POSTCARDS FROM COLORADO JUNE 18, 2005

Note: Click Here for a Photo Gallery of Eileen's Photos in Colorado.

I really don't like the ups and downs of Uranus on my Moon. When we went to bed at 10:30 p.m., I was so tired I felt like I could keel over. I thought I'd go to sleep in a heartbeat.

Speaking of BEATS. Here at the so-called Celebrity Resort at Hillside (you can go to www.celebrityresorts.com and check out our digs) one hoped it was like all other time shares. QUIET.

I had my first inkling on Friday after we arrived and put our bags away when 2 boys, 8 and 10, were eating out in the hallway and running up and down sounding like a continual herd of elephants. You could tell there were what I call 'absentee parents' nowhere in sight. I got tired of the running in the hall and went out to see what room they came from . It appeared to be 410 or so. Dave went downstairs and complained directly about the unbridled boys thundering up and down the hall, their voices loud and uncaring.

That was the first clue.

Little did I realize as I hit the pillow (which is too thick and cricks my neck vertebrae), that I heard this THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. I was so tired I didn't want to hear it. Finally, it got so intrusive I thought it was our swamp cooler so I turned it off. I went back to bed. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. Pissed off by now, I heard a loud, raucous band playing somewhere below us in this resort. I closed the windows, hoping it would help. It did not. The music literally VIBRATED through the room. They did not stop screaming, thumping and yelling until 2:00 a.m.!!! I couldn't believe the gall of this management to shatter the ears and sleep of paying customers for that kind of horrendous, nonstop noise. I got 2 hours sleep, total. I was REALLY pissed now.

This morning, I went down and inquired about this ungodly noise. The girl at the front desk said it was a band that came in on Friday/Sat nights. I said "How the hell is a person supposed to sleep through that noise?" She said they didn't have control over the band--and yet they brought them to the resort to play. Yeah, right. This is called the 'shell game' which doesn't speak highly of Celebrity Resorts at all.

The girl said she'd email her manager about my complaint. I told her I wanted them to ask the band to turn DOWN their damning noise. She said she couldn't do that.

So, here's a lesson, folks... NEVER take a timeshare with Celebrity Resorts. If you space bank and want to come here--my advice is DO NOT COME if you want PEACE and QUIET. It's obvious this place caters to kids and teenagers, not the older folks like us. And they could care LESS about our need for a simple thing call QUIET.

I got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning because I couldn't sleep. I was disgusted and frustrated. I swore I'd go to Safeway, down the hill, and buy an over-the-counter sleeping pill and take it tonight in hopes of being able to sleep through that god awful racket they call music. Talk about splitting your eardrums and dimming your hearing before it's time...

We had not gone to Safeway to get groceries yesterday because we were so tired. I was sorry this morning because, this resort does not provide cream or sugar (just a salt and pepper shaker... cheapskates) but they do provide one coffee round. I had one packet of sugar and 1 packet of creamer that I'd carried with me off the train. Now, I usually take three sugars and 2 creams. But not this morning. The coffee was hot and black and bitter. And lemme tell you, 1 sugar and cream does not dim the bitterness. I drank it anyway, desperate to try and shake off my grogginess and irritability. Talk about major sleep deprivation...

I also bought a sleeping pill--same as a Unisome, but cheaper because "Safeway" was on the box. And, thanks to the lousy management decisions by Celebrity Resorts to have that god awful racket they call music until 2 a.m., I'm taking this sleeping pill tonight. I hope it knocks me out. Says a lot about an establishment when you have to take a sleeping pill to knock you out despite the din of racket that is ongoing.

Over the years of globetrotting by plane, with 12-16 hour flights, my doctor told me to take Ambien, a sleeping pill. I don't do drugs, but I would be so blasted when I landed and jet lag so awful, that I decided to try an Ambien. They are a pretty neat sleeping pill. There's just enough of the drug for two hours of forcing you to go to sleep--by then, you are in your natural sleep cycle and you sleep 8 hours. I've had to use them off and on overseas and they work like a charm. Of course, I might use one just on night's when I had that 'thousand yard stare' and I knew I wasn't going to sleep naturally.

Dave looked at the map and we found a botanical garden here in Steamboat Springs just down the block from us. We went to Safeway and got our foods, mostly Fritos, sandwich making material, a chef salad for me, tonight, and cream/sugar and good coffee to boot. Life was looking up!

