September 2009

The scenery changes so much when you start to leave the Denver area and head west along Interstate-70.  About half way across the state you come to the high desert sage brush area (my name for it).  Here are the photos of the landscape.  I took these while Mike was driving and had the camera in action mode (this is the little digital camera I use – I was amazed at how clear the photos turned out!

East of Grand Junction along a part of the Colorado River ( yes I did get part of the window and the mirror in it)

and another view - same location just seconds down the interstate

the trees are starting to turn color and I have some yellow daisies most likely there in the front where it was blurry.

just another view - same area a lot of people don't like this area but I have always liked the sage brush deserts, it has a beauty of its own

and here is another didn't get the river in this one. This mountain ridge runs for a very long length with the interstate

I had to tip the camera up at an angle out of the window to get the top of the ridges as we went by, the sky sure was clear at this point, it does look desolate doesn't it

this is a bit further down the interstate and it looks a little different but not a lot - do any of my readers live out here - this is about 50 miles or so east of Grand Junction

and what a change this one is - very desolate and dry looking

Now who in there right mind would want to build a house on top of a hill like that? Can you image the wind they must get at times.

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We drove across Colorado today and I took some photo’s along the way with the motorhome in motion.  I am amazed at how many turned out. I put the camera on the “action” mode and it worked and the pictures were not blurry – this is the little camera that I use not the big nice one that Mike has   I will need to get them uploaded and the computer is working slow tonight so it will wait and I will see if it will work better in the morning.  In the meantime I did upload some photos of wildflowers that Mike took while we were in the Estes Park area and will do a post this evening on that. (we do have wireless in this park near Ouray, Co. but it doesn’t appear to be very fast).

This time of the season is not the best time for wildflowers as some of them have already faded and died in September but we managed to see some.

these little flowers we thought were bluebells, but I am looking up in the wildflower book right now for the part of the country and it says they are "harebells"

I can't for the life of me think what this flower is called. We have them in Arkansas too and I have planted them. They are a type of daisy I think and they start with the letter "G"?

this plant is called "fireweed"

I think this one is some kind of "wild aster" I have 3 different wildflower books that I am looking at and I can't for sure identify this one.

This one is easy - "thistle" and it even has a bee in it!

there are so many white daisy's but I believe this one is the "oxeye daisy"

I haven't a clue on this one but I thought it was pretty maybe a variety of "goldenrod"?

I don't know what this one is either but it was pretty. It is possible it is a tree that is not mature. I have found one picture that it resembles - the "Western Mountain-Ash" tree which grows in mountain canyons which is where we were.

If anyone knows the names of any of these plants and/or thinks I have one wrong let me know.  I would love to know for sure what they are!

As I told you all yesterday we were driving today to the western part of Colorado and we arrived at our campground near Ouray around 5 this afternoon.  We were told by the campground host that bear have been in our campground recently and to keep all food in the motorhome or vehicles and leave no food or garbage outside.  I would like to see one but from the safety of the camper!  We have already seen deer wandering through the campground this evening.  We will begin exploring the area (we have been here at least 2-3 times) tomorrow and I will blog as I can.  Normally we are slow in the morning checking mail and such and then out most of the day and then back in the evening.  We do not watch tv normally when traveling but spend time on the computers going though our photos and blogging! (reading and sewing as well)

I did get two more quilt blocks done this afternoon but then I dropped my pin cushion and it fell quite a distance and I couldn’t retrieve it (we keep our seat belts on all the time) by time we stopped and I retrieved it I had lost interest in sewing and had begun to take the photo’s of the scenery while Mike was driving.  I hope to have those up for you all tomorrow.

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We are moving across the state today and changed our plans a little bit skipping Glenwood Springs area and going straight to Ouray in the north part of the southwest in the mountains.  It says they have wireless – we will see how good it is – if I am not back on for days it means the connection was bad!  I will leave you with this hand piecing tutorial.

I have had several people ask me how do I hand piece in the motorhome, while we are settled at night and when the vehicle is in motion.  I put together a tutorial so you can see step by step how I do it – this is my method, others might do it differently but this works for me.  These photos are from when we are settled in a campground – when we are traveling my legs are my work table!   and I’m very careful with the scissors – use them quickly and then they go back in the cosmetic bag I use for the tools.

draw your seam line with pencil on the wrong side of the fabric

tools needed to do the job - square with the seam allowance marked, scissors, pin cushion with pins, a thimble if you want, thread and needle, sashing border fabric

pin your first side to the border fabric, I have all fabric cut in advance at home before starting the trip. The borders are cut 1 1/2 inches and it is the width of the fabric.

when you are done piecing the first border cut the border fabric square with the block

repeat what you did on the first border and sew the second border

repeat with the 3rd border trimming the sashing off at the end of each border

add the 4th border

press the block and square up the corners

finished block - each block takes me about 20 minutes to hand piece no matter if we are driving or if we are parked at the campsite - only difference is that the pressing and trimming wait until we are at a campsite with electricity or if we have the generator running to charge up batteries.

blocks finished plus the demo block gives me 16 blocks - I need 19 more.

