Last week we drove north across Wyoming, from Cheyenne to Laramie, then Casper and Sheridan. We were in the foothills and we saw many pretty places along the way. The biggest features of the drive are trains, wind farms, snow fences, cattle and antelope.
There also are a lot of cattle.
This haystack is one of a kind (not really, there were several in the field, but we had never seen one like this before.) The hay is pilled high inside a small enclosure.
We saw this unusual rock wall as we drove toward Casper.
Medicine Bow is a small town south of Casper. I liked the water tower there. This really old building across the lot from the gas station we stopped in is the Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow.
We spent two nights in Sheridan, a delightful small town. On Sunday we drove to the McIntyre Commons in the downtown area for our run. It was a really great area—Little Goose Creek flowed nearby, and there are gardens and nice paths and green lawns. The downtown area of Sheridan appears to be very prosperous, with no empty or run-down buildings.
We were making our way to Montana, where we will be workamping till October. I will write about that after we get settled in to our work.
We haven't been in a commercial RV park since April 26. This afternoon has been a shock to our systems.
These two pictures show the view out our front door and the window on the other side of the trailer this morning. We were at Curt Gowdy State Park, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
This afternoon we checked into the Casper East RV Park. This is the view from our back window.
This is a view between our trailer and the one next to us on the side of the front door. The other trailer is so close I can't take a picture looking straight at it.
Tonight we have full hookups--we have sewer, but it is so far to the back we will have to back up to use it in the morning. But it is there. We are enjoying 50-amp electric. For the last two nights at Curt Gowdy we had no hookups. These two generators provide enough electricity that we can use the microwave or one air conditioner.
Tonight we can use both air conditioners at the same time. There are trade-offs. At the state parks we have stayed at--Lathrop, Cheyenne Mountain, Chatfield and Curt Gowdy, we have privacy and great views. Sometimes we have hookups, sometimes we don't. If you look at these photos, you know why we choose state parks whenever possible.
At Curt Gowdy we were surrounded by bluebird houses and the Mountain Bluebirds were everywhere. We really enjoyed watching them and listening to them.
It has been very good to be here in the Denver area, near our stick house.We had a great visit with our son and his wife and their two children Friday.Saturday we watched our granddaughter, Kylie, compete in two events at her swim meet.We also have enjoyed shopping in familiar stores and buying food at our favorite specialty food store, Tony's Market.We bought chicken Kiev and chicken cordon blue for dinner Sunday and three pairs of New York strip steaks, which we froze for future dinners.
All of that has been good, but I think what has been best is the confirmation that we are doing the right thing in renting our house and RVing full time.We have driven through beautiful neighborhoods with lovely houses and yards.We are so glad we haven't returned to our stick house here.If it was available, we wouldn't feel right paying to stay at ChatfieldState Park.Instead, we would have unpacked everything, moved back into the house, and put the RV in storage.That is a lot of work.And it is the reason we always avoided coming into Denver as we moved around.If we came to Color ado, we always made sure to go to other parts of the state.The house almost felt like a whirlpool that would suck us in if we came here.
Owning a house means there is work to do on the house or yard before we could leave again. When we first bought the house, we would fill planters with flowers and hang baskets of flowers on the patio. We worked on the gardens and updated the inside—having furniture reupholstered and installing hardwood floors and new carpet. We enjoyed entertaining and used our living room and dining room often. They we began RVing. It got to the point we were gone most or all of the summer—so no more flowers and hanging baskets. When we were gone seven or eight months of the year, the time we did spend in the house was spent catching up with family, cleaning the gutters, Christmas shopping and spending the holidays with family. We didn't have time (or, really, the inclination) to entertain much.
We are glad we are only here for a few days this time.Life in the city, living in one place all the time, doesn't appeal to us.After we take care of the house and go to the gym, there really isn't much we like to do here.Life on the road is so much more interesting. Yesterday morning we had our coffee outside, listening to the birds.In the afternoon, a thunderstorm came through.In the house, we might glance outside and see it was raining.Here, it was so loud we could do nothing but listen.That is a real treat.We can see most of the eastern and western horizons, as well as the sky to the south.We can watch the storms come in and watch them move on.All day we can hear the Western Meadowlark singing.We watch the cotton tail rabbits as we walk around the campground.Last night I woke up at about 2 a.m. to hear coyotes howling.
In short, we are so much more in touch with nature when we live in our RV.Because our living space is small, the outdoors is much more important than when we are in the stick house.We spend as much time outside as we can.We rejoice in God's creation daily during our life on the road.
