Coyotes

Since moving to Colorado I have related to many of you our encounters with the local wildlife - particularly coyotes. They are extremely common where we live and I imagine living next to a wildlife conservation area probably does even more to attract them to our area. The conservation area is to help protect Preble's Jumping Mouse (or some such critter - never heard of it before) but we also have plenty of rabbits, skunks, something that looks like a chipmunk but isn't (and it's not a prairie dog), geese, ducks, deer, and who knows what else is living out there!

We had been hearing news reports over the past few months that attacks on pets in our community of Parker have been on the rise. Ten pets have been attacked in an area just a couple of miles from where we live. Those of us that own dogs in our condo complex and walk them on a regular basis on the Cherry Creek trail system which is just a couple hundred feet from our front door see coyotes almost on a weekly basis. My last sighting, about a week ago, was about 7 am, our normal walking time before I start my telecommuting day. We were leaving the parking area and just about to step out on to the trail when I noticed movement on the other side of the wooden fence that separates the wildlife conservation area. I started to take another step when I realized it was a coyote on the other side of the fence staring at me and my dog Chilli. I froze in my tracks, nothing to do with the fact that the temperature was 27 degrees! The coyote dropped down the side of the hill where I could not see him/her but I knew he was there - and I also know he has a running buddy too! There is a pair that share this territory and always travel together...eventually I saw the two of them take off together into the brush. Finally my feet started moving again and we turned and decided we would walk through the green spaces of the complex that morning instead! We have also seen them late at night running through the conservation area while we have been out walking Chilli. I have come across them at other times of the morning when I walked Chilli in a different direction along the creek - we were going to cross the pedestrian bridge to the 1/2 mile marker and then turn around and come back. But as we approached the bridge I saw the two coyotes come running from out of the brush on the other side of the creek and cross the trail. They stopped...ran back across the trail and then stopped and stared at us - challenging us to come on there side? Hah! Not a chance. We turned around and went back home. Now if I am out by myself (and Chilli) I have started taking a very large hiking stick with me, just in case I have to start swing it to fend one off! Am I exaggerating...not so much...check out this article from the Denver Post:

We see coyote tracks all the time along the trail, etc. Another friend who lives in the complex and has to take her dog out for pre-dawn walks has even seen coyotes over near the corner of our condo. So, when ever I exit our door (versus the garage door) I am always very careful to take a look around before I actually step all the way out!

One of my neighbors who has a Rottweiler has been tracked by these coyotes and has called our town police and animal control about them. The answer is unless they attack a person or they actually come into our complex (our neighbor says "estate", he's originally from England) then they can shoot them. Well I don't necessarily want them to shoot them, more like trap them and relocate them somewhere far from people. Just a normal day in Parker, Colorado.....

New Digs

Well we made the big move...2 doors down! But we are in a bigger condo, about 250-300 sq ft larger and it really does make a difference. We are now in a corner unit and have more windows...we went from 2 windows in our living room to 5 windows now. It feels so much more open. We also have the highly coveted 2 car garage - too bad we have 3 vehicles. One bonus is I now have a fabulous view from my new office window!Now that we have more space I was able to combine my office with the work out room which leaves us with an empty bedroom that we can finally turn into a guest bedroom. In the old condo the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms were so small we could not do that.

Santa Fe - Thanksgiving 08

Arrival
Rene and I headed down to Santa Fe for the Thanksgiving holiday. It did not start out so great...his command was not released until late in the day - they did not even get the normal 59 minutes early release. So by the time he got home, had a quick dinner, and we got on the road it was 6:30 pm. I had hoped they would let them go early in the day...say noon like the other commands. Fortunately out here in the west we don't have the traffic like we did when we were living in the D.C. metro area so we only had a little traffic congestion between Denver and Colorado Springs. Once we were clear of Colorado Springs we set the cruise control on 85 and let the car fly. It's almost a straight shot down I-25 to Santa Fe and we did make pretty good time.
Rene and I switched out on the south side of Pueblo and I drove, or should I say steered the remainder of the way while he slept. We finally rolled into Santa Fe a little after midnight. We stayed at the La Fonda (http://www.lafondasantafe.com/).



But by that time, this is the only thing we cared about seeing by that point in time!


The hotel has employed a resident artist for the past 54 years who hand paints everything in the hotel - beds, chests, wall murals, etc.

