Goodbye Denver, we’re off to “Basalt, where the beer flows like wine.”

Basalt, Aspen; whatever. I don’t have to be 100% accurate when quoting Dumb and Dumber, do I? Basalt, CO is the location of our latest adventure. Basalt is where Holly Gingles resides. Holly worked in the VMF last season with us on the Ice. She worked in supply, better known as the parts department. It was very nice to stop in and visit with Holly, catch up on some laundry, take a good shower, steal some ice, and sleep on a bed that isn’t attached to wheels.

(Ok, I just re-read that last statement and we are real freeloaders aren’t we?)

((Wait, we are homeless and out of work, so we have to make ends meet however we can. Disregard the last statement.))

We took a nice bicycle ride up the valley towards Aspen, helped around the house some and mostly sat by the river and caught up on our time since we left the Ice. And I can’t forget the tour of downtown Aspen. Talk about a fancy tourist town. You could walk around town for days and just look at the architecture.

It was a great stop and we will miss you this year on the Ice Holly.



Here is Holly with the ‘Urban Penguin’ in McMurdo.

On our way west out of CO we stopped at Storm King Mountain. Some of you might not recognize that name, but it should ring a bell with many. Storm King Mountain is the site where on July 6, 1994 fourteen firefighters lost their lives battling a forest fire. I would have never thought that this site was right along a major highway and adjacent to a fair size town. My impression was always that this was a remote mountain peak deep within the Rockies.

There is a very nice memorial to the 14 in a small park just off of I-70. It has a large bronze statue in the center and memorial plaques for all fourteen of the firefighters around the outside. It is a very moving memorial.

Storm King Mountain is shown in the background.

I just have a few other photos from the trip. These first ones are from the continental divide in CO. The Eisenhower Tunnel is the highest point that we crossed at about 11,000 feet. The truck ramp is for those who can’t stop on the way back down from 11,000’. Not a fun looking ride.

Then after the state of Colorado, you get to see allot of this….

And in this photo you can see that steering wheels are optional in the state of Nevada. If you look really close, you can almost see that the road goes to the left near the horizon. That is about 50 miles away.

But there is one really good thing about the dessert. That is the sunsets. This is our view from a truck stop that we spent the night at in Scipio, UT. There are some very nice views to be seen.

That’s all for this update. I will write again soon. This time will be from the Valley in Yosemite.R.J.