It poured around 2:00 this morning, and J said she's never heard it rain so hard before.

We got up a little earlier than usual, and conditions were good for wildflower photography: calm w/scattered clouds. I made instant coffee to go and J started a mug of tea steeping. We left in the Jeep around 6:30.

I had Clif Bars for breakfast as we drove up towards Paradise Divide.

We stopped in an area where there were several patches of Fireweed that J wanted to photograph. The Fireweed was still in the shade, so we turned our attention to other species and did portrait work until the Fireweed was illuminated so we could photograph the grand landscape. I got some nice images of a Blue Columbine (far left) and a Mountain Harebell (near left).
After the area we were photographing was illuminated by the sun, we moved over to where the Fireweed was located. It was still in the shade and so was some nice Whipple's Penstemon so I photographed it first (far left). After the Fireweed was illuminated, we photographed it as a landscape (near left). The patches of Fireweed weren't as big as they looked from afar and didn't provide as good a foreground for my 24 TS II as I hoped it would, but it's still a nice image. I used a two-stop graduated neutral density (ND) filter and aligned the soft transition with the horizon to balance the exposure between the bright sky and the darker ground.
We returned to the RV around 10:00. I downloaded the images I took this morning while prepping the RV to move. We left around 10:45 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.

We were sad to be leaving the mountains and the wildflowers, but we had commitments in the Parker area.

We went to the Crested Butte Wastewater Treatment Plant around 11:05 to dump.

We went to the nearby Phillips 66 to hook up the Jeep to tow and to clean the windows of the RV. We got underway at 11:30 and took CO-135 south out of town.

We went to the City Market in Gunnison at 12:05 to fill up the RV at $2.599/gal, and that was by using our 10¢ discount.

We went to McDonald's in Gunnison around 12:20 for lunch. I went in for takeaway: Fillet-O-Fish and small fries for J and a Big Mac meal for me. We ate in the RV and I took my time because I wasn't looking forward to the six hour drive or so to get us to Parker. We got underway around 12:50 and headed east on US-50.

J rested in the bunk around 1:15 and I listened to an episode of Car Talk. We went over Monarch Pass (11,312 ft or 3448m) at 1:45. It was slow going up the steep hill to pass and slow going down the long hill in first gear. I listened to another episode of Car Talk. Our GPS wanted us to take US-285 north to Denver, but we stayed on US-50 to Pueblo for an easier drive. J came back down to the cab around 3:15.

We stopped at the WalMart in Cañon City around 3:45 to pick up a few things and to stretch our legs. We got underway again at 4:25.

We got on I-25 heading north at 5:10 on the north side of Pueblo. There was an accident in Colorado Springs and we dropped down to 10 mph (16 kph) at 5:50. We talked about what to do for dinner, and both of us were thinking of Ruby Tuesday. We had eaten lunch there on our first photography outing together — kinda like our first date.

We went to Ruby Tuesday in Colorado Springs at 6:10. I had Herb Crusted Tilapia and J had a Classic Barbeque Half Rack of Fork-Tender Ribs. The fish was good and J enjoyed her ribs. We split a piece of Tiramisu for dessert, and it was very odd. The bottom layer of cake (?) was about twice as thick as the top two layers (traditional recipes only have two layers of ladyfingers), and it was like a really dense bread rather than like ladyfingers. The brandy and espresso flavors didn't mesh well with the custard flavors — it was like they had just been mixed instead of being allowed to mellow. I won't be ordering Tiramisu at Ruby Tuesday again. We left and continued heading north on I-25 at 7:15.

We reached our unofficial "home" in Parker around 8:20. We unhooked the Jeep then left in the RV.

We went to SJ&DilK's (J's Son J and Daughter-in-law K) to take on fresh water. GJ (grandson J, age 5) was out in the driveway when we pulled in. GS (granddaughter S, age 3) followed me around as I was getting ready to take on the fresh water, and DilK said I had a tail. Before I started taking on water, I increased the size of the air bubble in the hot water tank. (You may read about how I did that on the blog entry for December 28, 2009.) We still had a small air bubble, but the water pump was starting to cycle more frequently. After I added more air to the bubble, the pump cycled much less frequently. :) While we were taking on water, I threw a Frisbee around with SJ and GA (grandson A, age 8.5). After I finished taking on fresh water, I went inside to watch GJ open up the birthday presents we gave him.

We returned "home" around 9:25 and there were intermittent fireworks that startled me as I was setting up camp. I processed six images for the blog and found a manual for the Droid X online. I finally went to bed around 12:10 — a long day!