A Milestone Post!

As I went into my blog today, I noticed that this will be my 200th post!  Somewhat of a milestone for me, with a combined total of  over 5,400 pages.  At least the blog has helped us remember where we've been during our travel times since 2009. This way is so much easier than going through boxes of pictures and trying to figure out when they were taken, and where we were at!  I have plenty of those at home, in their original Kodak paper folder, which were then put in a box/bag without any writing on the back.  Those were from the years when we were both working and had 3 children active in various activities.  My record keeping was sorely lacking back then.  

I want to give thanks to whoever invented the digital camera.  At least now I can tell exactly when they were taken.  Maybe in the future it will also record where we are when I take a photo.  The details of the pics below show they were taken on June 6, 2013.   We had started out on the bike trail just off Prospect Road with Kim's parents, Roy and Char.  Goal for the morning:  head to the Silver Grill Cafe in Ft. Collins where we would treat ourselves to a nice breakfast and enjoy each other's company.

We made it to Old Town Ft. Collins even after we got disoriented when the Poudre Trail took a U-turn after coming out from under a bridge.  There are a plethora of bike racks in Ft. Collins, making it easier to park a bike than a car most times.  We found a huge bike rack almost right in front of the restaurant. Score!

Our place of destination was BUSY!  No wonder, since that morning the Ft. Collins paper had named them #1 for food and their Al Fresco dining.  It was a beautiful, sun-drenched morning, so we headed for the back patio rather than eating inside.

Four bike helmets and 3 hungry people (actually I should count myself even though I was behind the camera as usual).  What to order?  The menu had so many tempting choices. Hmm....

Even before ordering breakfast, Roy settled on some kind of awesome looking mocha latte.

But my focus was on one thing......one of their fabulous, gooey, mouth watering cinnamon rolls that the Silver Grill Cafe is noted for.  The waitress warms it up just before putting it down in front of you.  Heaven on a plate!

Roy, Char and Don cross over to the Poudre Trail near the Belgium Brewery.  This is where we were supposed to end up when we biked here this morning.  The path follows the Poudre River, which is so much better than being on surface streets with traffic at your back.

Here we are, back where we started out hours earlier.  What a great way to burn off the calories from that delicious breakfast.  Thanks to Roy and Char for joining us!

  

Spring Ride on Spring Creek Trail

Tuesday, June 4th, was a perfect day for our extended family group to ride the Spring Creek Trail in Ft. Collins.  It got to only 71 degrees, about 35 degrees cooler than Phoenix weather.  There were 10 of us, including Kim's parents, her brother Jay and his son Eli.  Lots of bikes to unload in the parking lot!

Ready to ride!  You can see that Nate had his special orange biking "outfit" and his favorite soccer socks!

Our group wound up in 2 sections: the faster group with Jay, Tatum, Eli and Nate and the much slower group who was following Ella.  She wanted to be the leader (normal for a 6 year old).  Many stops for water and rest were taken since it was a 6 mile and mostly uphill ride to the park at the end of trail.  It took lots of coaxing along the way as she complained about being tired and her knees hurting.  It was a LOT of pedaling for her little legs on her new bike.

This is a view of the Spring Canyon Community Park, our final destination for the day.  Beautiful setting for the park which is nestled in the foothills of Ft. Collins.

Time for lunch on a grassy hill.  We all were hungry!

After lunch, the girls had a chance to play in the water fountains.  

Nate and his cousin, Eli, plan their strategy.  They were always running away from me when I had the camera in my hand!

Don, Ella and Char start out from the park and head back to the parking lot.

The kids didn't mind when we suggested that we stop at a Dairy Queen on the way back.  There was a bridge from the path over the creek that wound up at the Dairy Queen.  I bet they do a booming business in the summer.  Bikes reposed on the side of the path while DQ Blizzards, cones and smoothies were consumed.

I'm In a Fowl Mood

Yesterday, as we sat at our table in the campground at Cherry Creek, there were all sorts of birds flying around in the meadow.  Soon I realized my mission for the day was to get some good pics of them, or at least make the attempt.  Some, like the robin who wakes us up with his song every morning, are easy to take a photo of.  They stay put, even when you get fairly close.  Others, like the Western Tanager, don't stay in one place for very long and are always flying from tree to tree.

Yep, I was in a "fowl" mood.  Don't ask Don about the play on words.  He might just tell you I have other

days like this, but it is the other foul word! I digress....back to the bird pictures.

This is the beautiful Western Tanager.  When he landed in the tall grass, all you could see was his head.

 A Western Kingbird in a tree near our RV.

We saw these two Mallards when we went for a walk in the wetland area of the park.  I can just imagine one say to the other. "Hey Mack, if you look sideways at her, she sure looks a bit odd."

This little fella is a Western Wood Peewee Flycatcher. 

The Magpies are large and very aggressive birds.  They will gang up on other birds and dive bomb the squirrels.  Pretty, but dangerous if you are a fellow feathered species.