When I get all of the blocks done they will be joined with white strips and then a final black dotted border around that.  You can find the pattern at the Twiddle Tail Shop on line.  I ordered my black dotted fabric from there when I got the pattern.

when we were driving to the campground Friday afternoon I saw that the quilt shop I was going to search for while here was just down the road from the campground - maybe only a mile away. First thing this morning while Mike was working on his photos I drove to the quilt shop to look around and found this pattern. Will be perfect for the motorhome - it is only 12 x 12 plus the size border you want to add. The shop is called "Mountain Lady" she has a lot of outdoor/wildlife theme kits.

some of my photos are a little blurry and I didn’t want to go back and take new ones – sorry

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More from the mountains.  Most of these photos I believe are from the Trail Ridge Road going across the mountain.

Trail Ridge Road close to the top - next to a pull out where you can take photo's

a mountain view

Clarks Nutcracker - very common bird in this area

sun rise over the mountains

a mountain valley full of elk- we are looking down a long way here

Alpine Visitor Center

the visitor center has a reinforced roof because of the many feet of snow that fall during the winter.  The tall wooden poles all around show where the building is when they make it to the top to plow it all out!

The Alpine trail from the visitor center, this trail goes up to about 12,100 feet elevation. It is windy as can be up here and I really mean windy!! and cold, lot of people bring winter jackets, gloves & hats to wear while making the walk up to the top. The air is so thin it is hard to hurry because you have to concentrate on breathing! We layered and had shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater - and I wish I had brought my winter jacket along! I did have my winter gloves

a beautiful elk

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There are so many photos to share and where to start?

this is the dirt road that is called Fall River Road, it is the old highway that went to the top and over to the western side of the mountain. Now it is open going one way for 9 miles and ends at the visitor center at the top of the mountain in the Alpine area.

Throughout the photos in the alpine area and actually along this whole road you will see tall poles marking the side of the highway – these are snow poles – when they come up here in May they need to know where the road is to plow it, it normally takes them a month at least to plow the whole road – the black top highway Trail Ridge Road which you will see in other photos is about 29 miles long I believe.

Numerous pull outs are on this road so you can stop and take photos looking down the way you came and see others on their way up the road

a mountain valley view

this elk had just crossed the road in front of us and I managed to get a photo before he went into the woods while Mike was driving - we were barely 10 feet away from him - but safely in the car!

mountain lake - as the snow is melting this pretty lake is formed - it looked so clear and was turquoise in color

some of the mountains - I love these peaks

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I have been off of the computer forever it seems and trying to go through pictures to see what to put on here.  We camped in Rocky Mountain National Park from Monday afternoon until yesterday afternoon when we had to move as the park was booked up for the holiday weekend.  We moved the camper a short way down the road and out of the park to Estes park where we will be until Monday morning when we will head west.

We have seen so many elk and taken so many photo’s of elk that it was hard to go through them all.  Also had deer in the campground behind the camper one day and then the next it was elk behind the camper.  What a wonderful site to open up the window blind in the morning and see the animals about 100 feet away.

Deer in back of the camper

Elk in the meadow below the campground - look at the big boss down there with the big rack

Chipmunk eating a rosehip, these creatures are so tame, people feed them when they aren't supposed to so as soon as they see you start to eat they come running for lunch time. I had one get on my jeans and had to brush him off and then he ran around and got on the back of my flannel shirt and I had to swat at him again.

Elk crossing the road

Two male elk trying to see who is the tough guy. They lock antlers and push and shove, these two were just playing it seemed as they would go at it for a short while, then stop and eat and then go at it again. This is rutting season here and it last into October when the females choose the male they want to mate with.

Mike and I taking a break on a trail. Mike had the tripod along for the camera and was able to set it up and get some photo's of us together.

couldn't leave this post off without some water falls! Love them so much. This is at the beginning of the Trail Ridge Road that goes across the mountain at very high altitudes. I will post photo's of that day on another blog post.

Right next to our campsite in the park was a trail head that was 1/10 of a mile long, it went down hill to the road and across from the road was the meadow where the elk came in the evening to feed and show off. They would normally start getting there from the woods around 5 in the evening and stay until 7 to 8 in the morning.   We would walk down the trail in the early evening to watch them and then again in the morning.  It was a nice way to start the day – I would put on the coffee pot first thing, fill up the insulated mugs and off we would go for an hour or so then back to the camper and get ourselves ready for hiking or driving for scenery watching.

One day we took the Trail Ridge Road and it was beautiful.  Mike is going through more photo’s while we are at this campground with wireless and I will try to do a post just on that road – it is beautiful and very high altitude.

This evening if I get a chance I will do another post and show my quilting that I have been doing.  Now I am off to find the quilt shop here and then back to get Mike and we are wondering around town, this weekend they are having an arts and craft fair in the town square and we will spend a little time there and then find more things to do.  Tomorrow it will be back in the park for another trail before we leave.

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