What other lifestyle could we choose and see a mule deer doe, a wild turkey and a chipmunk before 7:15 am, while looking at a view like this
while staying is a site like this
overlooking this trail?
Tuesday we left Lathrop State Park and drove to Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs. This is the newest park in the Colorado park system and it is certainly first class. The camp sites are large and have full hookups. They offer privacy, as well as great night-time views of the Colorado Springs lights. The trails are well planned and well maintained. We had a great run downhill Wednesday mornign (we walked back up to our campsite).
The entrance is across the road from Fort Carson Army Base and we heard reveille waking up the soldiers this morning. But the park is quite and beautiful. We will definitely return.
After a short visit with family and some doctor, dentist and truck appointments, we are headed for Montana, where we will be workkamping till October.
Wednesday we went hiking in the Spanish Peaks Wilderness off the Cordova Pass Road with Nan and Norm, one of the campground host couples here at Lathrop State Park. We will be leaving Lathrop on Tuesday, so this will be our last hike here. We hiked the West Peak Trail, which goes up the west Spanish Peak, which tops out over 12,000 ft. We started at about 11,300 ft altitude and ended at timberline, at close to 12,000 ft.
The Sange de Cristo (meaning blood of Christ, referring to the red color in certain lights) Mountains to the west were beautiful Wednesday.
The wildflowers at that altitude were absolutely stunning. We had such a good time looking at first one flower, then another. In many places they carpeted the ground.
This is the peak we were on. We didn't go up onto the loose rock above tree line.
One of the trees growing on the mountain side was this one--possibly a Bristle Cone Pine. These trees can live for many years, sometimes hundreds of years. This one isn't that old, however.
Some of the dead trees were so interesting to look at. They were as interesting as the living trees.
This is another interesting-looking tree.
We ate lunch next to this very large rock cairn. It was right at the tree line. Above this point there is a 1,600 ft climb to the summit, which we didn't make. We decided that each person who reached this point must have added a stone to the pile. So, of course, each of us did that, too. It was a lovely place for lunch. But just as we finished eating clouds filled the sky and the wind began to blow. We made a hasty retreat back down the mountain. We only enountered a little rain.
We really felt good about ourselves. Our ages are 65, 66, 66 and 72. We were all proud that we were able to make a 6 1/2 to 7 mile hike at this altitude.
Last week John's sister, Kendal, and her husband, Johnny, drove down from Canon City to visit and go to lunch with us. John has two older sisters and one younger brother. We don't see them often, so it was good to have Johnny and Kendal come. Years ago, when we all had young children, we camped with them often. Those memories are among our fondest. We didn't camp in state parks much back then, so Johnny and Kendal had never been to Lathrop State Park. After chatting outside our trailer, we drove them around the park to see this great place we have been living since late April. Then we drove into Walsenburg and ate at the Iron Horse Restaurant. We had heard their lunches were good, and we all enjoyed our meal a lot.
This is our last week here. We only have two days off because of the July 4 weekend. Apparently, since July 4 is on Saturday, many people have Friday off for the holiday. That means they will come to the park on Thursday evening. The Camp Store will be open Thursday evening, all day Friday and Saturday, and Sunday morning. That means one extra five-hour shift for me. Saturday evening there will be a fireworks show in the parking lot of the hospital across the road from the park. We will leave here on Tuesday morning.
We will miss several things about Lathrop--especially the birds singing, the lakes, the wildflowers, our RV site, and the people with whom we have worked.
Last night, I tried to do this blog. About 2 hours into it, my internet connection cut off and I lost everything. So, today I am posting it in two parts to make sure I get it all up.
Sunday evening, Kylie and John had fun playing in the sand at the edge of Martin Lake while we were preparing dinner. After dinner they spent some time fishing with their dad. It was a beautiful evening, but nobody caught anything.
Monday morning we biked to their campsite and spent time riding around with our grandchildren. Our trip around the campground loop was the first time John had ridden his bike without someone holding on to him—a real triumph! We had so much fun.
Next we were off to the Kid’s Fishing Pond, where Kylie and John fished some more. Then Kylie, John and Liz went to the swimming beach and Eric, John and I went fishing. Look at this great bass Eric caught.
John spent some time giving Nana and Papa kisses at this fishing spot.
Here we spotted another snake, a large Bull Snake, maybe 5 feet long. It decided we were too close and quickly beat a retreat by swimming over to a nearby tree and reaching up to a branch then climbing up the tree. We were amazed. But we didn’t get any photos.
We celebrated John’s upcoming 4th birthday at dinner. He had lots of fun opening his gifts from Nana and Papa. The Cars flashlight was his favorite.
Tuesday we were sad to see them leave right after breakfast. But we will be in the Denver area soon for another visit.
