5th-Wheel Wanderings

A Slice of Heaven

2012-01-25T17:43:00.003-07:00

On January 13, we moved into the Bit-O-Heaven RV park in Donna, TX, while we attended training for our assignment at Santa Ana NWR. We couldn't park in the RV slot at the refuge until the people working the first half of the season finished up. This was our site in Heaven.

The park has RV sites and park models and it is full of Winter Texans. The sites are fairly small and crowded, but we had a grass front yard, something we hadn't seen in some time. It was the friendliest park we have ever spent time in. In the 12 days we were there, we met all of our neighbors. When we went out walking in the park, everyone, and I mean everyone, waved or said "hi." On our last morning there, a neighbor three spaces down knocked on our door just before 8 am. When John opened the door, she said, "It's baking day" and handed him a plate with two warm cinnamon rolls. From a stranger! Here are the rolls and three grapefruit we had picked the day before.

As we walked around the park we saw the following sights.

Anyone know what these flowers are?

Another cool golf cart.

What a creative planter for hen and chickens.

I'm not sure we were staying in heaven, but it was a good place for a time. Yesterday, we moved to our site at Santa Ana, where we will be parked through April. This is a little closer to heaven as a great RV site.

Birds

2012-01-24T17:40:00.003-07:00

Monday, we--the three couples in training to be tram drivers at the refuge--went birding with Martin, the director of the Valley Nature Center, which operates the tram. This is what birders look like in the field.

Birding is really big business here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A recent survey showed that tourists who come to the valley for birding and other nature-related activities spend over $300 million a year while in the area. Like I said, big business. None of us training to operate the tram are serious birders, but we all want to know enough to talk reasonably to all those birders. Thus, the day of birding.

We drove to Brownsville to The Nature Conservancy's Southmost Preserve. It provides native habitat for birds and wildlife. As you can see from the sign, the non-profit Nature Conservancy has corporate sponsors.

In this part of Texas, 95% of that habitat has been cleared to allow farming and ranching. Wildlife agencies are piecing together parcels of land to provide a wildlife corridor where the animals can travel around the open farm land. The Southmost Preserve is not open to the general public, but Martin works with the director of the preserve and we were able to go there.

We walked to this viewing deck on a small resaca (oxbow lake that is intermittently
flooded then dries up).

What little I knew about birds didn't include anything more about waterfowl than that some of them are ducks. This is what a bunch of ducks, stilts, and other waterfowl look like floating on the resaca.

Now I know that this is an American Avocet.

And this is a Black-necked Stilt.

On the far side of the resaca we saw a small stand of Sabal Palms, the only native palm in Texas. Once there were 50,000 acres of Sabal Palms along the Rio Grande. But they where cleared for farming, as well as to provide pilings for bridges and docks. Today only about 500 acres of palm forest remain in the U.S., almost all on this preserve and the nearby Sabal Palm Preserve.

Here is our trusty group walking to another area of the preserve.

As we walked down the path, we saw that GM is another sponsor of the preserve. By the way, the "Turk's Cap" is a small shrub with bright red flowers that are a real favorite of butterflies.

We drove on to the Sabal Palm Preserve, where we ate our picnic lunch and had a chance to walk through the palm forest. It is really impressive.

This coarse grass is everywhere in the preserve. It is Guinea Grass, imported in earlier decades by government agricultural agencies and ranchers seeking a drought-resistant grass for cattle. The cows wouldn't eat it and they found it didn't provide good nutrition. But the grass thrived and chokes out native plants. You know what they say about "the best laid plans."

We learned a couple of other things as well. This is a blurry photo of a bug trap. We saw a lot of them along the roads. Martin explained they are there to catch the boll weevil. Remember hearing about that bug in songs years ago? It is still a problem for cotton farmers, but now they have a way to determine where it is so they can spray the plants to prevent damage.

We saw a lot of these concrete pipes in the fields. Turns out, they are stand pipes connected to underground irrigation pipes. They contain valves that can to opened to irrigate the fields.

Traveling, spending time in new parts of the country, is a great way to learn about lives and ways that we have never seen before. That is one of the reason we love being RVers.

Getting Acquainted

2012-01-21T17:42:00.003-07:00

We have spent the past eight days getting acquainted with the Lower Rio Grande Valley, with Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, with the other tram drivers and the staff we will be working with, and the material we will be sharing with visitors. It has been a very busy week.

During that time, we have ridden the tram through the refuge twice. We have been encouraged to hear each of the current tram-driver couples make their presentations and we have heard two of them so far. We also explored the Valley Nature Center in Weslaco. We are actually volunteering for that organization when we lead the tram tours, as they have a cooperative agreement with the refuge. One day a week we will be volunteering in the refuge visitor center.

Tuesday through Friday, we had training each day, learning about flora and fauna, about the techniques of effective interpretation, and lots of other specifics about the job we will be doing for three months.

It has been several months since we had such a demanding schedule, so it has taken some adjusting. We were tired, but each day we adapted a little better.

One day, Martin, who is executive director of the Valley Nature Center, showed us this bit of fauna--a Texas Milk Snake.

The Milk Snake has the same colors as the highly poisonous Coral Snake. We learned the following couplet to tell them apart:

Red touches yellow, kills a fellow
Red touches black, venom lacks.
You can be sure that is something we will remember!

We spent most of our training time inside, sitting around a table. Here you can see Tom, Hermy and Judy facing the camera, as well as Martin, our trainer. My back is to the camera and Sue is out of the picture to the left. John is behind the camera. We are enjoying our coworkers and think it will be a good winter.

We also have been able to do some bird watching. That is the biggest Eco-tourism draw in the Valley and something we are really looking forward to learning more about. This is an impressive Harris's Hawk that we saw on the tram tour.

We saw this Long-billed Thrasher at the Valley Nature Center.

There are lots of these Great Kiskadees in the Valley.

I am really excited about the birds we will see here and that I can photograph. You will be seeing a lot of them.

What a Change!

2012-01-16T18:32:00.002-07:00

We're not in Arizona anymore, Toto. That is what we felt like today. For more than a year we have been in Arizona and Colorado and New Mexico, all locations with low humidity. Now we have come to the Lower Rio Grande Valley--hereafter to be referred to as "the Valley"--and today it has been warm and humid. We expected both and came because of the heat. But it will take a while to adjust to the humidity. It helps my skin and eyes, while also making me uncomfortable. When I got up this morning, at 6 am, it was 66 degrees and 91% humidity. The high was in the low 80s this afternoon, with quite a bit of wind. Give us a few days to get used to both the humidity and the wind.

Tomorrow, we begin our training as tram drivers at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. The tram is actually operated by the Valley Nature Center in nearby Weslaco. We will have training almost every day through the end of the month, including learning about vegetation, birds, butterflies, and how to operate the tram. We know we have a lot to learn, even though they sent us, in advance, a 17-page tram talk script. We have been studying it and thinking of how to make it our own and this training will help.

Since the tram has been in operation since November 1 and we don't start driving it until February 1, the current crew is still living in the RV sites reserved for us. So they put us up in the Bit-O-Heaven RV Park in Donna, also nearby. This is a very friendly place with over 700 sites for RVs and park models. It gives us a connection to other Winter Texans.

We arrived on Friday, so we have spent three days getting familiar with the area. We visited the refuge, which we had not seen before, went on a tram tour, and visited the Valley Nature Center. Now it is time to get to work.

A Long, Long Day

2012-01-13T19:10:00.004-07:00

We are exhausted. We try not to drive much more than 200 miles a day. But today, we did 350+ miles, Del Rio to Donna, TX, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It took seven and a half hours! Way too long.

We passed miles of pecan orchards and a few fields of goats. Miles and miles and miles (350+) of creosote bush and mesquite. And oodles and oodles of oil and gas fields. Obviously, there is a lot of oil field construction going on and lots of new jobs. There are small RV parks on noting but dirt, signs advertising RV parking. Many oil field construction companies. It is good to see an area that seems to be doing well economically.

We are parked at Bit-O-Heaven in Donna for the next 2 to 3 weeks while we receive training for our new volunteer assignment as tram drivers and tour leaders at Santa Ana NWR. We actually begin working Feb. 1, but can't move to the refuge till the folks who worked the first half of the season finish work and move on. We aren't far from the refuge and they are paying for our stay here.

Now it's time for bed.

A Mini-Vacation

2012-01-12T05:23:00.001-07:00

We spent five nights in Big Bend National Park—with no cell phone signal and only minimal internet when we walked up to the Rio Grande Village store. It has been ages since we were in this situation. No blog reading. We couldn’t look something up on Google. I couldn’t check the bank accounts. Or do any other business. No youtube videos.

We were ready to move on and get back our connection to the outside world. But the enforced isolation made this into a mini vacation. That meant we did more exercise. We did more reading. We looked out the window and then went to take pictures of what we saw. We slowed down.

In our early years of RVing, before we had broadband cards for internet and before most RV parks offered free wi-fi, going on a trip meant leaving the outside world behind. Back then, we often didn’t have TV either. At Big Bend, our satellite TV worked great. So we were only sort-of cut off.

How many of you remember going to the campground office to download email from their fax line or plugging a phone cord into the side of a pay telephone? And you needed a calling card to make phone calls. Broadband, wi-fi and cell phones have changed all that and made it much easier to live full-time on the road. But once in a while it is good to take a vacation from all that connection and just relax.

The Big Bend

2012-01-09T13:26:00.003-07:00

The Rio Grande River begins in Colorado, west of the town of Creede. It flows east and south through New Mexico, roughly adjacent to I-25. As it enters Texas, it becomes the boundary between the US and Mexico, which accounts for the shape of the southern border of Texas. At one point, the river makes a “big bend” and flows north for a while before turning south and east to the Gulf of Mexico.

Last week we were in Las Cruces, NM, and did our run along the Rio Grande—which is virtually dry at this time of year because no water is flowing out of Elephant Butte Reservoir to the north. By the time the river reaches the “big bend,” it is a lazy stream at this time of year.

There were nice reflections of the dead trees in the pond.

Yesterday, we walked on the nature trail at Big Bend National Park, where we saw a spring-fed pond which attracts numerous birds and where we could look down on the Rio Grande.

We saw a horse with two riders splash through the lazy stream. They were riding from one part of Mexico to another by taking a very short shortcut through the national park.

We also saw displays of Mexican-made craft items along the nature trail. However, the park’s newspaper, The Paisano, as well as its web site point out that such items are contraband and can be seized by park officers. Also, if the Mexican nationals come across to collect money for the crafts, they may be arrested as illegal immigrants and shipped to Presidio 100 miles away for deportation.

Beginning next week, we will be tram drivers and interpreters at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge along the Rio Grande River near the Gulf of Mexico. What the river will look like there?

This is bird-watching territory. In April 2010, I blogged that I found bird watching boring. I wonder what has changed. Today we had so much fun watching, waiting and seeing new birds. The most interesting was this Green Heron.

We also spotted this raccoon. Eventually, it went down into the pond and swam away. We didn’t know raccoons could swim. What a treat to see one in the wild!

Our campsite has some friendly roadrunners.

This is the Sierra del Carmen mesa, across the Rio Grande in Mexico, which provides a backdrop to our campground.

2011 Recap

2012-01-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have blogged about the details of 2011. What does it look like overall? We volunteered for over six months of the year, 185 days to be exact. We were at Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge, AZ, during January, February and March. From mid-May through Labor Day, we were at Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, CO. That really saves on the campground fees.

We had 185 days free “camping.” In addition, volunteers for Colorado state parks receive a volunteer pass that allows us to get into all of the state’s parks for free for a year. That meant we didn’t pay the daily entry fees at Chatfield State Park and Cherry Creek State Park in September. As senior volunteers, we also get $3 a day off the camping fee Sunday through Thursday. During September that saved us $284.

Our total campground expense in 2011 was $3319.62, which works out to $9.09 a day for the year or $18.44 for the 180 days we weren’t volunteering. In addition, we spent $526.16 on electricity, sewer, trash removal, and propane during the year. Most of that expense was during the three months we spent at Valle del Oro in the fall.

We spent $3215.55 on diesel fuel. Given the cost of diesel (and gasoline) during the year, you can see we didn’t drive very much. We spent time in only three states with our RV—Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. We also spent two days in Blythe, CA, while we checked out Quartzsite in January and 10 days in New Hampshire on a visit to our son and his family there.

All in all, with the exception of two 50-year high school reunions and a trip to be with our son when he had surgery for cancer, it was a very quiet year.

