Last week we took a trip to Marble, Co. On the way we saw very dry areas, but many beautiful, green areas that are being irrigated. We passed several active coal mines. There is still snow visable on the higher mountains, but in one of the pictures part of the white you see is marble. The town of Marble's elevation is about 8000 feet. There are several beautiful lakes and waterfalls. Crystal River runs through the town. The marble in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. came from here. There was a road side gallery displaying marble sculptures. We started up the rocky, one-lane, four-wheel drive road to Crystal. It was extremely rough and we were concerned that we would not have enough clearance for the trip so we turned back. We decided to travel on the quarry road which was gravel and one lane but in much better condition. The road hung on the side of the mountain and there were only a few places that you could pass another car. Lucky the quarry trucks were not running that day. We managed with the other occasional cars. The scenery was beautiful. We drove almost to the top where they were mining the marble. One the way down I got a picture of a truck that had been driven too far into the river and was stuck. A tractor had come to its rescue.
On our drive up we met a man with two dogs on a leash strapped to him. I think he was getting them in shape for pulling a sled in the winter.
I have included a picture of Allan at the top of a ladder doing gutter work along with fighting the wasps. He did not get stung. The project is to take down the old gutters and put up new ones. Last years ice on the roof damaged the gutters beyond repair.
The other night we decided to take a drive near the mesa as we had heard there was a fire and we wanted to see how close it was. It apparently was closer to Grand Junction as we did not see any fire, but it did look like a smog or smoke in the valley in the distance. While on this drive we came upon three turkeys walking down the road. We also saw approximately 30 deer and a few fawn. To our surprise looking out in a field as we rounded a corner we saw several elk, many with a full rack. This turned out to be an elk ranch. The road was paved for many miles, but later turned into a gravel road. We didn't know where we were, but figured we would find our way back home eventually. The GPS thought we were driving in a field, but later decided we were nearing Cedaredge on the south side and directed us back to town. While in town we got a few pictures of a yard of hollyhocks and other flowers.
On numerous occasions we have driven down a road just to see where it led. This has been one of the best parts of our stay here in Colorado.
Update on the kitties. They are growing and are hungry little guys. Mama Cat who has been know as a dumpster diver has surprised all of us by bringing them a squirrel and a bird. So far they have survived the kids at camp, coyotes, bears, hawks and who knows what else.
We have the first part of the week off from the kitchen as no campers are here. There will be a weekend retreat from Friday to Sunday and then two weeks of band camp.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
PLANKING
I have been feeding the four kittens and mama cat and they are a hungry bunch. Each one has their own personality. The orange and white one does a spread eagle over the food and says this is all mine and I will not share. They are all cuties. I got a picture of them today.
Richard and Alice and Allan and I were invited over to the Millers for dessert tonight. Dick and Artis worked all last month with us at Camp Cedaredge. That was so nice of them and the dessert was great.
Allan talked with the RV MAPS office in Springfield today. We are probably going to stay here at least two more weeks. I am so happy. Now I can go to the genealogy meeting at the library.
So many people from our church have been posting planking pictures on Facebook so Allan decided he would plank, too. The camp has a ropes course for the people who are attending camp here. Allan was invited to participate and he jumped at the opportunity. Part one: you climb a 20 foot pole and stand on the top and then you jump over to a trapeze hanging a few feet away and grab hold. After that they lower you down with a belaying rope. However, when Allan got to the top of the pole, he laid on his stomach in a horizontal position for his planking picture, not to be outdone by anyone else from Kingwood. Part two: you climb a tree and walk a cable, holding onto two cables on either side of you. It is about 50 feet to another tree. Then you walk across a horizontal log about 25 feet, hook onto a zip line and fly.
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| From 2011-07-20 |
Richard and Alice and Allan and I were invited over to the Millers for dessert tonight. Dick and Artis worked all last month with us at Camp Cedaredge. That was so nice of them and the dessert was great.
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| From 2011-07-20 |
Allan talked with the RV MAPS office in Springfield today. We are probably going to stay here at least two more weeks. I am so happy. Now I can go to the genealogy meeting at the library.
So many people from our church have been posting planking pictures on Facebook so Allan decided he would plank, too. The camp has a ropes course for the people who are attending camp here. Allan was invited to participate and he jumped at the opportunity. Part one: you climb a 20 foot pole and stand on the top and then you jump over to a trapeze hanging a few feet away and grab hold. After that they lower you down with a belaying rope. However, when Allan got to the top of the pole, he laid on his stomach in a horizontal position for his planking picture, not to be outdone by anyone else from Kingwood. Part two: you climb a tree and walk a cable, holding onto two cables on either side of you. It is about 50 feet to another tree. Then you walk across a horizontal log about 25 feet, hook onto a zip line and fly.
