Fun at Great Sand Dunes NP

Angela, Jen (acting foolish), Kayla, Rosie, and Galen in the Dunes. 

A Sand Man!  The teeny little people give you some idea of how huge the Dunes are.

Jen jumping down a dune.

Looking back over the dunes we have just hiked over.

The plan:  Angela went to the bottom of the dune so she could photograph Kayla and Jen sliding down the dune but they didn't slide so scooted down to the bottom.

What goes down must come up.  We were lucky that it had rained the night before making the dunes a bit easier to climb and it was cloudy so it was cool.  But it was still not an easy climb especially if you, like Angela, had just gone from an altitude of less than 800' to 7800'.

Angela - arms, legs, and hat visible.

Angela - arms, face and hat visible.

Angela - top of hat visible

Galen to the rescue.

Made it!  Sort of.  :-)

Photo taken from outside the park.

Kayla and Rosie.

Medano Creek was still running which was a nice surprise.

Tiger Beetle in the Dunes.

Sunsets

I used a Topaz Adjust Photoshop filter on this photo that Galen took and love how it turned out.

For three nights in a row we have enjoyed some amazing sunsets and without any fires to spice up the colors.  It has been a very nice summer in the valley this year.

Poetry and Music in Alamosa

We didn't know we were going to be in the newspaper but there we are.  Jen submitted the photo.

Taking a photo of just part of the front page of the paper makes it look like we might be in need of bail money.

But here is the rest of the story.

We were in the paper because we were the musicians for the women veterans event.  It was a lovely event that was quite moving at times.

Galen, Karen, and Karen playing music.

Dorothy, on the left, is a WWII Veteran.

I didn't get photos of all the poets but one of them was Phil Ray Jack.

I included this photo because there is a good view of Galen's washtub bass.  :-)

Patricia Nolan

Ben Humphrey, Senior Poet Laureate of Colorado.

Peggy Godfrey, Poet and MC.

Community Garden

Before 5' weeds could be mowed down rocks, tires, and trash had to be removed so volunteers lined up and walked back and forth through the weeds.

I walked outside the fence and picked up trash along the road for the entire width of this photo.  There was a LOT of trash.

Karen (another Karen, not me), Galen, and Jen getting ready to go to work.

Alamosa 4th of July Parade

We met at the Methodist Church to decorate the three vehicles and my trike.

The wee care kids lined up waiting for the parade to begin.

Our truck and my trike lined up behind wee care.  Nancy, the Alamosa United Methodist Church pastor rode in our truck with Cameron and Tyler.  She's a pretty good shot with a water cannon!

The little kids were pretty good shots, too, but I think Nancy had even more fun than they did.

Just about ready for the parade to start.  No more photos of the parade because I was no subjecting my new camera to all those water cannons.  Frances, next to my trike, and I handed out candy.

Clouds

Weird looking clouds hanging over our "house".

Birds

This killdeer hung around the pond behind our RV for several days and then took off.  Maybe there are too many cats around.

Couldn't decide which photo to use so....

Killdeer and Duck.

These are just sparrows but I thought they were cute.

Some kind of flycatcher.