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Happy to be back in the BVI. Happy to be back around my favorite creatures in the world. Hopefully, the same creatures are happy to be home again, after two weeks spent at the BVI Humane Society.

Roscoe apparently succumbed to some kind of wormy parasite while there, and it slowly recovering. Lots of sleep and good eats seem to be helping.

Both dogs received a thorough de-ticking on the porch before being allowed in the house. Roscoe seemed to relish having the 40 or so vampiric arachnids removed from him. Flash refused to sit still long enough for a thorough examination, but his naturally oily skin meant we only found about 20 on him.

Here's to many more tick-free mornings spent lounging in the sun on the porch.

RMNP

Back in the BVI today, but I still have a few photos left of Colorado I'd like to share here, before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming of boats, beaches and bars. 

Even though I've been on all the paved roads Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) has to offer, I still love driving through it when I'm back in Colorado. Along with Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs, RMNP is one of my favorite mountain spots. Easy to get to from Denver, but easy to feel isolated and surrounded by nature. 

Rocky Mountain Creatures

When we went into Rocky Mountain National Park on Wednesday, I was hoping to photograph an animal or two to post here for today's creature feature, maybe some elk if we were lucky. Instead, I ended up with photos of a wide variety of Rocky Mountain creatures for your viewing pleasure.

A big bull elk lounging on the tundra



A yellow marmot showing off his mad rock-climbing skills



A bighorn sheep, browsing in town near some cabins



A coyote on the prowl



A pair of mule deer fawns along the riverbank

A cheeky chipmunk, posing for the camera

Lyons

HB and I escaped to the mountains for the majority of the week. We stayed at our favorite cottages, a few miles outside of Lyons.

After days of beautiful Colorado sunshine, we were doomed to chilly, misty rains for the first two nights of our excursion. I rather enjoyed the atmosphere it leant my photos though.

This line of cottonwoods along Highway 36 always tricks me into thinking they're cypresses, which don't grow very well in Colorado. I'm not sure if the owner or the wind has done the shaping here.



A very nice homestead on the high prairie. Scenes like this make me homesick for Colorado, even when I'm here.

Although part-buried houses are very practical for heating and cooling purposes, I don't really have any desire to live in one. I like to keep an eye on this one, though, along the road to Estes Park, as it continues to decay over the years. Perhaps one day I will drive by and it won't be here.

Lyons is known (in Colorado at least) for the quality of its building-grade sandstone, and some of the exposed sandstone formations in the area are remarkable.



Native Coloradans have much to say on the subject of the deep true blue of the sky, and on the second day of our excursion, the sun finally came out so I could photograph it.

Perception

It never fails to astound me how much your daily experience changes your perception of the world around you. I initially was thinking in terms of temperature. It's no secret that HVAC is uncommon in the BVI. Even at work, where we do have an A/C unit in the office, we usually keep the temperature set around 26C (80F). Living in the BVI climate on a daily basis for the last year has changed my perception of what constitutes a cold temperature, and I find myself shivering violently in the cool Colorado morning temperatures of 65F (19C).

The daily BVI grind has changed my perception of other things, though, too. It's helped me appreciate how lucky almost every single American is to be living in the United States. It's made me understand why people from other places in the world are so desperate to get here. Not only is the infrastructure here among the best in the world, but the number of choices available on a daily basis makes my head spin -- pick between 60 kinds of breakfast cereal, three or four ways to get to work, a myriad of restaurants for lunch, hundreds of entertainment options. The infrastructure that ensures there's water every time you turn on the tap, combined with all the available products and services -- these things don't exist in most of the rest of the world. How lucky I am to be a US Citizen.

Neighbor Goat

One of the most exciting parts of our new apartment is the goat that lives right across the street.



He was awfully inquisitive when I approached him, and ran up to Roscoe to give him a good sniff, even though Roscoe seemed like he couldn't care less.

I should probably hold off on being too excited though. I didn't see him on Wednesday or Thursday, and I have this sinking feeling that he's likely been curried.

A good lesson for me not to become too attached to the animals.

West End Ferry

We left the BVI yesterday around 10:15 on Smith's Ferry, but the half-hour or so we spent lounging around the ferry terminal was enjoyable, as the West End ferminal always seems to offer good opportunities for photos.



This photo sums up the BVI pretty well -- a bunch of folks sitting around talking about nothing.

We were fascinated by this mega-yacht with a Barbados (?) flag docked at Soper's Hole.

Saying goodbye to the BVI as the ferry boat pulls away from the dock. Only sixteen more hours of travel left.