We had seen this Prairie Falcon earlier in the day when we were bike riding.  We drove back with my good camera, and he was still flying between his two favorite tall trees by the lake.  Guess the grassland between the trees must provide some good meals for him (or her).

 

“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” 
― Willie Nelson

7th summer of travel

Day 1 of our 2013 summer travels:  The engine light appears on the dashboard of our Ram truck just after we crossed the border into New Mexico.  Crap!  How can that be?  We just had the truck checked out last week at the dealership in Avondale.  These newer cars and trucks are just way too complex and it could be anything from a dirty air cleaner to dozens of other things.  None the less, we make it to Albuquerque.

Day 2:  Don heads out in the morning to the local Larry Miller Dodge dealership to have the truck checked out.  The last thing we need to do is be stranded somewhere along I-25 in New Mexico with only cattle and antelope to talk to!  At first, Don calls and tells me it cost $1000 to get it fixed. While I am having a minor meltdown, he backs down and tells me it cost nothing and was under warranty.  It was an update that was needed.  For crying out loud, why couldn't they have discovered that a few days earlier when it was being worked on?   Argh...
We get a late start, and run into wind, rain, a dust storm and more pockets of showers. I am thankful it wasn't snow!  We get to Colorado Springs during the beginning of rush hour traffic and a long line of cars because of construction in that area.  That delays us even further, making us get into full blown Denver rush  traffic at 5 PM.  I got so frustrated that I timed part of it:  we went 1.5 miles in ten minutes.  The really bad part of this was the fact that we had stopped in Trinidad where I got a cup of coffee.  Even before we got to Denver, my eyeballs were turning slightly yellow and I felt every bump in the road.  Note to self: NEVER, ever do that again when the two hour maximum time limit for my bladder will commence when we are getting into a large city!  Even though we were stopping a lot, I don't think the people behind us would have liked me getting out and going back to the trailer for my much-needed pit stop.  We finally made it to Cherry Creek campground by 6:30, tired and hungry.
Day 3:
Ah, so glad to be back at Cherry Creek State Park!  It will be a good 20 degrees cooler here than at home.

We biked on some of the great trails in the park and came across a nice quiet little pond close to the large lake.

On the pond were one goose and 2 "headless" ducks.  I took several pictures of them, and each time they ducked their heads back under the water.  We both enjoy seeing the abundance of robins, water fowl, magpies and other birds in this park.  This is the reward for the 2 long days of travel. It was well worth it.

Karchner Kategories

After looking at all the pictures I took while we were camping at Karchner Caverns State Park, I realized there were several categories of groups:

First is the "Retirees", part of the RV group that were also down at Catalina State Park in January.  No longer middle-aged, we seem to have drifted into the "older generation" category without much fanfare.  I sometimes look back and wonder, "How in the world did I get this old?!"

  

The Day Trippers

 Doris, Traci and 3 of Doris' granddaughters who drove down just for the day.

 

The "Pushy" Group....especially when it come to making one of the people from group 1 catch up to the rest of us.

The Hikers                                                                                                                                (including a person whom I shall not name, but HAD to apply Chapstick when I was taking the picture.

.

The Rock Stars

One of the Tree Climbers.

The Thinkers

 (i.e."Do you think it will work out if I do this with my new smart phone??")

The Lunch Group

The Encouragers

These people can be spotted when they do a thumbs up signal.

The Advisor

The Karchner Tram Driver 

(Yes, that is Jerry who volunteers at Karchner)

                                                                                   The Cavern Tourists

The Grill Master/Drink Toaster

 

And finally, the Birthday Guy!

Tombstone Trip

What is there to see in Tombstone?  Not much, unless you have a fat wallet and are willing to part with a substantial part of your money.  The main street is filled with characters in western garb and period costumes, all hawking their wares.  Not a single blank is fired in your proximity unless you have paid admission to one of their staged and over-priced gunfights that take place in a walled in arena.   Still, we went there because our granddaughter, Kyla, wanted to go there.  If you're a grandparent, you understand why we drove there.  At least it was a short distance from the campground.

First on the agenda: a chance to have a picture taken as a "real" cowboy and cowgirl".  The outfits were a "one size fits all" and no changing room was needed.  Simple and quick.

Kyla stopped under the guy who was just "hanging around".  When it is windy, I hear he is a real swinger.......

The weather was warm and sunny as Gary, Sherry and Kyla walked up and down the main street.

Best buy of the day was at the ice cream shop.  They were selling huge cones for only $2.00.  We all bought a cone.  As you can see, Kyla had chocolate.  She gets more bang for her buck because she wears her ice cream, as well as eats it.  It took numerous napkins to get her face completely cleaned up.

 Of course, no trip to Tombstone is complete without a stop at Boot Hill.  Admission is still free there.  Amazing in this day and age.

Kyla checked out many different graves, but was especially interested in the women that were buried there.  It's an interesting place, and it even has a section for the Chinese immigrants that settled in the area.