Photogenic Lander

We spent a couple of relaxing days in Lander as we traveled south through Wyoming.  This small town, where we have been before, is very photogenic and has a very nice Safeway for shopping.

The old downtown buildings are well preserved.

I loved the name of this restaurant.

Look at the leaded windows in this restaurant.

All small towns had a movie theater, back in the day.  This one is still showing movies.

A creative sculptor made this bike and rider outside the local bike shop.

In a park at one end of town they have a series of bronze statues of a cowboy driving some cattle.

Here is a close-up of the cowboy, followed by a look at the colorful hat band he is wearing. I wonder who added that?

I am sure we will stay in Lander again, if we drive this route. Since this is at least the second time I have included these sculptures in a blog, I will skip them if we came here again.

Flowers and Sculpture

Even though it is early Spring at the 7,000 ft. altitude here in Flagstaff, we saw quite a few flowers during our visit to the arboretum. A few of the blooms were outside.

Others were inside the greenhouse where they are propagating plants they can put out when the weather and soil get a little warmer.

Part of the temperature control in the greenhouse was interesting. These water towers absorb heat from the air during the day and give out heat at night.

There was also an interesting sign in the greenhouse. Notice Flagstaff receives, on average, about twice the snow that Denver does

We also passed an area where they were starting native grasses. The ground is covered with ground cloth, probably to both keep out weeds and warm the soil for faster growth.

The garden areas also had a number of sculptures that were interesting.  At the visitor center they had a listing of the sculptures and the price of each, "in case you have an extra $1,000 or so to spend."

We even found one carved wood statue.

Still Waiting

Today we have our long-awaited appointment at the DRV Mobile Suites factory in Howe, IN, to have some repairs done. We spent last night in their parking lot.



The sun wasn't even above the horizon when we had the RV slides in, ready for the tech to take it into the shop at 6 am.



While we waited for today, we visited the Wellfield Botanical Gardens in Elkhart Saturday. The gardens were a delight to see and walk through. Water was a major feature throughout the gardens.



I love Adirondack chairs and they had placed them in several places where you could sit and enjoy the flowers.





We saw several different gazebos.







Numerous different flowers in oranges and yellows were blooming.



And also many in pink and purple.



Sculptures had been placed throughout the gardens.





There are elk sculptures in many places in Elkhart, including three at the gardens.



Wellfield Gardens were established 10 years ago and are built and maintained entirely with donations and volunteer labor. No tax dollars are involved. The gardens are located over the largest operating water wellfield in Elkhart, one of three owned by the city. The gardens are being expanded and we saw some of the construction areas.



There is texture and patterns everywhere, from the paved walkways



to the foliage.



We enjoyed our visit. We went there to get some exercise, but we were so busy taking photos, we didn't have time to walk very fast.

A Great Surprise

Saturday, this convertible pulled up in front of our RV.



Our younger son, Eric, had flown down from Littleton over President's Day Weekend, as a surprise birthday present for his dad. I knew he was coming, but was able to keep the visit a secret. John was truly surprised--and delighted!



Sunday, Eric drove us to church.



We grabbed a sandwich after church, then visited the Desert Botanic Gardens in Phoenix. Eric is a science teacher, so he really enjoyed reading about the desert plants.



I didn't take many pictures of cacti, since we have been there before. But this variety is really interesting.



In addition to the natural vegetation, the gardens have two art exhibits. There are the Four Seasons "Monumental, earthy and exuberant sculptures" by artist Philip Haas. I thought they were neat.









On the other hand, there were 18 steel and fabric sculptures by Carolina Escobar, titled Whispers of a New World, that are described as organic sculptures in vibrant colors and shapes inspired by nature. We thought they looked more like internal organs and we weren't impressed. Here are a few. What do you think?











We used the timer on my camera to take a family photo.



Eric brought three rib-eye steaks from Tony's Market in Littleton, our favorite specialty food store there, for his dad's birthday dinner. They were outstanding! We talked and talked and talked Saturday evening and all day Sunday. What fun.



We were all up at 4 this morning and Eric left at 4:30 to catch a 7 am flight out of Sky Harbor Airport. It was such a great visit and John really felt blessed by Eric's visit.