This weekend we had a wonderful visit with our son, Eric, his wife, Liz, and our grandchildren, Kylie and John. They camped at Lathrop to celebrate Father’s Day with us.
Saturday night we ate dinner at our RV and we even had a campfire! That is really unusual for us. It sure helped keep us warm. Saturday evening was cool and breezy. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were warm and sunny and had just about the calmest winds we have seen in our time here. We had great weather!
Sunday, after John celebrated Holy Eucharist for all of us at their camp site, and after John and I worked for a short time, we all went for a hike. With a boy almost 4 and a 9-year-old girl, it takes a while to go 2 miles. We took turns reading the trail guide. We found a spot among the sandstone rocks to eat our lunch. Here you see Liz taking her turn, reading, and John eating lunch.
John woke up early that morning, so near the end of the hike he climbed up on his dad’s shoulders and fell asleep. Their dog, Ziggy, got really tired, too. Is she saying, “Are we there, yet?” All of us, including John, were wide awake a little later when Liz and Kylie heard this Diamondback Rattlesnake along the road leading from the Hogback Trail. The snake rattled it tail and hissed as it slowly backed away from us. That was our first-ever encounter with a rattlesnake. It may be hard to see, since it was in the grass. For Sunday dinner, Eric and Liz brought steaks from our favorite specialty food store, Tony’s. They put together a great for both Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, since we had not been able to get together in May. The steaks were excellent, as was the rest of the meal.
Yesterday we hiked a great trail out of Cuchara, a small town maybe 20 miles from LathropState Park.We went with Norm and Nan, one of two campground host couples here at the park.The trail head was hard to find, so we did some driving and backtracking before we found it.
The Dike Trail is 3.5 miles long and goes along one of the dikes that radiate from the Spanish Peaks, west and south of where we are staying.These walls of rock radiate out from the Spanish Peaks like spokes of a wheel.They are from 1 to 100 feet wide and up to 100 feet high and as long as 14 miles.
This is a good view of one of the dikes, taken after we hiked to the top of the trail.
We hiked through heavy forest and lots of wildflowers.This was one of the prettiest.I don't know what it is called.
About 1/3 third of the way along the trail, we heard a crack in the forest to our right.John looked around, then signaled to me to come look.There, going up the hill, was the back side of a Black Bear.It couldn't have been more than 50 feet away.Thank goodness, it was headed away from us.We spent some time talking and thinking about the bear, then decided to keep hiking.We kept talking so the bear would know where we were and avoid us (we hoped).This is our second bear sighting this year.
We couldn't see the dike very well, but when we had hiked a little over 3 miles, we came to a place where we could cross the ridge and found great views behind the dike.It was a great place to eat a snack before starting back down the trail.We had gained nearly 1,000 ft elevation.Going back down was much easier.
On our way back to the park, we stopped in La Veta and bought ice cream at Charlie's Grocery.Benches line the sidewalk there for tourists and locals to sit on while they eat their ice cream.John had a single dip vanilla; I had a double dip of huckleberry and orange sherbet.
When I was young, if I thought about my body at all, it was to make sure my clothes looked OK and I had my make-up on right.Later, the concerns were:Can I get pregnant?What will it do to my body if I have babies?How do I lose all this weight I gained while pregnant?
For years, none of this was very important.When I finally accepted that it wasn't good for my body to smoke, I chose to forget about what the weight gain looked like—I ate instead of smoking.
Later, the issues became--watch my cholesterol, take hormone replacement therapy to protect against hot flashes and osteoporosis and (they thought) heart disease.In 2002 scientists decided HRT wasn't good for women.What to do?I started lifting weights to strengthen my bones.Along the way, I lost all that weight I gained after quitting smoking.They I took up running, as well.I have become fit and thin.
But what about how my body looks.Would I rather be fat with smooth skin or thin with wrinkles?I'm really not sure about that.
But does that take care of all the issues with my body?Not by a long shot, not at the age of 66.I take aspirin every day—doesn't everybody?That means anytime I make contact with anything hard, I get bruises, or what we call "old person marks ."Then there are the cataracts I had removed.And the arthritis.And the sore shoulder—an MRI shows I will need surgery somewhere along the line.
There also are a lot of cattle. 
Then Kylie, John and Liz went to the swimming beach and Eric, John and I went fishing. Look at this great bass Eric caught.
Here we spotted another snake, a large Bull Snake, maybe 5 feet long. It decided we were too close and quickly beat a retreat by swimming over to a nearby tree and reaching up to a branch then climbing up the tree. We were amazed. But we didn’t get any photos.
