CLASS REUNION

CONFUSION? AND WHAT STATE ARE WE IN?
On our way to Sioux City, we made an overnight stop in Omaha, Ne. at a WalMart parking lot. It was cool enough that we didn't need any a/c and warm enough that we didn't need any heat. Because the floods had washed out some of the roads, we had to travel up the Nebraska side, crossing at Blair, Ne.

From 2011-09-26

We could see the devastation of the floods. Houses had been under water. Trees were washed away. The RV park that we had stayed in last year was closed due to flood damage. They still had not been able to replace the electrical, sewer and water systems. Hope this won't confuse you, because it did me. We stayed in a KOA in South Dakota. Allan went to school in Leeds, Iowa and the reunion took place in Nebraska. All of these areas were relatively close together, just separated by either the Missouri or Little Sioux Rivers.
MEMORIES
As Allan's sister, Janice and brother, Paul and their spouses were also in town for the reunion, we had a mini family reunion.

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They reminisced as we drove through the streets of Leeds. Several things had changed since Allan had been in high school 47 years ago. Generally speaking, the town was still the same with many familiar landmarks. It was like going back in a time machine. Most of the houses had been kept in good condition. One shocker was the church where Allan's dad was a minister. It had been converted to apartments and was almost obscured by trees.

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The old parsonage that used to stand within eight feet of the church had been moved. We did manage to locate the old house on another street. It looked almost like it did many years ago.

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The old high school has been torn down and replaced with an elementary school. Driving around Leeds brought back many memories of encounters, both bad and good. We had many laughs. Allan had an unforgettable experience. He lost his phone in Iowa somewhere. He got out of the car so many times to take pictures that there is no telling where he lost the phone. I am sure someone found it. We had the phone service turned off.
REUNION
Friday night was an informal night with hamburgers and hot dogs and all the fixings. This was an all school reunion which encompassed 33 years. The turnout was good with 540 participants. Allan's class graduated 34 with 15 attending the reunion. Seven had passed away since graduation. It is always good to see friends from school and many Allan had not seen since graduation. Saturday they had a program, dinner and dance. Allan's class has already started making plans for a 50th reunion which will be in three years.

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FAMILY DEPARTURE
We went to church on Sunday and had more family time with Allan's sister, her husband and his family. Allan's brother and wife left on Sunday to drive to the Black Hills in South Dakota in time to see the buffalo round up. We hope they have a wonderful week there.
GOWRIE MEMORIES
We are now headed for Carlinville, Illinois for the RV MAPS convention. Today we made a stop in Gowrie, Iowa where Allan lived from 3rd grade to 7th grade. He remembered the church although they have a new large addition. The house his family lived in next to the church has been changed but was recognizable. They have added an air conditioner just under the 2nd story window that Allan snuck out several times. He now wonders how he survived the drop without breaking a leg. Most of the old downtown stores were no longer in business, although he did remember the funeral home where his family spent their first night in town (very memorable) because all of their furniture, clothing and family heirlooms were burned while being transported from his dad's previous church assignment.

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RESTFUL
We are staying at a church retreat center tonight. It is located several miles out of town on a washboard dirt road. We are the only people here. It is beautiful.

WOODLAND PARK

This is a continuation of our catch up blog. We moved from Estes Park to Woodland Park, Co. on Tuesday August 30th. While Allan took the RV to have the new inverter installed, Yancy, Brian and I drove to Garden of the Gods and Manatou Springs before heading for Diamond Campground. This is our site.

From 2011-09-02

While walking in the campground we noticed this raven up in a tree. If you will look closely, there is a sock hanging on the tree beside him. We thought he had stolen it from someone in the campground. Later, we learned that it was a squirrel

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who was the culprit. In fact, he has a collection of rags, socks and gloves from people who had either left articles outside or left one of their basement doors open.

We also have several deer, fox and bear who visit our campground regularly. I have included a picture of one of the deer.

From 2011-09-02

I was unable to get a picture of the fox. He kept on the move and everything was a blur. The bear only visited at night or early in the morning. He was a huge bear from what the workers in the office told us. He turned the dumpster over while we were there. It took two men and a front end loader to set it back up. This brought memories of our encounter with a bear in the State Park in Vermont where we camp hosted. We always had to clean up after him.

This is a picture Allan took in Woodland Park of Elk antlers.

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While in this area we visited so many places and took so many pictures. One of our stops found us at the Colorado Wolf and wildlife Center. This center was started for educational purposes. They have lots of groups especially for kids from surrounding schools to take their tours. Some of their funding comes from allowing people to have personal tours inside the enclosures and close encounters with the wolves. This can include kisses from the animals. It is a ritual of acceptance into the pack. They have wolves, coyotes and foxes.

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Our tour ended in our group howling which the packs returned their vocal singing.

Here is a buck that we saw as we drove down one of the many roads along with several beautiful wild flowers.

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We drove to Victor and Cripple Creek, both old mining towns.

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We visited Mueller State Park and saw several deer, but Brian was really hoping to see a bear. One had been sighted there several days in a row, but he was not out while we were there. They had a nice trail around a small pond with numerous informative signs and hands on displays particularly for children. Here is one on scat of different animals.

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Red Rock Park was a very nice and heavily used walking area that we visited. At one time it was a mining area. There were signs warning to watch out for mountain lion. Colorado people do a lot of walking and hiking, many with their dogs.

