Maybe there is no storm, but there must be one somewhere just waiting to huff and puff and blow my little coach over…no wind for the last three days.  Damn nice!  It’s got to be the eye of the storm, it can’t just quit like that, can it?

It feels like late spring is definitely here, it’s a little after 9pm and I have the windows open in the coach to a gentle cooling breeze.  Nice!  What a busy day it’s been.  Amy and I finally made a trek out into the desert for one of our hikes and it feels like it has been three years since we last went, although it’s probably about two weeks.  We saw flowers – everywhere – little teensy tiny ones, big bright vivid ones, small carpet patches in other places, and we saw this:

It’s strangely creepy looking.  We spotted the vivid color on a small creosote bush and went to investigate.  I thought it looked like an alien life form as there was nothing else around the whole area that looked related – and it had long, orange angel hair looking tentacles that waved in the breeze, yet it was firmly wrapped around the creosote branches.  I took a few pictures with my iPhone and we hiked on.

Later in the day I hopped in the Steed and went 4Xwheeling around the whole area we hike in.  I found a bunch of it on the back side of the area we hike – in between two small mountains.  When I got home from the picture taking run, Amy had found it on the internet.  Man…if I thought it looked creepy before, it really looks creepy here in the bottom picture.

There’s still a lot of water in the ground in certain spots out there in the desert.  This is a classic picture IMHO, with the super moist ground giving color and life to the grass at the base of the small mesquite.

And the desert paint brush (in MT and ID known as the ‘indian paint brush’) – usually in clusters growing out of other plants, this one was alone and quite striking.

And look at these two little beauties, growing together, ringed by a small island of desert.

I took a boatload of pictures, some of the debris and garbage that mankind has thrown out in this area – rather than driving a few miles to the dump, and will put some of them up periodically.  More flower pictures will go up for sure.

On other news, can you believe the Commonwealth of Kentucky?  Some 13k residents have played poker at Full Tilt and the state is claiming the details of those transactions as “tortuous acts” and for financial gain. NO SHIT on the financial gain but who was being tortured?  I’d have to move out of the great state of Kentucky if I lived there.  Do you think those 13k residents would have wagered on horse racing or some other form of gambling the state could’ve collected from?  Isn’t that what this whole thing is about?  Kentucky is a greedy ass and doesn’t want their residents to lose any money that Kentucky can’t get its hands on.  The government and gaming is seriously getting on my nerves.

On other poker related news, the PokerWorks Family HORSE tourney is this Sunday, the 11th.  It will be at Full Tilt Poker, details will be posted here tomorrow.

I have a hike planned in the a.m. – g’nite.