We got back here at 7:00 a.m., and I offloaded about 500 photos I'd taken yesterday, found the moose pictures and sent them to a number of friends for fun. Why not see the moose? It was the highlight of our day!

I also, at 8:00 a.m., went down and did our washing. No one was there when it opened up at that hour, so that was good--I wasn't in NO mood to be civil.

At 9:30 a.m., after retrieving our partially dry clothes out of a dryer that doesn't dry very well, we hung them all over the chairs in our room to help dry. Real class joint, this place...

We saddled up and went down to the Yampa Botanical Garden and there was a couple getting married in there today. Some of the bridesmaids in lavender satin dresses were standing in front of the portable john, waiting to get in. That presented a fun photo.

This botanical garden is small, but well signed and lots of flowers are in bloom. It was hot (80F) and the sun is a lot stronger at this altitude and I was hungry after shooting 360 photos. We went back to our Honda Accord (did I tell you it's BLACK color? And that the sun heats the interior to probably 130 F???? It's awful. I would NEVER have a dark colored car....) and got our little Coleman container and walked over the softball field, nearby, that had picnic tables beneath a huge garage-like structure.

We took off all our gear, sat in the shade and said thank you for the lovely, cooling breeze that blew by us. In front of us, up in the quaking aspen near a ditch were three noisy black and white Magpies (members of the crow family). They were having a ball. We left them some food to eat later.

It was lovely to sit and cool down. I find as I grow older, I can't take the sun/heat for as long as I used too. Funny how you make amends with all this stuff as you age, ha ha.

We came back and I unloaded the photos on my laptop and we took off for two bookstores we saw in town yesterday afternoon. I want to see if there are any new flower ID books that I don't already have (I have over 1,000 flower identification books from around the world in 5 languages already). I'll also shop for my mother, Ruth, who always expects us to bring her something from our travels.

My plans got detoured. Dave told me that there was a "Mustang" car rally in the middle of Steamboat Springs--that the whole major downtown section was going to be closed off to foot traffic to admire these 4 wheeled beasts. Not a place I wanted to go. I go on vacation to escape people and be in the wilderness. So, we nixed that trip until Monday or sometime next week.

I was so tired--rummy--that I couldn't go to sleep if I tried. I decided I needed another sports massage. Why not pamper myself when I'm feeling like shit? Right. So, at 4:00 p.m. today, I get my downtime and my poor body gets soothed. I'll probably fall asleep on the table!

Dave and I want to go up on Mt. Werner, which is the major ski area mountain here in Steamboat Springs. We drove over and found where the Gondola is to take you up to the first peak (there's others, but only this enclosed car gondola takes you up that far). I am looking for wildflowers. So, we found the ticket office and got some brochures. They start at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and we'll be there.

Then, we found several ski sporting goods stores and I thought I'd try to find a new pair of hiking boots to replace my beloved, 10 year old Hi-Tech's. The problems with most hiking boots is the shoe industry has put on a impossibly unbending and unyielding sole on the boot. I threw away a pair I bought over in Europe because within 20 minutes of hiking in them, my feet and my arches were screaming in pain. Why? Because the foot is flexible and so should the sole on your hiking boot and the one I had bought was not--and at the time--I didn't know any better.

We went into Ski Haus, one of the biggest ski rental places in the town. I told the kid, Matt, that I wanted a hiking boot that the sole bent and flexed when I walked on it. I really didn't think he'd have any but he did. When he asked what size I wore, I told him to error on the side of being too big, a size 9 or 10.

Matt brought out two Vasque boots, both women's, to try on. The size 9 was a cramped, tight, short fit. I put my foot into a size 10 and ahhhhh... what a nice fit! I put both on and walked around in them. They were highly comfortable, with a high top to support my ankle, and they were made out of Gore-Tex to keep the feet dry in wet areas. I had worn my beloved Hi-Tech's for 12 years and they had holes in them that couldn't be patched. This Vasque pair was going to be my replacement for $125. If these boots lasted twelve years like my Hi-Tech's did, this is a good price.

We asked Matt where to find wildflowers and he gave us two spots: Mad Creek and Seedhouse Road. Both are north of Steamboat Springs and into the Rockies. There's a huge wet meadow, Matt told us, about fifteen miles down Seedhouse Road. That sounded good to me. I like laying out plans like this well in advance so we know when we have to leave and what to take with us.

