Loveland, CO: Happy Birthday Duane

I want to wish my brother Duane a Happy (if somewhat belated) Birthday. He is 10 years younger than I am and is a professional firefighter, currently with the rank of Captain. He likes to refer to me (not in an entirely complimentary fashion) as his 'older brother', as if I'm in need of a walker and only a couple of months away from needing adult Pampers.

I like to refer to him (not in an entirely complimentary fashion) as my 'little brother'. This gets to him 1) because he's actually a good bit bigger than I am and 2) he has been able to kick my butt from about the time he turned 14.

Coincidentally, that also just happens to be the time when I informed him that brothers fighting was inappropriate behaviour. Thank goodness he agreed to quit rough housing; I was tired of my 'little brother' putting me in a headlock with one arm and tickling me with the other arm until I screamed 'Uncle'.

In any case, Happy Birthday to my Little Brother Duane!

After my latest post, some of you may be wondering why I wished MLA Happy Birthday on 8/15 when her birthday is 8/14. Well, there is a time difference between where the BLOG computer is located and where I am located. Apparently it is on Eastern Standard Time & we are on Mountain Standard Time. I do most of my posts late in the day. So it was still 8/14 here when I wrote last night's blog however it was posted according to EST time.

Rest assured, I did help MLA celebrate her birthday on the correct day, 8/14.

It started raining last last night and has continued all day; sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily, but rain none the less. This area has been suffering a drought for the last few years so everyone is glad to see the rain. The picture above is a lake in Loveland and it clearly shows the lake level to be down about 10-12 feet in depth.

With all of the rain and with our success yesterday in scoring so many good deals on books, we had no choice but to make today a 'reading' day. What fun.

Woke up to the RV inside temperature of 61 degrees so we had to turn the heat on; first time since we left in late May. Will probably need it more often as we continue to head North, especially when we get to Yellowstone. The average high temperature in Yellowstone during August is the low-mid 60's with lows regularly in the 40's.

Have to tell you, after all of the heat we experienced in June & July, the cool weather feels great. Having said that, have no fear that as temperatures continue to drop later this fall we will begin our migration South, towards Arizona I think. Maybe towards southern Texas. Still not sure where we will spend the winter... only time will tell.

We did make a reservation for next week to stay at Custer's Gulch, supposedly the same spot Custer's Army camped just before the battle of Little Bighorn in South Dakota. We have a lot we want to do and see in South Dakota and this campground appears to be pretty central to it all.

We decided with the rain and all to hold off on grilling the steaks we picked up for today's dinner. We decided instead to go get a (quick and inexpensive) Chinese dinner and bring it back here to the RV. Somehow we ended up getting take-out at P.F.Chang's: delicious but P.F.Chang's is anything but inexpensive. Must be using Olympics pricing. Oh well.... We'll have to save $$$ by cooking in next week.

See Ya!