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.

Our Mission: visit the Missions!

Our "mission" for our second day in San Antonio was to visit the 4 missions that were established along the river in the 1700's. These were just as interesting (maybe even more so) than the Alamo. Each had unique features that set them apart from each other.

Our first stop: the San Jose Mission, also known as San Jose y San Miguel del Aguayo. This was my personal favorite of the four. The complex around the San Jose Mission is large and the grounds are beautiful.

This is the side view of the mission once you enter into the expansive courtyard. Building began in 1768, and it was known as the "Queen of the Missions".
If you look at the above picture, you can see a large window on the side of the building, below the round dome. This is the famous Rose Window. Folklore credits Pedro Huizar with carving this window for the church. I met one of his descendants (6th generation)near the church doors, where they are restoring the facade. He gave me some interesting information about the church that you won't find in the literature given out to the public. A distant cousin of his that fought in the Civil War is buried in front of the church.
Below is a picture of the courtyard where 350 Indians resided in the 84 two room apartments during the 18th century. In the 104 years that Mission San Jose served as a mission, over 2000 Indians were baptized. It ceased to be a mission in February, 1824, when the Mexican government ordered that the church be turned over to Chaplain Maynes. There are still families that worship here today.
Our second stop was only a few miles north. Mission Concepcion has been restored to it's splendor of the mid-1700's, when it was the center of religious activity. The full name is Mission Nuestra Senora de las Purisima Concepcion de Acuna.
This is a closer view of the towers. Outside, some of the weathered facade still shows traces of the beautiful and colorful painted frescos.
This church is also still being used for religious services. Experts restored the original frescos on the conventon walls and ceiling in 1988 and conservation efforts this year exposed more frescos the the santuary and nave. I loved the peaceful colors used on the inside of the church. After a stop for lunch, we drove south to Mission San Juan Capistrano. It started out in 1716 as Mission San Jose de los Nazonis to serve the Nazonis Indians. Because it wasn't successful there, the mission was re-established by the San Antonio River in 1731 and renamed San Juan Capistrano.
When we got here, there was some plein air painting in session. Various budding artists were taking a class and and most had chosen their spots under the shade trees. One lady that we talked to had taken up painting after retiring and was loving it. Retirement does allow you to pursue interests that you put on the back burner for a long time while working and raising a family.
This is a different view of the church, with wood cross standing among a large group of prickly pear cactus.
Don't the pads on this cactus look like lobster claws to you? Or is it because I'm still wishing I could be closer to Maine and all that wonderful lobster? I digress. Anyway, this type of cactus had no needles and some of the buds were in the middle of the cactus pads, instead of on the ends.
Our last stop of the day was Mission Espada, founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas. This is the oldest of the East Texas missions, and was moved to the San Antonio River in 1731.
This mission is the only one that is made out of bricks. It served as a buffer against the French encroachment from Louisiana (maybe that's because they didn't like beignets and cafe au lait brought over by the French).

The front door to the church has a broken arch over it. Some speculate that this was a mistake of the builder, but he isn't around anymore to confirm or deny this. Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt and tell everyone that the ground sunk afterwards.

San Antonio and the Alamo

One of the things on Sandy's bucket list was to do the River Walk in San Antonio and to visit the Alamo. We discovered this was an easy enough task if one is willing to park in the downtown area and do some walking. Fall had not come to San Antonio yet.....Monday's high was 95 degrees with plenty of humidity. We had just become accustomed to fall weather with the cooler days and now it was time to start up the air conditioning in the 5th wheel trailer again.

We were glad it was foggy and overcast when we started out at 9 AM. There was so much moisture in the air that you could feel the little droplets on your skin as you walked. No need for a moisturizer, that's for sure!

First stop: The Alamo, which originally started out as Mission San Antonio de Valero. This is the place where David Crockett died (I'll always think of him as Davy Crockett because of the TV show that was on during the time I was growing up). The Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. It was there in 1836 that the Texans defended the fort for 13 days against the huge army of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The Texans lost the battle, but the story of their heroic struggle will live on forever.

Inquiring minds want to know: is the favorite dessert here pie "Alamode"? And if the infantry men divorced, did they pay Alamo-ny? If anyone knows the answer to these two questions, please email me.

The Convento Courtyard is shaded by a beautiful tree. The well in the courtyard dates back to the Mission period.
This is a side view of the Alamo building. People were working on restoration of the interior of the Alamo on the day we visited.
The oak tree provided shade and the bench was a great spot for Sandy and Jerry to rest for a minute.
After lunch we decided to take a ride on one of the riverboats that ply the San Antonio River. The river is a dark, murky green and we couldn't see the bottom even though the guide said it's only 3 feet deep. It's drained every January, so if you want to enjoy the boat ride, don't come to San Antonio during that time.
There are a lot of restaurants sitting alongside the river, making them nice spots to have lunch or dinner.
Along with the ride, we also picked up pieces of information about San Antonio and the river itself. You can soak up the atmosphere and history at the same time!
After the boat ride we decided to do some walking along the river. I handed the camera over to Sandy and asked her to take our picture on the bridge as we crossed to the other side. Thanks, Sandy!
Next on our agenda was to visit the King William Historic District not far away from the downtown area. This area was settled in the 1840's by Germans who had migrated to Texas. So many Germans lived there that it was known as "Sauerkraut Bend" to the rest of San Antonio. Most of the gorgeous old mansions here are still used as private residences.
Both Sandy and I loved the use of stone on this mansion. There are only two main streets in the King William Historic district, both of them 5 blocks long. We picked up a guide that gave us information about each house. Even though there are many architectural styles, most of them made use of locally quarried limestone.