We intend to change that in 2012. Who knows how many states we will visit as we drive to Alaska? And we will be in two Canadian provinces. This year will be different. All years are good, no even great.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2012-01-03T19:36:00.003-07:00

Monday we left Mesa and drove as far as Willcox in southeastern Arizona. We checked in at Lifestyle RV, where we have stayed before. It is a basic parking lot with good hookups, wifi, and a decent laundry. And seems to be the best park in town. This isn't a very good photo, but you can see how close the RVs are to one another. And it is all gravel.

Today we drove on to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and are parked at Sunny Acres RV. What a difference! We have good hookups, reliable wifi, and look at the space we have!

It is a friendly park and we have real grass, even if it is winter brown! We haven't seen that out our front door for I don't know how long. This small park has a number of snowbirds and we can see why. That is, until you consider the weather. Southern New Mexico just isn't as warm as Arizona, Florida, California or Texas. But we really like this park. We will stay here again when we visit this area.

We will stay two nights, then it is on to Texas for a few days at Big Bend National Park before we go on to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge for the rest of the winter.

The Party We Didn't Attend

2011-12-31T19:59:00.003-07:00

"The Jewel of the Nile" is the theme for the New Year's Eve party here at VDO. It BEGINS 30 minutes from now. We really don't do nights. But we did go check out the ballroom. Here is what we saw.

Pretty fancy, isn't it? I'm not sure if they are serving dinner or fancy snacks. There were several serving tables.

We shared our wine earlier in the evening and will welcome January 1, 2012, sometime between 4:30 and 6 am. Our celebration is more like these folks.

End of the Year

2011-12-31T14:34:00.005-07:00

We really enjoyed the folks we ate with Christmas Day at the VDO Christmas dinner.

We had chosen a table in a small side room off the main ballroom, hoping it wouldn't be quite so loud and John (with his hearing aides) could hear better. And it worked.

Thursday we picked up my new glasses. Since we arrived during the lunch hour and they were closed, we spent some time looking at airplanes nearby. The optometrist's office is next to Falcon Field, a small-plane airport. This old plane looks like it might have been from World War II.

There also was a company that manufactures and repairs helicopters. Tthis one won't be going anywhere soon.

We watched this chopper land and refuel.

We felt like we were in a time warp when we saw this restored Ford convertible. Is it a 1955 model?

Friday we took one last hike in the Sonoran Desert at Usery Mountain Regional Park. The desert is so pretty there.

The cholla and saguaro are great.

Most trails in the park are multi-use, so in addition to other hikers, we encountered people on horseback.

And mountain bikers.

When it was quiet, John tried out the binoculars we bought ourselves for Christmas. We will be doing a lot of bird watching at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, so we needed a second pair. They give a better view than our old, smaller pair.

Getting Ready to Move

2011-12-27T19:17:00.004-07:00

We have been here at Valle del Oro in Mesa since the first week of October. Next Monday we will move on, headed toward the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas where we will volunteer as tram drivers and interpreters at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. On the way there, we plan to spend five days at Big Bend National Park.

We love seeing birds, but we have a lot to learn about bird watching. Santa Ana is at the confluence of two major bird flyways, the Central and the Mississippi. We are excited to see all the birds and butterflies there and share the joys of that with others on the tram tours. They sent us a 17-page tram narrative to study--and we have been doing that. We will have two weeks of training when we arrive, before we begin giving tours on February 1.

Our focus yesterday was to put away a lot of the items that only come out when we are parked in the same place for weeks or months--like the grill and sun screens and tire covers and our "home" stained glass window. In addition to that, we had Christmas decorations to put away. It may have only been the second day of Christmas, but the decorations had been up more than a month. So we stored them till next year.

We will go on one more hike this week and today we went to a movie. That is quite an event for us. Usually, we watch old movies we can record on TV. We had both read all three books by the late Stieg Larsson and when we read that the movie version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was coming out this week, we decided to see it before we leave Mesa. If you have read the book, the movie is a way to re-experience this story. If you haven't read the book, we don't think the movie is really all that good. (Appreciate this movie review. This is only the second film we have seen in a theater this year and probably also only the second one in five or six years.)

T'was the Week Before Christmas

2011-12-23T14:28:00.005-07:00

And all through the town
Not a creature was resting
Not even a mouse

So, what were they doing? Lots of people were in the parking lots and stores, shopping for Christmas. What have we been doing? We have been done with Christmas shopping for weeks, except gifts for each other. We each took part of a day this week to do that.

We also went hiking at San Tan Regional Park with our friends Ron and Barbara. Barbara is a fellow blogger and each year when we are both here in Arizona, we get together for a hike and/or lunch. This year we did both, the hike followed by the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut. We walked, talked, laughed and shared and had a great time with them.

Today, we went to the Mesa Swap Meet. It's been cold, at least for Mesa, for the past couple of weeks. So there were lots of sweatshirts for sale.

And decorator items for winter homes and park models.

Southern Arizona is a mecca for snowbirds: read old retired folks. Look at all these sales booths.

What kind of free space?

We (I) only made one purchase--some beads. I have been learning how to bead, so I couldn't resist some new beads. But they aren't shown in this photo.

John comments that there certainly were a lot of well-behaved, patient grandchildren there. You go to Arizona to see your grandparents for Christmas, so where do they take you? The swap meet.

Not all the merchants feel good about the children.

But this booth had delightful dresses for really little girls.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day we will open gifts from our children and grandchildren--and each other--then go to church, then join hundreds of our friends at the Valle del Oro Christmas Dinner.

Hope you are having a good week, too.

It's Christmas Time

2011-12-19T15:01:00.003-07:00

Our Christmas decorations are small and confined to the inside of our RV. But many people here at Valle del Oro, a 55+ resort in Mesa, AZ, go to a lot more work. This is especially true for the folks who live in park model trailers. I guess they have more storage room and don't have to carry the decorations around the country. Their trailers don't go anywhere.

We don't want to store all that stuff, but we do enjoy looking at the decorations others put up. Last week we rode our bikes around the park and I took pictures of the lights. I hope you enjoy them, too.

Merry Christmas!

What Fun!

2011-12-15T18:59:00.003-07:00

Wednesday we had lunch at Organ Stop Pizza with a group from Valle del Oro. We had heard about this place two years ago and are glad we decided to go. The restaurant has a restored and improved "The Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ. What made seeing the organ even more special was that it was originally built for the Denver Theater, the movie theater where I had my first real job (not counting babysitting) at the age of 16. During the time of silent movies, some theaters had orchestras. In small towns, there was a pianist playing during the film. But many movie theaters had theatre pipe organs designed with imitative orchestral tones. The theatre organ has been described as part military band, part symphony orchestra and part theatrical sound effects.

The Organ Stop Wurlitzer was installed in the Denver Theater in 1927 and used regularly until the early 1930s. With the advent of the talking picture and the 1930s depression, the organ was rarely heard. Organ Stop purchased the instrument in the early 1970s.

When we arrived, we were able to see part of the pipes and bellows and other sound effect devices.

But where was the organ? We had been told "they only bring the organ up at lunch time for larger groups." I wondered what that meant. We could see a large round area that might be a stage, but no impressive organ.

Then the organ and organist began to rise out of that round area. Donna Parker was the artist on Wednesday.

Here you can see the beautiful instrument. She played it very well. I have played the piano, but I can't imagine knowing how to work with the 4 manuals, 276 keys and 798 stops and controls on this organ. Donna explained a lot about the organ, how it worked, and many of the bells and whistles (literally) that it has. For more information about the organ, click here.

Today the organ has nearly 6,000 pipes. The massive quantities of wind required for operation are provided by four huge turbine blowers. In addition to musical sounds, horse hoofs, police sirens and drums, the organist can make bubbles rain down from the ceiling.

And cat marionettes dance to Alley Cat. Sorry this picture is fuzzy. I couldn't get a good one of the moving cats in the dim light.

Florida or Arizona?

2011-12-13T19:52:00.003-07:00

I thought we were in Arizona, but today I wonder if we have somehow been transported to Florida. Here is a view down the street in front of our RV as the sun was setting today.

And one of the runoff holding ponds.

What do you suppose Fido thinks of this dog run? The water from the street goes right though the grass to reach the holding pond above.

They are supposedly building pickle ball courts in this area. I think they will have to start all over when this rain stops. It has been raining almost non-stop since late yesterday afternoon. The only letup was for about 2 hours this afternoon.

This street looks more like a lake than a street.

See the rose garden on the left that I posted about a couple of weeks ago? Then entire depression to the east of the flower bed is a huge lake. Waterfront garden maybe?

A new patio area is being built here. But water is pouring into the depression. I am sure they will have a lot of work getting it ready for plantings that will hold the slopes in place.

Despite the weather, we met some friends for a late breakfast/early lunch at IHOP. We worked with Willie and Vera two winters ago at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. It sure was good to see them again and catch up on our lives. A great visit on a rainy day.

Despite the cold and rain, our friends here are putting up their Christmas decorations.

Fun, Then Work

2011-12-11T18:44:00.003-07:00

Last week cyber friends Art and Connie came over for lunch. They, too, are full-time RVers and we follow each other's blogs. They just settled in Mesa for a four-month work camping assignment. We first met them in person in April 2010 when we were all in Texas.

Wednesday we spent almost four hours talking, sharing experiences and information and laughing--we laughed a lot. It was a good visit.

But life can't be all fun and games. Since the day we arrived here in Mesa, we have intended to wash the roof and sides of the RV. We were just waiting till it cooled down enough. Then till it warmed up enough. You know how it is with good intentions, don't you?

Finally, Saturday came and the temperature was supposed to be in the upper 60s, with sun. After our 3-mile run, we got out the soap and the hose and the rags. First we washed the truck and John polished it.

Next came the RV. I use a small brush to clean around all the seams and trim. John went up on the roof first, to wash it off.

The water here in Arizona--and it many other places that don't have snow runoff as the source of the city water--has many minerals in it. We have noticed that the commercial companies that power wash RVs and park models wipe the surfaces dry so the water doesn't leave a scum. I didn't use a ladder and rags to dry the RV, but I did use the window squeegee to clean off most of the excess water. The rig looks great now.

We are really glad we finally carried out our good intentions. But we were exhausted at the end of the day.

It has been very cool here, at least for Phoenix. I have shown pictures of two figures that some residents here have outside their park model to entertain those driving by. Sometimes these figures wave "hi," sometimes they are eating or cleaning the windows. This week they are wrapped in towels to keep warm. We just love them.

It's Time to Gloat

2011-12-06T21:47:00.002-07:00

John says I should do a smarty-pants dance. But I'll just gloat. At noon today we walked out of the post office here at Valley del Oro and all of our Christmas packages and all of our Christmas letters were in the mail. Wow! Does that ever feel good. For the rest of the month, we can relax and have fun. We have worked hard at shopping and making gifts, writing the letter, printing labels, etc, etc, etc. Now we are done.

Lutefisk and Winter

2011-12-05T19:20:00.004-07:00

Lutefisk is dried cod that is then soaked in water, then lye, then again in water. It is then either boiled in water or baked. Wikipedia says, "It is gelatinous in texture, and has an extremely strong, pungent odor. Its name literally means 'lye fish.'"

In northern Norway, the cod comes in to the coast, either to spawn or feed, between January and April. The fresh catch of cod is cleaned immediately and hung to dry on drying racks. The pure air and the cold winter climate are the ideal components in this unique processing.

In modern times, lutefisk (Norwegian) or lutfisk (Swedish) is often served around Christmas. John remembers it as one part of the Christmas Eve smorgasbord when he was a child. In Mesa, AZ, the local Sons of Norway chapter serves lutefisk on the first Saturday of December. This is the second year we have attended the dinner.

All that said, why does my plate not contain lutefisk?

Unless you are a Swede or Norwegian who grew up loving lutefisk, just read the first paragraph again and you will know why. Both John and I sampled the cod last year. This year neither of us took any. We did enjoy the meatballs, mashed potatoes, lefse and rice pudding.

Here is a plate with lutefisk.

Five of the people at our table were there because they really like lutefisk. Two of us were there because we enjoy the event. One man is of Norwegian descent and came to try it for the first time. "I don't think I will have it again any time soon," he said.

These three women were to my left. All three are members of the Sons of Norway and had worked at the annual dinner for many years. This year, they just came to eat.
From left, they are Carol, Lauri and Pat.

These are the people to John's right. I didn't get the name of the man on the left. He is the one who won't be having lutefisk any time soon. Carolyn and Larry really like the fish.

Many, if not most, of the people at the dinner are first or second generation immigrants. They are patriotic Americans, grateful to be citizens of this country. The dinner began with the Pledge of Allegiance, then a prayer in Norwegian. Music was provided by an accordion player.

