Old Haunts, Old Friends and Family

During our last couple of weeks in the Denver area, we visited old haunts, old friends and family. We drove to Longmont to visit Larry and Betty. Larry and John were Boulder policemen at the same time and we all lived in the same trailer park for a while.

We went to Fort Collins and had lunch with John’s sister Cindy.

We looked around Castle Rock where John grew up and we lived with our 2 sons and operated the funeral home. The funeral home looks good.

Our last day in the Denver area, Eric and Liz, Kylie and John brought dinner to us at Cherry Creek State Park. Leaving family is always the hardest part of our travels.

Then we were off to Grand County where we lived during the first years of John’s ministry. The scenery is stunning.

This is St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Grand Lake. The pastor was gracious enough to allow John’s ordination to be held there in 1987. During the summers we were in Grand County, John conducted a celebration of Holy Eucharist on Wednesdays there. The Catholic priest held their Sunday Granby service in our church in Granby.

Yesterday we hiked the Oahu Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park and today we drove to the top of Trail Ridge road in the park. It is the highest continuous road in the U.S. More great scenery.

Add to all of this, the temperature at 11,837 ft was a cool 61 degrees. In a month, we will be in our home in Arizona. The temperature there today was 108. Ouch.

Unusual sights along the way

There are lots of RVs, made by many manufacturers, modified in many ways. We are familiar with them from our 30 or so years of staying in RV parks and state park campgrounds. But once in a while, we see something new.

This small trailer is cute. In the past we have seen RV gatherings of units that have been restored and decorated by women with a taste for something out of the ordinary. I wonder if this unit has such an owner.

The name on the front of this trailer says "Terry Classic" but we have never seen something like this before so I wonder if it has been modified.

You just know this was once a bus in the city. It might have been one on 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. Those free shuttles run up and down the pedestrian mall every few minutes. It's pretty long but it would take a lot of work to make it into something comfortable to live in. It did come with a bike rack on the front. Very convenient.

We've seen this bus conversion in both Chatfield State Park and Cherry Creek State Park. We know that either they didn't make reservations until late or didn't make them at all because every 2 days they are parked in a different site. Sometimes even a full park has a few sites available for a couple of days--if you are willing to wait in the registration office each time to see who has cancelled their reservation. This bus has electric but no water or sewer connection. There is always a large bucket by the water hookup so they can fill a container whenever they need it. I guess this is boondocking with electricity.

We had never seen a van that looked like this one. We don't know if it is homemade or some new manufacturer.

This teardrop looks like it is homemade. The black top is strung on like a well-secured tarp. It is really small.

Not all unusual sightings are RVs. This Jeep is owned either by a talented woman or a man with a girlfriend/wife who likes to crochet.

Phantom Canyon--Beautiful but awful

The shortest route from Canon City to Victor is driving up Phantom Canyon. Perhaps that is why the railroad carved out it's route through the canyon in 1894. It is not, however, the fastest route. The trip was just under 20 miles, creeping along the gravel road with lots of washboard sections. We climbed 4,000 feet in that 20 miles and it took us over 2 hours. The scenery made the trip worth it, but we said, "Never again."

My mother grew up in Victor and nearby Goldfield, graduating from high school there in 1932. I have been to Victor a number of times over the years. I think this is only the second time we have gone through Phantom Canyon. Victor and Goldfield are in what is called the Cripple Creek Mining District. Gold isn't found on level, soft ground unless it has traveled there by stream from higher altitudes. My grandfather was a gold miner in Victor.

The canyon walls are steep and rocky.

Since it is May, the trees have leafed out and the ground cover is green.  I was sitting in the back seat of the truck and caught a few pictures of the sideview mirror as well as the scenery.

This one-way tunnel shows the hard rock the mountain is made of. The tunnel isn't long but if we had met another vehicle, someone would have had to back up.  Even on the open road, there often was not space to pass another car or truck.

This is the way Colorado mountain sides should look, in my opinion.  Thankfully, there are many better roads to view them from.

This was probably our best mountain excursion for the summer. Soon we will return to lower altitudes and warmer temperatures--at least until we fly to England.

Visiting With Family

Sunday, on our last day in Canon City, after attending worship at Christ Church, we had lunch with many members of our family.  We gathered at John Abbott's house for burgers.  Other family members brought salads and condiments.  We took pictures of many of those who came. 

 John and Andy

Mark

Tim and Todd

Jarid and Tim

Devin, Jarid, Gabe and Andy

John Abbott and Kim.

There were others there, too, but both of us became so involved in talking to people we stopped taking pictures. Sorry, Mike, Megan, Vicki, Jordan and any other folks we missed getting photos of.

Honoring Family Who Have Died

We spent four days in Canon City which put us near where numerous family members have died, John's parents, his sister Kendal, our sister-in-law Diane, as well as my grandfather who is buried in Victor, a town just under 30 miles away from Canon City--if you take a really washboard, curving road through Phantom Canyon. (More about the drive and Victor in another post.)

