Local Surprises...

Throughout the happenings of each day, I am usually surprised by at least a few things, if not more, on a pretty regular basis.  Below are some pics I snapped of these surprises with a little explanation.

The bike trail we ride from where we are enjoying our time here in Colorado,
is just a few minutes away.  On our first attempt to hit the trail, heading up to
stretch our legs, this surprise was waiting for us.  With all the snowmelt, the
streams are bulging and in this case overflowing their banks a bit.  In this case,
covering up part of the bike trail.

For whatever reason, I kinda enjoy these poor
trees that recover after something in their young
lives cramp their growth.  They persevere and
this one looks as if it were as straight as the next one.

I'm a little surprised at what Beth will do
when asked (especially with a camera at the
ready).  Here she is pointing with her head
to the surprises left on the trail by a moose.
I do love a good a good scat pile...it's the
science teacher in me...I hope!

I was surprised and attracted to the warm,
honey-rich color of this dead standing pine
we came across on a hike

A surprise appearance by the first Indian
Paintbrush I've seen this spring, hiding
behind some logs, just off the trail.

I veered off the path to check out the swollen stream below the trail and ran
across this great boulder, covered with some kind of rusty-colored lichen...
I think.  In that setting, the color surprised me.  I just kept staring at it.

On a scattered shower kind of day, I was surprised I was able to get out to bike
between showers.  The downpour (right-center) is right where I came from 15
minutes earlier.  By the time I made it back, it looked as if it never happened.

Now this was a SURPRISE.  We were eating dinner with Beth's aunt and uncle,
when I turned around to look out the window and WHAM...my eyes filled with
the most vibrant rainbow I may have ever seen.  People talked about it for days.

On a relatively difficult hike, we were approaching our destination, but you
had to pick your way through a small snow field to get to the top.  We were
sticking close to any rocky areas, where there was less snow to tromp through,
and our surprise was this unusually passive ptarmigan.  There was no zoom on
this shot, as it hung out among the rocks.

A surprisingly colorful sunset outside our door.

The first weekend of our stay here in Summit County, we were surprised with
"The Highest Air Show" in the country.  These are a few pics from that event.

It was a surprise to me to be in the right place at the right time to catch this
amazing sunset.  Surprising that I took it while driving (actually Beth had the
wheel).  But not so surprising is a great sunset, there seems to be no shortage of
them here in the high country.

And that is just the first week of our stay!  Like someone's blog I follow entitled, "Willing To Be Surprised," I am willing and ready to be surprised some more!

My Zen from the Road:  Even though the license plate on our car says, "B STLL," I have a hard time exhibiting that thought when driving (which is kinda funny to me).  Today we drove to Kremmling to check out a saw mill, as a source for wood to finish our murphy bed wall back home.  The road leading to Kremmling is a two lane, 65 mph "highway," on which you find a variety of drivers...me being one of them.  I soon found myself behind a few cars that had two strikes against them...driving under the speed limit more than driving over it and inconsistent speed.  There...those are my pet peeves, for those of you I may sneak up behind while driving.  You already know where this is heading, so as I pass one of the cars in my way (ha), I begin to slip back into the right lane and I notice that the previous car I was passing had sped up a bit to make my slot to pull into a bit smaller.  They honked as I more/less squeezed in front of them and I never looked over to see whom I've offended.  As luck would have it, there were way more cars ahead of me, with the same M.O. and to make it even better, we were approaching some road work that narrowed down to one lane and to expect "45 minute delays."  NICE!  We soon coasted to our "delayed" position in line, turned the car off, and I tried to find some form of meditation to get me through this.  As I was focusing on my blood pressure, I noticed the car behind me was of course the one that I may or may not have "cutoff" a few miles back (cuz I was goin' places).  A minute later, I caught a quick glimpse in my side view mirror of a man approaching along the side of the car and then a tap on my window.  My blood pressure may or may not have spiked at that moment.  My thought process was...the driver from the car I had disrespected had something to share with me.  He was an older man.  Slender, with a pleasant enough look to his face.  I'm thinking I am going to get dragged out of my car and get an ass whoopin' by someone's grandpa.  I rolled my window down, expecting to get an earful of driving advice, when he opened his mouth and told me my right-rear brake light was out and I out to have it replaced before I get stopped and ticketed.  I unclenched my sphincter muscles, thanked the man (for not kicking my butt), and resumed my blood pressure monitoring.  What can I say?  That was a surprise.