~P

Just as a reminder, this is the third of 3 recaps of a trip that myself, my mom and my cousin Steve took last Saturday – we trekked down south to the Royal Gorge for some touristy type fun.  Part 1 can be seen here and [...]]]> Well, it’s time to wrap this Royal Gorge Trip up!

Just as a reminder, this is the third of 3 recaps of a trip that myself, my mom and my cousin Steve took last Saturday – we trekked down south to the Royal Gorge for some touristy type fun.  Part 1 can be seen here and part 2 can be seen here.  Enjoy!

SO, when I last left off, we had just watched old Doc kill Slim in the streets of the Mountain Main Camp.  Then we went on a quick little mule driven wagon ride up to a genuine (fake) Indian camp with a real (fake) TeePee!

So really, there’s only a couple of things left on our little adventure!  First: Critters!

Royal Gorge has both a petting zoo and a non-petting zoo.  Let’s take a look at the former, then we’ll take a look at the latter.

Goats!

And Llamas!

And.. uh… well… Huh.  What the heck is this thing, anyway?

Huh.  A little steer?  I honestly don’t know, and I didn’t think to ask anybody.  Oh well, moving on…

They also had some bigger critters.  You couldn’t go in and pet these.

OH WOW!  Listen, dude, I know you’re all busy and stuff what with all the lady elk running around and that neat rock you’re lying on and all – but I was wondering, could you just, ya know, for me?  Turn slightly so I could get a better shot of your, er, well – rack?

YES!  That’s it!  That is exactly the shot I wanted!!  Thank you!  I’ll leave you to… Whatever it was you were doing…  Thanks again…

Huh.  What does this next sign say?

AMERICAN BISON?!  (Didn’t I have to fight him in Street Fighter?  Oh, wait.. no…)

Yeah.  Well.  Aren’t you guys just a load of excitement-  What the heck?!  Look – over there!  Is that…?  I think it is!

WHITE BUFFALO!

In case you didn’t already know it:

“White Buffalo are considered to be sacred signs in several Native American religions, and thus have great spiritual importance in those cultures and are visited for prayer and other religious ceremonies.”

Native Americans have stories and myths built up concerning the White Buffalo.  I tracked a couple of sites down for you if you’re interested.  The White Buffalo Woman and Native American Myths.

Now, I have a story of my own to tell.  Me being me, I get forgetful about certain things from time to time and sometimes, I mix things up in my head and say it wrong.  Example: In Colorado, we have Big Horn Sheep.  A favorite pastime for many travelers to the mountains is to look for these Sheep amongst the crags and rocks of the mountains.  We also have Elk, and people like to see them as well.

Me?  I combined them and have been looking for Big Horn Elk ever since…

Silly, I know – But whenever I go to the mountains, I immediately start looking for ‘Big Horn Elk’.  Like a dork.

Anyway, lookit what I found:

Let me tell ya, these fellers is shy.  I managed to snap this one as we were passing by in a tram headed for the bridge (the plan was to cross the bridge in the tram.  A plan that was FOILED!).

We were in the tram, but there were some elderly folks looking for a ride, so my cousin and I jumped down to make room for them and then my mom did the same so we ended up walking back across that damned bridge!  Sigh.  Still bugs me that it bugged me, if you know what I mean?

Anyway, back on the other side, there really was only enough time for one more thing: the Incline Railroad.  Tired and a bit stressed over the bridge, I opted out.  I’d had enough of heights so I sent Steve and mom on with cameras in hand and here is what they captured while I drank a coke with a serviceman (he had a beer) recently returned from Afghanistan.

Well, that’s pretty much it for this trip!

Loads of fun were had by all.  I highly recommend the place should you come to Colorado.  Heck, if you come to Colorado, call me – we’ll do my three favorite places: Estes Park, Garden of the Gods/Pikes Peak and now, Royal Gorge.

I leave you with this pic of the three of us at the start of the day:

~P

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Okay.  SO.  Where were we?  Oh, yeah – I’d just made it across that damned bridge!  How dare it [...]]]> Just as a reminder, this is a recap of a trip that myself, my mom and my cousin Steve took on Saturday – we trekked down south to the Royal Gorge for some touristy type fun.

Okay.  SO.  Where were we?  Oh, yeah – I’d just made it across that damned bridge!  How dare it be all swaying in the wind making me uneasy! *shakes fist menacingly*

Now that we’re on the other side, though – is there anything left to do?  Turns out the answer to that question is: YES!

First up, some hiking.

“…1/2 mile with steep grades… adequate footwear recommended…”  PFFFT!  how steep could it be?

Huh.  That… uh..  Huh.  Still!  It can’t be that way all the way up, can it?!

…s’just… *huff*… *puff*… see… *huff* I’ma… *puff* …writer… *huff-puff* …I work on… *huff*… *puff*…computers! …give me… *huff* a…*puff* second…

Hey!  Who wants to NOT climb all the way up this damned hill?  We can probably see everything from this spot right here, right?  Let’s see:

Dude!  Steve!  What the hell, man?!  You’re in my shot!  Move please?

Ahhh…  That’s better.  There’s the whole danged bridge!  Looks kinda small from up here.  Now, who wants to go back down the way we came and forget we ever tried to climb this damned hill in the first place?  Just remember to remind me not to mention any of it in the blog post.

Oh.  Crap.

