Golden opportunity

Well, since I still have a few minutes I guess I can write about our trip to Golden last week. Marcella and I went out there for the MODFLOW conference (work related). We decided to go out a day early so that we could spend time with Tony (Marcella's father). It was kind of funny that we were in Colorado and Joyce (Tony's wife) was back in Highland spending time with the grandchildren. We were driving a fake Hummer (as Marcella liked to call it). We drove down to Colo Sprgs on the 2 lane interstate. We were completely amazed that after all of these years the highways are STILL completely inadequate. We drove around Manitou Springs where Marcella grew up. We even drove up Ruxton. We haven't been there for several years. Nothing much has changed. The Chavez sign over the bridge leading to the house is still there. It is really sad that all of these years have passed without any relationship between Marcella and the "person that gave birth to her". After driving around we went to Mall for a while (practically out in Kansas) and then had dinner at this dive of a Mexican place in downtown Colo Sprgs.

The next day we met one of Marcella's longtime friends Wendy and her new husband Jerry for brunch at the Table Mountain Inn. Pretty good food but we had a great time chatting and laughing for the next 4 hours.

The conference was pretty good. We know most of the people at the conference and it is good to see them and catch up with them. There were a number of people that we know through either e-mail or over the phone and we finally were able to meet them face to face. Norm and his whole group of guys were there also.

One of the best things about where we were staying is that we had access to The Pointe Fitness center. It was less than a mile away. I'm telling you, if I had a gym this close to my house that was a nice as this one, I would join. There is nothing like this where we live. Norm, Mike, Alan, and I would go around 6 in the morning. I would ride the bike for 1/2 hour or so and then we would play racketball or basketball or something. Very fun.

I was glad that Marcella was able to come and help me with the conference. She is getting quite familar with all of our stuff. She can pretty much answer most of the commonly asked questions. We couldn't stay long in Colorado as we had to get back in order to get ready for the cruise.