Texans In Heaven

Is it any wonder that the columbine is the state flower of Colorado?



          "Texans in Heaven."

The angel Gabriel came to the Lord and said, "I have to talk to you. We have some Texans up here in Heaven who are causing problems. They're swinging on the pearly gates, my horn is missing, barbecue sauce is all over their robes, their dogs are riding in the chariots, and they're wearing baseball caps and cowboy hats instead of their halos."

The Lord said, "I made them special, Gabriel. Heaven is Home to all my children. If you want to know about real problems, let's call the Devil." 

The Devil answered the phone, "Hello? Darn! Hold on a minute." The Devil returned to the phone, "Okay, I'm back. What can I do for you?"

The Lord replied, "I just want to know what kind of problems you're having down there." 

The Devil said, "Hold on again. I need to check on something." After about 5 minutes the Devil returned to the phone and said, "I'm back. Now what was the question?"

The Lord said, "What kind of problems are you having down there?"

The Devil said, "Man, I don't believe this....Hold on, Lord." This time the Devil was gone 15 minutes. The Devil returned and said, "I'm sorry Lord, I can't talk right now. Those dang Texans done put out the fire and are trying to install air conditioning!"

Hoosier Pass just past the continental divide.

I thought about this joke the first morning in Alma. I woke up early that first morning.  I was mad, but then I realized that it was the sound of the heater coming on that woke me up.  The heating came on - IN JULY!  Bliss!!!   It was complete joy to sit out on the deck with a cup of coffee, wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and heavy jeans, and shivering because of the chilly air.  
IN JULY!   The whole state has central air!  Utter, utter joy!

That morning, we started taking pictures of flowers and picking a few as well.  They were gorgeous.  We kept seeing flowers growing wild that we have to buy at the nursery at home.  For instance, right outside the cabin door we found a patch of daisies.  A few feet away we discovered dragon's blood, lupins, something that looked like yellow blue bonnets, purple astors, wild roses, German bearded iris, and wild ginger.  The girls, young and not so young, spent some time with our noses to the ground looking for new wonders and collecting bouquets and photos. 


We also spotted a mag pie, a deer, and a strange little animal that looked like a prairie dog.  But we weren't in the prairie anymore. Maybe it was a mountain dog.  A local told us it was probably a pika which are related to rabbits.  When we consulted Wikipedia however, the pictures didn't match what we were seeing.  Mountain dogs it is!  They were adorable.   


The next order of business was food.  Alma was glorious remote, but that lack of people also means a lack of grocery stores.  The trusty Wal-mart app told us that the closest store was in Frisco the next town over from Breckenridge, so we loaded up the van and headed over the continental divide. 

The continental divide in our area was Hoosier Pass.  Beautiful!!! As we drove through the pass, we kept gasping for breath and saying, "Oh my goodness!  Look over there!  Slow down a little bit, I've got to get a picture of that!"  The locals, who get a little sick of tourists in the summer, just rode our tails and passed contemptuously in the no passing lane.  We couldn't blame them; they were just trying to get to work or to Wal-mart and these annoying out-of-staters keep snarling up the traffic. 

Breckenridge and Frisco were adorable, photogenic, and enticing.  I'd like to go back there and explore the little shops and restaurants.  They had that hippy chic, expensive boho vibe thing going on.  It would be fun to spend a day or two exploring the cute little shops and eating in the overpriced restaurants and coffee shops.  But that's for another trip.  This trip was about the great outdoors.

On the way back home we stopped to take pictures at the continental divide sign when something strange happened.  We had just finished taking our group shots when a truck hauling a trailer came to a sudden stop across the highway and then pulled off the road.  We looked over to see what was going on and to our astonishment we saw that the man was hauling a tiger.  A life size, ceramic tiger.  You don't see that every day!   

After lunch we hunted for more wild flowers and explored the dirt roads around our cabin.  Did you know that Garmans map dirt roads and even hiking trails, sometimes.  They are amazing pieces of technology!  We wouldn't have done half the things we did on this trip if it wasn't for Carmen the Garman. 

Tired out by the altitude and our explorations, we spent the evening eating excellent taco salad and watching the movie, Tangled.    That movie has one of the scariest characters I've seen in a long time, the witch who pretends to be the princess's mother.  She's a nightmare!  The best character, though, was the horse, Maximus.  I don't know how the animators managed to make a horse look like a German shepherd and a marine corp drill sergeant, but they did.  Maximus even had a 5 o'clock shadow.  Genius!

Here's a link for Alma, Colorado.  http://townofalma.com/

Here's your music link for today.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjohP7juqU8 
It's called "Something I Do" by Robert Earl Keen, and its a song about the joy of doing nothing.  It's a great vaca. song!

Wonder where he's taking Tony the Tiger?

Our little mountain prairie dog.  She looked at us for over a minute before she and her baby scampered off into the brush and down into a burrow.

"The hills are alive..."

The view from the deck of our cabin.  The mountains framed the clouds beautifully.

Our desert rose holding a wild mountain rose.

"Country roads take me home to the place I belong..."

They're called the Rocky Mountains for a reason.