Exercise and Hunting

For two weeks I didn't run and I walked as little as possible. I am dealing with an episode of plantar fasciitis. When rest didn't get rid of the pain, I searched the internet for suggestions. I followed the advice and last Friday began running again. It feels so good to be outside, exercising and experiencing nature. Exercise is good for both my body and also for my spirit.

Today we rode our bikes and went hunting—not with guns, but with cameras. Lathrop State Park includes land managed by the park but owned by the Colorado Department of Fish and Wildlife. Horseshoe Lake is there, as well as several wetland areas, one with a duck viewing blind.

We started out crossing the Horseshoe Dam, where we have been running the past week. We can't ask for a more beautiful place to get our exercise. This morning we saw a Blue Heron and a Western Grebe. This is a picture of Horseshoe—it is a wake-free body of water. There were at least six boats out fishing when we went hunting.

The trail over the dam also looks down on the pond at the end of the Wetlands Nature Trail. What a peaceful place.

On the west side of the lake, we took a path down to the water's edge, startling a Red Racer snake. We have never seen one before. This is a link to a photo I found on the internet. www.members.tripod.com/jrreptile/id83.htm

The snake is really red and was about 4 feet long. We watched it slither down into its hole. While John waited to try and get a picture of the snake, I took pictures of birds in the trees.

We stopped at a next pond we found Cedar Waxwings. I couldn't get close enough to get a decent picture. However, at the next pond, we had a spectacular view of several Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. Isn't this a striking bird?

We also got close to the duck blind. We'll have to wait a while to use it, unless we want to go wading.

Wildflowers

There are wildflowers in abundance at Lathrop State Park, if you look for them. Right now the yucca and the prickly pear cactus are blooming. It is pretty easy to spot them. The yucca blooms stand about 2 feet high. And the large yellow flowers on the prickly pear really show.

And the large yellow flowers on the prickly pear really show.

Isn't this thistle beautiful? The flowers are very showy, but there aren't a lot of them, so many people probably miss them.

So many of the flowers here hug the ground, like this evening primrose. If you aren't paying attention, it is easy to think someone dropped a piece of paper on the ground. Then you miss this delicate blooms.

Below are some of the smaller flowers growing at Lathrop. They are harder to spot, if you're not looking.

Every morning, we wake up to the song of numerous birds. As we walk or bike around the park, we see and hear many others. Living surrounded by nature this way is one of the many blessings of the life we have chosen.

Bad and Good Today

This is what the cabinet, where our living room TV belongs, looks like tonight.


Here is John carrying our TV out to the truck. See the awful look on his face?

Here is our cat, PC, exploring the empty TV cabinet.

Here is what the TV cabinet should look like. When will it look that way again?

For more than two weeks, we have not had any TV in our living room. On Sunday, May 17, John turned on the TV in the afternoon and the screen lit up, then immediately turned off. The same thing happened several times. In the following days he made calls to Sylvania customer support, a Sylvania authorized repair service in Pueblo, about 50 miles north of here, and finally the nearest authorized dealer for Keystone/Montana RVs, only to learn they were still on "winter hours" and therefore closed on Mondays.

On Tuesday, May 19, John talked to the "parts guy" at the Montana dealer in Colorado Springs. He took the serial number of our TV and said he should have a new one in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday, after two weeks of having no Satellite TV (the installer could never make it work on the bedroom TV), and only limited antenna reception in the bedroom, John again called the parts guy. He asked for our trailer VIN number, then checked (on line, we guess) and found no action. He promised to call Keystone and get back to us. No call.

Today, John reached him again. He reported Keystone was closed when he called yesterday and he would get back to us in a few minutes. After 3 more calls to him, John finally asked to talk to the owner. It took 2 phone calls with him, but we finally have approval to take it to a Sylvania repair facility to see if it can be fixed. If not, they will pay most of the cost of a new set.

Why didn't all this happen two weeks ago? We wish we knew.

However, today had its rewards, as well. This is our new wireless internet router, which came via Fed Ex today.

We have changed from Sprint broadband wireless to Verizon. While we waited for the end of the billing cycle to cancel the Sprint card, we discovered how nice it was to be able to go online with both computers at the same time.

That led to a call to the 3G Store, a business we have read about in RV blogs and saw at the RV Rally in Albuquerque we attended in April. We order the router, which will allow up to 16 people at a time to go online with our broadband card—at least until we upgrade the security and keep others out.

Who says it tough to live on the road in an RV?

