Still Heading East

Can you believe it? Today is the 9th day of October and Betty and I will be celebrating the 17th anniversary of my 49th birthday. Yes, it is my birthday. A couple of years ago, born to Don and Lois Hitchcock was a bouncing baby boy. Sound like the start of wonderful story, doesn't it? Well, I won't bore you with anymore details at this time. I don't know how we are going to celebrate this momentous occasion but I'm sure it will be just another day in our lives. This morning when I opened my email, I had received an ecard from Daryl and Doug, and in the last couple of days, I received some packages from Amazon.com. Since I had not ordered anything from there in the last 48 hours (Amazon is my favorite place to shop), I was very curious as to what the packages were. Daryl and Doug went to my wish list at Amazon and sent me the nicest rolling pin, it's silicon and about 22" long, and dough rings to use on the "pin". In addition, they sent a book I had on the list, The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams, which was very thoughtful of them. In case you are interested, the book is about the German Stalag Luft III, and about escape attempts by downed flyers in WWII. Betty sometimes wonders about me because I'm somewhat of a history buff about WWII and the Civil War.

Now some other good news! That is if having another birthday is good news, but it sure beats the alternative. I found the photos I had accidently deleted. How did you do that, you might ask. Well, using my superior intellect and my outstanding knowledge of the computer (if you believe the last statement, I have some "swamp land" in Florida I will sell you. Hey! Wait a minute, I really do). In all honesty, I just used a little logic and realized that the photos were more than likely in the recycle bin and sure enough, they were. I restored them to my photo program and now I'm going to share them with you.

Going through the area of Vail and Breckenridge was beautiful. The following photos were taken at a "rest stop" in the area. As pretty as they are, they really don't do justice to the actual environment. You really have to experience it in person to appreciate the splendor, as you do with most natural areas. I hope you can get some idea of the spectacular views with my feeble attempt to capture them.

I don't need to make any comment.

As I posted previosly, we stayed in Salina, Kansas, after Grand Junction. I know everyone know the words from the musical "Oklahoma, where the winds coming whipping 'or the plains!" Well, uyou can be sure that Kansas has the same winds. I don't think we drove a single mile without some winds. Kansas is very flat, as it is a high plains state, but the people are very proud. The following photos were taken at a rest stop and show the pride Kansans have in their state.

The State Flower is the Sunflower, as depicted by this sculpture.

A historical plaque at the same rest stop.

That's all for today. I have to start my celebration by doing .............. NOTHING!!