My grandfather's grave is located in the Sunnyside Cemetery outside Victor, in the Elks Rest section.

The mountain cemetery has no perpetual care.  /weeds and grass grow where they will.  I am the oldest living relative and only relative living anywhere nearby and we hadn't been to the grave for 5 years.  The whole grave looked like the ground you see here around the headstone.

Friday John and I and our brother-in-law John Abbott drove to the cemetery and the two men used a shovel and a rake to clean the grave. Before leaving John's house we had picked peony flowers and I put some on the newly-cleaned grave.

The next day we met John's brother Tim and his daughter Megan at Mountain Vale Cemetery where Tim and John's parents, Tim's wife Diane and John Abbott's sister-in-law are entombed and his parents are buried. Megan helped with some of the work decorating with more peonies.

Next we were off to nearby Lakeside Cemetery where John Abbott's aunt and uncle are buried.

Our last stop was at Christ Episcopal Church in Canon City where John's sister Kendal's cremains were placed in the columbarium in January.

Diplomas and honors

What a time we had visiting our son Eric and his family in Littleton. Two diplomas, two honors and awards ceremonies, a band concert, and great food. First we listened to the end-of-the-year band concert at Goddard Middle School where Eric teaches and grandson John is a drummer in the 7th grade band. It was the first time we heard John perform.

Two days later, Eric received a master's degree in education, emphasizing administration, from Argosy University. It is his second master's degree. Granddaughter Kylie wasn't able to attend Eric's graduation because it was her last day in high school.

The same evening we celebrated Kylie's last day at Heritage High School and Eric's graduation with Champaign and a great cooking and a fruit pizza.

But wait, there were more events to come. On Monday Kylie was honored as the outstanding female athlete at Heritage for 2017-18. Here she is listening to her coach tell why she was the recipient of this award.

She was also given the chords to be worn at graduation indicating she was graduating with honors.

The next morning we arrived at Goddard before 8 am for the awards ceremony where John was named as a member of the National Junior Honor Society. He received an award for good citizenship because he is one of two students who raise the flag in front of the school each day. He was also one of 10 boys and (I think) 10 girls nominated for Viking of the Year at Goddard. These candidates are nominated by the faculty, interviewed, and assigned to write an essay which was evaluated by faculty and staff. He was not the Viking of the year but what an honor to be nominated.

Wednesday was Kylie's high school graduation. She is the first girl in a red gown in this photo. She is waiting to walk across the state to receive her diploma.

The mascot for Heritage is the eagle and as we sang the Star Spangled Banner to begin the ceremony, this magnificent American bald eagle spred his wings.

As the graduating seniors left the field at the end of graduation ceremonies, the faculty and staff, including district administrators, formed an honor guard for the recessing graduates. Quite impressive.

We left Littleton as very proud parents and grandparents!

Travel Preparation

We have been preparing for our trip to London, begining in mid-July. In fact, we have been preparing for 3 months, so far. We will be spending 2 months traveling around England, staying in 6 hotels in 5 cities London twice) as well as 6 National Trust Cottages. All of those stays are reserved. We also have car rentals reserved in 2 different locations. We were not able to rent a car through Expedia for more than 30 days, thus two rentals.

John is trying to get his head around driving in the wrong direction again. He did that before. I have to prepare myself for that, as well. We decided to have both of us registered as drivers. We never know when something will happen and the main driver won't be able to take the wheel. This week we visited AAA in Centennial to get our International Driving Licenses. They are the main agency across the country that provides those licenses.

We have purchased two suitcases, one to be checked and one to carry on with us. We have been traveling by RV for years and we got rid of all but one small, carry-on size bag. We won't be using it this trip, however.

We have researched cell phone SIM cards so we can use our cell phones in England without paying really big bucks on a Verizon international plan. We are reading travel books, studying the map of England, and researching where our ancestors lived in that country before coming to America. Learning more about those ancestors is a major focus of the trip.

Above I said we would be staying in National Trust Cottages. Those are historic buildings around England that have been converted into what are called holiday cottages. On our last fairly long trip to England we stayed in the Coast Guard Cottage on the Isle of Wight, in the lighthouse keepers cottage at the White Cliffs of Dover, and in an Arts and Crafts home outside London. We can shop in the local grocery stores and cook our own meals when we are lodging in these cottages. We're looking forward to it.

I hope to blog as we travel through England. We will have to wait and see what kind of internet we have. Also, we are each taking an iPad but leaving our laptop computers at home. Blogging is much easier on the computer.

This trip is how John and I are celebrating our 75th birthdays. We don't know how many more years we will be able to do this kind of independent travel so we wanted to do it while we are still healthy enough to enjoy it.