Rocky Mountain High

From Santa Fe, we headed north to Denver--my old stomping grounds. What a change- the town has been "California-ized". After I left, the city started to become invaded by people escaping the high housing costs of California- and boy, does it show! Everyone is fit and perfectly dressed and there are tons of sidewalk cafes and great restaurants. The city is a "mile high"- so the air is cool and crisp and DRY and the days are almost always sunny. It's a beautiful climate- and the city is quite lovely- but it's still the American West and Denver is the only game in town for MILES... The only way to get to any other city is to get on a plane. (Now, if you like to ski, bike, climb mountains or do any other outdoor activities- you're in heaven. It's only a few hours to the mountains and places like Vail and Aspen - and the city has bike paths everywhere.)

I got to catch-up with my old friend, Pat

John got to spend some time with his brother, Henry.

I also got to see my old house. What a strange experience! The neighborhood was unrecognizable (in fact, it took a while for me to even recognize the place). In 1991, Piney Creek was the only development on Parker Avenue. Now, the entire street is filled with housing and retail developments. We had lunch at my favorite local bar and had a few margaritas.

We had a few engine problems (going over mountain passes, of course)- so we had a few days at the Cummins engine facilities outside Denver. It turned out that our oil pressure problem was due to a mis-calibrated dip-stick. So, they changed out the oil, re-calibrated the dip stick and the first problem was fixed. Then, heading to Grand Junction, Colorado (over the mountains), we had another warning buzzer- which took us to yet another Cummins dealer. We think they got it fixed (they upgraded the software on the engine--it's amazing the things that are measured via software on this engine).