Hello fellow travelers. I am still catching up on my sleep. We had a nice day at the Alameda County Fair yesterday and I was able to get all my laundry done. Now all I need to do is get my living room floor cleared of all the papers that I gathered on my trip and find a resting place for all of my gear.
The Heat: A Fire Cabaret at The Crucible in Oakland next weekend looks like it will be fun. For those of you not located in Northern California, the Crucible is an Industrial Arts Not For Profit School. They have classes in blacksmithing, three kinds of welding, neon glass (I have taken the Neon classes), foundry work - aluminum and brass pouring (hence the name The Crucible) and other classes including wood working.
The organization was started by a group of people who attend Burning Man. And so they also have classes in Fire Hula Hoop and other fire classes. They normally put on a 3 day exhibition in the summer called the Fire Arts Festival. But this year instead they are having the Fire Cabaret. They also do a fire Opera in the early part of the year. Interesting people. Not much rehearsal today, but the opening day is Thursday so the rest of the week will be busy with rehearsals and being part of the fire safety team, means I have to attend rehearsals as well.
On to the zoo.
The zoo in Colorado Springs is south of the city and is called the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is a bit off the freeway and there are just enough signs to get you there. Getting back to the Interstate is entirely different matter though - they have no signs to get you back to Interstate. So with some good guesses, I made it back to I 25 and was able to get to my evening destination with just a little trepidation.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is know for its Giraffe program. They have had over 160 giraffes born at the zoo. Now my favorite animal is the monkey. They do not have many of those, but my daughter's favorite animal is - dat da da da - the giraffe. Just a natural tie in. So off it was to the zoo.
After the excitement of Pike's Peak, the zoo sounded like fun especially after learning of the successful giraffe program. It was already mid afternoon with rush hour starting, the clouds were gathering for an afternoon storm, and I did not know where I was going. Luckily they had signs, they were small, but they showed-up at opportune times like they knew that drivers not familiar with the route needed a little help at just that moment. Made it with time to spare.
The difficult part of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as you might expect is that it is built on a mountain. You start at the bottom of the hill and walk up. Yeah! The zoo map is a bit misleading, and I was in my perpetual state of exhaustion, so traversing the zoo was a bit of a challenge. They also, like many roads we have seen, are repairing walking paths so there are detours.
The zoo has a nice feel to it. It is small compared to many other city zoos I have been to, but they had good enclosures, if keeping animals penned-up can be a good thing, but they seemed to be happy - especially the giraffes. Which is amazing since giraffes live on the plains of Africa and do not see snow. They have a hard enough time finding water let alone seeing snow. So the $64,000 question is why are they so happy in Colorado Springs? It snows there! Like my one day son-in-law said - maybe its because there is nothing else to do. :) There are 3 birthdays in August and 2 in September in my family - cold winters. Maybe he is right. They certainly seemed happy.
The Okapi and Grizzly bears seemed to be doing okay. Being so high in elevation, they have a later spring than those of us at sea level so the Grizzly Bears were snarling at each other with the female complaining of a head ache and the male pressing his case of it being 6 months of hibernation since he saw her and in need of some affection. Just like a man. Not sure how that turned out, but the Okapi's were enjoying themselves.
Two interesting behaviours from 2 different giraffes, The first one was rubbing its neck on a stick dangling from above. It looked more affectionate than scratching, but what do I know. It just liked being in contact with the stick.
The other giraffe must have been a male as the I am assuming the females were in the big pen with the youth and the males were kept separated. This male giraffe was licking the side of the building and wearing down the sand stone - but can afford the giraffe therapist.
The giraffes were having a marvelous time. They have crackers you can buy to feed to them. Gene Simmons look out - the giraffe tongue is amazingly long. It is amazing how different their personalities and looks are from each other once you have time to look at so many in one place. It would be fun to see them on the plains of Africa running free.
There are three varieties of giraffes but you mainly see the Reticulated variety. It would be fun to see all three together so you could see the differences between them. But i guess that is a reticulous idea since it is not done.
One other animal of interest to me is the moose. I think this is one of the most beautiful animals. It is on my bucket list to see in the wild before I go on the never ending car adventure. The moose at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo did not look particularly happy and that may be due to the face that he was the only moose in the zoo.
As I moved from the mountain animal section of the zoo - the grizzles and moose - a storm started building over the zoo. The quickest way to get from the mountain animal section back to the giraffes and the exit, there is a building with an elevator to speed your decent. However, this building was made of not wood - but metal. Not a smart choice in the land of lightening - but I made it down with a strike. Thankfully the storm was a bit upwind from the zoo.
That is something that I have noticed on my journey - that storms may appear and make a lot of noise and have many lightening strikes, but they drop their rain and move on. The open spaces of this part of the country are vast and if you are in a flat portion of the country like Kansas, it may be raining just over there so close you can be scared by the thunder, but nary a drop will fall so as you can feel it.
In the mountains and desert it is a little different in that it may rain over there - but the contours of the land cause the flash floods over here! Many a time I say the sign that warned of flash flooding during storms. I am sure that is a bigger problem during the rainy season, but I did not care to find out.
Tomorrow we are on our way our of Colorado to New Mexico. Two nights just north of Albuquerque and then 2 nights in Gallop, NM. I love Indian country. Albuquerque is one of my favorite places.
