My family and I have booked our vacation to Estes Park, CO, for early August. We are spending a week there and the plan is to spend most of the time at RMNP.

Does anyone have recent experience with the timed entry system? My concern is how much of the park we can realistically expect to have access to given the high demand, parking, etc. You can get into the park without a timed entry pass as long as you arrive before 9AM which is no problem for us. We are staying 5 minutes from the entrance and I'd like to be there no later than 7:30am most days.

You can only get into the Bear Lake area without a pass if you arrive before 5am which is impossible for us. So, we need to get a pass to get to that area.

My questions are:
1) How hard is it to get a timed entry pass to Bear Lake? I see the passes open up for our time frame on July 1. They also hold another 40% back until the night before so there's another opportunity there.
2) How bad is parking in the park? I see they have a shuttle system for the Bear Lake area. What about in the non-Bear Lake area?

Any other things to be aware of or consider? Our plan is to get there early, hike in the morning, have a picnic lunch and do additional hiking before leaving in the afternoon.

This place looks pretty unreal. This is what it looks like "normally":



They lit it up for the 1st time yesterday:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Continuing my regular drumbeat on the forum of , “what is good for Des Moines is good for Ames/Iowa State” (both in terms of recruiting as well as retaining alumni post-graduation), here is some recent positive Des Moines’ related news demonstrating how well things are going.

First article on explosion of housing units downtown. 2nd one on Mid-year housing permits showing DSM metro beating out much larger metros (e.g…1.5 million+ metros like Cincy and Milwaukee), not to mention our neighbor to the west, Omaha :

More than 2,300 units planned in downtown Des Moines

Joel Aschbrenner, [email protected]12:12 p.m. CDT August 5, 2016


The rental market has boomed in recent years. Now, the biggest flood of new apartments downtown has ever seen will put the market to the test.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

· More than 2,300 apartments are scheduled open around downtown Des Moines in the next year.

· Never before have so many housing units opened in such a short period in the city's core.

· Developers say they can fill the apartments; there is strong demand for downtown rentals.

· But some are concerned that an apartment bubble could be forming.

An unprecedented wave of apartments is about to hit downtown Des Moines.

More than 2,300 rental units are scheduled to open in the next year alone in and around the city's core, a Des Moines Register analysis shows. That represents a more than 40 percent increase in downtown’s housing stock. And another 1,400 downtown apartments a…

Click to expand...

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...0-units-planned-downtown-des-moines/86573948/





Housing Permits as of June 2016 YTD


Columbus, OH 3890

Oklahoma City,* OK 3805

Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI 3775

Boise City,* ID 3661

Baltimore-Columbia-Towson,* MD 3588

Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN 3502

Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade,* 3468

Charleston-North Charleston,* SC 3399

Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, 3393

Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 3299

Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beac 3051

Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 2903

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara,* CA 2675

Richmond, VA 2627

Cape Coral-Fort Myers,* FL 2619

Provo-Orem, UT 2562

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission,* TX 2532

Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC 2498

Durham-Chapel Hill,* NC 2467

Madison, WI 2445

Colorado Springs,* CO 2423

Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 2342

Columbia,* SC 2263

Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL 2124

Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 2107

Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis,* WI 2027

Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, FL 1996

Memphis, TN-MS-AR 1925

Draftkings put this out on facebook recently. I personally can't wait to celebrate the 2055 National title. The Big 12 has quite the run in the 2050's.

Which one do you want to see done next?

Why am I seeing this incorrect usage so often now?

I can't remember anyone making this mistake until about 3 years ago. Now it's all over the place?

Jake Brend and Derek Duke fill in for Williams and Blum to rank Iowa State Football’s opponents, discuss what Big 12 coach could get canned, and debate who the best Cyclone in the pros is. Presented by Mechdyne.

Switching jobs after a rather long time at one place, and I need to move my 401k. For those of you that have done this, what did you do? Move it into the new employers account or move it to something like etrade, ameritrade, vanguard?

Which one?

Time to get CF bracket season in gear. Cartoons / animation shows is first up. Posting a nomination thread for people to nominate bracket worthy options. Got a list of ones many will mention already below. Also please if you are interested in being a committee member we would love to have some new blood. It's not super time consuming.

Once nominations are closed I will use poll site from before so public can vote will be used as a voice in committee discussions.

These are listed in no particular order.

