Cycling-Red Rocks

Here are some pics of my training partner Michael & I. I keep talking about us on my ALC blog that I thought I would upload some pics on here so that you can put a name to a face. We rode 60 miles today in 3.5 hours. I was ecstatic with those results as was Michael. We left downtown Denver & headed to Red Rocks once again & then took a detour this time towards Chatsfield Reservoir. The wind was unreal. I have never experienced a head wind like this before while on a bike. Our average speed this trip was 16.7 mph which is awesome when you consider we were riding in 20 mph wind gusts. We hooked back into the South Platte River trail and made it back to Denver. It was a great day to be riding other than the wind. Michael is a great training partner & great motivator as well. He is a natural to biking and especially when climbing hills. I am still amazed at how quick he is able to do this. He smokes my behind with every climb :) There is now way I would be doing this ride without him. He is the best.Here we are at Red Rocks facing south into the mountains. The weather was beautiful in Colorado today. The temp was around 73 with blue sky's. That is me on the right. You know, the grouch :)

Here is another shot of us facing the backdrop of the rock formations. This park is unique to Colorado. My parents love this place & want to come back this summer to see a show. People, if you have never been to Colorado you are crazy. What are you waiting for? It is one of the prettiest places on this planet. I love this state.

Atlanta visit

I was back in the southeast for a week working in my Conyers office. It was a whirlwind visit, but I was able to see my immediate family which is always great.
One day while there I was able to drive down to Alabama and see my sister Carla. Here I am with my horse Babydoll. I haven't ridden her in almost 2 years. Luckily Carla keeps her in great shape for me and we took she & her gelding Cody on a 3 hour ride. All I can say is that my back was killing me the next day & into the next week. Now I know what all those people have talked about who just rode a horse every now and then. Now that I don't ride at all it literally killed me. It was great seeing my horse though. I have missed her so since moving to Colorado.
Here is Carla with her gelding Cody. Aren't they cute? Would you ever guess that she's a hotel mogul? That a girl. I am so proud of her.
Here is the latest edition to our family. I finally got to meet Catherine Ann Krytus. At the time of my visit she weighed in at 5.1 lbs. When she was born by C-section she weighed 4.1 lbs. Mom and dad had told me she was little, but I had no idea that she would be this little. Seeing her in a picture doesn't give a good impression just how tiny she is. She is so cute & Cynthia and she are doing well & getting stronger each day. I think I catch a smile in her face. She's already in love with Uncle Derek. She better be if she wants the good presents.

Breckenridge snow sculpture competition

Here is the winner of the competition from team Oregon. It is called "They Call him Old Man Winter". Talk about a lot of detail that went into this piece of art.
Here is another favorite of mine. A giraffe with her baby. Amazing how they can carve this out of snow.
Here is a unique sculpture & you can see in the background what all of these sculptures start out as. The block of ice is about 15 feet tall & 10 ft wide. The contestants are only allowed to use hand tools. No powered tools are permitted. They started on the 22 & the pieces were judged on the 27. Really cool event in Breckenridge.

National Western Stock Show Parade

This is one of the cool things about Denver. Every year they have the Stock Show & it puts on a parade in downtown Denver. This is the 101'st anniversary of this spectacle. I still get a kick of going down there and watching this. Nothing like seeing a herd of Texas Longhorns going down the business district. If you are ever in town the 2nd week of January you need to check this out. Definitely worth it.

Texas Longhorns going down 17th Street



Here we have this beautiful team of black draft horses pulling a coach. Man they sure were pretty.

Vail

We went snowmobiling over in the White River National Forest. Here is mom on her snowmobile.
Here is Bevan on top of the mountain. Notice the awesome view in the background.
Here is my sister Carla.
We drove over to Vail and took the family up the mountain on the gondola. Here we have my brother-in-law Alan, Carla, mom, dad & myself.
Myself, mom, dad, Carla & Alan from another vantage point on the mountain.

Sleigh ride in Keystone

I booked the family on a sleigh ride over in Keystone. They take you on the sleigh ride out to this rustic cabin on this farm. It was very cold that night though. Probably close to 0.

Here is Jennifer, PJ, Jeanne & Clark at the cabin.Here we have Mithcell, dad, myself, Alan, Carla & mom.

Skiing in Breckenridge

Here is my sister-in-law Jeanne & my nephew Mitchell on the slopes at Breckenridge. Mitchell took up snowboarding this trip and loved it. He'll be shredding in no time.
Here is my brother's family. Jeanne, Clark, Mitchell, PJ & Jennifer. Jennifer and PJ just recently got engaged a few months back.
Here's another picture of the little powder hound Mitchell. I've never seen one kid eat so much snow in my life.

Christmas 2006

We spent Christmas with our best friends Cammie & Jeff down in Colorado Springs this year. Here is Cammie (aka Lieutenant Dan) with her new legs. Cammie and I played hooky one day and went skiing. Unfortunately she took a spill on the slopes and tore her acl. She has got a long recovery ahead of her, but her legs are as good as new.
Here is Bevan and Jeff digging into the great meal that Cammie prepared for all of us.
I love presents. Notice we couldn't wait until Christmas morning. We're all still a kid at heart.

Falling in the snow

Here I am in the back yard falling in the snow. As you can see the snow is pretty deep. Talk about cold. Brrrr!!!!!!