Until then, have a good day and isn't the fog great. I could have used some of that during the last week of my journey.
Thanks for traveling along with me.
Michael
The Heat: A Fire Cabaret at The Crucible in Oakland next weekend looks like it will be fun. For those of you not located in Northern California, the Crucible is an Industrial Arts Not For Profit School. They have classes in blacksmithing, three kinds of welding, neon glass (I have taken the Neon classes), foundry work - aluminum and brass pouring (hence the name The Crucible) and other classes including wood working.
The organization was started by a group of people who attend Burning Man. And so they also have classes in Fire Hula Hoop and other fire classes. They normally put on a 3 day exhibition in the summer called the Fire Arts Festival. But this year instead they are having the Fire Cabaret. They also do a fire Opera in the early part of the year. Interesting people. Not much rehearsal today, but the opening day is Thursday so the rest of the week will be busy with rehearsals and being part of the fire safety team, means I have to attend rehearsals as well.
On to the zoo.
The zoo in Colorado Springs is south of the city and is called the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is a bit off the freeway and there are just enough signs to get you there. Getting back to the Interstate is entirely different matter though - they have no signs to get you back to Interstate. So with some good guesses, I made it back to I 25 and was able to get to my evening destination with just a little trepidation.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is know for its Giraffe program. They have had over 160 giraffes born at the zoo. Now my favorite animal is the monkey. They do not have many of those, but my daughter's favorite animal is - dat da da da - the giraffe. Just a natural tie in. So off it was to the zoo.
After the excitement of Pike's Peak, the zoo sounded like fun especially after learning of the successful giraffe program. It was already mid afternoon with rush hour starting, the clouds were gathering for an afternoon storm, and I did not know where I was going. Luckily they had signs, they were small, but they showed-up at opportune times like they knew that drivers not familiar with the route needed a little help at just that moment. Made it with time to spare.
The difficult part of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as you might expect is that it is built on a mountain. You start at the bottom of the hill and walk up. Yeah! The zoo map is a bit misleading, and I was in my perpetual state of exhaustion, so traversing the zoo was a bit of a challenge. They also, like many roads we have seen, are repairing walking paths so there are detours.
The zoo has a nice feel to it. It is small compared to many other city zoos I have been to, but they had good enclosures, if keeping animals penned-up can be a good thing, but they seemed to be happy - especially the giraffes. Which is amazing since giraffes live on the plains of Africa and do not see snow. They have a hard enough time finding water let alone seeing snow. So the $64,000 question is why are they so happy in Colorado Springs? It snows there! Like my one day son-in-law said - maybe its because there is nothing else to do. :) There are 3 birthdays in August and 2 in September in my family - cold winters. Maybe he is right. They certainly seemed happy.
The Okapi and Grizzly bears seemed to be doing okay. Being so high in elevation, they have a later spring than those of us at sea level so the Grizzly Bears were snarling at each other with the female complaining of a head ache and the male pressing his case of it being 6 months of hibernation since he saw her and in need of some affection. Just like a man. Not sure how that turned out, but the Okapi's were enjoying themselves.
Two interesting behaviours from 2 different giraffes, The first one was rubbing its neck on a stick dangling from above. It looked more affectionate than scratching, but what do I know. It just liked being in contact with the stick.
The other giraffe must have been a male as the I am assuming the females were in the big pen with the youth and the males were kept separated. This male giraffe was licking the side of the building and wearing down the sand stone - but can afford the giraffe therapist.
The giraffes were having a marvelous time. They have crackers you can buy to feed to them. Gene Simmons look out - the giraffe tongue is amazingly long. It is amazing how different their personalities and looks are from each other once you have time to look at so many in one place. It would be fun to see them on the plains of Africa running free.
There are three varieties of giraffes but you mainly see the Reticulated variety. It would be fun to see all three together so you could see the differences between them. But i guess that is a reticulous idea since it is not done.
One other animal of interest to me is the moose. I think this is one of the most beautiful animals. It is on my bucket list to see in the wild before I go on the never ending car adventure. The moose at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo did not look particularly happy and that may be due to the face that he was the only moose in the zoo.
As I moved from the mountain animal section of the zoo - the grizzles and moose - a storm started building over the zoo. The quickest way to get from the mountain animal section back to the giraffes and the exit, there is a building with an elevator to speed your decent. However, this building was made of not wood - but metal. Not a smart choice in the land of lightening - but I made it down with a strike. Thankfully the storm was a bit upwind from the zoo.
That is something that I have noticed on my journey - that storms may appear and make a lot of noise and have many lightening strikes, but they drop their rain and move on. The open spaces of this part of the country are vast and if you are in a flat portion of the country like Kansas, it may be raining just over there so close you can be scared by the thunder, but nary a drop will fall so as you can feel it.
In the mountains and desert it is a little different in that it may rain over there - but the contours of the land cause the flash floods over here! Many a time I say the sign that warned of flash flooding during storms. I am sure that is a bigger problem during the rainy season, but I did not care to find out.
Tomorrow we are on our way our of Colorado to New Mexico. Two nights just north of Albuquerque and then 2 nights in Gallop, NM. I love Indian country. Albuquerque is one of my favorite places.
Until then, have a good day and isn't the fog great. I could have used some of that during the last week of my journey.
Thanks for traveling along with me.
Michael
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