The Last Hurrah for Show Low

 Our last venture this summer took us to a very familiar campground: Fool Hollow Lake in Show Low, Arizona.  After driving the winding and mountainous roads, the five of us decided that it was the last trip here with our trailers.  What was "fun" in our 60's is no longer as exciting as it used to be.  As they say, "All good things must come to an end.".   We have been blessed with many good and wonderful times camping across the U.S.

On Saturday, our daughter and son--n-law came here for the day.  Heidi and Glen had rented a cabin in Christopher Creek for the weekend.  It was a relaxing afternoon, having appetizers, chewing the fat and enjoying a smoked pork roast and roasted potatoes for supper.  We are a lively bunch! 😂😂

Don and Doris were out each morning by 5 AM to do their morning walk.  Jerry, Sandy and I decided to skip that early walk and sleep in until 5:30 or 6:30.  Walks in the campground took us to the lake and around the various loops in the campground.  Below the surface of Fool Hollow Lake lies the old town of Adair.  Mormon settlers began to arrive here around 1876 and the local people chided Thomas Adair about trying to farm this area.   Only a fool would try such a thing!  Guess they were right.

At our age, we consider ourselves lucky that we can still negotiate stairs!  

Above is the view we had from the tent area at Fool Hollow.  Loved the clouds, the thunder and the rain during our time here.

One morning we drove into Pinetop-Lakeside to walk around Woodland Lake.  The trail around the lake is a mile long and flanked by tons of sunflowers that were blooming profusely.  Sadly, the drought has turned the lake into a large pond.  The water level was quite a bit lower during this visit.

As usual, I was behind, taking pictures of various wildflowers along the way.  Give me a camera and some flowers and I am one happy camper. 😊

In between walks we occupied ourselves with various games of Mexican Dominoes, Skip Bo, Phase Ten and Sequence.  We even managed to squeeze in a movie called Where the Crawdads Sing..  All of us had read the book and enjoyed the movie.  

So, if you're hankering for a place to escape the Arizona heat and want to put up a tent or sleep in your RV, try Fool Hollow.  You won't regret it.👌

Trails and Tidbits

The screeching of bald eagles.  The melodic sound of the Western Meadowlark.  Prairie dogs chattering.  Red winged black birds calling to their mates.  Bull snakes slithering across the cement paths.  Deer swimming in the canal, wild turkeys and a racoon in the distance.  These were the sights and sounds of Colorado as we biked in Loveland, Ft. Collins, Windsor and Greeley.   God's handiwork was displayed to us in various ways as we pedaled the various trails.

We had many detours on the Spring Creek Trail due to high water forcing us to go up and across busy streets...

and detours of our own when we came across a gaggle of geese.  Maybe it isn't a real "detour", but we sure had to wind our way around the multiple piles of goose droppings.

The trail near Greeley took us though pastures, grasslands and wooded areas.

Our ride in Windsor had us stop for a local train.  That was a first for us!

Don took a moment to stop and answer his text message during our ride in Greeley.   This gave me the opportunity to get a drink and take a picture while standing still.  I have had to delete a lot of fuzzy pics and videos that I inadvertently took while riding!  After all, who wants to see my knees going up and down while pedaling? 😂👀

We did find out some interesting things this time.  For example, we biked past huge colonies of prairie dogs.  They may look cute, but these rodents can cause major damage to homes and properties.  Instead of eradicating these critters (who can carry Bubonic Plague), Colorado sucks them out of their tunnels into a padded truck and re-locates them!  Then they become someone else's problem.  I find this a bit ludicrous, but I think the prairie dogs are okay with the solution. 😂😆

Third Time is a Charm

Our third stop this summer was Windsor, Colorado.  Our youngest grandchild was confirmed on June 12th.  That was the third confirmation in the last 6 weeks.  That also marked the end of the big events we needed to be at this summer.

Well, we got out of the "Arizona winter" weather as we left Wisconsin.  But neither of us expected it to be hot (99 degrees) for the Sunday Ella was confirmed.  What happened to spring???  That must have happened on the day we traveled across the Mississippi River and through Iowa. 😂

Roy and Char Beyer, Ella's other grandparents traveled to Colorado as well, which was great since we got to spend extra time with them.