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| From 2011-07-20 |
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| From 2011-07-20 |
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| From 2011-07-20 |
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| From 2011-07-20 |
Saturday, July 16, 2011
TAKING IT EASY
We have seen two baby fawns. They were cute, but didn't stay around long. The deer disappear in the camp when the kids are here, but as soon as they drive off, they are everywhere.
Alice and I drove into Cedaredge for a few things. One of our stops was the library. I got a library card and checked out two really good genealogy books. I also found out they have a genealogy meeting the first Friday of each month. I hope we can stay long enough so I can attend the meeting, but we are suppose to leave at the end of next week. They may not be ready for us in Cheyenne. Another stop we made was the orchard next to the camp. I bought Allan some cherries so he could make a pie. He did and it was good.
We attended a Little Britches Rodeo last weekend. The kids were so cute and some were really good. They had mutton busting. One little boy road the sheep backwards, laying face down and holding on. It was so funny to watch. He won. The sheep ran around the arena at least 3 times before they could get him off.
Saturday we drove to Grand Junction. We picked up my shoes that had been ordered for me. We also did the regular stops of Lowes, Barnes and Noble, McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A and Allan got a hair cut. We purchased a roll out metal drawer for one of the cabinets in the motorhome. Allan installed it and it works great. No more pulling everything out to get to something in the back. I have a wonderful and talented husband. That night we went to a street dance in Cedaredge. We had fun. We were able to dance some. There was a line dance group who put on an exhibition. After the dance started they invited us to join their group.
Sunday we went to church in Delta. We had planned to go back to the canyon, but it looked like rain so we decided to postpone that outing. Instead we worked around the motorhome.
Glen came over for supper on Monday. Allan grilled salmon. Yummy. Glen was nice enough to look at our DVD player. He got my DVD "Road to the Horse" out which had been lost in the abyss of the DVD player. Later that night Allan took it apart and got the other DVD out.
This week we have had a full schedule of work, but we have not gotten enough sleep. We stay up way too late and then watch Bill Cosby Show on DVD. Katie has been sleeping all day and decides to wake up around 4 AM and run wildly through the motorhome. She does a flying leap onto the bed and says let's play. Anybody want a cat? I wouldn't give her away. She is too sweet, just annoying at times early in the morning. We slept in late on Saturday and took a nap this afternoon. Allan went to the stock car races tonight.
I have had some issues with my computer. It is making funny sounds and smoked once when I sat it down. I feverishly tried backing up everything several different ways just in case the computer decided to die. We also purchased a MiFi. We got it installed and we got on but it does kick us off at times. We found we were not able to print. Our HP is wireless. Verizon guys told us we could not use the MiFi for wireless printing. I worked on this thing all last night. Guess what, we can use the MiFi for wireless printing. Yea!!!
After over a month without TV, the TV is working thanks to Eric, one of the interns. There really isn't much to watch and the reception here is not good.
We have had more than usual rain here for the past two weeks. Allan got a picture of a rainbow.
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| From 2011-07-16 |
Alice and I drove into Cedaredge for a few things. One of our stops was the library. I got a library card and checked out two really good genealogy books. I also found out they have a genealogy meeting the first Friday of each month. I hope we can stay long enough so I can attend the meeting, but we are suppose to leave at the end of next week. They may not be ready for us in Cheyenne. Another stop we made was the orchard next to the camp. I bought Allan some cherries so he could make a pie. He did and it was good.
We attended a Little Britches Rodeo last weekend. The kids were so cute and some were really good. They had mutton busting. One little boy road the sheep backwards, laying face down and holding on. It was so funny to watch. He won. The sheep ran around the arena at least 3 times before they could get him off.
Saturday we drove to Grand Junction. We picked up my shoes that had been ordered for me. We also did the regular stops of Lowes, Barnes and Noble, McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A and Allan got a hair cut. We purchased a roll out metal drawer for one of the cabinets in the motorhome. Allan installed it and it works great. No more pulling everything out to get to something in the back. I have a wonderful and talented husband. That night we went to a street dance in Cedaredge. We had fun. We were able to dance some. There was a line dance group who put on an exhibition. After the dance started they invited us to join their group.
Sunday we went to church in Delta. We had planned to go back to the canyon, but it looked like rain so we decided to postpone that outing. Instead we worked around the motorhome.
Glen came over for supper on Monday. Allan grilled salmon. Yummy. Glen was nice enough to look at our DVD player. He got my DVD "Road to the Horse" out which had been lost in the abyss of the DVD player. Later that night Allan took it apart and got the other DVD out.
