Week After Christmas

It's Friday now, four days after Christmas and three days before the new year (2007).

I had taken Tuesday after Christmas off so we drove to Grand Junction, which is about a 2 hr drive west. We mostly shopped and took the kids to Chuckie Cheese for lunch. We had told them we were taking them somewhere fun, but they didn't know where. At lunch they were yelling for a McDonalds we drove past with a playground. When Boyd spotted the Chuckie Cheese sign he started begging to go to Chuckie Cheese. They finally figured out that was where we were taking them. They feel deprived not having a Chuckie Cheese in Avon.

The first place we went before the kids spotted Chuckie Cheese was The Sportsman's Warehouse. If the kids hadn't been so wild in the store, I could have wandered around and looked at things for hours in that store. It doesn't have the "Mart " feel like BassPro or Cabelas. It reminds me of the old Tom Snows or Uncle Lee's that were in Paducah when I was a kid, but much bigger. Sean says there is one in Memphis, but I think the stores originated here in the West. It may be I just haven't got to hunt enough lately and I'm going into withdrawals. I did try to help my symptoms by using some Christmas money to buy a new pair of boots, a hunting video (imagine that), and a predator call.

After the Sportsman's Warehouse and Chuckie Cheese, we went into the Mesa Mall. The kids had to spend a little of the money they got for Christmas at Target. Olivia and Boyd bought another toy and Isaac bought more Pokemon cards. They also bought a set of wireless controllers for their Playstation 2 that were on sale. We got there just in time and I got the very last set of controllers before someone else showed up. After we got the kids toys our of the way, Heather went into several stores and bought some clothes for herself. The stores were pretty busy but I don't believe they were anywhere close to as crowded as Paducah would have been. After a seperate trip to an Old Navy store that left the kids and myself in the car for way too long (thank God for portable DVD players), we stopped at the McDonalds the kids wanted to play in then headed home. Boyd and Olivia slept most of the ride and we made it home about 9:45 after a couple coffee breaks.

Other than the Sportsman's Warehouse, I didnt' care for the shopping too much. What I did like, was the drive to Grand Junction. Heather drove part of the way so I was able to look at the scenery and look for wildlife. I just like going for drives here, since we're always seing new country. Along the way we saw ducks and geese on the Colorado River, a couple Mule Deer bucks in a field and several deer and smaller elk that had been hit on the Interstate. I took several pictures from the van as we drove. I watched for turkeys but never saw any. I've included some of the pictures from the drive.

The first two pictures are from just outside of Grand Junction. There is a canyon that the interstate runs through along the Colorado River just before Grand Junction. The third picture was taken west of Rifle before getting to the canyon. The Cottonwood trees that can be seen, are growing along the Colorado. The other pictures are taken in various parts of the canyon. The Colorado can be seen along the side of the road and one of the pictures is a dam on the Colorado.

I may take a drive north on 131 toward McCoy and Burns tomorrow in search of coyotes and bobcats. I'm also going to look along the upper parts of the Colorado near Burns for possible areas to hunt ducks. I'll try to take some pictures of the area because it looks different than any of the pictures I have posted so far.