Girls day out!

A rare thing happened this weekend. . . I was in town both days and had an empty house!! Saturday, I finished up shoveling rocks from the area where Dave and I will put the purgola next weekend. What a job! It was a huge help to have Philip here and take out the bulk of the rocks, but it took me just as many hours yesterday to finish shoveling the rocks from all the uneven areas. I can't believe anybody ever thought that tons of rocks and some railroad tires would make a good looking backyard. Bad taste is a lot of work to undo!

Today I took the day off and did a 100-mile ride with my friends Sonny and Suzanne. We met for coffee at a cafe about 8:00 a.m., then headed out for Canon City. It was really hot today (mid-90s), but it felt great on the bikes. We had breakfast at Big Daddy's Diner, then headed back to the Springs. It's great riding with Suzanne and Sonny, because we're all still learning and really enjoy each others' company. Plus, it's fun to see peoples' expressions when they realize that it's women on the three Harley's they're looking at!

Today it dawned on me why riding my motorcycle feels so right; so familiar. As we were cruising south on Hwy 115, the scorching sun and the hot air rushing past me and twisting my hair around felt just like Louisiana boat riding in the summer! Granted, the air was a lot drier and I miss the feel and sound of the boat bouncing on the water and seeing rainbows in the mist coming off the wake, but the feel of the sun and the rushing air was comfortably familiar. So, as I try to adjust to this arid, mountainous geography, my motorcycle is helping to bridge the gap between the home in my heart and the home of my body. Now, if I could just catch some speckled trout and Gulf shrimp to take up the road to my parents' house for dinner. . .

Stay tuned for construction progress pictures when Dave gets here next weekend!

For the last week, I’ve been playing hostess/aunt extraordinaire. Since this is Philip’s third summer out here, we’ve pretty much covered all the tourist sites, so he didn’t really want to go anywhere. Being the good nephew that he is, he actually volunteered to help me shovel rocks out of my back yard! No really, he volunteered, even without the threat of food deprivation! For 4 hours, we shoveled rocks and pulled up landscaping fabric. It was a lot of work, but we cleared an area big enough for Dave and I to build a pergola in a couple of weeks when he comes. This weekend, I still have to dig a trench for drainage and level off the land a bit so we can lay down portage stones.

Although Philip has seen all the Colorado Springs tourist attractions (except for the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Figure Skating Hall of Fame, I don't know why he's not interested in either!), the one thing he always wants to do is have ice cream at Michelle’s! Michelle’s is a Colorado Springs landmark- a chocolate and ice cream parlor from the 1950s. So tonight, for the fourth time during Philip’s visit, we went to Michelle’s for dessert and he had an ice cream concoction called the volcano. I had a little flashback to Torino as his ice cream came out topped, with of all things, a flaming sugar cube!!! There was no coffee bean on top of the flaming sugar cube like at Gaspare’s in Torino, but it was on fire nonetheless!! After the second night of watching fire being served to my 14 year old nephew, I finally had to ask what they put on the sugar cube to make it combustable. EVERCLEAR was the answer! Granted, I’m sure most of the alcohol burns off by the time you eat the sugar cube and they only put a couple of drops anyway, but still- it’s 190 proof alcohol! Being the safety-minded aunt that I am, I made Philip eat the sugar cube while it was still on fire! Hey, if it was good enough for us during the Winter Olympics, it’s good enough for him! Once he figured out that if he closes his mouth as soon as he puts the sugar cube in, it will burn out on its own, he was a pro! Nothing like teaching them good habits young!

Tomorrow, Philip flies back to Louisiana and I’m left alone with my Harley. I’m feeling a road trip coming on. Well, OK, I'll do some yard work first, but then I'm taking a road trip!

Back in the States, and out for a ride!

So, after sleeping for a solid 12 hours, upon my return from Australia, I looked outside and saw that it was a beautiful 90 degree day! I figured today would be a good day to check off something on my Colorado sight-seeing list, so I got directions from my neighbor and headed out to a place called Bishop Castle. No matter that I still had work to do from the trip, needed to unpack, and have a ton of yard work that needs to be done, I felt like doing something fun!

It was a perfect day for riding – well, by my standards anyway! Hot, hot, and more hot! I rode by some place with a bank sign displaying the temperature, and it said 100 degrees! The hour on the interstate was pretty mundane, but the rest of the ride out to the castle was beautiful. Winding roads that passed right by Lake Isabella. The castle itself was well worth the trip.