Most of the members of the Sons of Norway are getting older, as you can see by those serving the food. In fact, the master of ceremonies said they had considered discontinuing the dinners because their membership was "getting up in years." But they have decided to do it for a few more years. They had a few younger people helping this year, including two foreign exchange high school students from Norway.

There also was a bake sale at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, where the lutefisk dinner was held. We bought this Julekake (Christmas cake). John loves it and says it reminds him of something he ate when he was a child. (His grandparents both immigrated from Sweden.)

It is December, and we are experiencing winter here in Mesa. Now, if you are in the parts of the country where it is snowing, you might not consider our temps in the 50s daytime and 40s overnight as winter. But we do. Yesterday morning it was foggy.

But as we drove west on our way to church, we pulled out of the fog to find sunshine.

Last night, a few of the higher mountains around the Valley received a dusting of snow.

The next couple of nights we have a freeze warming.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-12-02T13:28:00.004-07:00

We are retired, so why are we so busy? Monday, we left the RV at 8:30 am and didn't get back until 3:30 pm. We both had eye exams and I got the first of five shots of lubrication in my knee to try to eliminate arthritis pain. In between, we did some Christmas shopping. Wednesday, we left the RV at 9:30 and didn't get back until 4:15. We did grocery shopping, John had his hearing aides adjusted and I had another eye appointment.

But not all our busyness involves shopping and appointments. John has been carving. Look at all these Santas! Each of our grandchildren will receive one for Christmas. Attention, Liz and Sherry: don't tell your children!

I have been making pottery. Here are two of my projects: a small casserole dish and a (very large, heavy) coffee cup.

But we aren't the only people around doing crafts. A week ago, the Valle del Oro Artistic Club members had their projects for sale during the Friday hamburger and taco lunch.

Items for sale ranged from embroidery to painting to jewelry.

There are lots of outdoor activities to keep people busy, as well. Such as softball, shuffleboard and bocce ball.

The bocce ball courts are new this year and before we leave here at the end of the month, we hope to learn how to play shuffleboard and bocce ball.

If none of these activities are of interest, there are hiking, bicycling, numerous card games, carving, woodworking, ceramics, and line dancing available. There is no excuse for being bored here.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2011-11-29T14:16:00.003-07:00

But first, there was Thanksgiving. We joined 1,000 others at the Valle del Oro Thanksgiving pot luck. Most of the seating is in the ballroom and it can be very noisy. So we always try to sign up for a table on the outside edge. This year we were at table 1A. Here are most of the people at the table. Notice, no one is looking at me. That is because I was trying to get John's attention, so you could see him. Everyone is looking at him, also trying to get his attention.

Here are most of the covered dishes we brought to share at our table. They are still covered to keep them warm, as you can see.

We had fun and ate a great meal. But there weren't any leftovers for us. Extra turkey, stuffing and gravy is donated to the Mesa Food Bank. So Friday, I cooked 2 small turkey breasts, dressing and mashed potatoes. We had our own dinner that day and are still eating leftovers.

We also decorated our Christmas tree Friday. Last year we bought a very small tree with lights. So we pulled it out of the box and put on the decorations.

This small train reminds us of all our grandchildren.

These Santas are too heavy to hang on the tiny tree, but they still decorate the room nicely.

I used to have quite a few small nativity scenes. We carry these three with us.

We aren't the only residents who think it is time to put up the Christmas decorations. They are coming out all over the park. Do you really think Santa will slide down this chimney with ease?

Great news! We only have 1 more Christmas gift to buy! Now, if only the Christmas cards were done.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T19:11:00.003-07:00

John and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Take time to thank God for all your blessings. Then take time to enjoy them.

We are thankful for each other, for our family, for the freedom to travel this great country, for health, for the warm weather in Southern Arizona. For everyone who reads this blog. For knowing Jesus Christ.

I am grateful I no longer have to do all the work of hosting a big holiday dinner, though I used to love that. Even before we became full-timers, I was happy to attend the feast at our son and daughter-in-law's home. Though we really miss them and our grandchildren, especially on holidays, we will enjoy sharing a meal with maybe 800 people here at Valle del Oro in Mesa. I only have to fix a green salad for 12.

However, on Friday I will roast a turkey breast and prepare dressing and mashed potatoes--for 2.

Have a great day.

It Looks Like Summer

2011-11-21T12:07:00.003-07:00

We have to look at a calendar to be sure it isn't still summer, rather than late November. Especially when we look at the beautiful rose garden outside the main building here at Valle del Oro.

We have never been here during an Arizona summer, so I don't know if these bushes bloom then. I do know they like the weather we are having now--high 60s, low to mid 70s--and every single plant is blooming. Some of them have been given in memory of former residents who have died. Those gifts are really appreciated by those of us here today.

I don't have anything more to say about the flowers. But especially for those of you who have snow, cold rain, or freezing temperatures, these pictures are to remind you of summer.

John describes them as "eye candy." Don't you agree? This is one reason we enjoy going south for the winter.

Bugs, Butterflies and Cactus

2011-11-18T13:07:00.007-07:00

But before I get into all of that, let me tell you about breakfast yesterday. John and I don't go out to eat very often and when we do, it is usually for lunch. But Thursday we decided we would act like most RVers and go out to breakfast. Where to go? We checked out the list of local restaurants that had been visited on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We chose Joe's Farm Grill.

My green eggs and ham is on the left; John's Big Breakfast is on the right. The pancakes weren't ready on that one yet.

We were less than impressed. The food wasn't very hot or very tasty. When we picked up the pancakes, the woman at the counter forgot to give us syrup. My flatbread had been burned on the grill. And we had to pay $1.99 for each coffee! We won't return there, but we won't give up on Guy Fieri.

The restaurant had both indoor and outdoor seating. Look at this impressive tree on the grounds.

But this sign was enough to discourage me from either climbing on the tree or sitting under it.

From breakfast, we drove to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. We have been there before, but we really enjoy it. This fall they have a display of Big Bugs, done by sculptor David Rogers out of wood. The 11 sculptures range in size from 300 to 1200 pounds and from seven feet to 25 feet long. The first one we saw was this Praying Mantis.

Spider and web.

Daddy longlegs.

Damsel fly.

Grasshopper.

Dragon fly.

Assassin bug.

The Butterfly Pavilion had a display on Monarch butterflies.

Compare the color of the back side of the butterfly's wings to the front, shown above. Part of each wing is white.

It looked like the butterflies wanted out. Most of them were resting on the screen walls of the enclosure. Who can blame them. The pavilion doesn't have any milkweed plants, the kind the butterflies like to eat and where they lay their eggs.

This little boy may be a budding scientist. He was looking at this butterfly through his magnifying glass.

Of course, the Desert gardens have to have cactus plants. Here are a few I enjoyed.

Doesn't this area look cool and inviting?

This is a traditional O'Odham desert kitchen display, built to show how humans have adapted to the desert for hundreds of years. It is open on top to allow the cooking heat to escape.

This sculpture of a cactus is part of the entrance garden. It was made by Dale Chihuly, who still designs gardens and other things out of glass. I really like it.

The Desert Botanical Garden is a great place to learn more about the Sonoran Desert and desert plants from around the world.

The Way It Used To Be

2011-11-14T12:14:00.004-07:00

Back in the early 20th century, John's dad and his parents lived on a homestead outside Roswell, NM. They were 50 miles from Roswell, so a trip to town on a buckboard took two days, one way. At night, they would camp and John's grandmother Nora would cook a hot meal. When people do that today, they often use charcoal or propane. Back then, it was wood fires and dutch ovens.

In light of this history, when we read about the Chandler, AZ, Chuck Wagon Cook Off, we knew we wanted to attend. What a great morning we had Saturday!

Eight teams took part in the competition. They bring their equipment in chuck wagons, sleep in bedrolls at the site, cook using dutch ovens and other cast iron and enamel cookware, and often wear period clothing. Each team was required to prepare food for 40 people, plus the judges. They were given the meat, dried peaches, and probably pinto beans and potatoes to prepare their meals. Each team prepared five dishes: meat, beans, potatoes, biscuits and dessert. This shows the competition area.

Here is one of the wagons. All their equipment had to be brought to the competition in the wagon.

They arrived Friday night and set up camp. They dug a fire pit and several decorated the pile of dirt they dug out.

Here you can see the various kinds of pots and pans that were used.

Note at the top left corner of the fire pit, there is a covered tank. That is used to heat water.

That water was so hot, the dishwater was steaming. In deference to health department regulations, one rinse basin contains bleach.

Look at how this coffee pot can be tipped to pour coffee without getting you hand burned.

Each wagon put out a menu. Those of us attending could choose which wagon we wanted to buy a meal from. The newspaper story about the event said the meal tickets would be sold out by 11:30. Lunch was served at noon. In reality, the tickets were all sold out by about 10:15. Next year we will either have to arrive right at 9 am to get our tickets or they will have to attract more teams to the competition.

These are some members of the Manflo Ranch team. They prepared the plate I purchased.

This is the chili beef simmering at the Cowgirls Forever site.

And this is Barbara of Cowgirls Forever with her "spice rack" of glass canning jars.

I'm not sure what is being stirred here--cream gravy, potatoes, or what. Note the long-handled wooden spoon or paddle. The shovel to the right is used to pick up wood coals to place on top of dutch ovens. It allows the ashes to drop off in transit.

The chuck wagons used on cattle drives didn't have fresh fruit, but they could carry dried fruit. For this event, everyone had dried peaches. Here they are being reconstituted and cooked.

Barbara is putting a lattice top on her peach cobbler.

At judging time, each course is placed in a separate container, then taken to the judges. Look at those biscuits.

It must be important that mashed potatoes be smooth. Notice how he is putting the potatoes through a sieve.

A box of beans.

And it off to the judging tent.

Then it was time for us to eat. At the bottom is my plate from Manflo Ranch. At the top is John's plate from Brown Dirt Cowboys. We didn't know anything about them and they didn't look very professional. We bought one of their tickets, because that was the only team not sold out. Their food was great and later we learned that they were winners of the 2010 Arizona National Chuck Wagon Cook Off.

There were other things to look at while waiting for lunch. We saw demonstrations of weaving and the wool from various kinds of sheep, candle dipping, blacksmithing, wheelwrights, and rawhide rope braiding, as well as these old fire arms.

There also were several bands that played throughout the day. This is Pioneer Pepper & the Sunset Pioneers.

Here is a slide show of other sights at the chuck wagon cook off.

Massive Steam Train

2011-11-13T13:57:00.004-07:00

That should get the attention of at least three blog readers: Sam, Barbara and Bob. Any others?

Yesterday we photographed Union Pacific Engine 844, which is traveling across southern Arizona in honor of Arizona's centennial in 2012. The engine is really massive--the last steam engine built for UP.

A high speed passenger engine, it was delivered to the railroad in 1944 and pulled such famous passengers trains as The Overland Limited and The Portland Rose. Since it was taken out of service in 1960, it has logged thousands of miles as UP's ambassador. John and I have ridden behind it on several fan trips between Denver and Julesburg, CO, and Denver and Cheyenne, WY. For more information on the engine, click here.

On October 29, 844 left its home in Cheyenne to visit both New Mexico and Arizona in honor of their centennial celebrations. It has made stops in Colorado Springs; Dalhart, Texas; Alamogordo, NM; El Paso, Texas; Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma. Saturday morning it left Tucson and we caught it twice, on its way to Gilbert, where the engine was serviced and took on water, and as it crossed Baseline Road on its way from Gilbert to Tempe.

In Gilbert, there were quite a few people, meaning they appeared in each photo we took.

Even a limo driver stopped to take a picture.

There weren't as many people around at the second location. Here she comes across Baseline.

Two of the cars in the consist are named for interesting people, Howard Fogg, a famed railroad artist, and Lynn Nystrom, a well-known railroad crewman, often working as the fireman.

Here is a short video of the train crossing Baseline Road, for those who want sound and motion, as well as sight.

Something Silly

2011-11-11T14:16:00.003-07:00

Today we took a short hike on Silly Mountain, a park in nearby Apache Junction. It really is a silly little mountain, compared to many others around.

Such as nearby Superstition Mountain (I think).

The trails on the mountain aren't just a stroll through the park. It is hiking, but not to remote areas, and the scenery isn't spectacular. The trails are easy to slightly-moderate, rocky trails. We did about 2 1/2 miles. We saw a number of dying Saguaro.

Rocky hillsides.

Surrounding homes and a golf course.

It appeared the local fire department was practicing with their aerial ladder and water hose.

