1st leg

Beast is going at it again! My 1989 Honda Accord LXi is still running strong with better than 33 mpg. The radio doesn't work, but the cassette deck does. No A/C, the driver's window does not roll up all the way, and it starts to shimmy pretty good between 60 and 70 mph. Best of all I lost reverse just before leaving Mexico. Where I park and how I drive are skills better never learned. Got a speeding ticket outside of Safford on my way to Nutrioso. Great start.
After visiting Grandma at her cabin in the White Mountains I drove about 11 hours to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. What a beautiful place that is. Steve Fesch's ranch is on the Elk River just outside Steamboat. Arriving late did not permit me to view the grand vista that he has there. Steve woke me up with some Mexican music, "El Rancho Grande." Nice welcome. We worked for a few hours some days and up to about 11 on others. Whether it was building a deck by the river or building damns in the creek to save all the water we could after the bottom pond drained out due to a busted drainage board. Ugly mess that was. Many dead fish. Sad.
I caught my first pike one day when we floated down the Yampa river with Steve's ranch hand Tom as our guide. He is a local cowboy from Hayden which is about 30 minutes away. We have video footage of him riding a couple bulls in a practice rodeo that the Tuff-e-Nuff ranch has every Wednesday about a mile up the river from the Fesch ranch. I was tempted to get tossed myself. Lack of health insurance was my excuse.
Tom is a certified fly fishing guide and he made sure I knew what I was doing. I caught my first fish on a fly rod early in the trip. It was a good 5 pounds likely, about 23 inches or so, nice rainbow trout out of the upper pond. Fly fishing is way cool. I had a big one hooked in the river a few days later but did not land it.
On the first Saturday night we, Steve, Jessica (his girlfriend) and I, went to town and ended up having a blast. A band was playing at a local brewery and they were jamming. A flock of good looking women, mostly from Denver were there for a bachelorette party. Easily a dozen girls and half, at least, were HOT. I was a little slow on getting geared up (boozed up) to dance with any of them, but I did ask one where they were headed when they left. We followed after another beer (Lil' Lilly's IPA, mmmm) and the band took a set break. We arrived at Old Town Pub but they had already taken taxis back to their hotel. Their loss. :) There was an old hippy neandrathal-looking dude playing solo with his guitar. All of the sudden we were listening to this guy sing the ranch theme music "El Rancho Grande." Good times. We doubled back per my request to catch the other band again at the brewery. In no time at all I was out dancing to a couple of my favorite Dead songs, "Shakedown Street" and "Scarlet Begonias." Then they busted out with "Ain't Life Grand" by Widespread Panic. Man was I alive. I think I may have scared a few people with my excitement. Tried to catch them the next weekend but to no avail.
Some Bronco tailgating friends, the Stutz's stayed a few days at the ranch. Ray Stutz is the California Raptor, a top fuel drag racer from years back. The kids caught their first fish. We made it to the natural hot springs and even rafted/kayaked down the Colorado. There was one section of rapids called the "Go again rapids" where it sort of eddys around and you can paddle back into some good woops. Our guide told me people float it/swim it. So, being a wee bit scared, yet adventurous, I walked up and above it, dropped in, swam to the rapids section and got pummelled. Much more intense than I had anticipated. Head under water multiple times. Again, good times. No pics, sorry, too wet.
We went to the Broncos opening day of training camp in Denver on a Sunday. We took Orange Force One and tailgated. Tom made the channel 2 news for an interview. Quite humuorous. We took our time coming back the next day as we toured Denver in a giant orange bus. We even spent an hour or two at the Bass Pro Shop. They have a bar and restaurant there too!
Played Ultimate frisbee the night before I left in a pick up game. We only had five on five but it was plenty good exercise and fun.
Beast tuned 319,000 miles somewhere in Idaho. Wyoming and Idaho are now on my list of been theres. Now, I've made it to Stout's house in Pocatello, Idaho. He's working for the morning and I'm doing laundry and trying to figure out this blog bit. Hope you enjoy...