Sunset in Castle Rock
We have some beautiful sunsets from our deck. It is also nice to sit out on the deck during summer and watch a lightning storm approach from 20 miles away. At times, we can get outstanding cloud formations. The mountains to our west very much do effect our weather systems.

National Western Stock Show Rodeo
Every January our Colorado Rodeo Association attends the National Western Stock Show with about 80-100 people from the Association. The show is inside a very large indoor arena. The stock show has unique performances of horsemanship, roping, Bronc riding, and yes, even bull riding. The performance lasts between two and three hours and the entire arena is packed.

Arizona Gay Rodeo, Phoenix
The first rodeo on our circuit for the year is Arizona Rodeo in February. We have attended this rodeo for the past few years. It is a nice drive to get there and the warmer weather in the middle of winter is always a treat. The first photo is of the women associated with this rodeo. While they all look neat, cleaned up and somewhat dainty, believe us, at times you do not want to cross these ladies. At the awards ceremony there was an obnoxious man who had drank too much. He was disrupting the awards ceremony, so a few of these women simply took the man down, and held him until the local police arrived.

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Garden of the Gods with Jay
The Garden of the Gods is a city park in Colorado Springs. This park is about a 45 minute drive from our home in Colorado Springs. The Springs (as it is frequently called locally) has so many beautiful parks and tourist attractions, that we hosted our RV Rally there in 2013 and had a great time. This free city park is full of spectacular rock formations. Our friend Jay, from Northern Virginia, came to visit for a week in March. The one photo shows Frank and Jay with the park as backdrop. Some of you may know Jay by other names, such as Chuck, or Cowboy Chuck. We think it neat that he changes his name "de jure".

Colorado Train Museum
The Colorado Train Museum is in the small town of Golden just west of Denver. We took Jay there to see older locomotive trains and other rolling stock. Interestingly, the town of Golden also hosts the only Coor's Beer Manufacturing plant in the world. They package their product in several locations, including western Virginia, as well as here in Golden. Golden is approximately an hour's drive from our home.

Pikes Peak with Jay
Frank and Jay took the Cog Train from the base in Manitou Springs, near Colorado Springs, to the top of Pikes Peak. At the top, the elevation is 14,114 feet and you must walk slowly, or you will be out of breath very fast. There are some beautiful vistas from up there.

Horse Show
In April, there was a horse show at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds which attended. We also had a fairly severe snow storm that day. But if there is a horse show, and you live in Denver, you attend it. They had some great acts, and some very good looking animals, both two-legged and four-legged.

Kansas Telephone Show
Frank has been attending the Kansas Telephone Show for the past few years. It is only a day's drive away and he can set-up his phone displays and show off his collection of phones. He enjoys collecting phones from the late 1960's to the mid 1970's. The first photo is of Frank's display of beige office telephones, all of which work on more than one line.

Frank's New Stedicam Pilot
The Stedicam is an image stabilizing system which isolates a video camera from the operator to eliminate hand held jiggles and bumps. In May, Frank received a new Stedicam Pilot (second and third images) as an upgrade to his earlier Stedicam Merlin as seen in the first image. The Pilot is the smallest professional Stedicam that behaves just like the big Stedicam models costing many thousands of dollars. Frank is very much pleased with his new rig. Rodeo Chute dogging, Calf roping on foot and Goat dressing videos, as well as the Gay Games Opening ceremonies and Rodeo grand entry videos on the rest of this card were shot with the new Stedicam Pilot. Stedicams are used extensively throughout film and television. There are many Stedicam models ranging from the small Stedicam Curve, designed for GoPro cameras, up to the top-of-the-line Stedicam Ultra2 which costs over $50,000, not counting the camera and accessories. There are a couple of links to YouTube videos on the Stedicam Pilot just after the still images below. The first one is of a Stedicam operators school and shows students learning the art of how to operate a Stedicam. The second one comes with the Stedicam Pilot and shows the basics of setting one up and an introduction to how it works.

Great Plains Regional Rodeo, Oklahoma City
We attended the Great Plains Rodeo in Oklahoma City in May. It is in Oklahoma City where we have all of our RV repairs done. Motley's RV is great and they have rebuilt just about every part of our RV over the years. Oklahoma City also has a terrific steak restaurant called Cattlemen's. The restaurant changed owners over the throw of the dice many years ago. It is located next to stockyards and they get the best cuts of beef available. The first President Bush ate there and they named a steak after him, which Tom has had a number of times. It is a T-Bone and a Filet joined at the bone. Delicious. Even writing this is making us hungry.

Lancaster, PA telephone show
This year Frank wanted to attend an east coast telephone show in Lancaster, PA. We moved the trailer east and had a wonderful time. The Amish sure know how to cook. Great food. The Lancaster phone show lasted one day and Frank enjoyed it. The first photo shows Frank's display of automatic dialer telephones.

Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo, Denver
Ah yes, the Denver rodeo. We love every aspect of this rodeo. Last summer's July rodeo was the 32nd consequtive rodeo held in Denver. Normally Frank is busy taking photos and videos of the entire rodeo, and Tom works the front gate selling tickets. Both enjoy their roles in this rodeo, and if any of you have a few hours we can explain in person why they have so much fun.

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Zia Regional Rodeo, Santa Fe
The New Mexico rodeo is always fun. The past few years they have held it at the Corona Arena in Phoenix, AZ. The Corona Arena is circular rather than oblong. And that design requires unusual patterns on setting up the arena for an event. The Corona Family who owns the arena are very nice people. They are extremely hospitable and care for our rodeo family.

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Rodeo at Gay Games 9, Akron, Ohio
The International Gay Games, held this summer in Tom's home town of Akron, Ohio was marvelous. This was the ninth Gay Games and these Games are held in the same year as the Olympics. Four years from now the Gay Games will be held in Paris. This is the first year the Gay Games asked our rodeo family to put on a rodeo. We said yes, and did it. Normally we only put on rodeos where there is an active Association which has the equipment and members needed to put on a rodeo. Judy was our Rodeo Director and she proved we can put on a rodeo anywhere, if we select the right people to put it on, and they all work together. She did a wonderfil job, and we are very proud of her. At this Gay Games held in Alkron/Cleveland, there were approximately 8,000 competitors and about 70,000 spectators. It is estimated that these Games brought in $40 million to the local economies.

The first thumbnial is for a video released by the Gay Games commettee as a wrapup promotion.

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Lariat Drive Dining Room
Finally, after living in our home for four years, we now have a dining room set. Tom has been looking for a set on Craig's List for a year. This set is almost new, cost over $3,000 originally, and we bought it for $900. A good deal.