Time Bandits

So we have been in Colorado about a week now and due to some unfortunate mechanical issues we have been forced to make some drastic decisions regarding the longevity of the engine in this old van, so we bought a new (used) one. This engine is a little bigger, whats in mine now is a 1.9 L and the one being rebuilt and installed is a 2.1 L. This was the cheapest option to fixing the problem, which was an engine that would unknowingly loose all of its horse power at different times, if we take it really easy we can make some distance so hopefully we can travel at ease from here on out. The biggest challenge has been sitting around in the summer sun here in Colorado trying to make the time go by. Between redbox movie rentals, books, a frizzbee, facepaints, Taco Bell, internet cafes', and a river 5 miles away we did pretty good for ourselves and tomorrow we head into the shop and put the LAST 20 miles on the 1.9 engine before we swap them out. The mechanic was kind enough as well to let us work with him tomorrow on the project to make things go by quicker so while he gets the new engine back together we will be undoing ours, prepping it for removal.

 We were also lucky that we broke down in a town not far from Jen and Sierra's route home, so we got too see them once again only this time on there way back. They showed up late Thursday evening and they brought the rain with them too. So we spend the night racing around to Taco Bell at 11:00 at night to find them closed only to go back to the van hungry. Then Jen and Adam showed back up with pulled pork which was grilled onto sandwiches for dinner that night, a dinner that we will never forget. We all piled into the van to sleep and we all slept comfortably! We woke to eat some doughnuts and have some coffee for breakfast before going to the river for a swim. We lounged around the river that afternoon until we returned to Wal-Mart so the girls could keep on their schedule. We said our goodbye's again and off they left! The next few days for us were spent at Wal-Mart.

    We did decide to branch away from Wal-Mart in search of some BLM land after 4 days total in town and what we found was a small paradise campsite in a desert gorge running along the Gunnissin River in Delta, CO. It had very few trees but the ones that were there were huge! The bark on these things made them easy to climb, like a rock wall pretty much. We got the perfect campsite too, right under the shade of one of those giant trees with a fire pit and a pick-nick table.

That's Boau Boau, our camp dog

The river was unfortunately dirty so the fishing was even more of a challenge. Adam read at camp while Andrew went off rattle snake hunting. I found a few trees to climb and sit in while the afternoon blanketed us with more sunlight with a nice breeze every so often.

 Once the sun got close to canyon cliff i made my way to the river watching fish jump left and right only to come up empty handed after a couple hours. We gathered back at camp where Adam made steak, 4 cheese potatoes and corn for dinner. Afterwards we hung around with a neighbor dog we attracted which lived down the road apparently. The owner tried to coax the dog back home but it had other plans of hanging out with us until dark at least. The best part about this camping area were all the baby Great Horned Owls that came out once the darkness crept in for the evening. We must have counted 12 or so owls all over the ground and though the trees. Andrew had one very daring little owl land a couple feet from him and once Andrew bent down to get closer he took right off again. We did manage to get some photos of them with the camera, all the video footage is just our voices in excitement trying to show off these birdlike shadows in the dark haha. To top it all off we had a powerful lighting storm that night too. It flashed the kind of light you could see through your eye lids! Just incredible! That is about it so far, the other days were spent as i said, either reading, swimming, watching movies, facing painting, or walking around the downtown main streets in search for internet cafes'. We will post after the mechanical progress tomorrow to en-lighting all of you nice folks of our luck with everything. Good day to you all! P.S. Song of the day on this trip is Brown Girl In The Ring by Boney M. check it out

This is at the top of the canyon wall we are headed down into

Boau Boau behaving at dinner time

Boau Boau again

Hiding from the heat

That's one of our camp lizards, they were all over the place!

3 Great Horned Babies standing on a bush

Andrew's best  owl photo in flight yet

Rippo (Rabbit/Hippo)