Cherry Creek State Park

We arrived at Cherry Creek State Park on Friday morning. Cherry Creek was the first state park in Colorado and offers a lot of amenities. Local people come here not only to camp, but to fish, water ski, ride bikes, go to the shooting range and have picnics by the lake.

The girls enjoy breakfast outside at our campsite.
One of the first things we did after setting up camp was to go and check out the beach and lake. It was a short hike from our campsite. You can see the girls are walking by the shoreline, while Don isn't about to get his tootsies wet in the very cold water!
Trips with us always include something educational, as our children can attest to. We got out our bird and flower books and took a walk around the park. The girls had to identify what kind of flower or bird we had seen, and Don's chore was to write them down on a pad. Here I am with Kyla trying to decide what kind of wildflower we were looking at. It was during this walk that we saw a confrontation between a Magpie and a squirrel.

The blue butterfly refused to open his wings completely as it drank the nectar from this flower.
Afternoons found us the lake and beach, which was cheap entertainment! The girls really loved looking for shells and building sand castles.Boy, the water was COLD! You can see the pained look on Hailey's face as she dipped into the water. Looks like Kyla was trying to outrace the wave.
Oh to be a child again and be able to ignore the water temperature!

The Squirrel and the Magpie

It's not easy being a squirrel at times, especially if you have Magpies out to get you! In the picture below, you can spot the squirrel in the grass, with the Magpie watching his every move.

The squirrel starts out and the Magpie is not missing a beat! Right below his feet you can see the squirrel's tail. Go little squirrel, go!!!
The Magpie circles around for a second attack....
and the squirrel bolts for higher grass! I wonder what he did to the Magpie?
This is one time that I wished I had the long range lens on the camera!

Camping in Colorado Springs

We made it to Cheyenne Mountain State Park with it's wonderful views of Colorado Springs on Tuesday afternoon. Don was at the automotive glass shop first thing Wednesday morning getting the back window replaced. I bet we will find bits of glass for years just like we did with the other truck!

This year we are camping with our grandchildren. We are cruising the highways while Heidi and Glen are on a cruise to Alaska. Heidi had the foresight to find different games and DVDs for the trip. If they didn't argue (do sisters do that??), then they could pick one of the wrapped gifts. Kyla was excited when she opened up a new Veggie Tales DVD.
Mornings and evenings were a good time to do some short hikes with the girls at the campground since it's the best time to see wildlife. Don and the girls chose the Raccoon Trail and found these 3 deer paying no attention to their presence. We found out later that afternoon that there had been a mountain lion spotted on another trail!
On Thursday morning we met up with Helen at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Helen is my friend from grade school days. At our age, that means we have been friends for decades and decades! Howling monkeys and peacocks filled the air with their howls and screams, which could be heard all over the zoo.
One of my favorites was this old porcupine who was just being fed his morning meal. He may eat healthy with all the veggies that he ate, but boy, he sure does need one good teeth cleaning! His teeth were a beautiful deep carrot orange.
The highlight for Hailey and Kyla was feeding the giraffes lettuce. If you go to this zoo with children, remember to bring extra money for the giraffe treats. We noticed an ATM right next to the booth where they were selling the lettuce leaves!
Here we are at Garden of the Gods visitor center. You can't even see Pikes Peak behind us because of all the smoke and haze coming from the fires in Colorado and eastern Arizona.
Kyla did her best job at holding up the Balanced Rock in the Garden of the Gods. She may be small, but is obviously quite strong for her age!
Helen and her husband joined us for dinner that night. Here Helen shows Hailey a magic trick. The girls have been practicing the different tricks and look forward to impressing their cousins and friends.

Day One, Summer 2011

Day One of our summer travels 2011:As you can see from the above picture, Day One DID NOT go as planned! Our new Dodge truck had it's first encounter (and hopefully last) with the 5th wheel trailer. Please take note of the beautiful back window now enhanced with black plastic garbage bags and gorilla tape.

This is what happens when you turn too sharp, hit a dip in the pavement and trailer front meets up with the back window. The loud "pop" got our attention really fast! Hailey was in the right side of the back seat, so she was surprised and didn't know what happened at first.

