old "twenty" going again.  Dads is in better mechanical shape than this one but then again, this one does run lol

this old McCormick tractor was sitting just down the line of stuff too.  I tried to turn it over but I do believe its stuck tight. 

Patches taking over my bath towel, sat it down just inside the door and was talking to one of crickets followers :O)  and when I turned around to get it and head to the shower this is what I saw.  She really looks comfy doesn't she? 

just a random picture of the Arkansas

How would you like to be the poor sap that drew the short straw to grade the roads in a blizzard with this thing??    I do believe I would have built a shed on this thing if I had to run it in the winter!!!   or quit lol 

people come and go :O)

  In our travels we have meet some really nice people on the road. Its funny how for the most part if your in a camper there is no such thing as a stranger, if you have a pet then that is a open invitation for people to walk up and introduce themselves so they can find out the name of your pet and then yours lol  

  I have meet allot of friendly people here in the rv park,  There is Fred and Vicki from Florida who I was parked next too, really nice and offered to haul cricket and I around where ever we needed to go so we wouldn't have to unhook our rv and drive it to town.
  
 Then there is Jim and Kristi who is from garden city ks,  visited with them quite a few times. They pulled out this morning but before they did they brought over some home made biscuits, peaches and some plums.  We exchange names and numbers and they told me to stop in anytime I was in town.  Really nice people. :O)  Wish I could have visited more with them.    On the way home I will have to stop in and say hi to them.

 James is the older fella back almost directly behind me across the drive,  he and his wife is from Tulsa Oklahoma,  we just sit in the shade and talk about anything and everything lol  mostly about places we have been and he likes to talk about his time at the gas company that he retired from.    Really interesting fellow. 

  Don and Jojo and their dog Bruno,   I have talked about them before but such good people that I thought that I could mention them again. 

  I was asking people for a while if I could take their picture to put on the blog but some of them shied away from it so I don't ask anymore.  Just easier this way.
 
  there is Mrs Johnson down the way with her little dog smokey,  she will talk your leg off about her grand kids lol  and about her little smokey but really nice and she told me to  stop in anytime when I get to Denver.  She cracks me up with some of her sayings and her cigar that she puffs on :O)

I cant remember his name, but he camps by the bathroom and he is a prospector too,  we have visited several times and when ever we see each other we holler eureka like we have found a gold nugget that will save us from poverty lol   quite the character...   

Just meet Evert and Sharron, they were trying to back their fifth wheel into their slot and was havn a really hard time of it, one of the rv workers even got into trying to back it in but was not havn much luck at it either, sooooo   being the type of  guy I am, I walked over and volunteered to help them out. They willingly gave up the Pu keys lol  just took a few maneuvers and I had it in there and I have been invited over for supper :O)    They are the only ones I have meet first then cricket got to meet them lol  
 Telling you all right now, if I run out of money or food all I will have to do is sit on a corner with a sign and cricket and we will be set with food and money and most likely a place to stay with in hours lol  (at least cricket will ) 

 There are countless other people here in the rv park that we talk too when we are on our walk abouts, cricket has quite the following here :O)   

  anyway,  cricket is telling me that we need to take a nap,  better do as she says or else....  :O)    
                                              talk later to you all   be safe :O)

random pictures again

Found this chain saw in the true value store here in buena vista,  I think it just might be your speed Gary  LOL 

this is a gold mine head in victor Colorado, they are all over the place here. The whole town is undermined terribly bad. We meet a guy that told use that when they were done with the mine and it was about time to leave it, they would mine it the rest of the way up to "grass roots"  When they would hit roots they would stop digging to keep it from collapsing in on them.  Over time though, it gets weekend by the snows and water seeping through and the mines sometimes cave in. They can even cave in just by walking on the top of them, so when you in under ground mining areas you might just keep that in mind.  Some of the shafts go down hundreds and even thousands of feet into the earth.  there was a story that the guy told us, don't know just how true it is but as its told there was aguy there in victor that restored a classic car of some sorts, he kept it in his garage and one day he went to the garage to do something, opened the door and there was no car,  no floor even.  The garage had been built on top of a mine shaft that had been dug to "grass roots" and had caved in over night.  Talk about your bad luck....

