Green Grass and Friends

I really enjoyed the desert this winter and early spring—it was warm. The many varieties of cactus are so interesting. And the sunsets are spectacular. But it is good to get back to Colorado, where it is green, not brown. In addition, it's been hovering around 100 degrees during the day in Coolidge. We'll wait till January to return there.

This is the view out of our window. It is so nice to see grass and plants and birds, with nary a metal box (aka trailer) in sight. For two and a half months we will have the area to ourselves most of the time. And we are enjoying it. Lathrop State Park has lots of green grass and green ground cover. There are mountains in the distance and Canada Geese with their babies near the lake.

Our major responsibility here is operation of the Camp Store. We spent most of Wednesday putting out the merchandise left from last year. Yesterday we opened for the first time. The soda was warm, the freezer bare of ice cream and the shelves had no snacks. However, we are fairly well stocked with other items. By the time we closed last night we managed one sale. Today we had four sales.

We aren't doing great business, but the store has become a gathering place for staff, volunteers, children looking for something interesting and adults who want to see what is available.

First thing this morning a man walked in and said, "I know you from someplace." It took us a minute or two to connect the dots—we first met his wife four years ago when we were newbies at volunteer part hosting. Three years ago we volunteered with Ken and his wife, Virginia, at Ft. Parker State Park in Texas. Today we are experienced volunteers and full timers. They also are full timers and we compared experiences for quite a while.

Later, John sat outside working on his carving. A woman came in to check out the store, and then commented that her husband was also a carver. Soon he came up and talked about carving, Arizona and life in Alaska for a long time. Some of the nicest people in the world camp/RV and as we travel we seem to run into old friends again and again.