Maybe not BIG doings, but doings.

This evening when I went to get the mail, a five mile drive, the road was blocked off by the State Patrol. There had been a rock slide that made big holes in the road, and took out a power line.

I asked him if I could wait, but he said it would be hours. There was a geologist up on the hillside trying to figure out what additional rocks to knock down, the power line guys were there, and the road crew was standing by. He was kind of a snotty young officer, and while I was turning my truck around he wrote down my license plate number. Wonder what he's going to do with that. If there was any big about the doings, it was his making it that way.



This is the mouth of Big Thompson Canyon heading west. It astounds the tourists. I like this picture, taken on the fly. You can see the hood of the truck in the foreground. I like the way the yellow line leads us to adventure around the next curve.

This is how it looked after the big flood in 1976:


Yes, that's the same road, showing about the same spot. You can see that it was totally washed out by the 30-foot high wall of water in this canyon. The governor at that time thought maybe the road should not be rebuilt, and alternatives were sought. But they ended up rebuilding it, raising the road above the 100 year flood level.

144 people died in that flood, and many houses and businesses were destroyed. Even though that flood was 34 years ago, we still talk about it like it was yesterday. I don't think people every get over this kind of thing, but the memories tend to die out as those who were there pass away.