This piece of machinery which is a air compressor pump I believe, was just sitting along the road up about 11500 ft up the side of this mountain. there was all kinds of stuff laying around, old bucket dredge parts, old vehicles, heavy equipment, yo name it it was up there.

hungry little guy, at 7 or 8 peanuts before scampering off. 

and they say that parts of Kansas are flat :O)  wasn't for the mountains in the back ground I think I could have seen white city's water tower and elevator lol

again, more random pics :O)

Here is another fixer uper for Junior :O)

and a tractor to go with it, just have to drive to center colorado to get them

just messing around trying to get a good shot of both.  not sure it worked lol

This guy was selling tacos for some church funtion,  all he knew in english i believe was TACO TACO TACO 5 DOLLARS   TACO TACO TACO 5 DOLLARS  :O)   I actually bought some, not because of his sales pitch but for the fact I was hungry and it was 5 dollars for 4 tacos and a pop.  Thye were pretty dang good..  this was in center colo

Tunnel on wolf creek pass road

Took this one going down the road because there was no place to pull over, that is the same road I am on down there. Was a pretty narley hair pin curve  to get over there to that part of the road. wolf creek pass

finally found a spot to pull over at, letting the brakes cool off alittle :O) wolf creek pass

If you ever ever ever see this on your gps at night.  Just turn around and wait for day time lol  the gps looked like this for about 30 miles between silverton colo and ouray colo.  What a road!!    Would like to come back and drive this one on a motorcycle.  Preferably a high speed bike, not for the speed but so you wont be scaping things as you go around corners at a slow speed even lol  very cool road but it lacks gaurd rails along almost all of it :O) 

more pictures of the sand dunes :O)

Playing with the setting on the camera, was trying to capture the sand drifting and blowing over the ridge.  Didn't work out .

I thought this was pretty neat, this ridge was about 300 yrds long

.  this is just about as far as cricket and i made it. Started to rain the wind was picking up and that stuff hurts when its blowing about 20 mph. So we bailed and went to shelter.  We brushed sand out of our hair for quite awhile.     

wanted to share the image of the sun kitting the dunes

I still cant get over just how big the dunes are lol

here are the dunes again,with the mountains in back.  this is about 8 miles away.

Cricket standing in a bunch of black sands that collects at the ridges all over the place. At one time there was a group of guys that found very small gold in the dunes so they developed a company to mine the dunes for the gold. It didn't work out it seems that their machines couldn't separate the gold from the sands. They went broke.   So there is gold in them thar hills :O)

just a pretty picture of the setting sun over the dunes I think.

just another random pic

random pictures of different places we have been

This trolley car is in Victor Colorado, looks like they be getting ready to restore it maybe.

One of the train tunnels on gold camp rd. 

This is Clear Creek Lake just south of granite Colo. Stayed there a few nights. Mosquitoes were terrible!!

Peggy Gary Matt and I went up to the Gold mine that is up the road and to the top of the mountain behind granite. Saw this Marmot along the road. 

Me feeding peanuts to the Ground squirrel He was really a brave little guy, drove patches absolutely nuts. He would sit just outside the camper door and yell at patches.  All patches had to do was twitch her tail and he would be gone in the blink of an eye  lol  then come right back again.

if you look close or click on the picture, you will see the sand dunes at the base of the mountain. this pic was taken about 15 miles away from them.

This is how big they are :O)  it was about 1/2 mile walk to the dunes from parking lot then it was about 700 feet up to the tallest peak of sand.  It shifts and changes in the wind all the time so there are no true paths to follow you just have to pick your own way up and across them all.  If your stick to the sand that hasn't been trampled on you can for the most part stay on top of it instead of sinking in.  But that only works part of the time lol

And of course, here is cricket looking out over her domain lol 

Cricket update

  She started not acting right again, Started coughing day before yesterday, not real bad but noticeable. That's the one thing the vet told me to watch out for , its a sign that her heart murmur was acting up.  Yesterday she really started coughing allot and for along time, got in to see the vet today and found out that her condition has worsened, not sure if its the altitude messing with her or if its just getting worse.  So here we sit in Buena Vista at the camp ground next to the vets office.  the Snowy Peaks RV park, Cricket is relaxing soaking up the ac right now between going outside to pee every 10 min it seems like lol (its the new medicine that's making her pee so much) Her lungs were starting to fill with fluid due to her heart condition.  No, its not good at all.  He wanted me to stay close and to keep her at this elevation so he can diagnose her better instead of wondering if its the traveling up and down in elevation that's doing this or something else. 
  SO  here we sit with electricity, water and sewer with Internet and they are working on running cable over to me for tv.  I will not know what to do :O)    I might actually see what is happening in the world for a change.  Its been along time since I have watched tv.   
  The vet said that if she doesn't improve then we will have to take a xray to see whats going on inside her heart.   that will be Monday so until then we will be sitting here enjoying the ac during the hot part of the day. If its the elevation We will be headed home soon.  Not going to take any chances with my cricket. 

