#25 - Bob Ross Painting Class

This new adventure went on my list my 40th year "to do" list as soon as I decided to do my 40 new adventures. I have  so been looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint.

Who hasn't been captivated by Bob Ross? As I was searching the web for his image, I found the following description of a person's first exposure to a Bob Ross video. I think it sums up what just about everyone experiences when they first stumble upon a Bob Ross episode on TV, as I did about 15 years ago. From http://www.silviahartmann.com/:   At first, I had to laugh - at the way he looked, at the way he spoke. But within seconds, I was mesmerised (and being a hypnosis trainer, I don't use that term lightly, believe you me!). I was absolutely fascinated by what he was doing, how he was doing it, and what he was all about there - call it Bob Ross's energy, if you will. It is true to say that I had nothing short of an epiphany as I watched Bob Ross create fabulous "little trees" and "happy little bushes" out of nowhere, in seconds; three strokes of the fan brush make a waterfall; a small brush loaded with different paint colours on either side creating instant highlights; and as to the palette knife making a mountain ...

After seeing Bob Ross whip out masterpieces in less than a half hour, I have always wanted to give it a try myself.  He just makes it look SOOOO easy.  So, I decided my 40th year would be the perfect time to see if I am a starving artist at heart.   As if it were meant to be, this summer while at the framing shop on Peterson AFB, I saw an advertisement for a local woman who teaches Bob Ross painting classes.  Hurray! 

I called to inquire about the classes. At first I was disappointed to learn the we wouldn't be completing our paintings in only 30 minutes, but Lori, the teacher, assurred me that it would be disaster if we tried to complete our masterpieces as quickly as Bob. She said that Bob always told people, "It takes 30 years and 30 minutes to complete a painting,"  and she said to expect to spend at least 4 hours creating our first landscape.  So, disappointment aside, today Aubrey, Hunter and I headed to Lori's house for our lesson.

Lori is a wonderfully friendly woman. She grew up watching Bob Ross videos on TV and loved them. She didn't pursue this interest until, as an adult, a small inheritence from her parents provided her the financial means to  Bob Ross Instructor Certification school.  She is very talented and clearly loves what she is doing.

We set up in Lori's kitchen and got to work. We watched a Bob Ross episode of  "Mountain Reflection," and then we got started.  Well, 30 minutes came and went, and we barely had paint on our canvas.  Lori was definitely right: attempting to complete a painting in a half hour would have been a fiasco.  Just learning to mix colors was a challenge.  However, we were making definite progress, and we were having a great time.

Lori encouraged us to personalize our paintings, so each of ours had its own flavor.  Lori painted along with us, showing us each step.  Amazingly, our paintings began to come to life, and soon we had "happy trees" and "happy bushes" dotting our landscapes.  Lori stepped in to help whenever we had a crisis.  We learned that you can remove mistakes and just paint over that area again. Thank goodness for that! Total painting time: over 4 hours, prep time: over an hour, clean up time: about an hour. Our painting experience took the better part of a day, but the end results were awesome!  We couldn't believe we had created these!  Take a look at our results.

WE DID IT!! We are Bob Ross proteges!!!  Maybe in 30 more years we will be able to knock them out in 30 minutes, but for now we'll be content with our snail's pace masterpieces.  This new experience was AWESOME!   I encourge everyone to release their inner artist!

#24 - Castlewood Canyon State Park

This weekend Craig and I celebrated 18 years of marriage!  Now that the kids are older, we can sneak away for short getaways without having to worry about who will look after the kids.  Yesterday we treated ourselves to one such getaway.

We discovered Castlewood Canyon last May as we took an alternate route to Denver to avoid some backups on I-25.  We were rather embarassed to discover a state park so close to our home that we had never known existed. 

Castlewood Canyon is just south of Castle Rock, CO.  The canyon contains remnants of a dam which was built in 1890 and proceeded to burst in 1933, killing two people and numerous livestock in the process.  Apparently the structural integrity of the dam had been questioned several times throughout its history, but citizens were repeatedly assured that the damn was completely safe.  Guess politicians haven't changed much in the last hundred years! Here's a picture of the dam site.

In the 90 degree heat we headed out on a trail that would take us by the dam remnants. Guess you could say we hiked the dam trail at the dam park. (Yes, you should be thinking of Chevy Chase right now.)  The ranger assured us that it was approximately 3 miles round trip to the dam and some nearby waterfalls. It was a great hike, and we had no kids asking "How much longer are we going to be out here?".  However, the ranger was grossly off in his estimate. 3.5 hours later as we were wrapping up our round trip, we found a trail guide which gave trail lengths. Our "3 mile" round trip was actually about 7-8 miles roundtrip!  However, we had a great time hiking through both the rugged, rocky terrain and the marshy plains near the creek. 

When we were about a half mile from completing our hike, we encountered our biggest excitement of the day.  It could certainly count as another new adventure for me!  A woman hiking the opposite direction told us that she had just passed some signs warning that a rattlesnake had been spotted in the area. We appreciated the warning and continued on our way. A bit down the trail we spotted an orange cone with the rattlesnake warning sign taped to it.  Just beyond that were a couple hikers who said, "We found the rattlesnake that was in the vicinity. It is right there on the trail."  We looked about 15 feet up the trail, and there it was - quite alert, I might add. We pondered whether or not there was any way to walk a safe distance around the snake. At this point on the trail we were heading up and out of the canyon. We were on a set of stairs which were making a rather sharp turn to the left. Directly on the left side of the trail was a "wall "of rock; to our right was a steep down-sloping embankment.  Craig took one step towards the snake, and the snake gave a definite warning rattle.  Nope, we were not going to try to get around this fella. We all decided the only option was to scale the rocks to our left.  It was not a huge wall, so we were all able to get up and over the edge with just a bit of knee-scraping on my part.  This was as close to an active rattler as I ever hope to get. Once while hiking near Pueblo we saw a rattler who was curled up under a rock and minding his own business. I was OK with that.   Yesterday's fella, however, was just a bit too aware of us humans.  Of course, as we were scaling the rock and crossing the patch of land to rejoin the trail, I found myself thinking, "OK, we know there are ratllers here, how much harder are they to see in the grass?"  Freaky feeling.  Here is the cranky serpent.

Rattle snakes aside, I would definitely recommend Castlewood Canyon to any local folks.  It is a short drive from the Springs and offers a full day's worth of trails.  There is a northern section of the park which we didn't even visit.  Just be sure to wear high boots, keep your eyes on the trail and keep your ears open for that distinct "stay away from me" rattle!