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We visited Cheyenne Canyon which is west of Colorado Springs. This contained some windy roads, but very beautiful too. Because we wanted to do some more excursions that day we did not go on the one way narrow dirt road that continued up the mountain.

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On our way to Eleven Mile Canyon we spotted this old dugout and older farm house.

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Eleven Mile Canyon is a very narrow canyon with a narrow road going through it. It is beautiful. A bear had been sighted here, too, but no bear for us to see.

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On our way back home just before dark Allan got a picture of a huge herd of elk.

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We all had several packed days with beautiful sights to see. We took Brian and Yancy back to the airport in Denver. After dropping them off we saw two prong horn bucks fighting or playing. This is the only two we have seen on this trip to the West.

I belong to Ancestry.com and found a cousin whom Allan and I visited in Castle Rock several days after Yancy and Brian left. It was so good to find another living relative who shared lots of information with me. I was able to share some with her also.

I hope this gets us caught up with our travels. Thanks for hanging in there with us.

NEBRASKA TO IOWA

This is a picture of the pony express rider found outside of Cabelas in Sidney, Ne. We paid them a visit, but they did not get any of our money.

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We attended church at Christian Life Center on Sunday.

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Allan and I drove out in the country to the farm that his grandfather built and Allan's dad and uncles were raised there. The house appears to be in pretty good shape for its age.

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We also visited the local cemetery where the grandparents were buried.

Today was another travel day. Katie rode up front with us today and seemed fairly content. We are spending the night at a Christian Camp in Lexington, Ne. There is a railroad track nearby and it is busy. I doubt it will bother my sleep though.

CHEYENNE, WY

I finally got the pictures on the previous post. Take a look. Some of them are pretty good. We have better reception here in Sidney, Nebraska so the pictures went through without them going into never, never land. We are in the Cabelas campground. We stayed at this campground in 2008 for Allan's cousins reunion. Will be visiting the store today. Yea!!!

Last night was spa therapy. At least for Katie. She got a bath and a blow dry. This was not her favorite thing to do, but she didn't complain much. She is a good kitty.

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Allan and I have spent a week in Cheyenne, Wy. working on Restoration Fellowship Church.

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We parked our RV at Miracle Valley Church as they had hookups. They were not far from each other. We met lots of nice people at both churches.

Saturday was moving day. We had a little delay as the Brake Buddy would not turn on. Allan found the fuse had fallen out and broke so he replaced it and we were on our way. We did have some rain on the ride to Nebraska and a storm blew in with strong winds later that night, but all is well.

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Beautiful sky today.

WE ARE PLAYING CATCH UP

Sorry it has been so long since we posted. A lot has happened and we will try to fill you in the best we can.Our problem with the electrical on the MH was a wire feed to the breaker bar had become disconnected that caused a short. It damaged the battery charger part of our inverter and it toasted our home theater DVD system. While the RV was in the shop, we met some of Allan's cousins that he had not seen in several years.

From 2011-09-01

One of the cousins invited us to spend the night at their house until we could get the RV back. Katie was invited, too and she loved it. Katie watched the many birds that came to the back yard. Thank you Bob and Brenda. An inverter had to be ordered as there were none in the area. So we had to improvise electrically while we stayed at Horsetooth Reservoir State Park near Fort Collins. Basically we roughed it.During this period we visited Red Rock which is a famous outdoor amphitheater.

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We drove to Lookout Mountain where Buffalo Bill was buried which overlooks the city of Golden.

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We did a dry run on the back roads to Estes Park to make sure we knew the way and we had a good RV spot waiting on us. We did this because the moving day would be rushed after dropping the MH off in Estes Park. Then we would have to drive to the Denver Airport to pick up our daughter and son-in-law, Yancy and Brian. Everything went well the next day driving the MH with jeep in tow until Allan missed Co. Rd. 27. This took us on a 24 mile round trip tour of a narrow canyon road with rock cliffs on one side and guard rails on the other. There was room enough for two cars to pass, but not a MH. After much prayer the Lord provided us with a spot wide enough to unhook the jeep and turn around. The rest of the trip went fine. We were really in a rush after that incident and did not have time to pull over and take pictures of a herd of big horn sheep that were coming off the mountain next to the road. Bummer!! After all that rushing around to get the MH set up and go to the airport we had to wait an hour in the heat (95 degrees) because we arrived early. We picked up Yancy and Brian who immediately said "we came out here because you said it was cooler". We told them they were not in the mountains yet. "Just wait".

The next day we drove the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the highest, continuous paved road in the U.S. reaching an elevation of 12,183 feet. There is a lot of snow still on the mountain sides.

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We saw several herds of elk on our way to the Alpine Visitor's Center.

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We also saw pica, chipmunks and marmots.

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We were all amazed at the beautiful scenery that surrounded us on all sides.

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When we returned to camp, we got to see more elk up close. They were in our campground munching on berries.

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We also found them in town laying on lawns of businesses, even a huge bull elk with a gigantic rack.

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We took other drives in and out of the park and hiked around Bear Lake and Sprague Lake.

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We did not see a bear, but as we did our walks we wondered how close they were. We drove in several canyons and down some dirt roads where Allan found some choke cherries and wild plums to pick.

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The wild flowers were in full bloom. On one of our driving tours Allan spotted a Pie Store. We made two trips there. I had a mango smoothie that was absolutely wonderful.

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This was a moving day for us. I tried posting the pictures with this, but because of our in and out of service they were lost in space. I will try to post them tomorrow on a separate post.