We drive by Silly Mountain fairly often and have talked to others about hiking there. Looking at the parking lot, we know the area is popular. Today we saw a good number of people on the trails. We are glad we checked out the mountain, but we probably won't hike there again.

Welcome Back to Paradise

2011-11-10T14:03:00.007-07:00

That was the theme of the free party given yesterday at Valle del Oro for all of the returning snowbirds. They came in cars

and on bikes

and in neat golf carts.

The theme seemed to be the south sea islands.

Or maybe Florida? I thought we were in Arizona.

The music was provided by the Southwest Surfers.

Wherever we are, there are lots of senior citizens out to have fun. Every Saturday night here, there is a dance. Since Nov. 1, all the crafts and other activities have been in full gear. All three men at our table have been doing woodwork; Jane took a stained glass class yesterday, and I have been trying my hand at beading, as well as pottery. Isabel knits and Barbara is still deciding what to learn this year. Even if it wasn't Saturday night, the music was so good some people decided to line dance.

The park is much fuller than last year at this time, maybe more so than when we left after Christmas. Look at all the people who are seated outside. And even more were inside the ballroom. The folks at the front of the photo are Barbara, Vern and Jane, three of the people who are parked just down the road from us.

Here is the rest of our table, John, Joe and Isabel.

What better way to end an evening in paradise than watching a nearly full moon rise over the Superstition Mountains a a palm tree?

Salsa and Wind

2011-11-06T12:57:00.005-07:00

Yesterday we visited the Chandler Salsa Festival in Tumbleweed Park. The idea was to sample all the salsas displayed and vote for our favorites. Although it was a chilly morning (for southern Arizona), the booths were set up.

At each booth, we would pick up a small plastic container of salsa.

When we paid our entrance fee, we each received the requisite wrist band, plus a bag of tortilla chips. Those were used to taste the salsa.

We saw a number of these chip-and-dip bowls.

Some entrants had obviously won other competitions.

Here I am, trying to fill out my ballot, not drop my bag of chips, and keep my camera both ready to use and clean of spilled salsa.

Salsa was entered in one of three categories, hot, mild, and unusual. We could vote for entrants in each category and for best overall. John chose the grape salsa from this booth as best unusual.

I thought the strawberry and jalapeno salsa from this booth was the best unusual. John selected their mild salsa as the most outstanding.

We agreed that these women had the best mild salsa.

John thought these folks offered the best hot salsa, whereas I try to avoid hot salsa.

The Chandler Police Department was there. I wonder if they really use this fancy cruiser?

Food trucks are all the rage these days. Have you watched Food Truck Wars on the Food Channel? This T-licious truck was selling food at the festival.

I mentioned that it was relatively cool yesterday. Friday, a cold front came in with lots of dust and wind. There must have been small microbursts of wind here in Valle del Oro. The dead leaf bases on several palm trees (certainly not all of them) were torn off overnight. Look at this pile of debris from one tree.

It doesn't rain much here, so there are no storm sewers. Instead, there are several areas in the park designed to contain run-off. It rained 1/2 inch or more during the night. This is one of the new-found ponds we saw.

A Very Big Oops!

2011-11-03T15:34:00.003-06:00

At least it didn't happen to our rig. Earlier in the week, we noticed that the owners of another 5th wheel trailer on our street had emptied out the contents of their basement. We thought maybe they were cleaning house or reorganizing. The following day, everything was still out and we saw a fan that we know is used to dry out water damage. Oh oh.

When we talked to them, we learned that the woman in the motorhome next door had heard water running. She checked her own RV and couldn't find anything. Then she noticed water dripping off the roof the the 5th wheel--and it hasn't rained here. She then went to the woodshop and pool to find the owners.

What happened? While the water in the park was turned off to fix a leak somewhere, workers also came and replaced the water faucets for that site. They then reattached the hoses and turned the water on--for the wrong hose. One hose was the fresh water supply, the other went to the sewer system flush system. That is the one they turned on. So, when the water in the park was turned back on, it started flushing their black tank, which was closed. When it filled up, water came up through the toilet into their bedroom and shot up the black tank vent pipe, putting the water on their roof. That is what caused the dripping water.

Since the trailer was slanting just slightly toward the front, the only floor damage was to the bedroom. Some sewer water did get into the furnace ducts. What a mess! The park is taking care of all the damage, having new carpet and vinyl installed in the bedroom, etc.

The lesson? Only hook up the water to flush the black tankt when you want to do just that. Don't leave it hooked up. Needless to say, I'm not posting any pictures.

Hiking in the Wilderness

2011-11-03T09:51:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, we went hiking in the Superstition Wilderness, just a few miles east of Mesa.

We took the Hieroglyphic Trail, a short, easy hike to see some ancient petroglyphs.

They were made by the Hohokam inhabitants of the area, probably between AD 700 and AD 1100. There is debate whether they depict hunting scenes or were used by shamans to depict the origins of life. Unfortunately, there are also recent graffiti and early Christian petroglyphs of crosses in among the ancient drawings.

In addition to the rock art, we saw some birds and animals:

A Cactus Wren

A Warbling Vireo (I think)

A Curved Bill Thrasher

A very small chipmunk, maybe a Lease Chipmunk

This Saguaro looks like someone wearing a knight in armor costume for Halloween. Is he waving at us?

A dead Saguaro had fallen over. Note the hollow base, the fresh green arm and the liquid that has drained out of the base.

It was a very popular day for hiking. When we passed Silly Mountain, a hiking spot between Valle del Oro and where we hiked, there were 14 cars parked. When we arrived at the trail head for the Hieroglyphic Trail, we were the 14th car in the lot. When we returned to the trail head, there were still 14 cars. Since a number of people came down the trail after we did, we know more than 14 car loads had been there. If you click on the photo below, you will see at least 10 people in the area where we found the petroglyphs.

More Connections and Hobbies

2011-11-01T12:49:00.003-06:00

Saturday we connected with someone we hadn't seen in probably 36 years, Bryan Ruth. Bryan is a family friend who was working at the Castle Rock funeral home when we bought it in late 1975. He got in touch with John by email after the class reunion in August. Since he lives in Scottsdale, we met him and his wife, Susan, at Famous Dave's BBQ this weekend.

It was amazing to learn how many things in his life were similar to John's. We really had a great time getting re-acquainted.

Unlike the times we volunteer or travel, the time we spend parked for three months here in Mesa allows us to concentrate on our hobbies. Over the past week, I sewed a skirt for myself. I have never carried a skirt in the RV, but since this is all we own now, I thought it might be a good idea if I had at least one. And I enjoyed refreshing my skills in sewing.

I learned to sew in junior high home economics and sewing was one of my 4-H projects for five or six years. I used to be fairly accomplished and made many of my own clothes, as well as things for our boys and two or three sleeping bags. But the last time I used my sewing machine to do more than hem or mend was in December 2008 when Kylie wanted to learn how to sew. This fall she is taking sewing as part of middle school home ec.

John has been doing a lot of wood carving since we got settled in Mesa. He had also carved while we were at Lathrop.

There are lots of opportunity to learn new hobbies and skills here at Valle del Oro. Today I spent time in the pottery studio, something I learned a little last year. Many of the people here work in stained glass in a way we hadn't seen before. They cut the colored glass in patterns then, instead of putting it together in a window with lead or copper foil, they put it in a concrete form. The resulting disks are used to decorate their yards. Some people choose Southwestern themes.

Some choose a design that reminds them of home.

Others use an animal motif.

Whatever they choose, the results are very attractive and durable.

Exercise is one of our hobbies. John runs 3 miles 3 times a week and we weight train 3 days a week. Monday I was able to run about three miles. I am almost afraid to write about it, because every time I have blogged about my progress since my surgery, I have had to eat the words in a day or two. Maybe this time, I really am on the mend.

Great Service

2011-10-27T20:03:00.004-06:00

This afternoon, John replaced the regulator on the curb-side propane tank of our RV. For months, we have smelled propane whenever the tank was turned on. We tried spraying the tank and its connections with a soap solution, but never saw any bubbles. We switched the tanks, but no matter which tank we put there, we still smelled gas. Since we weren't anywhere we could get the problem diagnosed, we just turned that tank off and only used the street-side tank--meaning we made more frequent trips to the propane dealer.

This week, we stopped at RV Traders, a Montana dealer in Mesa that has a great parts and supply department. Daniel, the store manager, has helped us before and is very knowledgeable. He showed us a replacement regulator that is for higher pressure control, but suggested first we get the local propane service to test the system. Since that company was making deliveries in our park yesterday, we arranged for them to fill our tank and told the driver we were going to have their service department come and check out our problem. He used a soap solution and showed us where the problem was--the regulator that Daniel had suggested we get replaced.

So today, we returned to RV Traders and picked up the regulator. Every time we have needed help with parts or supplies here in Arizona, we have gone there and really appreciate the great service--and great prices--in the parts store. We highly recommend them and appreciate Daniel's expertise.

Reconnecting

2011-10-26T13:35:00.003-06:00

We are from Colorado, but it seems we need to come to Arizona to reconnect with Colorado connections. During John's 50th high school reunion in August, we talked to Dennis and Linda about the time we spend in Mesa in the winter. They were interested and knew they had a meeting to attend in Scottsdale this month, so we gave them our phone number. Last Friday they came to see Valle del Oro, where we are staying, and talk about the snowbird lifestyle. These are people we hadn't seen for 30 years before the reunion, but Friday we talked non-stop for over three hours. It was a great visit and we urged them to plan on spending part of their winter in the Valley of the Sun.

Then, this week, we rode the Phoenix light rail to Tempe to have lunch with Bob Kley, the priest John assisted at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Coolidge last winter. He was ordained to the priesthood in Colorado, as was John. First we had to buy our tickets for the train. The machine worked much the same as those at Denver's light rail stations.

The Phoenix system is fairly new and the trains are sleek and shiny.

Each station has art by local artists. This is the sculpture at the station where we boarded the train.

Maybe this sign will help you understand what the work is all about. Click to enlarge so you can read it.

We passed this art work as we rode along. I didn't get off to read about it. I am reminded of a ball of yarn.

We met Bob at the 3rd and Mill station in Tempe, near the Arizona State University campus. We had lunch at the Zuma Grill in the nearby shopping area that was full of small shops and numerous restaurants.

After lunch, we walked to the nearby Tempe Town Lake. They have damned up a section of the Salt River to provide recreation for local residents. We had read about it, but never seen it. It is really quite impressive.

We plan to drive back to the lake some day soon and ride our bikes on the 5 mile path around the lake.

I can't tell you how glad we are to be in Mesa. When I turned on my computer to do this blog, the weather gadget on my desktop said it is 28 degrees and snowing in Denver. The 78 degrees here is soooo much better!

What a Road!

2011-10-20T14:23:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, I said he should have turned around when we saw this sign. Why? It's not because it is not paved, not because it has steep hills up and down, not because there are lots of curves. Though, all of those things are true.

If you look at this picture, you can see the pot holes, the washboard surface.

Lots of passenger cars passed us at a much higher speed than we drove. It took us an hour and a half to drive those 22 miles because our 4 x 4 heavy duty truck has tight suspension and fully inflated tires. The first few miles of the dirt road were good. Then, we passed a road grading crew, pulled off to the side to eat lunch. From there on, the road became rough. John had to hold on to the key chain attached to the ignition key to keep it quiet.

Hoping we had about reached the end of the road, we were dismayed when we saw this sign.

We did enjoy the scenery, however. There were lots of saguaros.

The surrounding mountains and rock formations are great.

We enjoyed driving along Apache Lake.

Why on earth would someone pitch their tent right next to the road?

Were we ever glad when we reached Roosevelt Dam. We knew that Roosevelt Lake, on the other side, was at the end of Hwy 88.

This bridge is on the other side of Roosevelt Lake (or crosses it).

From Roosevelt Lake, we drove toward the town of Globe and US Hwy 60, then on 60 to our RV park. We had great views there, as well.

I guess I need to do a little more research when we plan a trip on a scenic highway. We had no idea what we were getting into. After last spring, you would think we would have learned our lesson.

History

2011-10-19T14:24:00.005-06:00

It is hot here in Mesa. Really hot. Like upper 90s every day for the past week. Not conducive to outdoor activities. So yesterday we decided to drive up the Apache Trail, Arizona Hwy 88, to check out Goldfield and Tortilla Flats.

Goldfield is a ghost town today. It was established in 1893 by miners exploring for gold in the nearby hills.

There are a number of neat old buildings still open to the public.

Worship services are still conducted in this church on Sundays.

I'm glad they don't have to depend on this water tank to supply the town.

I didn't know they had cell phones in the 1890s.

What kind of butts?

We liked this wrought iron sign

And this old wagon wheel.