 And yes, the Midas camper is the oldest one in the lot lol  Squeezed right in next to a at least 500,000 motor home.  They put their window shades down after I pulled in :O) 

I will be posting alot more pictures while I have the time.  Hope you all dont get to bored :O)
    Be safe    :O)

saturday july 16 th 2011 A promise kept.

This blog is for the memory of Dad

These are  pictures of wolf creek pass that I took yesterday while full filling my promise to Dad. He was a over the road truck driver for allot of years and one of the most frequent roads that he talked about was wolf creek pass. One day he told me that he want me to take some of his ashes there and put them on top.  He never really explained why he wanted them up there but from a story he told I believe that just maybe he felt like he had cheated death there. He blew a air line coming down the mountain one time and he said that he did not know how he ever got the truck stopped but he did.  Maybe in was fate saying that it wasn't his time or just plain dumb luck lol    I don't know.

,

this is the spot that I put dads ashes, behind these flowers looking out over the mountain and road. There are pull off places on either side of the road for putting tire chains on.  His spot is on the west side of the road looking east towards home.

This is the view towards pagosa springs

This truck pulled in right after I put dad in his spot, I had been thinking that it would be cool to see a truck and to get him to honk his air horn and what do you now, here was one here now so I walked over and introduced myself and asked him for a favor. He looked at me for a sec with a look of oh crap what now. but when I explained to him about dad and his wish, and the favor I wanted from him he smiled and shook my hand , told me that he would willingly blow his air horn in dads honor.  So when he got back into his truck he blew his air horn three long times and took off down the road with a wave and a smile back at us.  Thank you Anthony for everything.  Isn't it funny how things happen at certain times?  Just like the next picture.

as I was talking to Anthony the truck driver I heard a bunch of Harley's pull up on the other side of the road. When Anthony blew the air horn all the riders turned and looked at him like what the heck.  Then one of the riders said Okay boys, here we go and turned his radio up with one of dads favorite songs, Wolf creek pass.   Like I said earlier, coincidence fate or what ever you want to call it or say about it. It all hit home pretty hard.    i don't think I could have planned it any better if I had tried to give dad this kind of send off.  Dad and I had planned on riding out here to wolf creek pass on our motorcycles, but he passed away before we could.   We had put it off till the next summer because we thought it would be better.    Don't wait for tomorrow people, sometimes it doesn't come around....  

the pics don't do it justice and the pics I wanted to take I couldn't because I had to keep my eyes on the road!!  lol

pretty awesome i think

you can see the switch backs in several places in this pic.

this is dad :O)  took this picture while we we're going down the road to little sturgis Kentucky.  About this time all he wanted was a container of monkey butt powder lol  

  

Rest in peace Dad, we all miss you  and love you very much.

just saying hi :O)