Ah, well.  We headed back down the hill (little realizing just how close we were to the top where there’s a TRAM THAT WILL TAKE YOU BACK DOWN THE HILL), and went into the little theater where we saw a quick movie on the history of the place. The only excitement was in trying to take self portraits:

Steve didn’t bring a camera, so he had to settle for an ‘oh shit’ candid shot:

Following that, we had lunch at this place:

The website talked about hickory smoked BBQ.  Being that my mom’s side of the family is from the south, this appealed greatly.  We were bummed to learn that that half of the place was closed.  The other half was selling burgers and hot dogs, but said they had BBQ sandwiches.  Mom tried one.  She wasn’t happy.  Not in the least.  You should never serve something you’re calling BBQ to someone who knows BBQ and hope to survive.  It just isn’t a good plan.

Following up lunch, we headed to the ‘Mountain Man Camp’; a ‘true representation of an old west town’. There, we saw a gun fight. Doc wanted to gift the town to his new bride, a woman he grabbed off the street.

In order to do that, though, he needed for Slim and The Kid to leave town.

He gave em a choice: head on or fight it out.  The Kid chose to try and shoot the star on Doc’s hat.  He missed and kilt poor old Calamity.

This upset the deputy, who shot back.

Killing The Kid…

Well now, Slim, he didn’t like that.  Nope.  Not one bit.  He drew on the deputy.

…and kilt him dead.

Old Doc, he didn’t like that at all, but he was still willing to give Slim a chance.  He put his hat on his wife to be (after grabbing him a ‘back up’ from the street – just in case), and said if Slim could shoot the star without putting a hole in his favorite hat, well, he’d let him be.  Slim took a shot.

…and took the hat clean off her head!  But, sadly, he missed the star and put a hole in Doc’s favorite hat, which upset him to no end!  He was willing to lose his soon to be wife (cuz he had a back-up), but shooting a man’s hat?!  That could not be excused!

…and that was the end of Slim and The Kid.

Now, while all of THAT was going on, a damned cow stole my drink!

I was standing next to a pen with three bulls in it (I suppose they were bulls and not cows. Sigh.).

Yes, they have saddles on them and yes, the cowboys actually rode them around town – which was odd to see.  Anyway, somehow, the smallest (and most sneaky / clever) of them, managed to grab my cup and dragged it into the pen when my attention was on the gun fight.  I’d set it down so I could take pictures.  When I turned around, it was gone.  Then I noticed it in the pen – you can see it in this photo:

SNEAKY!  Like a bull ninja!

After extricating the cup from the pen so the bulls wouldn’t eat it (no, I didn’t do it – they had cowboys for that kind of stuff), we moseyed (yes – I said ‘moseyed’) on out of town and over to the livery stable where they had horses!

Alas, to actually ride the horses was a bit too expensive for me on this particular weekend, so I did not partake.  But the mule driven wagon ride was free!

The wagon ride takes you up on this hill where you see a genuine tee-pee and Indian camp.  Sans any genuine Indians.  Must’ve been off hunting.

Okay, once again I am calling it a night!  Too many photos!  Too many stories!  I’ll have to do another post tomorrow with the remaining stuff from this side of the bridge (like the animals – oh, the animals!) and then the Incline Railroad.

So, all of that tomorrow on part 3!

~P

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As you may or may not have figured out by now, I am most definitely an Apple head.  I’ve got 2 iMacs at home and an iPhone in my pocket and I love to discover new games and apps to play with AND I love to share those finds with the kind folks who read [...]]]> Well.

As you may or may not have figured out by now, I am most definitely an Apple head.  I’ve got 2 iMacs at home and an iPhone in my pocket and I love to discover new games and apps to play with AND I love to share those finds with the kind folks who read this blog and listen to my podcast.

A bit of an old school gamer, I am quite the fan of a side scroller.  S’why I like the games coming out on iPhone so much – they are simple to figure out, fun to play and, for the most part – they scroll sideways!   It’s also why I bought the Sega pack for my X-Box – SONIC!  ALTERED BEAST!  HECK YEAH!  But let’s get back to the iPhone for a second.  I was trolling the lists to see what was making the rounds in the Top 25 the other night, and I came across something that looked interesting.

Enter: Cartoon Wars

Cartoon Wars is a side scrolling game that you can scroll back and forth on, if that makes any sense.  The concept is simple: you have a castle and the computer has a castle.  You have mana and the computer has mana.  Use your mana to create your army and then attack the other castle and its army. Scroll to the right to see your forces attack the enemy.  If the enemy beats you back, you’ll find yourself scrolling left again pretty quickly.

It gets better.  Taking down the other army brings you gold.  Taking down the other castle also brings you gold.  In between battles, you can use your gold to upgrade your units or purchase new types of units.

You start out with your standard fighter dudes – they’re the stick figurey guys with the white heads shown above.  Next, you can purchase Ninjas, Gunners, Wizards, Dark Angels -the list goes on.  Each new class of fighter costs a little bit more mana – could be 10 (normal fighter dude), or it could be 400 (Dark Angel, I believe).  And each unit can be upgraded – so you can take a training Ninja and turn em into masters – depends on how much gold you have.

You also have a turret on the top of your castle that can shoot massive arrows out into the enemy forces.  Control of that thing is a little tricky.  I really thought I had it but then I upgraded the weapon between battles and everything went to hell and my boys got SLAUGHTERED!

So, Cartoon Wars is part strategy, part side scroller and though I didn’t know that I would like it, I find myself getting a bit addicted.  It’s taken over as my break time entertainment during the day.

It’s available in the iTunes store right now for $0.99 and is worth it.  Check it out in iTunes: this link will launch iTunes.

~P

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