We saw several rusty old vehicles.

Then we drove on northwest toward Tortilla Flats. That was an old rest stop on the old Apache Trail. We had read about the community and the restaurant there in several blogs, so we thought we would check it out.

The scenery along the way was great.

Canyon Lake was formed when its dam was completed in 1925. The lake provides water storage and hydro-electric power.

When we saw the months the Tortilla Campground was closed, it confirmed we were in Arizona, not Colorado.

The wallpaper in the Tortilla Flats restaurant is unique--money.

Outside, we found two wooden Indians. Do you suppose they are Apache?

Shortly after leaving Tortilla Flats, we came on this sign. We should have turned around. Tune in tomorrow to find out why.

Reading the Newspaper

2011-10-16T14:45:00.005-06:00

Growing up in Denver, I remember my parents subscribing to the Denver Post. It was an evening paper and every night after dinner, my mom and dad would sit at the table and read the paper. Sometimes they would talk about what they were reading.

My own interest in newspapers began in 9th grade when my English teacher, Miss Mapelli, had me help produce the Byers Juniior High student newspaper. In high school, I was on the staff of the South High School newspaper. I went on to the University of Colorado, where I majored in journalism and was on the staff of the Colorado Daily.

I worked for a couple of newspapers and in the CU News Service during and after college. But I really don't remember much about reading the daily papers until after our two sons grew up. John and I subscribed to both the Post and the Rocky Mountain News. By then, the Post had become a morning paper, so John read the News and I read the Post. I enjoyed reading the paper in the morning while I ate my breakfast before I went to work.

Our gypsy lifestyle doesn't lend itself to subscribing to a local newspaper most of the time. Even though we were in Colorado all summer, the Post is no longer circulated throughout the state, except by mail. So we didn't see it. Add to that the fact that many newspapers are going out of print. The Rocky Mountain News is one of those. However, it is possible to get home delivery of the Arizona Republic while we are here at Valle del Oro. I subscribed for Sunday and Wednesday delivery and today we received our first copy.

For over an hour before we got ready for church, we both happily sat and read the paper. What a treat! Reading the news on my computer just isn't the same. No way could I sit for an hour or more, savoring stories that begin on page 1, continue on page 12 and 13. So we will enjoy this while we can.

Sorry, no pictures today. I have been too busy reading.

Inside Updates

2011-10-15T14:01:00.003-06:00

In the past couple of weeks, we have made some changes/improvements inside our RV home. When we visited the new IKEA store in Denver, we saw some comforters that were light weight. We had a striped comforter that worked for us when it was cold, but as the weather warmed up it was in the way. We might need it by early morning, but earlier in the night it was a huge lump in the middle of the bed. So we replaced it with a 365-day set of two comforters from IKEA. They are plain white.

We have the light-weight one on now. We can scrunch it into the middle of the bed early on, then cover up when the temps get down in the 60s. When we were in New Mexico and the nighttime temps got down into the low 40s or 30s, the heavier one was great. The photo shows the lighter one on the bed and the heavier one rolled up in the carrying case. Both fit in there at the same time if you work at it. They will snap together so you can use them both at once. We probably won't need that unless we run out of propane some night next year on our trip to Alaska.

We didn't think the plain white was very attractive, and it would probably get dirty pretty quick with all we put on the bed at times. So we went looking for a king-size sheet to use as a bed spread. I don't know what people do who keep the fancy spreads that come in RVs. Where do they put them at night? But a sheet is light enough to leave in place or small enough to fold up in a corner of the bedroom. Pretty fancy for an $18 set from Ross, don't you think?

We must be awfully hard on chairs. After all, the recliners are the only place we have to sit in the RV, except for the folding chairs at the table. We got rid of the couch. We put this trailer in storage about one month after we bought it. Before leaving the following January, we bought some recliners from American Furniture Warehouse. The only photo I can find is this one--note the footstool is upside down in the chair and both cats are on it. Most of the time, because of the affection our elderly cats had for the chairs, they were covered with a sheet or with plastic.

We used those chairs until November 2009, when we bought some really nice Lane Furniture recliners.

These chairs were comfortable, luxurious, and largely cat-proof. But by this summer, we realized that the constant use quickly wore down the stuffing in the seats and our backs were hurting. So much for expensive chairs.

This week we bought two more recliners, these from Copenhagen Imports in Tempe. They are less expensive, so if they only last a couple of years, we won't feel as bad. And they take up a lot less room and weigh less.

Desert Hiking

2011-10-12T15:21:00.004-06:00

Tuesday we went on our first desert hike of the season. We hiked about 4.5 to 5 miles at Usery Mountain Regional Park. It was good to again see plants we enjoy so much, including ocotillo

cholla

prickly pear cactus (a smaller variety of the cactus grows many places, but these large plants here are more impressive)

and the green barked Palo Verde.

But the biggest thrill was seeing these Harris's Hawks sitting on an ocotillo

and a saguaro

This single hawk was guarding his breakfast, a young rabbit he had recently killed.

The other three were just watching. We were amazed when we passed this same spot nearly an hour and a half later and found the hawks still there. They obviously weren't too worried about humans. When we got back to the RV, I learned Harris's hawks often hunt in small groups. I wonder if they share the kill, as well. It was really special to get such a good look at them.

Saving Money

2011-10-10T20:26:00.002-06:00

Many RVers try to find ways to save money on their expenses on the road. Most of us don't want to spend more money than we have to, to live this life.

Some people boondock on BLM or National Forest lands or at Wal-Mart. Others belong to the Elks or Moose lodges to find inexpensive camping. Others try membership camping or use Passport America whenever possible. Some do it just to live less expensively. Others do it so they have more to spend on eating out or on entertainment.

We use Passport America occasionally, especially for one-night stays. We have stayed in National Forest campgrounds, though never on BLM land or at Wal-Mart. We rarely eat out, not to save money but because I like to cook and John enjoys my cooking.

But for 2011, we will spend only $8.46 per day for campgrounds--a total of $3086.68. We do that by work-camping, or rather volunteering. January through March we volunteered at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge, AZ, in return for free camping. From mid-May through Labor Day weekend, we volunteered at Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, CO, in return for free camping. We also are spending three months at Valle del Oro Resort in Mesa, AZ. Here, we take advantage of a "sale" they offer each year for October through December. The space rental for that period is $910.66, including tax. Utilities are extra. But that space rental works out to $10.12 per day. Not bad for a resort with activities galore, swimming, tennis, softball, shuffleboard and many other facilities.

Not everyone wants to work, like we do, in return for their space rental. But so far, we have found this a good way to cover part of our costs on the road. In addition, it provides many opportunities--to really get to know the community where we are living, learn new skills and new information, stretch our minds and our bodies. We have volunteered in state parks in Texas, Utah and Colorado; Bryce Canyon, Hot Springs and Casa Grande Ruins in the National Park system; and Oregon Fish and Wildlife. We also worked at one commercial RV park, but didn't like that as well. And in January, we will volunteer at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.

I have focused on saving money by volunteering, but really, we love the work we do in these assignments as much or more than the money we save. For us, it is a great way to live in our retirement--for part of the year. We enjoy traveling and being tourists, as well.

Frost and Snow and Saguaros

2011-10-07T20:05:00.003-06:00

As we were getting ready to leave Gallup, NM, this morning, we discovered frost on the picnic table and truck windshield. If that wasn't enough, as we drove southwest through the Arizona mountains, it snowed!

Yesterday they had several inches at the Snow Bowl, a ski area outside of Flagstaff. This wasn't like this, but there were snowflakes coming down for several miles. We hope that is the last snow we see for another year or so.

In one area, we drove through an elk crossing test area. We wondered what that was until we came to this sign. Apparently, the elk are funneled to this spot, where a light flashes when they are near the road, warning drivers to watch from them. We have never seen anything like it before and wonder if it will be effective.

The scenery coming down Arizona highways 377 and 277 and US 260 and the Beeline Highway is really great. Today the clouds were beautiful.

as well as the mountains.

The pinnacle in the center of this view is Weaver's Needle, something we have hiked to several times.

And we saw our first saguaro cactus! That is always the best sign we have arrived in southern Arizona and the Valley of the Sun, where we will spend the next three months.

Gallup

2011-10-06T19:09:00.003-06:00

We must be in a rut. In 2010, we spent the nights of October 5 and 6 in Gallup, NM. We had only intended to spend one night, but there were high winds on the 6th, so we spent another night. Click here to read about our 2010 travel through New Mexico to Arizona. Fast forward to 2011. We arrived in Gallup on the 5th for one night. Today was windy with rain most of the day. And would you believe 38 degrees about noon? So we are spending another night. Once again, we will arrive in Mesa, AZ, on October 7.

We were waiting till it cooled down in Mesa. Today it did, tomorrow it is supposed to be in the low 70s. But by the end of next week, it will be back in the upper 90s. Hopefully, fall weather isn't far away there.

Scenes Across New Mexico

2011-10-05T14:36:00.005-06:00

New Mexico is a beautiful state, which is good since we cross it going between Colorado and Arizona. Let me share some of what we saw in the past few days.

There were lots of issues with bears at Lathrop State Park, where we spent the summer. Maybe the park should have this sign out front.

There was a large forest fire on Raton Pass during the summer. We saw the evidence of that as we drove into New Mexico.

We saw numerous herds of Pronghorn (antelope).

We always enjoy seeing this ranch and barn as we drive I-25.

Isn't this flock of birds amazing?

We enjoy watching the changing landscape and the interesting geology in New Mexico.

On the negative side, there does not seem to be any limits on billboards along the interstate. The Flying C Ranch on I-40, was exceptionally obnoxious. Click on this collage to see some of their signs. In the upper left corner you can see a whole row of them.

When we reached the Flying C, it didn't look like all that advertising did much good.

The Flying C wasn't responsible for all the signs. Clines Corners, numerous casinos and other businesses also had large signs. Lady Bird Johnson, where are you?

The New Mexico skies were filled with impressive clouds.

Sometimes, we encountered rain, as well.

Just one of many very attractive overpasses along the Interstate.

I've never seen a car this old on a auto transport truck.

The small town of Laguna along I-40.

Roadside flowers--in October!

It's History!

2011-10-01T12:54:00.010-06:00

Are we ever glad that September 2011 is history! We did almost nothing but work last month. The first week included the Labor Day Weekend, our last as volunteers at Lathrop State Park and a busy one.

We came to Denver (really Aurora and Littleton) for medical and dental appointments. The first couple of weeks included lab tests, a follow-up visit to my knee surgeon, a colonoscopy for John, physical exams for both of us, dentist appointments for both of us, a return to the doctor so John could have some spots burned off his ears and hand, a visit to a dermatologist to verify he had no skin problems.

Then there was all the time we spent on our "stuff." Last week, we loaded up the items we wanted to keep in our U-Haul storage unit. There really wasn't too much.

However, to get it in, we had to rent a slightly larger storage unit, moving from a 5 ft by 5 ft unit to one 5 ft by 10 ft. This is the smaller unit, after we got everything out.

We moved everything into the hall outside the new unit.

Then we stopped for a bit of lunch.

Here is one end of the storage unit, full of stuff.

The the other half, also full.

Then we had the big load to deal with.

We loaded it into the rental truck. We did it so fast, we think maybe we should hire out as movers.

I swept out the space we rented to do our sorting.

And we drove out with our "stuff," headed for the auction house and our son, Eric's home.

John backed the truck up to the auction house.

With help of one of the staff there, everything was quickly unloaded.

We then made a quick trip to Goodwill with the items the auction house didn't want, then we returned the rental truck. We were done! And exhausted! When we left there, we felt free. Everything we own is in our truck, our RV home and the 5 X 10 storage unit. And the only furniture we own is the two recliners in our 5th wheel.

We did take a couple of hours out last weekend to walk across the road at Chatfield State Park to have dinner with some friends from St. Gabriel's.

Cursillo is a weekend Christian renewal retreat that is conducted in many denominations. John and I made our Cursillo in the mid-1970s and have encouraged others to go ever since then. The three-day retreat is then lived out in the 4th Day, the rest or our lives. At St. Gabriel's, a group of women has been holding a weekly 4th Day Reunion for prayer and mutual support since the mid-1990s. I was a part of the group while John was rector of the church.

The Friday cookout last weekend was a potluck for the women of that group. Four husbands, who have also made their Cursillo, were also invited.

As you can see, we ate well and had a good time.