Don had an excuse within minutes: he was alone with 3 females in the truck, who were all talking! My defense is that I was not doing any backseat driving at the time since I was answering questions for Kyla!

Afterwards, we did laugh about it. Since going on the road with the 5th wheel, we have had a least one "major event" each year. We've dealt with holes punched in the back of the trailer by bike handles, crinkles in the side of the 5th wheel, an air conditioner that refused to work during the summer heat, blown tires, and our very favorite of all: a black water tank that burst while we were at a Santa Fe RV park! Thank goodness that Don had just drained it.

Even with all the adversities, we keep on going. We are either: 1)determined and hard headed 2)naive or 3) very SLOW learners! Maybe it is a combination of all three. At any rate, we are still traveling and enjoying almost every moment of it. If we gave up and stayed home, what fun would that be????

Havasu Happenings

It's January, 2011 and we are on the road again, heading to Lake Havasu and Buckskin State Park. This time, we're meeting up with Doris and Gary Sherwood and Jerry and Sandy White, Don's two sisters and their husbands.

On Thursday night, we all had to spend in an overflow area since there were no open sites. However, on Friday morning, they had 3 open spots in a row and we headed for them faster than two fleas heading for a long haired dog! Somewhere, in the picture below, between the RVs, trucks and trees, are our two 5th wheels and the coach belonging to Doris and Gary.

Ah, it's the "birthday boys". I'm sure they have enough hot air between them to blow out the two candles on the cake. If I had put all the candles on the peanut butter cake, it would have melted the chocolate frosting and probably set off the fire alarm as well! Jerry's birthday was Jan. 25th and Gary's was the 27th, close enough to bake just one cake for both of them. Does beer really go with chocolate and peanut butter???
On Friday the six of us headed for Lake Havasu to meet up with our friends, Gary and Sherry MacFarlane. They were treating us to an afternoon on the water by Lake Havasu, and had brought along their Canadian friends, Dave and Dorothy. It was in the mid-70's as we headed out of the docking area. How could you not like this? While other people were dealing with snow, sleet and cold weather, we're boating! Awesome!
Sherry, Doris, Sandy and Dorothy all seem to be having a great time. If not, they're putting on a good act.

Gary is handing over some liquid refreshment to Jerry, but not before he checked his ID to confirm he was over 21...........yeah, right. It's been many, many, years since any of us have been in our twenties!

Don, Jerry, Dave and Gary are enjoying the calmer waters near the London Bridge. You can tell just by looking at their hats. Beyond the no wake zones, they had to either take them off or turn them backwards so they wouldn't blow off!
Sunday was much cooler and we headed inland. Out in the desert, just north of Parker, Arizona is the Nellie E Saloon, also know as the Desert Bar. It is about a 5 mile drive down gravel roads to get to this place, which is self sufficient. They have their own water and make their own electricity. So, if you are impacted by rolling blackouts between Labor Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend, and it is a Saturday or Sunday, head for this place! You'll have electricity here!
Below is another view of the Colorado River, near Buckskin State Park. Don, Doris and I ventured out and did a short hike on Monday morning.
Can you tell it was windy up on top of the hill we climbed? We did have to be careful not to get to the very close to the edge because of the wind gusts. This is the new "windswept" hairdo for both Doris and me.
What do you do when missing a utensil while making breakfast? Hand it through the window! Sandy needed a spatula, and Doris was helping her out. Tuesday morning was our last chance to share a meal, and all of us enjoyed eating the huge breakfast outdoors. What a great weekend! This will definitely be a yearly trip for us.

Last trip for 2010: back to Colorado!

After being home for a month and two days, it was time for us to get on the road again. We had been home long enough to get things cleaned up, finish the scrapbooks for the grandchildren, do Christmas shopping, wrap presents, bake and drive down to Tucson twice! It was a busy month! Besides that, Don had to be an usher at church and I had altar duty for the entire month of November. Where is all this spare time we're supposed to have when we retired??!