Power Out and Birds

This mentally-ill Rufous-sided Towhee lives near our trailer. He keeps looking at his reflection in our truck grill and bumper or in the mirror mounted above the RV hitch. Bang, bang, bang--he is either fighting the bird he sees or frustrated because that image won't play with him. I wake up in the morning to hear him hitting the RV at 5:30 am. We feel sorry for him, but don't know how to help.

Yesterday was laundry and grocery shopping day. We drove into Walsenburg to do the wash. While the clothes were in the dryer, we walked over to the Safeway parking lot and bought Mexican food out of a Class C motor home that is permanently parked there and often has large numbers of customers. We decided to check it out. The food was good! We sat in the truck to eat it, periodically going in to the laundromat to fold clothes. All of a sudden, the lights went out and the last dryer stopped working. Oh oh.

We finished lunch and folded all the dry clothes, then decided to take the damp load back to the RV and hang those items outside. It was a warm, calm day. We stopped by Safeway on the way and found their power was out, too, and so the store wasn't in business--no lights and no cash registers.

After taking out clothes home and doing haircuts, we drove back into town and Safeway was still closed, so we drove to Trinidad to the Safeway there. They have a gas station and we discovered he had four 10 cent a gallon discounts coming--we bought a tank of diesel for $1.79.9 per gallon! I wish it was always that cheap.

Wildlife and Iron Horses

This morning we biked to a cat tail-skirted pond on the wetlands trail here in Lathrop State Park. It is such a peaceful spot and the water provided a perfect mirror for reflections.

A lone black duck was feeding.

We watched a muskrat swim across the pond.

Red winged blackbirds bounced around in the cat tails. Many other birds were heard, but not seen.
As we biked back along the trail next to Martin Lake, we flushed out two great blue herons, but neither of us had a camera out to get a picture.

When we arrived here a month ago, the Canada Geese goslings were very small.

They must be almost teen-agers now.

After packing a picnic lunch, we drove to La Veta and Cucharas. The Cucharas River valley is lush and beautiful.

Many (more than 500) dikes run out from the sides of the Spanish Peaks. They are fascinating to look at.

We have had a lot of rain over the past week. At the higher elevations, it fell as snow.

As we drove, we saw wildflowers, especially Golden Banner and Wild Flax.
We were back in La Veta by noon to watch for the (summer) daily arrival of the San Luis & Rio Grande train. We have ridden the train twice in previous years. Today we just took pictures of this iron horse.

John talked with the woman who operates the snack car. Here she is waiting to take a short ride in the engine as the tender was filled with water during the lunch break in La Veta. She said she really likes working on the train.

Anything But Ordinary

Our week may have been ordinary, but there is nothing ordinary about where we are living. We are surrounded by many interesting birds and we have deer grazing right next to the trailer.

For my birthday, which is next Sunday, John bought me a new telephoto lens for my camera. For years I have wanted to take good photos of birds and other wildlife. There is so much to see here, it seemed the right time to get a 300 mm lens. It arrived this week.

Before it came, I took pictures of Canada Geese on our lake.


And of this Bullock’s Oriole (I think) on the bushes outside our trailer.


With the new lens, I captured these deer grazing while we ate dinner Saturday evening.

Today I got this photo of a Rufous Sided Towhee. I have seen them in several places around the campground. Today I watched this bird or another of the same kind trying to fight with its reflection in the chrome on our truck and a mirror on the front of our trailer.


This Say’s Phoebe has a nest on top of a light fixture on the side of the Camp Store building.

Martin Lake in Lathrop State Park has some beautiful sections. I photographed this cove one evening last week.

Ordinary Week

It's been a fairly ordinary week for us. We work Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday each week. The Camp Store is open those days. In addition, our duties include cleaning the two restrooms in the Camp Store building and cleaning fire pits. We enjoy the opportunity to work outside when we are cleaning the pits.

Last weekend the store was not too busy. But it sure has been this weekend. The Memorial Day Weekend campers were eager to come in and buy ice cream, ice and various items they had forgotten. That is really the purpose of the store. First thing Friday morning the "Campground Full" sign was set up at the park entrance. Thursday evening we received a lot of rain, but so far the weekend has been cool, but dry. Many of the campers are families, with lots of children. That means we sell lots of ice cream.

Tuesday we spent time in the Huerfano County Courthouse in Walsenburg, searching records to see if my ancestors who lived in Las Animas County south of here had also spent time here. Apparently, they didn't. We also toured the Walsenburg Mining Museum. The area has extensive coal and was actively mined for many years.

Wednesday we drove to La Veta, a small town 14 miles northwest, to do our laundry. The laundromat is much nicer than the one in Walsenburg—clean, with a change machine and rest room. Unfortunately, the machines are more expensive and the dryers weren't very hot. We will probably return to Walsenburg in the future.