According to their website, construction on Bishop Castle began in 1969. All construction has been done by one man, Jim Bishop. It started off being a cottage up in the mountains for his family, but as construction continued, it became a castle. The tallest tower is roughly 160 feet high and the dragon at the top of the castle can shoot fire out of its mouth (it didn't shoot fire while I was there, but I’ve heard about it!). It’s quite a work of art, and Jim still works on the castle on weekends, holidays, and some week days. He works at Bishops Ornamental Iron Shop in Pueblo, which explains the amazingly detailed iron works all around the castle. The castle is open free to the public – a fact which apparently has caused some problems in the past as evidenced by the handwritten sign in the picture. If you ever are in southern Colorado, this is a must see on the sightseeing tour.

By the time I had parked my Harley at home, I had put a little over 250 miles on it. I felt a little guilty about playing all day, so I got out the hedge clippers and tackled the monstrosity growing between me and my neighbor’s yard! Exhausted again, I’ll end this post and go to bed. . .

Cheers!

This afternoon, we get on a plane for our 24+ hour journey home. This trip was professionally quite successful, although I know you readers probably can’t tell from my posts! I try to keep the work talk down to a minimum since this blog is titled “Fithippie Travels” and not “Karen Works.” I am very fortunate that my work takes me to so many great locations so I try to share these experiences as much as I can without too many distracting details about my job.

Yesterday, we had our last meeting at the Sydney Academy of Sport just outside the city of Sydney. I can’t even begin to paint a picture of how frustrating driving in Sydney is. Not just because of the driving on the wrong side of the rode (the “proper” side according to Aussies!), but because road names will randomly switch roads as you are traveling along. A road may have a name and a number, but two miles down the road, the number has stayed the same (or not), but the name has veered off with a merging road. There are no warnings for lane changes, and Lance was inevitably always in the wrong lane when it happened. I was designated Nav/Comm (military speak for Navigator/Communications), so about 50% of those lane fiascos were my fault! As the day wore on, I became Nag/Comm and wanted to resign my duties!!

At any rate, we made it up to the SAS which was near Manly Beach. You can see from the pictures it was a chilly day, but we still took a little time to walk along the sand. When we got back to the city, we recapped our meetings and toasted the fact that the trip was well-worth our time and effort.

As usual on USOC business trips, we stay at our Hilton sponsor hotels whenever we can. The one here is Sydney has just been renovated and has an amazing restaurant/bar. We were sitting close to the open space kitchen and were admiring the preparation of a dish we couldn’t quite make out. Terri, being the consummate Food Service Director, asked one of the wait staff what it was. Not only did he go back to the kitchen for information, the Executive Chef came out with a sample for each of us. What appeared from a distance to be a boiled egg with whip cream on top was actually a hallowed-out egg shell filled with whipped eggs, maple syrup, raw salmon eggs, and a little gold-foiled leaf on top. The combination of sweet (syrup) and salty (eggs) was pleasantly complimentary and had a wonderful taste that was a sensory experience. Lance and I loved ours, but Terri was unsettled by the salty explosion when she chewed the eggs!!! Since I always talk about food, I thought I’d throw this one in for your amusement!

Last post from Australia – not sure when or what the next will be. One of my other nephews, Philip, will be coming out to Colorado Springs in a couple of weeks, then my buddy, Dave, will be coming out in August to help me with some construction projects around the house. Yep, I know, I’ve got some pretty good friends! Then in September, my sister, Monica, will accompany me to a conference in Hawaii. Hopefully, I’ll have a few posts from these events!

Sydney

Yesterday, we drove up from Canberra to Sydney. Even though it’s winter all over Australia right now, it’s amazing how much warmer it was once we got up into Sydney compared to Canberra. We had meetings at an impressive sport science facility (New South Wales Institute of Sport) right in the old Olympic Park from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. We were all awed by how well Sydney has maintained the Olympic Venues. Almost all of them are within walking distance of each other and all are still in use. It’s quite refreshing to see that all the money that went into staging a 3-4 week event has carried over into an avenue for sport participation for everyone in the community over the last 6 years.

By the time we drove down and attended our meetings, there wasn’t time for much else than to check into our hotel and get some dinner. We had an amazing seafood dinner right down in Darling Harbor. I’m posting a few pics of us playing around at Olympic Park since we didn’t do much sightseeing yesterday, but everyone likes pics!! The water fountain Terri and I are standing in front of was the Olympic Flame cauldron from the 2000 Olympic Games. Pretty cool that they converted fire to water! The other pic is of Lance in front of the 2000 Olympic Stadium. As you can see, the grounds are well manicured. Even though you can't see them in the photos, there were actually qute a few people out there playing and enjoying the beautiful day.

One more meeting today, and then I’m hoping to go to a beach. Even though it’s too cold for me to go in for a dip, I still love to be by water!!!

