April Showers better bring May Flowers

Cold, cold.  We FINALLY are in Wyoming sitting at the baby grandkids house.  We are going to get new tires all around before we begin the tour or Wyoming and going to Oregon.  I am writing a grant to replace myself - somebody that gets paid for full time not donate 3/4 time and get paid for 1/4.  

It's amazing how life in the winter is so different than life in the winter.  In the winter it's all about us and what we want/don't want to do.  In the spring/summer it has way more factets and folks to coordinate with.  

KaCe comes out to "the bus" to spend the night most nights.  He's making up for Ethan being with us for 10 days and he had to stay home.  They are growing up so fast.  They are taking swimming lessons.  Mom or Dad go with Ethan; but KaCe goes alone.  Ethan so wants to be a big boy.  He's going to give KaCe a run for his money.

Spring breakup is bittersweet! What do you mean the creek IS the county road!

I finally decided to ride with the Zeller's when 4 vehicles went up Montecillo Box Canyon. The canyon is named after the Monticello Box Ranch. Then if I thought Ken could make the trip we would go next week when another groups is going. NO, NO, NO. He isn't going up there. folk in the Wagon Master's pkp counted the number of times we crossed the creek - something like 107. Then I found out this WAS the county road.

Sixteen miles up the canyon driving and crossing the creek over and over and over and...........
OR just flat driving IN the creek!

The cottonwood trees were amazing. Many were 6-10' across the butt with many limbs coming out at all angles. These trees stand the test of time. No matter how bad the weather these trees have stayed, grown deep roots and surviving.

And then we came out into a valley where a hot spring flows into the creek. Of course we had to walk up there - and I decided that I'd walk in the creek to help them get across. Imagine walking in the creek the end of March. Not cold at all................:)


We had lunch and headed back home through Monticello and Chloride. At Chloride there is a cool museum and it had a scale just like the one that was in our store in Hereford. I will take Ken to Chloride - it is paved the entire way there and back.

Well here is what our "home" yard looked like the morning we left for Wyoming.

By nightfall even though we had seen an "elk" we also found snow!

It sure was hard to leave all of the friends we have made this winter. What a special group they all are.

We stayed just inside the Colorado border and woke to snow the next morning. We headed on toward Ft Collins. THAT is another story.

February and March 2009/Pool and Babies What a life!

Goodbye's are hard. So of course what do full timers do? Eat! Here is good friend Sharon (Alaska) getting her steak at Deb and Dave's splittin' for the summer party. Yes, eating is a focal point for the residents of Lakeside RV Park!

A new event happened February 9, 2009. Our first great grandchild was born to Vaness and Erick Schram. I got to see her when she was a week old. So beautiful.

There is a bus that takes TRC residents to an Arizona Indian Casino. Friends Sharon & Deb have been going all fall/winter. I signed up to go in January. What a hoot. You watch a video and play bingo on the way over and we let the rest do that coming back (we slept). Since Debbie would be leaving in March, I decided we were going to have a party for the February trip. We all got our own miniature playing cards; teeth; glasses, leis. There were two other ladies that signed up to go with us. We came up with a strategy (get there; sleep; let the 11 buses leave for parts unknown then start playing after 10 pm). It didn't work.

We went out to dinner as a group one night and then 6 of us went to the VFW to play pool. On the gambling trip one of the ladies invited us to the American Legion to play cards on Thursdays. So, we went. We played some cards then went over and started playing pool and that was the start of the Thursday Pool Team. (TPT) It has been 45 years since I played much pool, but I am hanging in there. Through that we got to know more folks. They play from time to time. They live in Hatch and started coming up specifically to watch us act like nuts and play. It takes 4 of us women to control the two men. :) AND the men are banned from practising this summer.