Election campaign

Well... it is really interesting to see the US election campaign first hand. The first major difference between the general elections I saw in Europe is the media coverage. Like many things over here the election campaign and its coverage is big business. And local broadcast stations use this opportunity to present the news as entertaining as possible. For example Fox and CNN are having a 'election center' where they have daily commentaries about how the voters could lean to... that means that like in American Football you have anchormen drawing lines on a computer map while they explain the influence of certain comments on certain regions in America. And how this could effect the general opinion in a state which has effects on states surrounding them and so on. Strategy session for politic fanatics I would summarize it ;-)

Another difference is the culture of bumper stickers which is also new for me. Suddenly you have lots of cars in front of you who are advertising either for Obama or McCain. Really strange is that you also have lots of people driving with anti-advertisement for the other candidate.

A quite interesting campaign so far and I am sure there is more to come!

Great Sand Dunes

And the final destination of our trip was once again (like on my last trip down south) the Great Sand Dunes. This place is truly astonishing... a desert in the middle of the Rocky mountains, surrounded by 14k mountains, a prairie and a little river winding around it. Basically the steady wind of a few thousand years was pressing all the prairie sand in one corner of the Rockies which are now forming a little 'out-of-place' dessert.

But don't be fouled by the green vegetation around the Great Sand Dunes: it is still a dessert. So wandering through it is quite a challenge and after 1 1/2 hours we turned back to our car again. And after a nice dinner at an Himalayan restaurant nearby (really interesting how they got there in the first place) we were already on our way back to Denver... from a fantastic vacation!

Crocodiles in Colorado

Crocodiles in Colorado? A unlikely mix you might think considering the harsh winters and snow capped Rockies... but there is a Alligator farm even over here! Their secret is a hot spring which is feeding several fish ponds which are producing enough dead fish for over four hundred crocodiles and alligators.

But they also have ostriches, donkeys, snakes, turtles and geese living side-by-side of each other. And it seems like everybody loves the crocodile dry-food you can buy in the little gift shop. So we had a great time pushing the group of geese closer to the group of crocodiles. Amazingly they seemed to know exactly how far they could go and no goose (or crocodile) was hurt in this experiment ;-)

Speaking about a great time... everybody in our party had a blast as well. Especially holding the crocodile was good fun for little Jasmina. She even got a certificate for bravery, signed by the crocodile himself!



But all good things have to come to an end somehow... so we tossed the last piece of crocodile food to some ants on the ground... who loved the food as well. It really seems like everybody on that farm loves that stuff! I wished I had tried it myself :o)

Four Corners

Nowadays the Native Americans of this area have another great income source... A tourist trap we were willingly walking into :-) Four Corners is simply the place where four states are bordering to each other: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Quite a unique place around the world I would think.

Favorite thing to do at this very spot is to place all four limbs in one state and let somebody else taking a picture of you. Another classic picture is the finger shot: Placing a finger in each state. Don't ask me in which state I was in while my fingers were in different ones at the same time ;-)

On our way back from the Indian Reservation which is covering this place it becomes imminent why they have this kind of tourist trap running... there is simply not much else to do in a dessert like that. Apart of the also Indian-run Casino just outside of Cortez of course ;-)

Mesa Verde

Finally I made it to the last place I desperately wanted to see in Colorado: Mesa Verde in the far south west of this state. But what is so great about it? Well, especially in a place like Denver where the oldest buildings are barely 100 years old (and made to a museum of course) Mesa Verde is standing out as an historic side. For more then thousand years Native Americans were settling and building this interesting cliff dwellings here.

I did this eight hours road trip with my neighbor and very good friend, Christine... accompanied by little Jasmina who did very well on this road trip babbling away on the back seat ;-)
But of course we didn't do this in one day... We also used the time and explored the south of Colorado... so there is more to come!