Life Changes

2011-09-28T19:43:00.001-06:00

There was a time in my life when I entertained a lot. I enjoyed having lots of people come to my home for dinner or other gatherings. I had friends and family who knew my kitchen well enough to locate the right serving spoon or plate and serving piece. I could host 17 for Thanksgiving dinner without batting an eye. And if the plumbing backed up (as it did often in one house) I wasn’t fazed. I loved cooking, coordinating meals for a number of people. I could prepare a meal and everything was ready to serve at the same time.

I had dishes to serve 20 on good plates, stemware in crystal and glass to feed more than that. And I loved having these things and entertaining large family gatherings, church get-togethers, formal dinners.

Nearly three years ago, when we decided to become full-time RVers, I put all those dishes and stemware in storage. And this week we sold or gave away all of that. Now I have four plastic wine glasses and four good plastic dinner plates. If I want to feed more than that, I use paper plates and disposable glasses. And I like that. I am at the stage of life that I am out of practice preparing large meals, coordinating all the various parts of dinner, cooking large quantities. It is probably a function of both age and our lifestyle today. But this is the life I live today and I am very comfortable in it.

During junior high or high school I memorized the following passage from Shakespeare. I think it is important to move from one stage of life to the next without regrets. We should not try to be who we are not.

William Shakespeare - All the world's a stage (from As You Like It )

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Dealing With Our Estate

2011-09-26T18:44:00.008-06:00

This isn't something new for full-time RVers, but we decided a few months ago that we would really pare down what we had in storage in Denver. We have now been on the road full-time for nearly three years and we know for sure we don't need or want most of what we stored. Last year we got rid of most of the furniture. This year, it was the really hard decisions.

During the last decade or so, we have had to deal with the property my mother and John's father owned. That is so difficult for surviving children. We feel we are doing our children a favor by doing this now. But it is a lot of work.

We had three vaults of belongings in storage. Where do we take it to sort through it? Our site at a state park wouldn't work. There wasn't room in our son Eric's garage. An internet search turned up Le Mouton Business Park in north Denver. They had storage units measuring 16 x 30, plenty of room to sort our stuff. We went to check it out. It is located in an industrial area just west of the National Western Stock Show cattle pens and coliseum.

There is plenty of space for the delivery truck to pull up.

And we could get our truck right up the the door of the unit, even though it was inside.

So we rented the space for a month and had our stuff delivered.

What do we think we will want several years from now, when we decide to come off the road full-time? And even more difficult, what do we have that is important enough to keep for the long term--family photos, ancestral mementos, files and paperwork and memories from our own life? Will we even need or want it? Is it important enough to keep or take somewhere for permanent storage? Are we attached enough we just can't give it up?

We have both bought probably thousands of books over the years. How do we get rid of them? This is just one truckload of books we distributed in the last week. I don't know if it was a donation to the local library or a gift to the church where John used to be the rector. Three years ago, we gave away maybe 30 boxes of books.

I forgot to take pictures the first morning. But here is what it looked like by afternoon. By then, we had sorted it and begun making the tough decisions.

There was furniture (we won't keep any of it, but did give a few things to our son and his family), lots of boxed stained glass windows that John made and large framed art, and many, many boxes.

We even brought some boxes back to the trailer to sort through.

Of course, there was a lot of trash.

On Saturday, we drove a few blocks to have lunch at a neighborhood diner. Since we were in an industrial area, we didn't expect many customers, but they were at least half full at noon.

Sunday, Eric and Liz came to pick up some of the things they wanted--like our everyday dishes, the food mixer, a mattress pad and comforter that go with the bedroom set we gave them last year, and some furniture. We had some fun while they were there.

And we had a nice empty corner when they drove off.

This is a pile of stuff that goes to our storage unit at U-Haul. It grew bigger as the day went on.

Time with Family and Friends

2011-09-19T18:25:00.006-06:00

The last week or two we have had some great time with family and friends. Saturday we spent the day with Eric and his family. In the morning, we attended Kylie's lacrosse game. This is her first season to play this sport and our first time to watch a game.

As we were leaving Chatfield State Park (where we are parked for two weeks), we saw this hot air balloon launching. For my 60th birthday, John arranged a balloon ride out of Chatfield. It was a lot of fun. Every weekend, unless it is stormy, you see the balloonists here.

We could even see the people in the basket.

The team members that weren't on the field had a good time together on the sidelines. Kylie is facing the camera, sitting right in front of the center of the umbrella.

Kylie played in two games Saturday. During the first game, her position meant she moved the ball up and down the field. In the game we watched, her position was in a line in front of the goal. Every team member wore a protective eye protector that is like a kind to wire cage.

Kylie says the lacrosse ball is really hard rubber. Look at the what the goalie wears.

Now you know everything we know about the game of lacrosse.

Saturday evening we took some steaks to Eric and Liz's house. Would you look at what Eric and John cooked for four adults and three children! For those of you in the Denver area, they came from Tony's Market.

Kylie and her friend, Caitlin, Liz and John are working on the rest of the meal.

Last week friends Dick and Nina were parked near us in Cherry Creek State Park. Nina recently had rotator cuff surgery. It was good to have time for a good visit.

One evening we got together with them for dinner. Doesn't the meal look good? And more reasonable that the steaks we ate Saturday?

Today John and I drove to Cinzetti's Restaurant on the north side of Denver to meet our friend Verlene, who lives in Greeley. We really enjoyed our time together. We only see each other every year or two, so it was a real treat.

A Summer of Reunions

2011-09-13T13:34:00.004-06:00

Sunday we had another reunion with old friends. When John was ordained in 1987, we moved to Granby, Colorado, where he served two small congregations: Trinity in Kremmling and St. John's in Granby. Al and Betty, the couple that were serving as wardens of St. John's when John was called there, are moving to Idaho to be closer to family. They have been mainstays of the congregation for 25 years and they will be missed. The congregation held a reception for them after worship Sunday.

We left our campsite at 6 am, picked up our son Eric, who knew Al and Betty well, and drove over 11,307 ft. Berthoud Pass to Granby. You couldn't beat the scenery. I took these photos from the back seat of the truck, so the quality isn't great. But look at these mountains!

We saw a hot air balloon as we drove through the Fraser Valley.

And cattle grazing in a field.

John wasn't the only former priest who came to wish Al and Betty well and thank them for all their service to the church. Al and Betty are in the front; the widow of the priest who was there when Al and Betty came to Granby is in the center; and the other three priests and their wives (including us) are shown in the photo.

During the years we lived in Granby, a barbershop singing group, the Grand Chorale, formed. Since them, they have held their practices at St. John's. Al is a member of the group and they sang several songs during the reception.

Here is John with another Betty, the 90-year-old widow of an early priest at St. John's. We have kept in touch with her at Christmas since we moved away and it was good to see her again. She hasn't changed a bit in the 20 years since we left.

Diane was the warden at the time we left St. John's. We hadn't seen her in all those years, so it was good to catch up with each others' lives.

John married Joe and Monica 22 years ago and baptized their daughter a year later. Sunday Monica shared her memories of Al and Betty during the brunch. She also was the main organizer of the event. We enjoyed seeing and talking to all three of them. They are special to us.

We saw and connected with a lot of other old friends. It is amazing to see young people who are in college or already graduated that were young during our years there. We haven't grown older, have we? How could they?

About the time we moved down to the Denver area from Granby, the Department of Wildlife re-introduced moose into northern Colorado. We encountered a moose jam as we started back up Berthoud Pass on our way home. This cow was feeding next to the road. Her baby was further down the hill. I couldn't get any picture of it. But this was sure a thrill.

I guess when we are in our 60s and older, it is the time we look back and realize we don't want to loose the friendships we had in the past. And we have the time to reconnect, even if it is for just an hour or so. This has been our third reunion this summer. Last year we attended the 40th anniversary of the founding of St. Gabriel's, the church John served after leaving Granby. And eight years ago we attended a Boulder Police Department reunion. It is good to remember the past and see old friends, just like it is good to follow new dreams and find new challenges.

A First for Us

2011-09-12T13:09:00.004-06:00

Saturday was a first. We have watched our children and now grandchildren swim and play soccer and basketball. Saturday we watched our six-year-old grandson play football. From this viewpoint, the Patriots could be any size or age. The player second from the left is our grandson John.

The coaches rotate the players on and off the field. Here is John sitting on the bench. See the two green dots on the back of his helmet? They indicate that, because of his weight, he is not allowed to carry the ball or tackle a player carrying the ball. This is done to assure that players are fairly well matched by weight on plays during the game.

Looking at this photo, you get some perspective on the little fellows' age and size. This was just their second regular game ever. They play four 15-minute quarters. But the field is just 60 yards long, not 100.

John's position is line backer (I think, I'm not much of a footfall fan). He does know what he is to do in that position--stop the guy on the other team who he faces at the line of scrimmage.

Here is a very short video of these two faithfully doing what the coaches told them to do. They carry out their mission until the whistle blows, indicating that the play is over.

During the half time, the coaches talked to the players, both as a group and individually.

Then it is back to the playing field.

At the end of the game, all the family and friends watching the game form a tunnel and the players run between them, listening to the cheers and praise. Here are John and our granddaughter Kylie getting in place.

And the players running in.

When John finally removed his helmet at the end of the game, he looked liked it had been a good afternoon in his mind.

Hopefully, This Will Help

2011-09-09T19:29:00.002-06:00

Today I had a follow-up visit with the surgeon who operated on my knee. Three weeks ago, I thought I was doing so well. I reported here that I had been able to run a little bit. But those attempts led to swelling and discomfort. I tried again earlier this week and my knee was swollen and sore for more than two days. The doctor thinks it is because of the arthritis in the joint. The surgery didn't address that. So he gave me a cortisone shot. Best case, it will give me several months of comfort and the ability to get back to jogging. I sure hope so.

After that appointment we drove back to Denver and visited the new IKEA store on the south edge of the metro area--very near where our house (which we rent to others) is located. We first visited an IKEA store in Phoenix, but wanted to check this one out, too. It was mobbed. It hasn't been open very long, so I imagine that lots of people are coming for their first visit. But it looked like most of them came to buy! The aisles were crowded, mainly with young families. As we looked at the merchandise, we realized this would be a great place to choose furnishings for a first home.

They have display rooms set up for small homes of 500+, 300+ and 260 square feet. In years to come, if or when we move back into a house that doesn't have wheels, we can really see getting something 500 square feet or smaller. We live in 300+ now. Why would we need anything bigger?

Bears, Bears Everywhere

2011-09-05T18:49:00.004-06:00

This part of southern Colorado is overrun with bears, who are finding that humans' trash containers and back yards have more food that the drought-parched hillsides. This morning we heard on the police radio that there was a bear cub trapped in a trash dumpster at the high school in nearby LaVeta. Thankfully, it is a holiday, so school was not in session. We know they got the cub out of the dumpster, though we don't know how. I hope Mama Bear wasn't nearby.

Over the weekend, a mother bear and two cubs were wandering around the LaVeta cemetery. The local marshall determined that they weren't headed on into town. He was afraid that if he tried to get them to move away, they just might head for main street, so he left them alone. There are almost daily bear sightings in the LaVeta area.

Our campsite here in the state park is along a road that goes to the Department of Wildlife's facility. Some days we have seen three or four wildlife trucks going up and down the road with bear traps on the back end. We finally asked if they were releasing trapped bears nearby. No. When the move a trapped bear, they take it to a nearby wildlife area where they tag it, then spray it down with water. That keeps the bear cool as they transport it to another part of the state.

Today we saw a bear in the campground while we were cleaning fire pits. Fortunately, it was in one of those bear traps. We stopped by to take a picture. If you click on the photo, you may be able to see the bear's head behind the bars. It had already been tagged and watered down. In fact, it was sloshing in water inside that trap. But it was pretty calm--looking out through the bars and sticking its nose out another opening, but not growling.

Since the campground was full for the Labor Day weekend, we had an awful lot of ashes and wood to clean out of the fire pits. And a number of campers were gatherers--not hunter gatherers, but gatherers. That means they scoured the open areas in the park for firewood--which is not permitted. When they do that, often it needs splitting to burn properly. But since the gatherers don't come equipped to do that, they attempt to burn 12-foot long branches and stumps that are 12 inches in diameter. Happily, the park's maintenance crew helped John unload those huge pieces.

Tomorrow we will prepare our RV so we can drive to Denver on Wednesday. We will spend three and a half weeks at Cherry Creek and Chatfield state parks while we take care of medical and dental appointments, spend time with Eric, Liz, Kylie and John and with friends, and try to whittle down even more what we have in storage. It will be a busy time.

