Wrapping up a Colorado Vacation

Howdy, Pardner -

Did you say ya wanted to ride horses?
One tough hombre in his official, birthday, cowboy hat.











I guess we did - and had a good ride!








 Chatfield State Park in the foothills had almost everything - including commercial hot air balloon rides.  They were a little pricey, so we were happy just watching and one morning the wind blew this group right over our trailer - close enough for Ava to offer them breakfast and they ordered their eggs 'sunny side up'.
They landed about 100yds from our trailer -exciting!
After they almost spilled out of the basket they declined breakfast.














Reed wanted to go to a ball game to celebrate his June birthday so we took in a Rockies baseball game.  It is a special stadium with the mountains looming in the distance.  This night, like the whole week, was pretty hot - at the first pitch the stadium scoreboard showed 101 degrees!

Still, as they say out here,
its a Dry Heat.

More South Platte scenes

Here's a happy trio -

no, wait - its a quartet!













 Looks like Gram Ava got in the water to get a little Cassidy sugar.






















Now here's a pretty water nymph!













And a budding naturalist, to be sure!

Fun on the South Platte River - and food!

 It shouldn't come as any surprise that one young boy can't be on a great looking river and not want to fish!














And guess who is the waterbug?  Cassidy, of course.  Of course, this is mid June and the water is coldie!











 Here's Reed fishing for what can be caught - crawdads!  He no sooner put down the rod and reel than he started turning over rocks and finding crayfish!

We wouldn't let him keep any until we had checked with the park rangers and found out that, since I had a fishing license, we could keep all we could catch, they really wanted them gone.





 So Pa Gary and Reed know exactly what to do with a mess of tender, sweet, fresh out of the water crawdads -
Eat'em.

Fun in Colorado Springs!

We had to take the grandkids to Focus on the Family - where we appreciate so much the wonderful Christian work they do for all families.






 Reed and Cassidy played for hours at Whit's End!













Of course, right across the highway is the USAF Academy where their Uncle Mike served as Command Chaplain in this amazing structure.  We took a tour of this beautiful chapel and even got to see the house (from the hill) where Mike and Debbie lived while stationed here.











In Colorado Springs we did the Cog Railway up to Pikes Peak - so the kids could say they had done a "Fourteener".  Lucky we did this early in the trip because within days of our visit the Waldo Canyon Fire shut down the train - and most of Colorado Springs - for days.  It was good there was no loss of life but many homes were lost.  As we learned this summer, forest fires are an ever-present danger in Colorado.

Florida Grandkids in Colorado

 Here's Gram Ava welcoming Reed and Cassidy to the Denver Airport - they flew all the way by themselves!













 One of the first places to go was Rocky Mtn National Park and up to the high country to see - and play in - the snow!











 Of course we had to take a hike and look and the beautiful mountain streams, tall pines and even some elk!













 When the kids were in camp at the state park, they were almost always on their bikes!  It was good exercise - even thought most days reached 100*+ - and gave Gram and Pa some needed down time.  Cassidy's bike came from the Goodwill store and was a great way to have a bike for two weeks; of course, at the end Goodwill got it back.

Our Sojourner neighbors

 We are looking forward to joining our friends from home, John and Karen, for a second Sojourn together this season!  We were together at Camp Blue Haven in the New Mexico Rocky Mtns and will be together at Longmont at the Colorado Rockies!  In between we both have spent a couple of months Workamping - them in Missouri and us in SW Colorado.  They are natural-born Sojourners and have helped us both in our RV'ing, getting on the road from home, and just having friends that have known us both before - and after- we have gone on this adventure.   

Smiles from the Road today:)

York Sojourn Fun

 Every Sojourn gives you time to play and Sojourners take that seriously.  Here you observe me being taken to the woodshed by someone who had never played Polish Horseshoes before!  Joe is such an athlete; I had to threaten him with bodily harm if he didn't let me win at least ONE game!







On a off day we visited an amazing museum in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska (really, Minden) we toured a collection of collections: literally everything you can imagine.  This was in the automotive area and is an early, hand-built RV - complete with back porch and 50,000 miles of travel.








 Of course, Sojourners ALWAYS play games, mostly Hand and Foot, but other card games as well.  There was always "a game afoot"; and smiles all around.  These Sojourners, Jack and Dolores,  we met in Harlingen last winter and re-united with them at York, they love to play any table game.










Off to another Sojourn for Don and Nan, our partners in tiling and painting.  This amazing couple have been full timers for 15 years and love Sojourning and being together on the road.  They are an inspiration.