Below is a picture of Ella and Abbie with Pastor Halldorson at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Greeley, Colorado.  

Officially now all of our children and grandchildren are confirmed.  No more grandchildren in grade school.  Where did the time go??!  

Ella and her family:  Nate, Bret, Ella, Kim, Tatum and Jonah (brother-in-law)

After church, Bret and Kim had an open house.  True to Lutheran tradition, there was more than enough food!  Besides Mexican food, there was an abundance of other salads and side dishes, plus cake pops, rice Krispie bars and cake. No one went away hungry.

There is always a lot of kidding around and laughter when our family gets together.  You can tell there was some sort of joke or snarky remark by the looks on Lisa and Bret's faces!  We sure are thankful for the Lord blessing us with family and friends.  🙏💖💕

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Alas, the rain returned yesterday and ruined the chances of us doing one more bike ride in Wisconsin.  Guess we have to be thankful for the days of sunshine and warmer weather that we did have.  The pics below were taken on Saturday morning.  This was the view of the Algoma lighthouse looking through a spider web.

We headed first to the lighthouse and the beach with no planned route in mind. 

As usual, I was stopping to take pics of the lake and a nearby statue that captured my eye.  Don waited patiently while I snapped away.  Notice how busy the street traffic was......

The statue was next to St.Agnes-by-the-Lake Episcopal Church which is situated across from the beach. Their congregation first met together in 1877!

After winding our way through town we headed for the hills, so to speak.  There was even less traffic out here.

On our way back we noticed some big objects on an old decrepit barn.  At first I thought they were metal sculptures.  We had just ridden past a house of an artist who had a sign outside advertising her sculpture business. 

Then we both realized the objects were birds!  Maybe huge crows?  Nope! They were turkey vultures!

The ugly heads gave them away.  I never thought I'd see this type of wildlife in Wisconsin!  These are certainly not the type of birds that congregate at Roy and Char's backyard bird feeder!  Talk about creepy!😨

Manitowoc Maritime Museum

 We were neither feeling "sub-par" nor "sub-versive" when we took a tour of the USS Cobia submarine docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  No sub sandwiches were on the menu.  Okay, I digress.   So much for all the puns about subs and on to the focus of this post.  

Twenty eight submarines were built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin during WWII.  The ship building company here employed 7000 workers who worked three shifts 7 days a week during that time.  Before that could be done the company had to figure out how to side-launch the submarines into the narrow bay. Like they say, "Where there is a will, there is a way" and the process was developed and perfected.

The USS Cobia was built in Connecticut and has been dedicated as a National Historic Monument for her service during WWII.  Since 1986 she has safely rested in the Lake Michigan waters by the city of Manitowoc.

Before we did the tour, we sauntered around part of the large museum and came across this photo.  It made me chuckle, so I just had to include it in this post.  That's a teenager for you.

We quickly realized that living in a submarine would be easy if one was young, supple and thin.  For those of us in our older years, it is a real pain going from one area into another!  This was one time I was glad I was short or shall I say "height challenged"?

One of the most used places in the submarine is the head.  The tour guide told us that men had to learn how to correctly flush the toilet and that they hoped the previous person had done it too.  Otherwise they would wind up with brown freckles!  This is one time you hope all the newbies are quick learners.😖  Did you notice how much toilet paper they stored and this was pre-COVID!

Imagine sleeping right above the torpedoes and sharing that bunk with someone else.  This was called "hot-bunking" since the bunk was probably still warm from the previous seaman.  One gentleman on our tour had served time on the USS Cobia and shared many interesting tidbits.  He said you also had to avoid touching the torpedoes since they were highly greased.  I can't imagine trying to get out of those bunks and making it to my morning cup of coffee without getting dirty/greasy.