Final Days

2011-09-03T12:15:00.003-06:00

We are in our last week at Lathrop State Park. Throughout the summer, we have used the dump truck while cleaning fire pits and removing Russian Olive trees. On the days I have worked in the Camp Store (aka Snack Shack), I have driven one of the park's pickup trucks. Friday John was cleaning in the camp ground and I was doing some work in the store, so we had both trucks. When I stopped in the Yucca camp loop to see how John was doing, we took this photo of both trucks. We sure have had good transportation to do our work.

On Thursday, we took our first (and last) hike of the summer here. Our last hike was in May at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. You can read about that outing here. Then, just before Memorial Day, I twisted my knee, resulting in surgery in July. I am finally almost back to normal, so we hiked the Hogback Trail here in the park. It felt so good to be out doing that again.

When we leave, we will miss the beautiful sunrises we have had most days all summer.

Also, peaceful days when Martin Lake offers great reflections of the lakeside vegetation.

We had a short thunderstorm last evening. When the sun finally came out, we were treated to these two rainbows--God's assurance of his love for us.

This has been our third summer to volunteer at Lathrop and our 12th time to camp here. Obviously, it is a favorite destination and we know we will be back.

Winding Down

2011-08-30T10:42:00.004-06:00

We have been here at Lathrop State Park since late May and now we have only one more weekend to work. We will be leaving just after Labor Day. We will miss our great site. We have great views, privacy, quiet.

We will miss our cute cottontail rabbits.

And the hungry humming birds.

And certainly the deer in the yard.

We won't miss checking for mice every morning.

Or goat heads. They are the seeds of a nasty plant that grows around our trailer here. These wicked seeds look like pictures I have seen of kidney stones, but smaller. They stick on the bottom of our shoes, then we track them inside. If we forget to clean them up, we find them with our bare feet later. That is no fun.

We won't miss the constant threat of hungry bears. For the past few weeks, that has meant I am afraid to go outside after dark, even to get in our basement. I am putting smelly garbage from dinner into the freezer until we can take it to the trash the next morning. We love seeing bears when they aren't too hungry and they aren't too close to our home. We don't want to encounter them looking for food right here.

When we are parked in one spot for quite a while, there is always a lot of stuff to put away before we can drive down the road. We have started by putting away stained glass pieces we hang in the windows and John's carved figures that sit on the desk.

There are outdoor mats, the BBQ grill and stand, wheel covers and chairs to put away. And the basement to re-organize. We have three days off this week and next Tuesday to get this done, so it won't be that hard. But we are getting anxious to move on, to take a few months off from volunteering. It is time for a change of pace.

History in Ceramics

2011-08-26T19:54:00.003-06:00

This is our third summer volunteering at Lathrop State Park. We thought it was about time we drive to nearby Trinidad and check out the Ceramic Mural at Mount San Rafael Hospital. It was designed by Sister Augusta Zimmer, S.C., a native of nearby Lamar, CO, and for 33 years a member of the faculty of the College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, most of the time as chairperson of the art department. Although she often worked in glass for her mosaics, this one she designed in ceramics to better reflect the natural colors of the area.

Dedicated in 1980, it measures 28 ft by 12 ft and depicts of history of the Trinidad area. As you can see from this photo, the trip was well worth our time.

In this section, you can see a stage coach that brought travelers here on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, some of the early nuns who operated the hospital from 1889 to 1968, and the railroad that helped local coal mining grow.

This depicts the Bloom Mansion, first owned by Frank Bloom, who built the commercial aspect of coal mining to a thriving and growing business. That house is now operated as a museum by the Colorado Historical Society. John and I helped pack away the contents of the house as society volunteers several years ago. The building was in need of some serious repair at the time.

Not far from Trinidad is the Ludlow Monument, dedicated in 1918 in remembrance of the "Ludlow Massacre" in April 1914 when 10 men, women and children were slain by militia troops during bitter labor strife in the local coal mining industry. That monument is shown in this section of the mural.

It is often amazing the fine works of art and fascinating museums you find in small towns around the country. We are so glad we took time to check out this mural.

Eathquake

2011-08-23T19:19:00.004-06:00

Anyone who is in the eastern half of the country or watching TV during the past few hours knows that there was a 5.8 earthquake in Virginia that shook things up all along the coast. What many don't know is that Colorado had a 5.3 quake just before midnight Monday. It was centered near Trinidad, Colorado, which is 35 miles south of Lathrop State Park where we are.

We were sound asleep and didn't feel a thing. Apparently, there were some aftershocks. We heard on TV that Colorado had experienced 13 earthquakes in the past 24 hours. We are glad we are in Colorado and not on the East Coast.

Cat People

2011-08-22T13:42:00.003-06:00

We are cat people. Yes, we like cats. We love cats. We miss our two darling cats, who both died in the past year. But that isn't what I mean when I say we are cat people. Cats like routine; they don't like change; they like lots of quiet. So do we, especially routine.

And what is our routine? John wakes up early, turns on the coffee, surfs the internet, reads blogs. I wake up an hour or more later, veg out with my coffee. Then we read the Bible and pray. Next comes exercise--a walk or run one day, weight training the next. Then we go about the business of our day, whether that is volunteer work or travel or playing tourist. Most often, by 3 pm we are settled back at home. Soon it is cocktail time--either a glass of juice or a mixed drink. We watch the 4 pm Bret Baier program on Fox News--perhaps recording it on the DVR and watching it a little later. During that time I prepare dinner and we eat about 5 pm. In the evening I surf the internet, read blogs, then read a book. John watches some TV, then goes to be early.

Such a routine. How do we do it and lead our gypsy life-style? Our routine goes with us, wherever we park our home. Usually, only volunteer work that lasts till 4 or 5 pm or later interferes with this routine.

All of this explains why we were so exhausted Sunday when we returned home. Thursday evening we had company; Friday and Saturday we were busy with family and friends and we weren't at home. Our routine totally went out the window. Don't get me wrong. We really enjoyed all of these events. It is times like this that enrich our lives and provide experiences and memories that will last for years. However, on the whole it is routine that old f #*%& (old folks) like us prefer.

After all, we are cat people.

Another Reunion

2011-08-21T18:38:00.005-06:00

We were reminded again this weekend that it has been 50 years since we graduated from high school. In June, we attended my 50th reunion. I was one of 908 to graduate from South High in Denver in 1961. This weekend we attended John's reunion. He was one of 54 in the class of 1961 at Douglas County High School. Today the county is booming and there are nine high schools. In 1961 DCHS was the only one.

Friday evening we had a get-together at the Eagles lodge in Castle Rock. And Saturday we had a dinner at the beautiful new Douglas County Events Center on the fair grounds. We had both lived in Castle Rock for nearly nine years in the 1970s and 1980s, so there were some people I knew. And, of course, John knew all his classmates--at least after they reminded each other of their names. We didn't have name tags, so it took the little reminder sometimes. Here is the group we sat with at dinner.

The 26 members of the class that made it to the reunion posed for a group photo.

John was one of seven members of the class who had attended school together in Castle Rock for 12 years. They, too, had their picture taken.

We also had some good family time over the weekend. After the gathering on Friday night, we drove to Littleton and spent the night at our son Eric's house. That evening and Saturday we enjoyed seeing family. Our granddaughter Kylie, age 11, and now in middle school, explained this hair covering by saying she wore it as a fashion statement.

Grandson John, age six and in the first grade, is playing football this fall. His team is the Patriots.

Our daughter-in-law Liz's dad and his wife dropped by, so we all had lunch together on their patio. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

It was a great weekend and very busy. We returned to Lathrop exhausted, but glad we had been able to attend the reunion and see our family.

Another Visit With Friends

2011-08-19T13:03:00.005-06:00

Bob and Lindsay spent last night here at Lathrop State Park on their way to a weekend gathering in Westcliffe. They knew we were here and we knew they were coming, so we agreed to pool our food and share a grill. We laughed, talked, shared and ate for nearly six hours yesterday. Our conversation went on till the sun was gone and the mosquitoes were out in force, so we finally brought some lawn chairs inside the RV to continue our visit.

We have chosen to live on the road in our RV full-time. We don't focus on spending time with the new people we meet. We are really quite private and quiet people--introverts. After working careers that put us with people a whole lot, we enjoy this privacy. However, once in a while, it is so good to be with people we have known for a long time and who really know us. It is good to share memories and experiences with people who understand where we have been. And when they are RVers who understand our current life style, it is even better. It was a great evening.

On a different note, it has been over five weeks since my knee surgery. For at least two weeks, I have been able to do all the walking I wanted to. Last week, I jogged four steps and said, "No, I'm not ready for that." But so far this week, I have run 1/4 mile on Wednesday and 1/2 mile today. Granted, it was in intervals of 100 or 200 steps, but it was running. My knee is doing fine. My knee may be up to a three mile run before my heart and lung capacity are up to snuff. But it is really good to get back to running.

More Concert-going

2011-08-15T14:54:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, we again took advantage of the railroad pass that John won last year from the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. We took the train out of La Veta, up to Fir, for another concert.

But before we got to Fir, we passed the spot where a train car spilled barley several years ago. In late summer and fall, before they go into hibernation, bears need 20,000 calories a day. This year, because of drought, there is very little natural food available. We were delighted when we saw six bears as the train climbed the pass. Here are photos of two of them.

On the way back down the mountain in the afternoon, we only saw one bear. In the past two years we have seen a bear here in the park each year. We haven't seen any this year. But that doesn't mean they aren't around. They frequently go dumpster diving at night. One evening, between 9:30 and 10, one of the rangers found one at a dumpster. He had loaded his shotgun with bean bag shells and shot the bear. It ran away. But it hasn't stayed away. It just waited for another day. Even more scary is the fact that the same ranger saw a bear at about 6 pm last week. It had already tried one trash dumpster. That is before dark and it wouldn't be at all unusual for a camper to walk to the trash at that time of the evening.

The Whistle Stop, a barbeque place in La Veta, serves lunch at the concert site. Since the location is accessible only by rail, I asked them how they got the food there. They drive up early in the day in this old van, which is equipped with wheels that run on the rails.

Our train to the concert was pulled by a diesel engine, but the train that came up from Alamosa was pulled by this steam engine.

Sid Masters was the opening performer at yesterday's concert. He is really funny and sings country-western music, much of which he writes himself. We enjoyed his singing.

This couple twice got up to dance to his music. They were really good.

The featured act of the day was a group called "The Rifters." They sing sort of folk music. I could picture them in a small coffee house, singing without the amplifiers. Maybe that's where they were 30 years ago. They were good, too.

This was the finale, "The City of New Orleans" sung by Ed Ellis, president of the railroad, and Sid Masters and The Rifters and three other performers who happened to attend the concert.

It was hot and sunny all day when we attended a concert at Fir in July. Yesterday it was cool, cloudy and windy. Most of us were pretty bundled up for an August afternoon. We were at 9400 ft above sea level, of course.

Friends and Pot Luck

2011-08-15T14:41:00.005-06:00

One day last week, just before we headed out for a bike ride around the park, an RV pulled into our driveway. We were delighted to see Joe and Muriel, friends from our days at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Cherry Hills Village. They were returning to their home in the Denver area after a trip to Chama and Santa Fe, NM, and stopped by to say hi. We had fun chatting for maybe half an hour, before they headed for home. Unfortunately, the photo I took caught Muriel with her eyes closed, but it is the only one I took. We were so glad they came to see us.

Thursday evening was the annual staff and volunteer appreciation picnic here at Lathrop State Park. The park provided the meat, beverages and eating utensils. We all brought dishes to share. John, the park manager, was both the BBQ cook and master of ceremonies. As I took this picture, he was talking about the rewards of helping park visitors enjoy their time here. (We agree with his thoughts about that.)

Karen office manager, distributed gifts to all the volunteers. The gifts were a small thermos, a water bottle or a lunch bag. John and I each chose a thermos.

They Can't Hide Here

2011-08-10T19:10:00.008-06:00

Southern Colorado along Interstate 25 is not densely populated and the local county sheriff's offices aren't large and life is probably fairly quiet for Colorado State Troopers in this area. But yesterday and today they have shown criminals that they can't hide by coming to this part of the state.

The big headlines came today when Walsenburg and Huerfano County deputies captured the "Dougherty Gang," two brothers and a sister pursued from Florida to Georgia and on to Colorado. They were spotted in Colorado Springs, then in Canon City, and today a CSP Trooper saw their car in a gas station in Colorado City. To learn more about this great capture, check out this story from the Denver Post.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18653096

(I hope you can find these stories. I am having trouble getting the links to work in this blog.)