Blizzard Dec 20 & 21, 2006

Here I am measuring the fire pit on the back patio. It reads 27 inches as of noon with a little more still to come.
Here is the snow in the back yard. As you can see it is up to my waist. Pretty cool to live through my first blizzard.
Here is a view of 29th Avenue in Stapleton. All of these people were digging out their cars. I have no idea where they plan on driving since most of the roads are undriveable.

Here is Bevan making a path out the back door to the back yard.
Here is a view of the house from the street.

Opening weekend Breckenridge 2006

We traveled to Breckenridge for the weekend to do some skiing. The slopes opened on Friday and they had 10% of terrain open. Here is Cammie, Bevan and Jeff waiting for the shuttle to take us to the slopes. Notice Cammie's new ski's. She is so proud to have her own ski's & boots. No more rentals with smelly boots and beat up ski's.
This is a picture from the chair Cammie & I were riding up. They are expecting another winter storm on Monday evening that should dump 1 to 2 feet of snow. Hopefully by the time my family visits for Christmas the slopes will be close to 100% open.
Here is the speed demon Cammie going through the obstacle course. Her instructor told her she wasn't ready to do this yet, but someone didn't listen. She told me to go check it out and let her know how difficult it was. The next thing I know here she comes behind me. I bet it won't be long before she'll be skiing black diamond. Go Cammie!!!!!!!

Breckenridge snow & fall color

All this week Bevan's mom and step dad have been visiting from Alabama. We took them to Breckenridge today to see some of the fall color. Over the past 2 days the mountains have had 2 feet of snow.
Here are some aspens in the condo complex. You can see Bevan to the right of the tree getting a close up shot with his camera phone.
Here is a view from the complex towards the ski runs. Hopefully this early snow means a great ski season is ahead just like last year.
Here is a shot overlooking the town of Breckenridge up towards peak 8. You can see the golden aspens in the background.
This is my favorite shot of the day. It looks like someone took a paint brush and painted specs of gold on the mountains. I have never had the luck to see golden aspens amongst snow covered pines before. It was truly beautiful there today.

#3 Auburn vs. #6 LSU 9/16/06

We traveled to the "Loveliest Village on the Plains" this past Saturday to witness an old fashioned slugfest between the two Tigers of the SEC. Auburn vs. LSU lived up to its billing and left everyone on the edge of their seats in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Final Score Auburn 7 vs. LSU 3. This game was brutally HOT. It made for a miserable day in the stands. We were all physically drained as time expired.Here is our eagle "Spirit" making his pregame flight. I had a feeling we would win after his flight that day. He must've stayed up in the air for about 3 minutes circling the stadium 4 times before landing to a thunderous roar of "War Eagle, Hey"!!!!!
Here is my brother Clark in the middle with his son Mitchell and his best friend Pat. Don't hold it against Pat for being an LSU fan. Those cajuns have to pull for someone.
Here is a picture of myself, Mitchell, Clark & my dad after the game was over. You can see in the background the scoreboard that reads Auburn 7, LSU 3.
Dad, Clark, Mitchell & Bevan after the game at Toomers Corner. For those of you that don't know about Auburn football, after every home win our fans congregate at the entrance to campus and roll Toomers Corner.
Here is Bevan, Clark, Mitchell & myself at Toomers Corner. Waaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr Eagleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Eagle flight

Here we have our eagle Tiger flying before one of our games years ago. It is a great tradition that we have going at Auburn University. It still makes the hair on my head stand up when you see this magnificent bird take flight. WAR EAGLE, HEY!!!!!!!!

Elk- Evergreen, CO

I was driving through Evergreen, CO and came across this herd of elk. This bull elk is huge. Wouldn't you agree?

Here is another picture of the bull. I wish there was a way to upload small video files on this web page. He was yelling big time to the doe's nearby.Here are some of the doe's and their calves.
Here is a doe checking me out from the car. You don't realize how big these animals are until you are right up on them. Gosh, I love Colorado and the chance to be this close to nature. Isn't life great!!!This is a picture taken in Estes Park. The elk are always in this town. They are on the golf course, in people's yards & walking down Main Street. I lucked out and was able to get pretty close to get this shot.

Royal Gorge

This is the Santa Fe Depot in Canon City, CO. We caught the Royal Gorge Railway and traveled on it for 12 miles up the gorge and then back. The train is really neat with dining cars so that you can have lunch on it. We rode in an enclosed dinner car with a glass top so that you get a great view of the gorge. Also, they have an open air car that you can walk out on to experience everything.

Here is a view of the Royal Gorge Bridge from the train. This is the worlds largest suspension bridge and is 1050 ft in the air. We later drove to the bridge and you can walk across it. It definitely bounces a little when you are on it which is kinda scary. Everything below you looks so small.

Here is a view of the train. As you can see we are following the Arkansas River through the gorge. You can see one of the open air cars with a lot of people site seeing from it.


If you look closely in the center of this you can see a person swinging back and forth. They pull the people back with a chord and then cut them loose. These people then swing out across the gorge. Talk about crazy.

This is a view from the bridge looking down into the gorge. You can see the river and if you look closely you can see some red dots in the river. These are white water rafters.

Check out www.royalgorgeroute.com if you want to learn more about the train and where it takes you. It is a pretty neat site.