This week we have had a full schedule of work, but we have not gotten enough sleep. We stay up way too late and then watch Bill Cosby Show on DVD. Katie has been sleeping all day and decides to wake up around 4 AM and run wildly through the motorhome. She does a flying leap onto the bed and says let's play. Anybody want a cat? I wouldn't give her away. She is too sweet, just annoying at times early in the morning. We slept in late on Saturday and took a nap this afternoon. Allan went to the stock car races tonight.
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| From 2011-07-16 |
I have had some issues with my computer. It is making funny sounds and smoked once when I sat it down. I feverishly tried backing up everything several different ways just in case the computer decided to die. We also purchased a MiFi. We got it installed and we got on but it does kick us off at times. We found we were not able to print. Our HP is wireless. Verizon guys told us we could not use the MiFi for wireless printing. I worked on this thing all last night. Guess what, we can use the MiFi for wireless printing. Yea!!!
After over a month without TV, the TV is working thanks to Eric, one of the interns. There really isn't much to watch and the reception here is not good.
We have had more than usual rain here for the past two weeks. Allan got a picture of a rainbow.
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| From 2011-07-16 |
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
ESCALANTE CANYON
Saturday we drove to Grand Junction to pick up my shoes, but we found the store closed, so we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch. We had a coupon for a free lemonade. Since Allan filled out a customer survey we get a free sandwich on our next visit which will probably be next Saturday.
We got measurements on Lowes roll out metal drawers and will probably return there next week also to get one for the larger cabinet in our kitchen.
Next stop was Barnes and Noble. Allan downloaded several books to his Nook and I looked at their small selection of genealogy books.
I made a quick stop at the Natures Grocery for some vitamins.
Sunday afternoon we visited Escalante Canyon. As we drove through Delta the bank sign said it was 103 degrees. It felt about 10-15 degrees cooler and we were not sweating. As we got lower in the canyon the Jeep temperature sensor showed 93 degrees. We are so happy that we now have a Jeep instead of touring in the Freightliner especially when we travel on gravel or dirt roads. We traveled about 20 miles into the canyon on unpaved, narrow roads. The canyon was very picturesque with a variety of rock of different types and soil mixed with boulders. Many looked like they could fall at any time and there was evidence along side of the road that this had happened. Most of the land is privately owned by the Escalante Land and Cattle Company. But there were other sections that was government BLM land. In these sections people are allowed to camp and play in the river. Of course, this is all dry camping, no electricity, water or sewer and no cell phone connections. We don't think we will bring our MH down here. All of this land is very dry with little vegetation except along the river and creeks. The ranch irrigates so these areas are green and beautiful. We came across two old stone houses that were erected in 1911. At one, they used a vertical slab of rock for one of the walls of the house. We really enjoyed our trip into the wilderness.
Returning to camp we passed a field with four buck grazing.
Allan got pictures of some of the campers from last week playing on the zip line.
Hope you enjoy our pictures. Wish you could have been with us.
We got measurements on Lowes roll out metal drawers and will probably return there next week also to get one for the larger cabinet in our kitchen.
Next stop was Barnes and Noble. Allan downloaded several books to his Nook and I looked at their small selection of genealogy books.
I made a quick stop at the Natures Grocery for some vitamins.
Sunday afternoon we visited Escalante Canyon. As we drove through Delta the bank sign said it was 103 degrees. It felt about 10-15 degrees cooler and we were not sweating. As we got lower in the canyon the Jeep temperature sensor showed 93 degrees. We are so happy that we now have a Jeep instead of touring in the Freightliner especially when we travel on gravel or dirt roads. We traveled about 20 miles into the canyon on unpaved, narrow roads. The canyon was very picturesque with a variety of rock of different types and soil mixed with boulders. Many looked like they could fall at any time and there was evidence along side of the road that this had happened. Most of the land is privately owned by the Escalante Land and Cattle Company. But there were other sections that was government BLM land. In these sections people are allowed to camp and play in the river. Of course, this is all dry camping, no electricity, water or sewer and no cell phone connections. We don't think we will bring our MH down here. All of this land is very dry with little vegetation except along the river and creeks. The ranch irrigates so these areas are green and beautiful. We came across two old stone houses that were erected in 1911. At one, they used a vertical slab of rock for one of the walls of the house. We really enjoyed our trip into the wilderness.
Returning to camp we passed a field with four buck grazing.
Allan got pictures of some of the campers from last week playing on the zip line.
Hope you enjoy our pictures. Wish you could have been with us.