We also bought a very good topical and geographical map indicating major hiking trails in the area, as well. I also found, by accident, five new flower ID books as well. So, I got my books today in an unusual and surprising way--thanks to the work of impetuous Uranus turning retrograde four days ago...

I had scheduled a one hour sports massage with a new masseuse today and her name was Carrie. She's a little bitty thing and I told her what I needed. And oh, boy, that one hour with her revived me out of my sleep deprivation and I actually felt good!

She is soooo good at what she does that I have scheduled a 45 minute foot reflexology session with her on Wednesday and Thursday, our last whole day here, a 1 hour and 15 minute 'raindrop therapy' session. I had one with my long time masseuse, Alma Bocanegra and it sent me in orbit and I didn't come down for days afterward. Raindrop therapy is taking aromatherapy oils and dropping them along your spinal column. Doesn't sound very inspiring, but it puts you into another altered state. It's especially good for tense, overworked people. This therapy works miracles. And of course, Carrie worked a major miracle in clearing my energy field/chakras with that powerful massage, so I'm going back for more!

After a chef salad for dinner (huge come down from Harwigs!) and as the sun set lower on the horizon, I told Dave I wanted to go back to the Yampa Botanical Garden and finish shooting while it was cooler. It's only 4 blocks from us, luckily, and we drove over. I always wear a hat with a rear flap to protect my neck from sun and biting insects, plus a long-sleeved cotton shirt for the same reasons. I shot a 1 gig card (401 photos), plus another 145 on another 1 gig card. Today, I've shot around 1200 digital photos of flowers. Many times, I shoot 3-6 shots of one depending upon how easy it is to get to the bloom.

As the sun set behind the Rocky Mountains, the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance. Poor Dave! He had no hat on and no long sleeved shirt, so they went after him like a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cone! He was swatting nonstop. I had a few, but nailed them. Dave said they were all over my back but they were on my thick cotton shirt--not me. The only bad thing about dusk mosquitoes is that the ones that carry the deadly West Nile Virus come out at this time, so I hope Dave didn't get bit by any. If he did, there is still homeopathy which can make the difference.

Me? I had another bug problem: ticks. My Dad nearly died of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (tick bite) when I was five years old. At the botanical garden yesterday, when I crawled in between trees and bushes to get a shot, a tick dropped down on me.Only, I didn't know it. I eventually found the critter crawling around my neck and heading for my hair where, if it hadn't been caught, would have stuck its proboscis into my scalp and 24 hours later, delivered all the viruses and parasites that live in his tummy, into me.

After shooting every plant that flowered at Yampa, we decided to head to a new shopping center going in--there was a Ben and Jerry's (B & J) Ice Cream Shoppe. Yum! We got two pints--one of Uncanny Cashew and my world favorite: Pistachio. I also got a 2-scoop of coconut, fudge and almonds in a small cone and Dave got the Cherry Garcia in a large cup. As I was sitting in the car snarfing down my B&J, I felt a tickling on my neck. Damn! I grabbed the creature and sure enough: tick #2. I threw him out the window, not wanting to kill him if I didn't have too.

I've lived a lot in the mountains, especially the younger years of my life. I was out tramping the Cascade Mountains with my father at five years old as he hunted to put venison (deer meat) on our table. We would always come home and we'd have a 'tick check' all over our body. Ticks love hairy places and you know where all of those are. They especially like hairy under arms or your hair. My Mom would hunt and peck my entire scalp and she'd find some that had already bitten into my scalp. The way we always got rid of a tick to make it let go (because you NEVER pull a tick out with a pair of tweezers because his mouth remains in your skin to infect you big time). She would get a long needle, light her lighter and put the glowing needle into the abdomen of the unlucky tick. Well, the tick would instantly release its jaws on the flesh it was buried in. That way, the mouth came out with the rest of the little fellow.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot, I was so angry at this timeshare resort that I sent them a scathing letter via email. Not that it will do any good. I'm trying to gird myself tonight for the boys in the band again. If I get decent sleep tonight, we are going up to Mad Creek, which is about 20 miles above Steamboat Springs, deep in the Rockies, and find "Swamp Trail" where there's supposed to be lots of wildflowers. So, I'll take my new hiking boots along because they are waterproof. But I'll also take my old ones along in case the new ones start making my feet frown. So, we'll have to see how this night goes...

Warmly,
Eileen

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