My Computer is Resurrected..

Picked up my computer from the repair tech today, here in Brighton, CO. He said that since lead isn't used anymore for the soldering, the square disc on the motherboard comes loose and doesn't make connection. That is what makes the screen black....it can't communicate with the system. He had to take the computer apart and solder the disc back on. We dropped it off at his shop Tuesday afternoon and it was ready today for $99. So happy to have it back.

Since my computer is back, I'm able to download our pictures from our trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Zapata Falls...both near Alamosa. We left Holbrook, AZ on Saturday morning and made our way to Alamosa, CO. We boondocked near our friends, Bobbie and Jim on Sunday and Monday night. It was so good to see them and hang out with them for a little while. On Monday they went to Santa Fe to visit their new great grand-daughter and we went to the National Park. It's so neat to see 600' sand dunes at the foot of the mountains. And this year we got to see the start of the stream that is formed as the snow melts from the mountains and flows across the base of the dunes. Last year, the stream wasn't there when we came in May.

 

You could literally stand and watch the water push and strain to form this year's riverbed...pushing new veins of water out onto the sand. It was like watching it "give birth". It was so neat !

Boomer enjoyed laying down in any puddle big enough to hold his body. He was a silt-covered mess by the time we left there.

 

 

We left the Dunes Park and stopped at the little restaurant down the road to get a piece of Coconut Cream pie to build our strength up for our hike to Zapata Falls. We did the same thing last year and remembered how yummy their pie selection is. Zapata Falls is just down the road from the National Park but a very bumpy ride up the hillside on a dirt road. We ate our pie and made the 1/2 mile hike up the stone covered path to the falls, which sits at the base of the mountain. From the trail, you get a gorgeous view of the sand dunes and snow covered mountains below. I took the picture above from the hiking trail.

This year there was still ice across the stream so once you hiked along the rocks, you could step off onto the sheet of ice and walk on that for a ways. From there you step from rock to rock and make your way up the stream to get back into the canyon to where the actual falls is.

 

Linda is standing on a sheet of ice that flows down the side of the canyon and across the stream bed. Behind her you can see Zapata Falls, cascading down the side of the canyon. It's one of the neatest places I've ever been. In this picture, I'm standing on a rock in the middle of the stream where the light pours through a slit in the canyon walls. When I stand in this spot, it feels so incredible (kind of like "Beam me up Scotty"). Luckily this year someone had attached a steel cable to the canyon walls so it gave us something to hold on to as we climbed along the side of the rocks. Without that cable, it would have been really tricky to have gotten sure enough footing to make our way back to the falls. It was too slippery and treacherous to take Boomer so we tied him up to a tree while we went back to the falls. He was watching us as we tiptoed across the rocks until we could get back to him safely, like a protective parent. He also loved playing in the cold mountain water in the small pools near the entryway.

We got back to the rig and then that evening we went out to dinner with Bobbie and Jim to a Mexican restaurant in town. That was the hottest food I've ever eaten in my life ! My lips, tongue and roof of mouth were on fire, my nose ran and Linda kept asking me if I was ok cause my face was beet red. Whew ! The food was good but really hot...We finished off our meal with sopapillas....a donut like pastry that you put honey on and eat. Yum ! It helped to cool my mouth down.... We had such a good time with Bobbie and Jim and hated to pull out Tuesday morning. We arrived in Brighton Tuesday afternoon and got settled in. We'll be here till the 31st. We're really excited because this weekend the National Alpaca show is being held here in Denver....how cool is that ?!? Free workshops all day Saturday and half a day Sunday plus lots of fiber displays and alpacas. Gonna be a fun weekend ! We also have a eye appointment tomorrow afternoon to get ready for our eye surgery next week. Both of us need a touch-up on our lasik surgery. My astigmatism came back in my one eye and the vision in Linda's one eye isn't as sharp as it should be. Tomorrow we get all the testing done to get that taken care of next week. Lots of stuff going on....Hope everyone is having a fantastic week !