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Showing posts from 2018

Christmas in California

Nevadaville and Central City

Time to hit another ghost town before winter starts here on the front range in Colorado.  The places that we really want to check out are no longer accessible since the passes have closed until Memorial Day.  We have already plotted our adventures for summer so you will just have to check back then. Nevadaville and Central City are close by.  Okay, Nevadaville is not technically a ghost town but most likely photo gold. Pack the cameras, 4x4 necessities (axe, shovel, 3 gallon water jug) a few power bars and coffee and on the road we go. On the way to Nevadaville, we noticed a worn out sign reading, Coeur d' Alene Mine.  Looked free to me so we made the right turn down a dirt road and stopped at the abandoned mine: After taking a few (okay, a lot) of shots we got back in the jeep and headed to Nevadaville. Damn, blink and you basically miss it.  Just a few buildings.  I believe that there are on two full time residents that run the local trading post:

Dearfield, Colorado Ghost Town

One thing that Colorado is not short on...Ghost Towns.  There are a lot of ghost towns in the state albeit, Denver. Most of the towns are a minimum of a three hour drive.  Notice I said most.  There is a small town about an hour away in the town of Dearfield.  We had a photo bug attack and needed to cure it the only way we know how.  Take pictures. As you know, we take a lot of pictures of urban decay and landscapes and a shitload of travel pictures. If you haven't book marked our site yet, you definitely suck.  So, here is our site (again) www.eandmphoto.com  bookmark it this time.  We may not update my blog that often but we definitely update our Smug Mug sites.  You will find links to both Michelle's and my sites here. Getting back to Dearfield... Dearfield was the first black settlement in Colorado and was established in 1910 by Oliver Jackson and was booming.  By 1920 the population was between 200 and 300 residents. Good things don't last and after the gre

Temple Square - Salt Lake City, Utah

My older brother, Matt passed away suddenly about a month ago.  It was a shock to us all as he didn't seem to have any issues and was in pretty good health.  Matt will forever be in our hearts. We decided to drive out to California to be with the family and made a couple stops along the way. First up, Temple Square in Salt Lake City: The next stop was the Bonneville Salt Flats.  We have always wanted to stop there after seeing the movie, The Worlds Fastest Indian starring Anthony Hopkins.  The movie is based on the life of Burt Munro.  Awesome movie.  Watch it...TODAY We got the Rubicon up to 120mph.  We were out there for about an hour and the air is so dry there that all the moisture from my skin was gone.  My hands were pink and cracking.  Fun to drive.  Glad we went.

Mary Murphy Mine - Colorado

One thing about Colorado...you can easily find a place to go off roading.  If you see a dirt road without a fence or no trespassing sign, you can basically drive on it.  Try that in California without getting shot.  Since pot is legal here, I guess nobody gives a rat's ass anymore. Had a hankering for a off road experience so we grabbed our trusty 4x4 off roading book and found a trail that leads up to an abandoned mine called Mary Murphy Mine.  And they call it a mine... The decay is in good shape.  Good shape meaning that it is still there, the place isn't trashed and people pretty much just go there to check it out and leave it as they found it.  The only trash that we found were car parts off of vehicles that tried to make it up a road that is intended for off road 4x4s.  Dumbass. Here is a shot of the trail.  The picture does not do it justice.  The Rubicon had issues getting up this hill.  All four tires were spinning.  Had to back down and take the left side of the

Denver Chalk Art Festival

Denver has been hosting a Chalk Art Festival for a number of years.  We have lived here a number of years and decided we should check it out. Mind you, this took place in June, it was hot and since the artists hone their crafts in the middle of the street, there is no shade.  What there is a lot of is people and people pushing strollers full of little people that one day will be big people (or bigger people the way the obesity rate is going) and they too will be pushing their strollers in and out and on people. Bottom line, people suck, people with strollers suck and just plain piss me off.

Toadstool Geographical Park - Crawford, NE

Who in their right mind would go to Nebraska on Labor Day?  Well, now that you ask, US! We were thinking about taking some star pictures but we needed a place away from city lights.  We thought about Rocky Mountain National Park but it would be crowded on Labor Day (as well as any other place in Colorado. Last Memorial Day we went to the Badlands in South Dakota and had no traffic either way.  Tourists were light as well. We didn't want to duplicate that trip so Michelle found Toadstool Geographical Park in Nebraska.  What the hey?  Why not? Picked up some food Friday after work and loaded up the Rubicon with the Yeti and a bunch of camera equipment and hit the road Saturday morning. We stopped at Fort Laramie in Wyoming along the way.  Pretty cool place and as expected, not crowded. Fort Laramie was a Army Post, Housing, Administrative Offices, American and Native American Liaison Office just to name a few. We spent the night in Chadron, NE at the local Holid

Bathroom Makeover

We decided to do a bathroom makeover  by adding a vanity, new lighting, paint and fixtures (TP and towel rack) and maybe a mirror as well as new shelves.  Did I mention that we wanted to add a utility sink to the laundry room as well. Off to Lowe’s we went with our price and objectives firmly planted in our minds.  There were a lot of vanity choices so we had to narrow down size and options (plastic sink vs porcelain, drawers vs cabinet, 24” or 36” width and Cheap-O Charley vs upper middle class quality.  After perusing the aisles we set our sights on a 24” vanity.  White washed with grey stone top.  Since the vanity didn’t come with a faucet we opted for brushed nickel. We also did the same for the lighting, mirror and the other fixtures.  The utility sink was not really and issue. Deep and cheap.  After scheduling the contractor do do the installation of the vanity and sink we went to pick out the remaining items as well as some paint.  The install went smooth.  Before: After: Laundr