Nebraska would be fine when the corn plants are big. Isn't there a film where Cary Grant is chased in a corn field by an airplane? If the railcams face east they must have the sun in their back by late afternoon. Will try that, acpartsman.
Good Morning Base Campers!
This morning we had our surprise and our bonus. Urden from team Kraland joined us.
Now we’re eight. But we still have room for YOU.
Just look at the wide expanse of uninhabited land.

We are in the Rocky Mountain National Park with elevations of more than 4,200 m/14,000 feet. Think tundra. Think permafrost. Concepts you normally attribute to Siberia. You find it in Colorado, too. Now we have winter and everything is frozen, but were it summer we would feel the soggy grass and moss land where the water cannot drain into the soil because just under the surface you have the permafrost. Frost year round.

In the little town of Rocky we’ll board the Amtrak Zephyr and hope we have no mishaps. The train will slowly take us down the Rocky Mountain slope, the track winding along the abyss. It will wiggle like a caterpillar, and the engine almost kisses the backmost wagon through tunnels and over trellises. This is a grand way to arrive at Colorado's capital. The arrival at Denver is no less grand. Union Station as many other train stations has been renovated recently and this way much good architecture is preserved.


We’ll walk past the State House and wonder about how much has happened since Colorado became a state not all that long ago, in AD 1876. What a development! We'll see the step where an inscription indicates the very place where the elevation is one mile above sea level.

As an ouverture to our trip to Ouray tomorrow, we’ll visit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In addition to having a comprehensive collection of everything American Indian, we’ll find dinosaurs in all shapes and sizes.

We’ll finish our day by having burgers as they make them in Denver. I wonder if our jaw hinges can handle that
We’l have beer with those burgers. Not just beer. Fat Tire. Belgian style beer.

The Denver skyline is very attractive, with many interesting structures not to mention the backdrop of the Rockies.

Yesterday I was introduced to the rehabilitation program Danish heart-patients are offered. The physiotherapist had me mount a stationary bike for measuring of my physical fitness. It was not all that splendid, and she looked as if she looked forward to make Arnold Schwarzenegger out of me.
I was never a sprinter - easy does it hour after hour after hour .... how will I be able to explain that to her?

Good Morning Base Campers!

It’s still looking good.
At the morning roll call no new Base Campers were present, although we should like to welcome you and take you along for the remaining three days of Base Camp’s Andrax trek (please register here: Team Andrax - inclusive of free excursions in Colorado AND a badge. It came out of the oven yesterday and looks like this:
and was designed by NAP2614. Can anyone resist the Colorado flag? It’s a brilliant design of lasting value – looks as if Andrew Carlisle Carson made it yesterday, but it is more than 100 years old. As is normal with these solemn things, they have a lot of symbolism built into them. The Colorado flag is no exception:
The flag of the state of Colorado consists of three horizontal stripes of equal width; the top and bottom stripes are blue, and the middle stripe white. On top of these stripes sits a circular red "C", filled with a golden disk. The red "C" filled with golden disc also represents colors of Spanish flag. The blue is meant to represent the skies, the gold stands for the gold rush in the late 1800s, the white represents the snowcapped mountains, and the red represents the ruddy colored earth.

We’ll take the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray. A spectacular drive in our Maybach. I hope none of you have fear of heights (it will suffice with one terrified passenger who needs to sit in the middle while needing still being able to look out – me!). After a good while of concentrated driving – who will be the driver? – we’ll see Ouray. A cute little town in the very bottom of a bowl shaped valley. Seen from a distance, it’s the very idea of peace and quiet and taking a walk down Main Street, it really is. The worst noise we heard was a deer kicking the garbage can he was fouraging from.

Ouray
– I found a picture series of that lovely place and you can find oceans; the problem is to stop looking –
was named for chief Ouray.


In 1860, Ouray became chief of the Ute Indians, including the Uncompahgre band. Ouray was considered one of the Utes‘ greatest leaders with strong characteristics of patience and diplomacy. He was often referred to as “The White Man’s Friend,” as he sought to work with the white settlers and the government.
I read his biography, and it is so sad. Washington, D. C. gave these trusting Indian chiefs and leaders medals as large as dinner plates each time they gave in to new demands.
The Indian Bureau … you don't want to remember everything about how they carried out their 'Indian Affairs'

It’s a little special to reflect about the idea that these Indians were quite some environmentalists long before the word was even invented, and that we in many ways try to imitate the methods they applied as a natural thing in their daily lives. They had another way to look at Nature.
As long as the moon shall rise as long as the rivers flow
As long as the sun will shine as long as the grass shall grow
It’s some kind of comfort that this beautiful place now carries Chief Ouray’s name. Another town that honors a respected Indian leader is Joseph, Oregon, named for the Nez Perce chief.

My ongoing health story: My region has just implemented a giant IT system that can EVERYTHING. Much more than the people operating it can right now. It makes it nearly bureaucratically impossible to be a patient and to be a health worker too. Tuesday all 15 of my rehab sessions were scheduled, and the ’Health Platform’ (that’s what they call it) spewed out 15 pages, one for each appointment. Yesterday, I received another 15 pages, now with a different time of day. One of them collided with a blood doctor’s appointment. It took 40 minutes for a very worked up me and two equally worked up secretaries to straighten that out. They cannot listen. They are fixated and baffled by this ’Health Platform’ showing all its features on their monitors.
You can whisper, you can shout, they don’t hear you.
Good grief, what should I do if I were old and sick?

Yep, acpartsman, it’s fun to see what eight crunchers can do with their combined ’devices’
Good Morning Base Campers!
Today we’ll stay with the Indian theme spending the time visiting Mesa Verde and look at the cliff dwellings.

They are about 1,000 years old, and the compound as such looks like a work of art in itself with its douce colors and fine shapes melting into the cliffs.
We shall browse National Park’s collection of artifacts – pottery, woven blankets, works of tiny pearls, baskets in all forms and shapes not to mention clothing from soft deer skin and moccasins, spears and tomahawks.

The compostion of colors, the patterns, and the clean, functional design make these items timeless.

Before we return to our camp, we’ll go to Four Corners where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet, and where people stretch themselves in acrobatic exercises they didn't know they were capable of in order to be in four states at once.

Yesterday, I offered no food. I think I had in mind that we should live off the land as the Indians did. Considered the time of year, I’m afraid we had to compete with the birds for some very sour sloe or rowan berries, so today we’ll do the greasy thing and eat KFC.

I thought the trip was 10 days which I thought was the 13th. Either way I'm on board till you tell us we're going home.
Glad mike047 and TLD could join us, hope they'll join us again on our next trek.
Good to see 4 National Park pictured. Probably Americas most controversial national park. The borders of 4 states were officially altered to match the meeting point due to inaccuracies in surveying methods of the time. If the states borders were set by methods now used the marker would be 1807 feet to the east.

Was decided that correcting it was too much trouble so the states boundaries were altered from their original intention to what the surveyors mapped.
Yes there are lots of things to see in Colorado, if I ever get out that way I will also have to visit the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake to hear the choir in person and to Wyoming to see the Devils Tower.