I've posted a bunch of photos of the Oregon trip. I've typed too much already tonight, so that's all I'm going to say about the Oregon trip, other than it was fun and activity-filled.

Wall, Japanese Garden, Portland [more pix]

My Mother and I did a bit of driving around in Fayette County while I was in KY a couple of weeks ago. We also went to Keeneland Race Track to take in the scenery. Visit the photo album for more.

Ugly Fayette County scenery [ more ]

Ever since I rode through Twin Lakes, CO on my Central CO motorcycle tour, I've wanted to get MB to the area. We finally got around to it last weekend, and it exceeded our expectations. Twin Lakes and the surrounding Collegiate Peaks area has to be one of the prettiest areas of CO, even taking CO-native MB's breath away a couple of times. For even more scenic beauty, we also drove over Independence Pass and into Aspen, which also didn't disappoint, even though we were a little late for the height of fall colors.

We had a small cabin on the north side of the lakes, with an incredible view of the lakes themselves, and the peaks of the Sawatch Range beyond (three of the below pictures were taken from the cabin's "front yard"). It's got us serously considering a property purchase in the area.

Twin Lakes, afternoon [more pix]

Twin Lakes, sundown [more pix]

Mt. Massive, sunrise [more pix]

Twin Lakes, Jake, south shore [more pix]

Aspen, Aspen, CO [more pix]

MB and I headed out for a "fall colors" drive over Guanella Pass. I was pretty crowded on the (unpaved) pass road, which was kind of a bummer because of all the dust, but we managed to see the beauty and get some photos of it anyway.

Mount Bierstadt (on the right)

Valley, heading toward Georgetown

This scenery only whetted my appetite for what I'll experience on my Motorcyle tour in just a few days. It should rock!

MB, Jake (the dog) and I went down to Ruidoso, NM for the weekend of the 4th of July to spend some time with my Mom, and my brother and his family. It was a great, relaxing time. We pretty much just ate and hung out by the pool, which was just fine by me. We had a couple of bear sightings, which was kind of exciting, too.

Dumpster-diving Bears

Electrical Storm over Ruidoso