But Mesa Verde is definitely worth a visit. I was stunned by the size of this National Park. The various cliff dwellings are just the tip of the iceberg as it seems like that they were just supporting over 5000 people living on top of the plateau. Just about the same number of people who are flooding Mesa Verde each day to see the ruins nowadays. I bet the Native Americans never would have imagine that ;-)

The 4000th visitor

We hit the magic number for the 4000th visitor already at the end of last month but I finally got around to write a few lines about it: Thank you for your interest in my journey through Colorado, the US and all the rest! The last few month were quite exciting over here... great weather, lots of trips with vising friends and I learned to ride a motorcycle ;-) But it is even getting better!
With a visit to ancient Indian ruins at Mesa Verde in a few days, visiting Disneyland at the end of the month, the wedding of my buddy Justin in October and of course the whole election campaign with its ultimate climax at November 4th!

Oh man... can it get any better? I don't think so!

So stay tuned! I would be happy to see YOU on this page again. And always remember... stay off the ice ;-)

Cheers,
Ekki

Biker Ekki

All men in their midlife crisis are usually going through the same development: While their life is slowing down they are trying to accelerate it by learning to ride a bike and buying a really fast one.

I thought better being prepared (just in case... you never know) and took a motorbike class last weekend...



And I have to say that it is lots of fun! Strange is how your perception of moving forward suddenly changes. Now I am sitting in my car and wonder about that something is missing around me even though there's 'more' around me then on a bike... maybe the wind in my face? The hot asphalt rushing underneath me? The feeling that I could go anywhere on my bike where no car has gone before?

Anyhow... you might see me, biker Ekki, more often in your neighborhood now :-)

Election campaign 2008

As regular readers of my blog already know I was covering the pre-elections of the democrats and republicans in great detail. And I can promise you that I will do the same for the 'real' election campaign which looks already quite different to general elections I know from Europe...

Like this Obama Christmas tree (decoration) I found in a local shopping mall. I am really looking forward to the next weeks... and to Christmas of course ;-)

Casa Bonita

Another great attraction in Denver is Casa Bonita. When I told Paul about this place he couldn't believe it... 'this place is real?' he asked. Oh yes it is! It is exactly like in the South Park episode where they are calling this place a Mexican Disneyland-like restaurant. With cheap food and pitchers of Margaritas I want to add, but fun altogether ;-)




You get the full Monty... with mariachi band, cliff-divers, Blackbeard's cave, jugglers, etc. Of course it is focused on kids and it seems like all of my friends growing up in Colorado had at least one of their birthday parties there. No wonder that this place is a well known attraction in Denver :o)

But all fun has to come to an end someday. And Paul had to call back to Ireland and recover from the Mexican food somehow.

So thanks for calling over Paul and I hope you had a great time in Colorful Colorado!

And if YOU think 'I want to see this 'magical' place Casa Bonita too'... where dreams come true... as long as your dreams consists of cheap Mexican food, cliff-divers and Margaritas... let me know!

Visitor from Ireland

And the next visitor was lining up already... this time from Ireland. As they don't have that many mountains in Ireland (okay, okay... Dublin Mountains. But I still wouldn't call them mountains compared to the Rockies) Paul was amazed by the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Of course these little fellas were also lining up to prepare themselves for the tough upcoming winter. Tough more from the perspective of fewer tourists showing up and feeding them. While Paul and I liked to see those squirrels people from around think more in terms of a plague about them... funny that.

But it seemed like the Rockies wanted to welcome Paul the Irish way. A short while into our hike it started raining. Oh well... that gave us a chance to visit Coors brewery instead. How stereotypical Irish... but still a lot of fun ;-)

Pikes Peak

Living in Colorado must be great for everyone who is into climbing... there are numerous of 14k mountains around and two of them are even accessible by car!
It's not that hard to guess which mountain I was 'climbing' with my friends from Germany :-)




We went for Pikes Peak close to Colorado Springs which beside a paved road features a mountain railway... but we preferred the thrill of driving the 13-miles of windy road ourselves. I was amazed that there are no barriers between you and the abyss which must have made the rally to the top of the mountain quite interesting. And this might have been the reason of why they are not doing it anymore too :-)

But the view from this 14,110 feet
(4300 meter) mountain is astonishing. Even though the afternoon thunderstorm including a lightning warning for the top of the mountain made us rushing downhill again... quite an interesting experience... and my first 14k I was 'climbing' ;-)