We left on December 2nd, and the drive to Colorado was uneventful. I even remarked to Don how the weather was better than it had been in May when we did the same trip. I should have not made the statement....it came back to bite me two weeks later!

We arrived at Ken and Lisa's house early Friday afternoon, Dec. 3rd. Their house in Parker, Colorado backs up to an open space and they always have plenty of wildlife around. They even had raccoons climb up to their second story deck, much to the chagrin of their two cats. The two deer pictured below are just beyond their back fence. The next evening the 4 of us were in downtown Denver to have dinner and then watch the light parade. I was sure glad the temperatures were above normal that night, since I get cold very easily.

The next weekend found us at Bret and Kim's home in Windsor, just in time for us to watch Tatum, Nate and Ella in their Christmas program at church. After church we all gathered at their house for a pre-Christmas meal and to exchange presents.

Below is Tatum (11), Bret, Ella (3 1/2 yrs), Kim and Nate (8 1/2). The kids were still on their best behavior since the presents hadn't been opened up yet!
Ken and Lisa joined us for the day, driving an hour and a half from their house. There was no snow this year, so their drive was much easier.
For the two weeks we were in Colorado, there was no snow on the ground. What does it start to do the night before we leave for home? Snow, of course! We were surprised that Raton Pass was clear and the road was dry. However, by the time we reached Las Vegas, New Mexico, the snow was coming down hard. The CD was playing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and we were hoping to make it to Santa Fe without it getting much worse. We loved seeing the high desert draped in white, but sure didn't like driving in it!

Our plans before the storm were to drive to Gallup. Forget that. Even before we got to Santa Fe we were down to 30 mph. We stopped at 2 PM and by the 6 o'clock news they were stating that I-25 was shut down between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and I-40 was also closed. The next morning I was outside with the camera to capture the snowfall on the wall outside the pool.
The storm forced us to take the long way home, through Deming, NM and Tucson since they were predicting even more snow along the I-40 corridor. At least we made it home in time for Hailey and Kyla's Christmas program at Grace Church. Can you tell that Kyla was really liking that lip gloss she got recently? Their program was a week later than the one in Greeley, thank goodness.
Here we are on Christmas Day at Glen and Heidi's home in Glendale, Arizona. Hailey is now 11 years old and Kyla is 8 years.
The Lord has richly blessed us this year and kept us safe during our travels. Praise the Lord, for He is good and His mercy does endure forever. We look forward to traveling again next year, seeing new places and meeting up with family and friends along the way.

Las Cruces and Karchner Caverns

Well, I am finally catching up on the blog! We got home November 1st, and there was plenty of work waiting for us. Not only did we have an overgrown yard, but this year we had to completely empty our trailer to get rid of the brown stink bugs that had managed to ride with us all the way from Pennsylvania! Every last piece of clothing, towel, book, box, etc. had to be gone through. Ugh! All the clothes were run through the dryer before being put back into the trailer or brought into the rest of the house.

Our last stops on our summer trip were Las Cruces, New Mexico and Kartchner Caverns State Park near Benson. Kartchner Caverns is a great campground and at that time of the year was not crowded at all. We had our pick of spots in the campground. At night, Sandy, Jerry, Don and I walked around the park just to look at the Milky Way that streamed across the darkened sky.

Even though we had a nice shade tree by our site, it was too cool and windy to sit under for our evening meal.
We did manage to get in a short hike in the park. Sandy and Jerry stopped on the trail long enough for me to get a picture of them. They are going to try their hand at being hosts at this state park for a few months early next year. I know they'll do a great job.
Here we are pulling into the Sunny Acres RV Park in Las Cruces.
Even though we didn't stay here long, we managed to get in a trip to the small town of La Mesilla, where we bought Hatch chilies, local pecans, gifts and some excellent wine. This quaint little town once was a mail stop for the Butterfield Overland Trail back in the years 1858 to 1861.
In addition to this, Mesilla is famous for the place where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang for his crimes. Guess the sheriff wasn't "Kidding" around with Billy. The building below also housed the capitol of Arizona and NewMexico before it became the courthouse. We supported the local economy by purchasing gifts and other items here.