Eating was done in shifts, with 24 men squeezed into the small eating area.  From the information in the museum, the men in the subs were the best fed guys serving in the war.  The gentleman in our group told us that after 3 weeks at sea there was no milk nor fresh fruits.  When they were at shore they could basically ask for anything they wanted (within reason).  I don't think lobster or sushi would have been available.  After all, what American young guy during the war years even knew what sushi was?  

 

I wonder how many cooks were in this kitchen at one time.  Two?  Possibly three if they were all skinny?

Below is the captain's quarters. The doorway was covered with glass to protect all the memorabilia.  The captain had donated his notes, pictures, shoes and even his cap to the museum so it would look just like it was during his tenure. 

All the men went through intensive cross training during their time onboard. Everyone had to know each job on the ship.  If the sub had to dive quickly or engage in evasive maneuvers, the men in compartments had to stay in place and do the jobs assigned to that area.   

Masks were required on the tour.  COVID is still around unfortunately.  It did feel a bit claustrophobic at times to me since it was warm and there was no air movement.  Roy waited for Don to bend over and get through the doorway. 

As we made our way through the larger bunk area our tour guide told us about the red lighting.  This was used because it was easier for the eyes to adjust if they had to go to other areas that were darkened or had little lighting to conserve energy.

All in all, the tour was quite interesting and enlightening. If you are ever in the area, do the tour!😀

Short Post, Short Ride

The weather FINALLY was nice enough yesterday for a bike ride.  Don checked, and it had been almost a month since we had ridden.  I think that must be a record for us because when we're home we are out and riding 5-6 times a week.

Char and Don discussed our planned route (there was none). Don was in the lead and we never knew which street he was going to turn on.  At that point it didn't matter.  We had virtually no traffic and of course, nary a stoplight since the closest one was in Luxemburg. almost 15 miles away.

It turned out to be part city and part country ride.  The last portion was on the Ahnapee Trail going west, one of our favorite places to ride.

And this was our turn around point:

This morning we rode another portion of the Ahnapee trail and also the Ice Age trail.  No pics.  The camera was forgotten back at Roy and Chars's.😞

On to Wisconsin

 Our next stop was Algoma, Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, the weather in Minnesota was never good enough to get in even one short bike ride.  It was either rainy, cold and cloudy or windy or a combination of the three😞.   We're hoping for better weather today in Algoma, but Roy was talking about how the wind is picking up all day long, except at 4:00 when the wind starts to die down and there is a chance of rain!!!  Good grief!!

As we drove the portion from Green Bay to Algoma we went through Kewaunee County which has only ONE stoplight.  The whole county!!!  Amazing isn't it when we have a stoplight just to get out of our Arizona neighborhood.  Rural Wisconsinites have no idea of what rush hour traffic is like(or they know what it is like and that is why they moved to Wisconsin).

We waited and waited for good weather.  I finally went for a walk with Char wearing Roy's jacket and Char's headband.  This was the end of May and I was dressed for winter weather, or should I say Arizona winter weather?  No need for gloves since the sleeves were much longer than my arms.  If I was back home, I'd probably be sweating in short sleeves and shorts.

Despite weather challenges, we are enjoying our stay in Algoma.  Roy has his special coffee made for us each day, we have had great meals and they are excellent hosts!  What more could we ask for? 

The gnome in Char's garden is peeking around the tulips and daffodils.  He's such a cute little guy.

Here is the serene view from their back yard.  We have watched a goose family waddle through the grass, people kayaking on the river, and a woodchuck, rabbits and squirrels waiting in earnest to dig up Char's plants.

Not far from Algoma is the tiny, unincorporated community of Sugar Bush. This "town" is so tiny that their post office closed in 1972.  I bet it has even less traffic than Algoma!   That is where our former neighbors from Tucson now live.  We were able to meet Ron and Terry Kapp for lunch at the Tlazo Cafe in Algoma for a delicious lunch. At one point we didn't even know if it would be open since it was Memorial Day but we lucked out.

My lunch: spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.  

Sure wished we had them as neighbors again.  If our dog Fraulein would ever wander off, she'd go directly to their house.  I babysat their daughter Jennell and Bret was just a small boy.  That's quite a few years, or should I say decades?  At any rate, it was wonderful to see them again.