South Park
The Simpsons
Family Guy
TMNT
DuckTales
SpongeBob SquarePants
Rick and Morty
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You
Looney Tunes
Thundercats
He-Man
GI Joe
Transformers
Futurama
Heathcliff
Rugrats
Animaniacs
Dexter's Laboratory
The Pink Panther
Phineas and Ferb
Yogi Bear
Flintsones
Jetsons
Smurfs
Bob's Burgers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Inspector Gadget
American Dad
Cleveland Show
Darkwing Duck
King of the Hill
Talespin
Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Ren & Stimpy Show
Catdog
Doug
Beavis and Butthead
Archer
Muppet Babies
goof troop
Dennis the Menace
Tom and Jerry
Beetlejuice
The Wild Thornberrys
Underdog
Super Friends
BoJack Horseman
Captain Planet
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Hong Kong Phooey
Sonic
Dragon Ball Z
snorks
Johnny Quest
Bluey
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Arnold
X-men (from the 1990s)
Clone Wars (from Star Wars)
Space Ghost
The Herculoids
Batman: The Animated Series
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
Gravity Falls
Adventure Time
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Invincible
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Boondocks
Batman: The Animated Series
Samurai Jack
Metalocalypse
Speed Buggy
Shirt Tales
Jabberjaw
Road Runner (likely to be combined with Looney Tunes)
Top Cat
Heckle and Jeckle
Tom Terrific
Tennessee Tuxedo
Land of the Lost
H.R Puffenstuff
Electra woman and Dyna Girl
Ruff and Reddy
Johnny Bravo
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Laugh Olympics
Powerpuff Girls
The Fairly Oddparents
Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
Superman: The Animated Series
Batman Beyond
Arthur
Pinky and the Brain
Magic School Bus
Gargoyles
Recess
The Tick
The Venture Brothers
Mr. MaGoo
Blue Eye Samurai
Rocko’s Modern Life
Dungeons and Dragons
Speed Racer
The Legend of Zelda/Super Mario Brothers Show
Daria
MASK
Voltron
Battle of the Planets
Felix the Cat
Teen Titans GO!
Chowder
Woody Woodpecker Show
Silverhawks
Jem & the Holograms
Fat Albert
The Garfield Show/US Acres
ProStars
Underdog
Cowboy Bebop
Ghost in the Shell
The Real Ghostbusters
The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley

Anybody spot any yet? Sorry for the cardinal sin of a thread with just the name. I live in southern Iowa and I haven’t yet.

With rosters shaping up in the WNBA, how are Cyclones doing? It looks like Ashley Joens is on the Atlanta Roster, Bredget Carleton is fairly entrenched with Minnesota, and Julie VanLoo is on the Golden State roster. I am not aware that Soares is on any roster at the current moment. Anyone know any different? Did I miss any?

Scheduled to break ground in October with the first game in 2024

Login to view embedded media

I was listening to the Blum and Williams podcast and they mentioned a new walk out song for this upcoming season. Said it was a Lil Wayne song but couldn't remember the name of the song. Anyone have any idea what it will be? TIA

What is your favorite video game of all time? On what platform?

I was flipping through the radio last night and there was some promotion with the St Louis sports teams and they were viewing Hakeem Butler. It sounded like a version of a Matt Campbell interview. He had a lot of the catch phrases, "be the best version of yourself," etc. He kept mentioning Coach Becht, and how he demands and makes sure you are prepared. I just looked at the roster and there are a lot of Cyclones on it, Mike Rose, Chase Allen, Willie Harvey, and Chase Allen. Might be a team it would be fun to go watch.

Anyone ever had a meniscus repair? I'm about 2 weeks out from surgery and wondering what to expect when I get off crutches (no weight-bearing for 6 weeks).

Came back to see it and it looks like it is gone?

I like the "what music are you listening to right now" thread. Using that idea, I thought it would be nice to have a TV show streaming thread.

I'll start. We just started streaming "Chernobyl" on HBO Max. Pretty intense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries)

Watched the premiere tonight. Not sure what to think yet. Leaning hard to it might just suck. Seems like I have seen some of this before (Longmire). Already dislike almost every single character other than the Native American wife and her son. Everyone else seems to be a total unmitigated ******* or a suck up toady. Not sure that is going to do much to get me watching.

Why do you ruin chicken salad by putting in grapes and walnuts. It is called chicken salad.

Hate to see him go, but the linebacker room is crowded. Hardly a surprise. I half expected them to redshirt him this year. And even ‘26 would have been problematic.

Good luck, Jack!

Life/family changing signing. Awesome.

Jeff Woody and Grant Mahoney sit down with former Cyclone Jeremiah George to discuss his life following a heart attack, his favorite memories as a Cyclone, and the infamous Texas game. All this and more presented by Kelderman Manufacturing.