The Travellers

On Saturday, May the 4th, my brother’s family and I traveled to Fort William for a 3 day weekend. Fort William is on the northwest side of Scotland. The northwest side of Scotland gets a lot more rain than the rest of Scotland. It was sunny in Dunfermline when we left. Of course it was rainy in Fort William when we arrived.

A dam near Pitlochry

Cara on a footbridge near Pitlochry

We had lunch at the Grog & Gruel in Fort William. Jim and I had cask beers. One of the beers was an IPA. It had the IPA smell. Thankfully, it did not have the IPA taste. IPA’s that are cask beers were not bad. The IPA’s in the US are horrible as far as I’m concerned. The one’s I had in Scotland were not bad.

Carter and Jim at the Grog & Gruel.  More importantly the cask beers.

Me

After lunch we went for a walk at Neptune’s Staircase. Neptune’s Staircase is a series of locks on the Caledonian Canal. The canal connects Fort William with Inverness. It is 60 miles long. We just walked the locks and tiny portion of the canal.

Neptune’s Staircase

Carter

Gorse bushes along the Caledonian Canal

Tunnel under the Caledonian Canal

We visited the Ben Nevis Trailhead that evening. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain.

My favorite niece

My favorite nephew

To be continued...

The Crossing

Life in Colorado is taking a big detour for the next batch of posts. I made my first adventure across the Pond. So I have two weeks’ worth of adventures that doesn’t have much to do about Colorado. The trip did start in Colorado. I left Denver on Wednesday, May the 1st. It was snowing when I left. I flew on Icelandair. Deicing took close to an hour due to the ice buildup. The plane had been sitting out in the rain and snow all day. So the ice buildup was pretty bad.

Deicing in Denver

A beer from Iceland.  It was very watery.

I arrived in Glasgow, Scotland around 11 am on Thursday. Stacy, my sister-in-law, picked me up at the airport and drove me to Dunfermline. My brother is doing a Fulbright teacher exchange. Basically, he traded jobs and houses with someone who lives in Dunfermline, Scotland. The rest of the day involved eating, hanging out with my nephew and niece, and having a few pints with my brother. Since I don’t sleep on planes, I had skipped sleeping Wednesday night. I went to bed at 8pm on Thursday and slept around 11 hours. On Friday, May the 3rd, I explored Dunfermline. My day started by walking Carter, my favorite nephew, to school. He doesn’t need to be walked to school. He just wanted to show me his walk and tell me what he knew about Dunfermline. From Carter’s school, I walked into the center of Dunfermline. I met up with Stacy who showed me Pittencrieff Park (The Glen), Dunfermline Abbey, and Dunfermline Palace.

Flowers in Pittencrieff Park

More flowers

More Flowers

Happy belated Mother's Day

Me

Dunfermline Abbey

A stain glass window the Abbey

The stairs in the Dunfermline Palace

The Dunfermline Palace

The Abbey from the Palace

A face on the ceiling in the palace

A statue of Jar Jar Binks with an ukulele?

Me in front of the Abbey

Stacy went back home after all of that. I went on to explore Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. I called it a day after that and walked back to the house in a light drizzle.

Handloom Weaver

More to come...

Star

I made another visit to the Great Sand Dunes on Saturday. This time I climbed Star Dune. Star Dune has an elevation around 8617 feet. That is the latest elevation I could find. The dune elevations vary depending on the day. Star Dune is the highest dune in North America in that rises 750 feet from the valley floor. High Dune has a higher elevation, but the valley floor is also higher. If you like sand and mountains, then you will like these pictures.

In the middle of Medano Creek.  (No water yet)

Looking towards High Dune and Mt. Herard

Mt. Herard and High Dune again

Heading towards Star Dune

I approached Star Dune by following a valley west of the ridge that leads to Star Dune. I had read that was the best approach, but I didn't bring the directions so I was never sure if I was in the right valley or not until I got high enough. I ended up climbing the ridge earlier than suggested and was greeted with a false summit. On the bright side, I wasn't off course.

In a valley between dune ridges.  The ridge on the right leads to Star Dune; however, Star Dune is not visible in this valley.

Star Dune from the last false summit

Looking back on the way I came from the top of Star Dune.

San Luis Valley and the San Juan Mountains

The Kit Carson and the Crestones on the left and Mt. Herard on the right.

Mt. Carbonate

Looking north from the top of Star Dune

Mt. Herard, Medano Pass, and Mt. Zwischen

The wind was picking up by the time I got to the summit of Star Dune. I took a bunch of pictures in between the major wind gusts. I didn't stay on top long though. The wind gusts were increasing in strength and frequency. It was beginning to feel like you were being sand blasted. I went down the eastern side of Star Dune. That side is pretty steep. It was easy going down, but it would be a booger going up that way.

Sand blowing off the top of a dune ridge

Looking back at Star Dune from the eastern side

The view of Star Dune while leaving the park.  It is not that clear due to all the wind.

Snowblind

The US beat Costa Rica 1-0 on Friday in the snowy spring wonderland of Colorado. It was a World Cup Qualifier, so the game must go on if possible. It started snowing a couple of hours before the start of the game. It wouldn’t stop until 24 hours later. My seats were out of the wind for the most part. I had a lot of layers, but I didn’t use them all. So I found the experience very fun. Pretty much all of the fans stood the whole game in what might be the best overall atmosphere for a game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The game was sold out with an announced crowd of 19,374. There were some no-shows, but not many. As far as the play, it wasn’t that bad in the first half. As the snow got deeper, it was definitely affecting the game. To me, the play looked better than some of the games in the Caribbean when it rains and the pitch becomes a bog. There really wasn’t much in the way of slipping in the snow. It just seemed to slow the play down. I think everybody enjoyed the experience except Costa Rica. I’m alright with that! With the US having to play in the horrible Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Costa Rica in years past, I find Costa Rica’s whining about playing conditions a bit futile. Anyway, here are the pictures from the game.

Me

Me and some of my US/Rapids friends

Moments before kickoff

The ground crew at work before the players got off the field at halftime.

Marcelo Balboa - US Soccer Hall of Famer. I patted him on the back as he walked by me.

My friends keeping refreshed with snow cooled beers.

Looking towards American Outlaws section

Omar Gonzalez

US players warming up in front of me

The game goes on

Game Over

One last look at the stadium

Bonus photo I found on the Internet.  I'm located in the bottom right half, 2nd row.  I'm not seen though.  I'm hidden by one of my friends.

Prologue

I haven’t posted anything in a while. It is almost like starting over. I haven’t visited any place new this February. So I really haven’t had anything to post. To keep the blog alive I will talk a little soccer. The Major League Soccer season kicks off this coming weekend. The Colorado Rapids have a new jersey that is quite cool. The faint hoops of the jersey are made up of the season ticket holders names. I picked up my jersey this past Saturday. Hopefully, this won’t be the high point of the season.

The front of the new Rapids jersey

Zoom version of some names on the back.

A blast from the past.  The Pid Army supporters with the 2010 MLS Cup.  Probably wishful thinking this year.

Just so that it is not all soccer.  Here is a picture from Fremont Peak looking towards the Sangre de Cristo Mtns from a couple of weeks ago.