Then read this story from the Denver Channel 9 web site.

http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/212835/630/Dougherty-Gang-arrested-in-Colo-after-shootout-

Not only was it a bad day to drive south on I-25 for these fugitives, it was bad for the many motorists and truckers trying to navigate the same highway. It was closed for hours. When we finished our laundry late this morning, we planned to drive to the north end of town where the trio was captured. The line of trucks and cars going south on the main drag through town must have been about a mile long. We later heard and saw that the interstate was closed.

Yesterday the CSP, with the help of Pueblo and Huerfano and Las Animas County Sheriff's deputies, arrested two people who had stolen a car in Pueblo County. The high-speed chase began in Pueblo County, sped through Huerfano and ended south of Trinidad. The two suspects ran from their car and were pursued by officers and eventually a canine unit. You can read a little about that event in this story from the Denver Channel 7 web site.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28818914/detail.html

All in all, it has been a good couple of days for law enforcement in Southern Colorado. All of this action passed only three miles east of where we are camped. It makes us feel proud of Colorado law enforcement--and a little safer from the bad guys.

Can't Anyone Build a Campfire?

2011-08-08T13:39:00.003-06:00

It sure didn't look like it this weekend at Lathrop State Park. As we cleaned the fire rings in our 103 camp sites, we found a huge amount of only partially burned logs. We didn't have much wind or rain over the weekend, so our only guess is that the campers this weekend don't have fires very often and they didn't know how to get a really good fire going.

They also didn't have any idea how much wood they would use over the weekend. Since we not only clean out the fire rings, but also pick up all the unburned wood people leave in their sites, we did a lot of lifting in addition to all the shoveling John did cleaning out the ashes.

Just look at this dump truck load. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see unburned wood on the left and the partially burned wood and ashes in the middle.

In addition to all the split firewood the campers didn't use, would you look at the chunks of un-split wood? How on earth do people think that will burn? At times, we see people put a six-foot log in the fire and find it won't burn. And campers often bring old two by fours and other used wood from home. Then they leave it for us to pick up.

In addition to the usual glass, aluminum and plastic in the fire rings, we also found some new litter today. It included a baby bottle, a collapsing fork, and a aluminum wire grill. Do they forget these things or decide they are too dirty to use again. I imagine one family was driving down the road with a fussy toddler and wondered what happened to the bottle.

Each weekend, the personality of the campers changes. Since the school year is about to get in gear, we didn't see many families with school-age children this weekend. They will be out again in force for one more summer camping trip over Labor Day. I wonder if the people camping this weekend were out for the first time this summer. They realized summer was almost over and they had to use the camper or tent at least once.

What will next weekend be like? We can only wait and see.

Goin' On a Bear Hunt...And Other Critters

2011-08-05T11:13:00.004-06:00

Remember this photo I posted last month? It is the foot print of a bear.

Southern Colorado has been in a drought for at least a year. That means there isn't much food available for the bears. But they know where to find food beyond berry bushes--trash cans! A couple of weeks ago we saw the first two dumpsters raided here in Lathrop State Park. This week the bear, or bears, got into one dumpster Sunday night into Monday, then another Monday night into Tuesday. That second dumpster wasn't far from where our RV is parked. Last night it was another one in the campground.

How do they get in? Bears aren't stupid. See the lid of this dumpster? Mr. or Mrs. Bear climbed up on top and stood on it. That pushes the lid--which is supposed to be bear proof, note the bar across the top front--down so the bear can reach in and remove trash bags.

If you need even more evidence of how big and strong the bear is, just look at this pile of scat (poop) left near one of the dumpsters. My cellphone gives you an idea of how large the pile is. That was one big--or full--bear!

Here is the lid of a dumpster the bear got into sometime last month. You can still see the dent that was left.

As if bears weren't enough, this morning one of the park employees was out early on a bike ride in the park when she saw a mountain lion in a popular picnic area, headed to the water for a drink. She turned around and went back the way she came before the large cat finished taking a drink.

A few hours later I was out helping John with fire pit cleaning. I looked down at the ground just as I stepped on a snake. I gasped, jumped away and looked again. It didn't move, so I stopped holding my breath. It was obviously dead. I waved to John to come over a take a look. As he approached, my "dead" snake slithered away. Yikes!

Youth Corps Gets It Done

2011-08-03T09:59:00.003-06:00

This is the third week the Mile High Youth Corps has been working here at Lathrop State Park. The Youth Corps hires young people, ages 18 to 24, to learn skills and perform public service. To learn more, click on the name of the organization above.

The corps has a contract with Colorado State Parks. Here at Lathrop this year, they have been clearing out dead cedar trees and removing non-native Russian Olive trees. One weekend, John helped haul out the cedar trees they had cut. Before they begin their work with chain saws, the crew stretches to prevent pulled muscles as they work.

Here you can see the pile of cut dead wood and the dump truck loaded with more wood.

As John dumps a load of wood, you can get an idea of how much they have cleaned out around the park. And this was just their first week here.

Both men and women are a part of Youth Corps. The crew at Lathrop had 10 young male members and a woman crew leader. Here Annie is helping load the dump truck.

In addition to working with chain saws, one day the crew members spent several hours pulling noxious weeds in one area of the park. Talk about back-breaking work!

The group works for 10 days at a time, then gets four days off. Most days they work all day, but there is an education component to the program, as well. So some days they work half day and attend classes the other half. They camp out in tents at the work site. They really appreciate being at Lathrop, where there are hot showers available every night. Sometimes they are in remote locations and don't get a shower for 10 days straight! We thought about the group last night, when it rained for hours. That makes it hard to cook outdoors and makes sleeping in a tent rather unpleasant.

The Youth Corps provides income for the participants and teaches them skills that will help them find another job when they complete there time. And the work they do benefits their community. Mile High Youth Corps is part of AmeriCorps, Click on the link to learn more about this national program for adults of all ages.

Rain Update

2011-08-03T09:54:00.004-06:00

As I posted last night, we had a good rain yesterday. In fact, it rained lightly and steadily until 9:30 and sporadically later in the night. This morning, the world outside our window sparkled. If you enlarge these photos, I think you can see the raindrops clinging to the plants. It sure is better than the dust we saw there before!

Cool, cool rain!

2011-08-02T19:41:00.003-06:00

After two + months here at Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, it is finally raining! For hours! For the past two weeks or so, dark clouds have passed by every afternoon or evening. Each day it would sprinkle for a few minutes. It has been in the 90s most days for several weeks.

Finally, today, we had a downpour about 4 pm. That meant our satellite TV didn't work--no Bret Baier on Fox at 4 pm. But we need the rain so bad, we didn't care. This part of Colorado is in a severe drought. But it is now 7:45 pm and it is still gently raining. Yea. Maybe Horseshoe Reservoir will fill up a little. Then the temperature dropped into the 60s by 5 pm. Great! Maybe things will green up a little and our air conditioner will get a break.

I just saw some photos on the web of wild flowers in the northern part of the state. We haven't had any here.

More of John's Visit

2011-07-30T11:07:00.004-06:00

A place for everything and everything in it's place.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
That hits the spot.
Yes, yes, yes, of course, why not. But don't tell your mother. (Thanks to John McCutcheon)

These are the sayings John will probably remember from his stay with us this week. Especially about everything having it's place. Our RV is set up for two people and we find it is imperative to put everything where it belongs so we have room to move around. That is even more important when you add a 6-year-old boy and his bed.

Papa and John went for a second hike on Wednesday. They walked up to Horseshoe Reservoir and looked at the ducks and other water fowl.

Getting to the lake requires crossing a cattle guard--a little bit of a challenge for someone with small feet. Maybe this is why cattle don't cross a cattle guard.

Our Thursday activity was definitely the high point of the week for John. He has seen it as they drove through Walsenburg several times and, finally, he was able to go there. Obviously, such places are familiar territory for John. He walked right in.

Papa and John got a two-person inner tube to go on the water slide.

I didn't go down the water slides, but John and I had fun in the lazy river. He is on a swim team and is a good swimmer.

He loved coming down the slide that didn't use tubes, all by himself.

That afternoon, after we bought ice cream at the park's Visitor Center, John wanted to go to the playground here. Again, we said, "yes, of course". He walked the balance beam.

Showed us his skills on the monkey bars.

And showed us three different ways to use the slide.

He tried out the swings, but didn't find the seats comfortable. (I tried them too, and agree.)

And one last special event--Papa let him drive the truck. (But don't tell your mother.)

We had an absolutely wonderful week, getting to know our grandson better. He is sweet, really laid-back, interested in wildlife and fun to be with. We hope he comes again. But not next week. We are ready to get our routine back for a while!

Fishing, Hiking and Other fun

2011-07-27T12:43:00.002-06:00

Tuesday, Papa and John went fishing at Horseshoe Reservoir here in the park, while I drove to town to do the laundry.

After nearly three hours, John had one nibble but they caught nothing. When I got there, John was studying an egret across the lake. He really likes using the binoculars.

The day before, he spotted this deer in our front yard while using the binoculars. He then climbed in the truck to watch it browse.

This morning we went for hike. We were headed for a kiosk showing the vantage point where William Henry Jackson photographed the Spanish Peaks in 1885. Jackson was the official photographer for Hayden's U.S. Geological Survey of the western territories. His photos finally showed the public that the wonders of Yellowstone were real and led to the area's designation as a national park.

The trail to the kiosk has not been cleared, so it is not an easy climb. John is such a great hiker that he was the first in our party to reach the top.

The view from there of Horseshoe Reservoir and the Spanish Peaks is spectacular.

As we hiked back down to our truck, I was asking myself if this was a smart trail for my first hike since my knee surgery. However, I did just fine.

John and Papa had to glove up for a nasty task this morning.

For the third morning this week, we caught a mouse in our front basement compartment.

At my 50th high school reunion, one of our gifts was an old person's shoe horn. John thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread.

It doesn't get much better than this for a nana or papa.

Not only do I read to John, he is reading his Phonics Ready Readers to me.

His mom and dad gave him some spending money for his time with Nana and Papa. Yesterday I took him to the Lathrop Visitor Center. He decided to buy two finger puppets.

We then had to look at our Field Guide to Mammals to see if he had a Colorado Chipmunk or a Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel.

A Dear and Deer

2011-07-25T19:30:00.003-06:00

Sunday morning, for the first time in several weeks, we had a buck feeding right behind our trailer. I took this photo through the back window, looking out between the sides of the ladder.

Later in the day, after our grandson John arrived, he spotted this buck nearby.

He didn't want the buck to see him, so he hid behind our grill to watch.

John also stalked some lizards in our yard.

And used the binoculars to hunt for other wildlife.

John and Papa built with cards.

And tested to see how strong the building was. Wow.

Today we put John to work.Papa was cleaning out fire pits in the campground.

John did the work, too.

John even pushed the button to dump the ashes out of the dump truck.

Before we went home for lunch, John checked out all the equipment in the maintenance garage. First the tractor.

A mower.

Another mower.

The mule.

He even considered being a park ranger.

After lunch and getting cleaned up, we drove to La Veta for ice cream at Charlie's.

We've had two great days and have three more before John leaves on Friday morning.

Wildlife, Big and Small

2011-07-23T07:59:00.004-06:00

Last Sunday we were walking near one of the wildlife ponds when we saw something small, moving away from every step we took. Spiders? Beetles? No, it was these tiny frogs. I don't know if they were tree frogs or ones that spend a lot of time in water. I wish I had put something in the photo to give a perspective on their size. I think they were less than one inch long.

There were lots of moths flying around. When I was a child, we called these bugs darning needles or dragon flies. I don't know their real name. But these were pretty.

Later, we came on this large foot print. We are pretty sure it was left by a bear. Glad we didn't see it up close!

On Monday morning, when we went to work, we found trash spread all over around one of the dumpsters. We picked it up and bagged it. A little later, Lou from maintenance called other workers from his department to the campground to pick up more trash. He said a bear had gotten into a bear-proof dumpster and pulled out trash to eat. The bear had taken it behind some rocks for sorting. We went to help with the clean-up and found more tracks like those above. John had gone running on the road right next to that dumpster earlier that morning. We wonder what time the bear had his or her snack?

Yesterday, I heard something whistling outside our RV and went to investigate. Was it a bird or some mammal? When I figured it out, I quickly went back in to get my camera. This is the bird I saw, a Swainson's Hawk. They are 18 to 22 inches tall with a wing span of 4 to 4 3/4 ft. How special!

Later in the morning, we were in a different part of the park and I again heard the whistle. This time I saw some black birds chasing one of these hawks. Each time one of the small birds attacked the hawk's tail, it would whistle. They chased it back to its nest in a large cottonwood tree in the group campground. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me at that time.

It is so wonderful to spend our life surrounded by nature and so many of God's creatures. That is one of the real blessings of living in our RV.