random pics

jsut some junk iron on a post that came out of some old mine.

look alittle closer :O)

yes its patches ready to take over driving the rv :O)   there was some kids running around the rest stop and they were looking fro a stray cat that they kept hearing lol  turned out to be patches they were hearing. they thought it waqs the coolest thing they ever say, a cat traveling ina rv. 

more pics from colo

sunset behind some of the 14000 ft mountains

this is pikes peak with the same setting sun.

just a bump in the ground :O)  about 1100 ft tall though, dont know how it was formed but it was pretty cool sitting out there on the flat plains all by itself.

just another sunset picture

Pikes Peak again just a few minutes later in the same day as the other picture.

some pics from salida colo

this old car was sitting behind the baseball park in salida, thought it was cool sitting there so I thought I would share it with you all :O)

This was there at the park too, Dont have any idea what age it is but its old.

 might be alittle difficult to use this out house properly lol the little window on the side actually has a piece of glass in it and it opens up.  it is a side by side two holer :O)  so much for privacy. 

just a old adobe house, thought the adobe bricks were kinda cool. saw some Mexicans down by center colo making some old school way. They were stomping straw into the clay and mixing it before they threw in into the box form. Then they would set them out in the sun to dry.  I would have takena pic of it all but was too much traffic.

wondering what to do with the blog

  I got up  a few morning ago and realized that it was time to go home. I was done with this adventure for a few different reason.  I just new when I was looking at the map and couldnt figure out a direction that something was up with me.  I finally decided at 430 pm in buena vista that i was going to head east, not sure where east but east. I drove with the thought that I was going to end up at fair play again but when I got to the intersection for fairplay or colorado springs I went to the right towards colo springs.  Not actually thought process I just turned and headed that way.  I got down the road a ways and it sunk in that I was actually headed home. No real reason except that I had done everything that I said that I was going to do.
  Alittle farther down the road I realized that I had not seen a bear yet!!  I got to thinking about it and decided that I could go to a land fill and see a bear there, granted not the ideal place but I would most likely see a bear.  About that time I saw a flash of something run across the road in front of me and to my amazement :O)  it was a small bear!!!!  and I had just about run over the dang thing.  Then and there I knew in my mind and heart I was headed home for sure.  I drove most all the night and finally stopped just over the kansas line at 3 am.  I had been following a thunder storm all night long, it was really amazing because all night long I was watching lightning out my drivers side window.  It was a huge storm.
 got up the next morning and headed on down the  road towards home, got about 100 miles east and started seeing alot of storm damage, it looked like a tornado had gone through the place. Roofs riped off tin buildings, tree limb down all over the place, you name it strung all over.  Good thing I stopped when I did or I might have been in the middle of it.  
  Stopped at ness city for gas and a cheese burger at the frigid queen.. if you get a chance to stop there do it!  its really good food.   Got back on the road and text my sister and started asking about supper and if she would set a plate for me. She thought I was still in colo and I let her believe it.  I got to her place to only find that she was out riding on the morcycle :O)  so I headed on to my aunt and uncles place, got there and peggy was putting groceries away so I just stood in the door looking at her untill she turned around and saw me.  No one knew I was headed back so it was a surprise to all actually :O)   
  So now I am back home staying at my aunt and uncles place for now and wondering what exactly I am going to do now. and what do I do with the blog. Do I keep it going and turn it into a diary or just let it fade into the past.  I dont know. I have really enjoyed writing on it and yes it is kind of a journal/diary.  so what do you all think?  keep it going or dump it?   

In other news I believe that I am going to buy a hot dog cart adn try that out for  while. Always wanted to do something like that.  See if it is actually something that a person can make some money at it or what.  If it goes good then maybe someday up grade to a concession trailer :O)  not sure what to do actually,  need to do something though.  Money doesnt grow on trees lol 

  anyway, let me know what you all think about the life of the blog.   be safe all    :O)

stock market :O(

  Got online a little while ago and checked the stock market and got the bad news about it going to shit in a hand basket...  Wonder if I have any money left?  last time it down this it was pretty ugly......   Should have cashed it in and buried it in the back yard in a coffee can..   I bet the phone lines are busy to the investment companies.  Want to rant but what good will it do.....
 Sometimes you just have to splurge and have a piece of pie with ice cream to make it all better lol  .......    Didn't help.   :O(           talk later to you all,   going to find a place to perch for a while.    Be safe :O)

more pictures

Just one of the many views that I am forced to look at each and everyday that I have been out here hehe

Nothing really special about this picture, I just thought it was neat with the withered 100 yr plus wood and the steel rods sticking up out of the ground.  Just another old gold mine that didnt pan out for the owner by the looks of it.

alittle better shot of the mountains, this is the view I got everytime I stepped out of the door east of Buena Vista.

another angle

Cricket getting all limbered up to eat breakfast :O)

Some more of the gold that I have found out here :O) 

This is looking north towards salida co from point bar where we we're camped this last week.

a better pic of the gold found at point bar, this was 10 full concentrated buckets of material run through the highbanker.  just another 2,583 bucket to go for out first ounce LOL

pics of Buena Vista and salida area.