  I have left cache creek Colo.  It was getting way to crazy up there for me.  The parking lot was packed to the gills and the campers were parking anywhere and everywhere, you would have thought some one had hit it really big up there or something (which is not the case)  there was people fighting over old holes that they claimed was theirs but they hadn't even been there yet this yr.  Getting drunk and wanting to fight and some of them are even carrying guns while arguing and drinking.  Don't get me wrong, I have and enjoy firearms allot. but there isa place and time for them and arguing and drinking is  NOT one of them.  Dad always told me not to drink and  mess with guns,  makes since to me but I guess some of the people in the world don't get it or understand it.
  One guy i know up there was diggin in his hole and the next thing he knew he was sitting in the buttom of his hole with a big lump and cut on his head where some one had gotten pissed off at him because they thought it was their hole and throed a big rock in on top of him.    When Big Larry came out of the hole after realizing what had happened he grabbed his shovel and told the guy to get the heck  out of there and told him he was going to make his shovel just as ugly as the guys face by waking him with it.  Cant blame big Larry for being mad, he should have went to town to get stitches but he just used some duct tape on in and went back to digging lol  
 I meet some interesting people up there, there was Rick Brenda and her some Emanuel, they are out here for the summer prospecting.  Troy Lisa and their son Ace, good enough kid but had to watch him pretty close,  given the chance I believe he would have run off with cricket.  they are out here being the camp host part of the time for the summer, pretty much down on their luck but from what I seen and heard its self inflicted.
 Then there is big larry,  he was a real laugh around the camp fire telling stories.  He's from Wisconsin and has a big time accent from up north.  Hasa habit  of saying "You Know" at he end of his sentences lol  we got to giving him shit about it last night and he really started in with the accents.  Pretty good guy, will do anything for anybody that needs help even though he has nothing but a few dollars and just a few can goods for food. Just a wore out blazer that needs some serious work on it, Him and I fixed his brakes on evening so he could go to town safely.  Good thing I brought my tools with me and I finally used my welder lol    He tried to pay me, even offered some gold but I refused it simply because he needed it more than I do.  When i left this morning, I put some more canned goods on his tail gate.  I hope he hits it big.
  Then there is llittle larry the part time camp host,  what a individual.... we will just leave it at that he is out there for himself and only himself.  as long as it benefits him he is alright with things..
  the Tom, he is a quite older guy that If I had to guess he had a stroke or something by the way he talks and such.  He hooked up with big larry a while back and larry keeps a eye on him to help him out when he needs it.  He is another down and out guy, don't know his whole story but I don't believe he has had a easy life.
  Don and JoJo (women) and cant forget crickets newest boyfriend lol  Bruno  he is a bull mastiff, huge dog!!  his head alone could make a dozen crickets :O)  kindest most gentle dog I have meet so far.  He just ambles around checkin out every ones camp, prospecting hole lol  we put a snuffer bottle on his collar with the sign that said Bruno's gold and food bottle.  I found  a big piece of pyrite and stuck it in there so motivate others to maybe put some real gold in there lol  (yea right)  He is a brindle colored dog, very pretty.   Back to don and jojo, they are from Minnesota, she was born in fort Riley ks though.  Pretty good people, he is the one that I got to pull my rv and trailer out of the ditch the other day lol  tell you about that one alittle later lol  They have been traveling around for the last 3 yrs in a pickup living in a tent.  Some producer person from the discovery channel is supposed to make a documentary show about them. they asked me if I wanted to go to California with them this fall, them larry and tom. I told them I didn't know where or what i would be doing this fall but we exchanged numbers so we can keep in touch. We all had a good time prospecting and sitting around the camp fire at night telling stories. Hope they all find what they are looking for. 
  About the camper getting stuck,  :O)  On of the only times that I repeated the "OH SHIT" phrase twice in rapid succession lol  even cricket knew things were going south quick!!    I had left cache cr and went to town to do laundry and get some groceries, take a shower, stuff like that.  it rained while I was gone, alot. i drove in there and got to the bottom of a hill and needed to go up the other side and saw that it might be slick, it wa.  i got the camper to the flat spot on top of the hill but the trailer was still on the hill side. I gave it some more gas and it spun out, and then started sliding backwards down the hill. I tried to keep the trailer straight but I had slid sideways up against  the dirt bank so i couldn't steer it at all. about that time i muttered the first oh shit then the trailer started towards the ditch and that's when i exclaimed the next oh shit and cricket looked at me and hunkered down on the passenger seat like she new this wasn't going to be a good ride lol   we slide on back down the hill with the trailer ending up in the ditch and the camper sitting in the middle of the road blocking traffic from getting in or out!  I tried to move put it was pointless so I got a ride to the camp, got don to bring his 4x4 pickup to tow me out, we hooked 3 20ft chains together to keep him up on the top of the hill.  Needless to say I will be more careful in the future.  Luckily I didnt jack knife the trailer or tear anything up :O)  got real lucky. 
  Oh yea,  don and jojo was sitting by their fire the other night and heard a noise, turned around and looked right at a bear in their camp.  I personally think they we're  dreaming because I know for a fact that the only bears in colo are in the zoo and they were brought in from Pennsylvania!!!   :O)    Okay,  I have to admit that there were tracks by their camp but they might have been Bruno's :O)
  I did find some more gold, not rich yet and I'm not holding my breath either :O)  but I am getting rich with memories and good times.    Cricket and I are headed down to the colo sand dunes east of center colo, when i was a kid i saw them form a distance and wanted to go see them but we couldn't drive the semi over there and it was way to far to walk.  (I didn't think so at the time)  so that's where we are headed and then to wolf creek pass and down to the Anasazi ruins, four corners and places in between :O)  Got to go for know,  talk to you all again soon,   be safe :O)  
 sorry for the lack of pictures, the camera is drying out for a second time.  might have to get a new one this time.