Thanksgiving Day
The next morning we wandered downstairs to find that the hotel has a French Pastry shop on site! I still have not weighed myself after returning from this trip! We did not want to eat too much since we were going to be dining at the hotels Gourmet restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal at lunch. The food was great and we shared a great bottle of wine. Even though the weather was awful, cold and rainy (I would rather have had snow as was forecast), we wandered around the plaza area to find all the galleries and shops that we wanted to visit the next day and to work off all the rich food we had consumed.

Friday
This morning we did a little excursion for breakfast. We visited a Cafe that we had see on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives", called Tecolote Cafe (www.tecolotecafe.com). We tried two of the dishes featured on the episode. Rene had the Huevos Yucatecos which he pronounced unique and I had the Atolé Piñon pancakes which I really liked and would definitely like to try and make at home. After breakfast we wandered around looking at the Santa Fe style architecture - which we just love!

Plus we did our best to help stimulate the economy and especially help out the struggling artists and jewelry makers of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and the surrounding areas! If you ever want to shop in Santa Fe just bring money! Lots of money! Actually many stores had half price sales and we did get some very nice jewelry for great prices. We also found a unique little gallery and spent some time talking with the owner about one of the artists that he represents, Diego Lukezic. He has done a series about a dog he calls Tangodog and there is a personal store behind the dog
(http://www.popsantafe.com/works/view/1516/0/21/0/0/0/0/1).
It reminded me of the Blue Dog series in Louisiana. Turns out Diego Lukezic had been in New Orleans before Katrina and had to evacuate - he decided to settle in Santa Fe. When he first arrived in New Orleans he could not seem to get a break until someone saw his Tangodog work and asked for more because the Blue Dog work was so popular - next thing you know he is a hit. He will even take commissions and work your dog into a Tangodog work. We are thinking about having one done with Chilli. Anything you purchase at the Pop Gallery is given in equal dollars as a credit towards a commission and we did make two purchases.

Saturday
We continued to do our part for the American economy. We chatted with Artisans and ran into a couple of people from the Parker/Denver area. It did not occur to me that when the Artisan/Gallery/Jewelry owners were asking us where we were from and we answered we currently live in Parker, Colorado that little dollar signs were dancing in their heads. Parker is in one of the richest counties in the United States and they just assume that everyone that lives there is wealthy. It finally occurred to me why they were fawning over us - yeah I know funny! I told this one artisan that we were from the poor side of Parker just to see his reaction - the couple standing next to me looked at me and said that they were from the opposite side of Parker. Guess they must live in $5 million homes. What ever!

Okay...for all you foodies...we ate at the hotels gourmet restaurant and I had probably what is the best meal I have had this year....Plato de Legumbres. It is a Fire-roasted poblano chile filled with creamy couscous, topped with braised fennel, served with a New Mexico goat cheese tart with roasted corn, seasonal vegetables, spinach flan and smoked tomato coulis. If you are ever in Santa Fe you must go to La Fonda Hotel, La Plazuela Restaurant (make reservations or you will be waiting), and order this meal! Another restaurant that we wanted to go to was La Boca but we could not get a reservation. Next time we go to Santa Fe, I will make a reservation at least a week in advance.

Sunday
It dawned bright and clear and unfortunately it was time to head back home. We checked the weather forecast to make sure it was going to be an easy drive back across the Raton pass (elev 7834) between New Mexico and Colorado. During the winter that is the most dangerous part of the drive on I-25. Forecast was for 30% chance of precipitation - boy was that weather forecast wrong!!!!!! We started to see snow flurries about an hour before we got to Raton, by the time we hit the Raton pass it had already been snowing for some time. It was very scary coming through the pass and down the mountains into Trinidad. It continued to snow on and off all the way through Colorado. If that's a 30% chance of precipitation I hate to see what 70% is - a blizzard!

Once we had made it through most of Colorado Springs - about 45 minutes from our home - we thought we had it made. Wrong again. Traffic came to a complete halt on I-25. Accident? No! Traffic and winter conditions. After moving 5 miles in an hour we finally were able to get off on state road 83 North which is Parker Road (eventually) for us.