I was sitting in the shade in Buena Vista when i caughta glimpse of something running around on the roof of "Jan's Restaurant"  got to looking closer and realized it was a dog. The owner I am assuming, left the window open without the screen on it so the dog could get out of the house lol

This is what the main street of Buena Vista looked like after a rain the one night I decided to go out to a bar lol  it rained so hard that the street was flooded up to the business's doors and it was running inside some of them. It really poured down for a while. Had a really good time there at the "Highway Dept bar"   Cool old building was actually the maintenance shop for the highway dept back in the day.  Dogs are welcome :O) 

Just a shadow picture of Cricket and I and  a old mine shaft that has collapsed in on itself. We camped here for a few days and hiked around to the old mines dotting the mountains there.  Just east of Buena Vista. 

This is just a pic of cricket by a huge rock called Elephant rock, its just after the four train tunnels I have showed earlier in a blog.  and the next one is a full size pic of the same rock. 

This sculpture is in front of a gas station in Poncha springs just west of salida, rather wonderful I think.

And for those of you wondering where all the gold pictures are :O) ,  here is one of them. Will post more after while. Looks like alot untill you put it in a bottle then it shrinks dramatically lol

the view of the moon from camp the other evening.

some pics and some rabling about pics :O)

it has rained most everyday in the afternoons here, this is one of the many rainbows that we saw.  Even hada double rainbow but couldn't find the camera fast enough. 

This  was at cache creek, I dug around at the bottom of this thing for a short bit and then noticed a crack forming just about down the middle of it. I got my stuff out of the way before it came crashing down, took it as a sign and left it alone after that lol  It is some original soil left behind after the hydraulicking mining was done there back in the 1870's   That type of mining was outlawed in 1910 or 1911.  It was way to destructive to the countryside, it would make a mountain into a rubble pile. 

this is not a good picture of the hill I slide backwards down but it does show the tire tracks from the trailer where it ended up in the ditch lol  what a ride and horrible feeling to know in your heart that there is absolutely nothing you can do but go for a ride...  not fun but i whata Adrenalin rush after everything came to a stop and nothing was broke or messed up :O) 

really got to go this time,  need to call a friend to see how the rim to rim hike at the grand canyon went.     Be safe all  :O)

I'm baaack :O)

  This has been a truly interesting week as far as prospecting goes,  run a high banker /dredge combo for a while, ran my high banker for a while. Even run a 4 inch dredge for about 10 min until the air compressor pulley shattered.  Wasn't my fault either lol  out of all those machines we still only got alittle bit of gold!    In search of better grounds to prospect and not taking the posse with me either, had enough of that mess.  Its just cricket patches and I again :O)  and some peace and quiet.
  We wpent the week down at point bar with some others but had no luck what so ever.  Dug some really big holes and even dredged some material about 15 feet above the river lol    used the water from my high banker to flood the bed rock that was above the river, worked really good but I believe that they probably have a regulation against that type of prospecting :O)  Should have took pictures but was really busy trying to keep up with everything that was going on around there and take care of cricket too.  She was pissed off most of the week because I had to keep her in the camper because of the scorpions, they were everywhere!!   Little tan ones to some bigger black ones, not sure how poisonous they were but was not taking chances. 
  One evening while sitting around the campfire, I noticed the river was turning a butterscotch color. By the end of the evening and into the next Day it was so murky that you couldnt see even a inch into the water where before you could see the bottom anywhere along there even in the 10ft deep holes.  come to find out, there had been a cave in up on chalk creek  that made it look so bad, guess that the cave in was bad enough that it just about blocked off the creek.  The game warden said that no one got hurt or anything but it was pretty hairy for a while.   It took about 2 full days to clear back up enough to see the trout in the river again.  And they say that its the gold miners that are making the river dirty lol   
  Cricket has been doing okay, she just needs to learn to take it easy when I'm not around :O)  She gets herself so worked up when I leave her in the camper. If she can see me its okay for a while but if she cant see me she is all wound up!!!!   Spoiled brat :O)   
  One night I went to use the phone up on the hill by that bathroom, usually you can text from there when the moon is aligned with Jupiter and the signal gods are shining down upon you lol   I wanted to talk to a friend instead of texting so I climbed a hill/Kansas mountain to get a signal.  Talked for awhile and then I noticed flash lights sweeping back and forth down by the camp and bathroom, figured out that it was the rest of my group looking for me lol  cricket had started raising heck and they realized I had not came back from the bathroom so they were freaking out searching for me. I  scrambled back down off the mountain side, it was light when I went up there but now it was totally dark.  Thank goodness for cell phones and the light you can use on them lol   If you haven't walked and slide down the side of a mountain in flip flops in the night using your cell phone for light....  DONT lol    got down to the flats and walked up to them all and asked them what were they looking for and you would have thought I had set off a fire cracker lol  they all jumped and then started cussing me lol     I really honestly felt bad for making them worry but it was worth it to scare the heck out of them like i did. 
 
I'm going to hang around town until tomorrow probably so I can update this blog some more and post some pics, make some phone calls to say hi to friends and family.  Kinda miss them ( not you Matt lol  and I am number one too!!   :O)  no meat balls for you until I get  lol)   

going to go save cricket now and make some calls.   Be safe all :O)