7/12/11 rambling

  I have been really trying hard to find some gold, Peggy Gary and Matt was here last week.  Had a really great time with them prospecting and showing Matt some of the sights around Colo. He had never been here before so it was cool to see him taking it all in and being amazed with it all.  I do believe that if he could have he would have stayed.  We got to cache creek just west of granite and got right to setting up the equipment and digging a hole in the rocks.  Just for the record, this is hard work and keep your day job lol  We found alittle bit but it just wasn't a good producing hole.  I have since moved down a ways to another spot and have found some pretty good gold on my first test. Unfortunately I had to leave the next day to do laundry.  Was down to my last pair of skiffys and had to get gas, food, etc.  Talk about a pain to move all the equipment back to the trailer. Took allot of trips u guys!!!  :O)  Got the camp kid to help me, I told him I would make him a deer horn whistle and he was all for that.  He saw mine and thought that was the coolest thing he ever saw.  At least until the next cool thing :O)  He's a pretty good kid, trys hard to help out everyone he can.
  I have meet some interesting people here, some are disabled, some are just homeless and prospecting to make a living. Some are just there because they know there are other people there for company.  You can tell who is who there by the little clans that they form.  Some are just hobby miners with money to burn, some are the hippie type that are there for the party and the gold. then there is the serious guys that are for the gold and nothing else.  The camp host is a diff fella, will let you borrow anything and will always ask you to partner up with him.  lol  he Will supply the equipment but you have to do the digging and he doesn't for the most part but he gets the first pick of the buckets of concentrates lol  he's got it figured out I believe.   But he is a good guy I believe, he will ask everyone if they need anything when he goes to town and will pick it up for you.   
  Most of the regulars up there are ok people,  But I believe that given a chance they will take of advantage of a situation if presented to them.  Not that they are bad people but just down on there luck and trying anyway they can to keep themselves feed and going.
  Since I pulled out and will be gone most of today, according to the new law going into effect today, when i get back there I will have 14 new days to camp up there. I have 11 days left on my permit for high banking so I will be there until my permit runs out. Hopefully in the new hole I will be able to show you all some real gold in the bottle :O)  I meet a older gentlemen the other day by the new hole and we have been enjoying visiting with each other alot. When i told him I was pulling out for a few days he said he would keep a eye on my hole for me if he could get acouple of bucket for himself. told him to go for it.   really looking forward to getting back in there and seeing what its going to give me.
  I have allot more pictures to share with you all but for some reason the Internet here is not being very comparative.  Have to post them later.  Got to go so take care and be safe all  :O)

7/12/11 update #2

This is one of the hundred lightning bolts that struck around Buena Vista a while back. I tried to take a bunch of pics but my 80.00 walmart camera was not up to the task. Got lucky getting this one, was actually trying to take apic of another bolt but got this one instead.  It was truly one of the most awesome lightning displays that I have ever seen, and that is even including the lighting storms that we get back home in Kansas.  Glad I was inside and not on a mountain :O) 

this top picture shows a little arrow thing about half way down the picture. The next photo is a close up of the same picture. Just goes to show you how determined man can be.  I found these pictures in the lead ville Colorado mining museum the other day and was amazed at it.  Don't think I am that dedicated to gold mining lol  but it would be truly awesome to go to Alaska where these pics we're taken and see this up close and personal......    Want to go to alaska someday....

Can you imagine lol   Don't want to be scared of heights to go to this place

Hey Penny,  You got your own store here in lead ville :O)   thought i would share with you.

this water tank is in Sergent's Colo, just liked it so I'm  sharing it.   They moved it hear from somewhere else so it could be restored and safed.

this is a HUGE (probably 200 ft or higher) granite doom on the gold camp rd from cripple creek to Colorado springs, get a chance to go on it, go.  Its a really great drive.  there is another from canon city to victor co. phantom canyon rd.  they are kinda long but for the first time every mile is worth it but a word of caution about gold camp rd. Make sure if your going down to the springs, have good brakes!!!   the road follows a old stage rd for part of it and then it follows the old narrow gauge RR tracks.  there is even a couple of tunnels that you get to drive threw.  Take a camera.  :O)