Sidewalk Conference: August 2012

Well, here we are again.

My cousin Jenifer just got engaged (Yay for her!) and I told her that being married always changes the adventure. I really believe that. Every day with my wife is an adventure. And once again, that adventure is changing.

Joanna took a job with Far Western Anthropological Research Group (http://farwestern.com/) and we are moving again! This time we are going to the beautiful and exciting Las Vegas, NV. Well, really Henderson, NV, but it's kind of a suburb of Las Vegas, so that counts. And while we're super-pumped to be moving forward in our lives, it's a little bittersweet because we're leaving Colorado behind. We will be back though. We love it here. It does not suck.

So for what is (presumably) our last hoorah here in CO, we decided to go up to Rollins Pass up by Winter Park. Joanna has a Grad School colleague (and good friend) that is working on a bunch of Archaeological sites up there and she has always bugged me to go up there to check out the views. But it gets really cold up there (12,000 feet!) so I've always said no. But now that we have gone, I'm really grateful that I had this opportunity. We had a good time, Joanna did some archaeology, we met some super-cool people, and now I have lots of pictures to show off. Also, it was, in fact, really cold.

I'm not going to caption each one of these pictures, as most of them are simply in there for the view, but I've got a few things to say about a few of them.

We left on Wednesday afternoon as soon as we got off work, and it felt like we were racing along these mountain roads against the sun. Remember that scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula? Yeah, just like that. Only no gypsies. Or Vampires. Just my wife....

This place was only 88 miles from our house but it still took us nearly 3 hours to get there. Stupid mountain dirt roads.

Archaeology Joanna. Now with 30% more Joanna-ness. Certified child labor free.

Here is our friend Jason telling us all about something. Thanks again Jason for having us up!

That's how they work. They walk around and look at the ground.

Joanna's Office.

At a certain point, I just wandered off while they were working and here is where I caught a glimpse of Corona Lake that we would get to later that day.

So when Jason was reading off the notes that some Archaeologist had written thirty years ago about the second site we went to, he said it was 150 feet north west of an old Prospector's pit. As I had found this pit on my wanderings, I got all excited because I could help them find it. Then I couldn't find it again. Sad face.

I did eventually find it again, but it took me a while. After all that exhaustive searching, I was really tired. So I took a nap on a rock right next to the pit while they worked. HAHAH.

On our way to the third site, we got a way better view of Corona Lake

You knew this picture was coming.

So what's archaeology without beer drinking and spear throwing? Seriously.

We're using a device called an Atlatl. It is fun. It gives you quite a bit of power in your throw.

Atlatls can be purchased here. Also, I kind of love that there is a guy known as "Atlatl Bob"

This was our target.

If ever I come across a bunny standing very still in front of a cardboard box, there's gonna be rabbit stew for dinner!

Day 2 up there we split off from the group and went off and did our own thing. Look at all those mountains.

Joanna was excited for all the "Top of the world" pictures we could take.

I remember when I got this hat I contemplated cutting off the chin strap because it looks stupid. It still looks stupid but my hat stayed on and it was windy as hell up there. Score one for stupid-looking things!