Last Sunday I dropped our small camera and broke it. I was afraid I had lost the photos on it because it wouldn't download them in its broken state. On Thursday we drove to Wal-Mart in Pueblo—a 47 mile drive—and were able to buy another small Nikon Coolpix camera. In addition to the fact it takes even better photos than the old one, I was able to use the same storage card and download the photos from the old camera onto our computer. I really can't continue to break the camera just to get an upgraded version. But it wasn't tooo expensive an accident.

While we were in Pueblo, we also visited a Verizon store. Our two-year contract on the Sprint broadband card expired earlier this month. Our research indicates that Verizon has better coverage and there is no issue with roaming charges. We have 30 days to test the new card and return it without penalty if we don't like it. So far, we think it is at least as good as the Sprint card and they both cost the same.

More Friends

This week we saw more friends. On Thursday morning I walked down to Martin Lake to take some photos of reflections on the water before the wind came up. It was so quiet and I could hear birds all around me. When I returned to the trailer, John was gone and I figured he had gone looking for me. When I left he was doing his workout.

In a little while, I looked out the window and saw an old friend from Boulder. I hurried to the door and found John and our friends Larry and Betty. They were on the way to Albuquerque and had stopped in Walsenburg for breakfast, then came by to see us. We had a great visit for over half an hour before they had to be on their way again.

We finally had three days off this week. We also finished installing and painting some signs on the Hogback Trail and added lots of new stock to the store's inventory. For three days we keep the Camp Store open for a few hours. We also have taken on the responsibility of cleaning fire pits and barbeque grills. Since only one of us needs to be in the store at one time, that is something the other person can be out doing. We both enjoy jobs that take us outside.

By the way, we have caught two more mice this week. YUK!

Meeting an Old Friend

We were driving down the road at Lathrop today when I saw a truck and 5^th wheel approaching. "Stop that trailer. It has the TV antenna still up," I told John. He flashed the headlights, slowed down, opened the window and waved at the driver, who stopped next to us on the road. John got out and approached the other driver, when that man shouted "John" and got out of his truck.

Bob is an old friend from the Denver area. He and his wife, Lindsay, were members of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, where John was rector in the 1990s and they were good friends. Bob is the realtor who helped us find our home in Centennial and they bought our Coleman pop-up camper when we bought our first 5^th wheel. We helped them get into RVing and they moved from the pop-up to a Hi-Lo and now they have a 5^th wheel and camp most weekends of the summer. Bob was on his way to Durango to do some work in the southwestern corner of the state. What a shame we didn't know he was here last night. We would have enjoyed a long visit.

In the past few months, since we hit the road full-time, we have seen more friends and had more contact with people than we ever did living in the stick house and retired. What a great time we are having.

With one exception. We caught one mouse in a trap yesterday, one overnight. At least they are in the basement, not in the kitchen. The foam we used to fill holes beneath the stove must have done the job.

Green Grass and Friends

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Bear!

        And we thought a mouse was a problem.  This morning we went out for our three-mile run (really a fairly slow jog).  About 1 ¼ mile into it, I looked down the road and said, "What is that on the road?"  At first I thought it might be a cow—inside the state park?  We both looked, and then I said, "It's a black bear."

 

        We both looked, took a deep breath, turned around and started running away from the bear.  I thought there was a restroom just a little ways back, but it seemed like we would never reach it.  I knew there was a trash dumpster near the road and I found myself wondering if we could stand behind it and circle around it fast enough to be safe.

 

        John kept looking over his shoulder to see if the bear was following us.  John kept thing, "When we run way, are we bating the bear like we would be if it were a dog?"  Then I thought I had read that bears didn't have good eyesight, so maybe it didn't even know we were on the road. 

 

        Every restroom in the park has signs pointing out that black bears live here.  We didn't have any doubt about what we had seen.

 

        For about a half mile, we kept running away from the bear and not talking.  We needed to save our air to run faster if the bear came after us.  Finally, we realized there was no threat.  We could talk about what happened and finish our shortened run.

 

        In the end, the bear sighting was probably the highlight of the past six months.  We haven't seen a black bear since Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in 2006.  This was a big deal for us.  What do we do?  Change where we run?  Buy pepper spray to protect ourselves?  Obviously, we didn't get a picture of the bear.  We didn't have a camera and we wouldn't have taken the time to click the shutter if we did.  Somehow this experience today put the issue of a mouse in the trailer in perspective.

 

        By the way, something set off the mouse trap overnight into Monday, but we haven't seen any evidence of a mouse since then.  Yea?