This is what is looked like, but at least we were moving. At times it was almost white out conditions. Plus a lot of people seemed to have the same idea as we
did, there was nothing but a sea of headlights strung out behind us as far as I could see given the visibility. This added an additional 2 hours to our trip. All I can say is I am glad we have an all wheel drive vehicle, because not once did we feel it slip or slide. We had to drive 36 miles on this road to get to Parker. Just to give you an idea, this is normally a two lane road with a 65 mile an hour speed limit.

Once we made it to Parker we still had to head east to get to the kennel on the other side to pick up Chilli! You can't tell from the pictures either that the wind is blowing so hard that the snow is actually blowing sideways! We finally made it home around 5:30 versus our scheduled arrival of 3:00.

Eventually it did stop snowing and the clouds started to clear and then it can look quite beautiful here in Colorado. But it was still a nerve-wracking trip that final 36 miles home. I don't know how many cars we saw down in the ditches along side the road waiting for tow trucks to come pull them out. We were lucky to get home. I-70 coming out of the mountains on the other side of Denver was shut completely down and people were stranded in
their cars for hours. We had down-filled sleeping bags in our
vehicle just in case - luckily we never had to use them. But, we still did not quite rest easy. We had friends who were still on the road. They had traveled to Demming, NM (400 miles further south of Santa Fe) over the holiday and we had been in phone contact periodically through the day to check on each other. When we first entered grid lock in Colorado Springs they had just reached Santa Fe. So we updated them on everything we had encountered weather-wise throughout the day. Finally at 11:15 pm they made it home.

Marine Corps Ball

On 8 Nov 08, Rene and I attended the Marine Corps 233rd Anniversary Ball. This was our first and it turned out to be more fun then we thought it would be. Of course Rene being Navy meant we were in the minority...two of his Navy Corpsman also attended, so we were not completely alone. To support Rene I wore a navy blue evening gown with a pale gold wrap - Navy colors! The evening did start out quite somber with traditional military ceremonies to honor fallen and missing Marines with accompanying multimedia presentations.

The guest speaker was a retired Marine Colonel. When he came around after to meet everyone Rene introduced me as retired AF...I told them not to hold it against me *smile*. The Colonel's wife laughed and said no problem - their son joined the AF...for one term. Why only one term I asked. Well...seems his first assignment was Cannon AFB, NM (if your not military look up Clovis, NM and see where that's located)...then they sent him to Korea from there. Guess he thought that he would never see "civilization" again and he chose not to reenlist!

The Ball was held at a medium-sized hotel in northwest Denver and was actually much nicer then we anticipated. It was highly encouraged that people stay overnight - did not want any drinking/driving incidents. Luckily the hotel accepted pets, so Chilli stayed up in the room. The food was fairly good for a hotel event too. After the formal part of the event a DJ played tunes and I have to say it was unique to see Marines in their dress uniforms dancing to songs like the Electric Slide, the B-52's Love Shack, etc.

Many people do not realize that the Navy enlisted dress uniform is the traditional blue "Cracker Jack". After a few alcoholic beverages, one Marine wanted his picture taken holding the back of Rene's blouse acting like it was a Superman cape and they were both flying through the air. The event finally started winding down around 1 am and we headed for our room.


We were deep into sleep on a wonderfully comfortable bed with down pillows when a horrible screeching sound jerked us from sleep at 2:30 am. I finally realized it was the fire alarm. My first reaction was to see if it had an off switch because this must be some kind of mistake! No off switch! Then I looked out the window - did not see anyone out in the parking lot from our side of the building - tried to call the front desk and got a busy signal. Finally decided this might be for real. Rene was still struggling to wake up, but we finally got dressed and leashed Chilli. When I opened the door the corridor was full of people headed for the stairs. When we arrived out in the parking lot their were hundreds of people all ready out there. Apparently several other people had the same idea I did about that off switch! Many people were concerned about how this was affecting Chilli - she got quite a bit of comfort! We saw several Ball attendees still in uniform/evening gown. Some had not yet been to bed - others who had not planned on staying the night changed their mind because they had more to drink then anticipated and had no change of clothing with them so it was either put back on their formal-wear or come out in their birthday suits wrapped in blankets! *smile* I can just see running into the Commander or the First Sergeant!!! Finally the Fire Trucks arrived, they checked out the building, never heard the "all clear", but when they took off we took that to mean we could go back in.

It was definitely a memorable night after that!