Canberra, Australia

Today, we had the whole day off from meetings! Our friend, Peter, who is a native of Australia but lived in the States for quite some time, picked us up and took us sightseeing along with his family. We started off by going to a hill that overlooks the whole of Canberra (I can’t remember the name of it). From this hill, it is evident that this city was built for a specific purpose and with a well-laid out plan from the beginning. Canberra has a population of a little over 300,000 and is the capital of Australia. One of the things that surprised me a bit as Peter was filling us in on the history of Canberra and Australia in general, is that Australia didn’t become an independent country until 1901. The picture of me, Lance, and Terri was taken at the lookout point with the next picture being the view from there. You can see the well designed boulevard that runs from the Parliament House to the Australian War Memorial.

We stopped by the War Memorial and visited the Hall of Memory. It’s a small hall that has mosaics and stained glass windows and is a memorial to the Australian casualties of war. The mosaics are from the 1950s and are made up of over 6 million cubed pieces of tile imported from Italy. It was quite impressive.

From there, we checked out the Parliament building and ate a surprisingly tasty lunch while there. Our next stop was back at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). We had meetings there all day yesterday, but today we went back with Peter’s family and did a little shopping at the visitor’s center and Lance tried his hand at the virtual sport exhibits. No body wanted to bust his bubble by telling him that the impressive speed he clocked with his throw of a “baseball” was actually in kilometers/hour and not miles/hour!!! The AIS covers a lot of area (65 hectare) and is undergoing quite a bit of construction at the moment. Unlike the U.S. Olympic Training Center, the AIS is government funded and enjoys wide national support. There were tons of visitors at the center the whole time we were there.

Our last site visit of the day was to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve just outside of Canberra. Here we got to see lots of kangaroo out and about as well as a koala bear munching on eucalyptus leaves. There weren’t as many animals as in the past since the reserve is still recovering from forest fires in 2003. It was still a great way to end the day, though, and we were very grateful to Peter and his family for spending the whole day taking us sightseeing.

Tomorrow, we bid good-bye to Canberra and make our way back towards Sydney for a couple more meetings over the next few days. I’ll try to post again from there.

Kangaroo picture by Lance Williams and koala bear picture by Luke Davis.

G'Day Mates!

We made it to the land down under!! Me and my two colleagues, Lance and Terri, left Colorado Springs at 5:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon and arrived in Sydney, Australia at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning! That’s actually only 22 hours en route, but tiring nonetheless. Once we landed in Sydney, we rented a car and drove about 3 hours to Canberra, which is where our meetings will be this week. We grabbed some lunch and just checked into the hotel. I have no pictures to post yet, but just wanted to let everyone know that I made it here. I should have some pics to put up by tomorrow. Until then, G’Day!

An empty house : (

The house sure is quiet now. Dwayne, Julia and Gavin flew back to Louisiana this morning. We had so much fun over the last few days, it was hard to let them go! We fit most of the Colorado Springs highlights in during the short 3 days they were here. I’ve already posted the pictures from Pikes Peak and described a little bit about our visit to the Garden of the Gods, but we also toured the Olympic Training Center (of course!). Saturday night ended up being a little more eventful than we had hoped for. . . my sewerage line backed up and Dwayne and I were in the crawl space under my house for a good part of the evening (sorry about putting you to work on your vacation, Dwayne!)! Funny how these things always happen late on a weekend night, huh? We ended up having to call in the professionals, but by 10:30 p.m. we finally all had showers and hit the hay.

Homeowner crises aside, we had a great time sightseeing. On Saturday we drove out to Canon City and visited the Royal Gorge. We walked over the world’s highest suspension bridge spanning the Arkansas River. The sign near the bridge says it’s the “world’s highest” but I’m not sure if that’s due to the bridge being 1053 feet above the river or if it’s because the bridge is at an elevation of 6626 feet! Anyway, it’s so high up, the rafts on the river below look like little orange specs! There was a petting zoo and some great look-out points over the river. We all walked across the bridge together, then Gavin and I took the single span aerial tram back across. After a nap back at my house, we hit the Acacia Park in downtown Colorado Springs for some fun! There’s a really cool log-roll contraption and monkey bars that kept the kids entertained for a while. It’s funny that with all the unique stuff to see and do here, the kids were most fascinated by climbing on Balancing Rock in Garden of the Gods and with the playground in Acacia Park! The last picture is of the kids walking in “melted ice” in the creek running from Helen Hunt waterfall here in the Springs. Yep, it was cold! Our toes were tingling for about an hour after!

So, now that I’ve evicted all the junk food from my house and took my Harley out for a 50 mile spin this morning, I await my next visitor. A week after I get back from Australia, my nephew Philip will come out for about a week. My neighbors are starting to wonder if I’m running a hotel here! As always, thanks for visiting the blog and checking in on my adventures!