This year I took my travelling QRP portable operation to northeast Colorado, DN80. Enjoyed both legs of the trip from Illinois. Big storms were threatening on Friday when I arrived in Holyoke (two or three tornados touched down east and northeast of Denver) so I only partially set up the tower and antennas then. A major storm came through Friday evening, which I sat out at a friendly pub in town. Throughout the day Saturday and Sunday, the wind was a major problem, along with lots of rain. My Armstrong method of rotation suffered badly at times, but I managed to keep most of the rain out of the car where I operated. Another major storm hit Sunday morning, so I was not able to get on the air until about 8:30 a.m. Six meters was open much of the time on both days, sometimes in multiple directions, which really saved the day. The other bands (2, 222, 432, and 1296) were largely a bust for me, partly because I spend a lot of time on six, and partly because of problems holding the antennas in place. My six meter grid map looks great; a nice circle of grids all the way around the compass from Minnesota>Ohio, much of the Southeast, some Texas and N. Mexico, lots of Arizona and California, and a sprinkling of grids from the Pacific Northwest. The 131 grids I worked on six is a personal best for me running QRP. Enjoyed working lots of old friends and I really appreciate those who had to work to pull me out of the muck. 73, Curt Roseman k9aks