So Many People!

 When we last left you, we were just getting ready to depart on our great winter vacation. As we were packing the last of our things up Zoey would not leave the door. She just sat there and stared at it as though she thought we were going to leave her behind, never to be seen again.

Our first day took us south and a little west through Lusk Wyoming, down through Cheyenne and into Colorado where we spent the night in the parking lot of the Loveland Colorado Scheel’s store. This is by far the largest Scheel’s store that we have ever been to with parking lots on both sides of the store. They have a parking area for RV’s and vehicles with trailers. We pulled right in and made ourselves at home for the night.

The next day we carried on south through Denver and into Colorado Springs. So many people! Even though it was Sunday there was traffic and construction. We have lived in the country so long that we have become spoiled. Rapid City with its booming population of 76,000 seems too crowded for us. By comparison, the Denver metro area has just over 2.93 million, Over 3x's the population of the entire state of South Dakota! Businesses, houses, condos filling every square foot of land as far as the eye could see. There is a reason we live where we do, we may need to drive over an hour to our nearest Walmart, but it is worth it! I told Barb that if our 63 acres were in a residential development like these and the average lot size was a ¼ acre, would have over 250 houses on our property. Crazy to even think about.

From there we continued south until Barb announced, “Take the next exit”. I followed her directions for the next 15 minutes until we pulled up to this Roadside Attraction. I mean, who could not stop to see the statue of Dizzy, the most famous dog of Palmer Lake Colorado?

She then directed me down another road for 3 miles to take a few pictures of horseshoe art that some guy made for his granddaughter. I stayed in the truck and passed on this amazing exhibit. I need to find out what website she is looking at and block in on her phone.

On our way back to the interstate I saw the lake in which Palmer Lake was named and people were ice fishing on it! My turn to stop and see what is going on. We took the girls for a walk on the ice. Zoey took to it with no problem, Dakota was not a fan.

There were several families out ice fishing. With the town as a backdrop and a train going by it looked like a postcard. I could see myself living there in another life.

Our next stop was unexpected but when we passed the sign, I got off at the next exit, looped around and headed back the other way. Sometimes the unexpected is just what you need. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame is located in Colorado Springs. 

We walked the hall looking at the names and memorabilia from the inductees. Most of the names we did not know but several we did. Like these two. Many of you will remember Lane Frost from the movie 8 Seconds portraying his life and his tragic death.  

That movie also featured this inductee. Bodacious, one of the meanest, rankest bulls to ever be on the circuit.

Then there are the Barrel Racers. Barb knew several of them, competed against, attended clinics and even met one or two.

If you are into that sort of thing, it is worth the $9 entry fee.

Continuing our way south, we made our way into New Mexico. Barb had found us a Harvest Host spot to stay the night at in Cold Beer, NM. How can you not stop at a place with that name? It is located between Maxwell and Taos on a lonely and desolate road. I mean this place is out there in the middle of nowhere. Just a bar, alongside the road. 

There were a dozen trucks in the parking lot, we walked in and everybody and I mean everybody stopped what they were doing to see who walked in. But they were welcoming enough, they had decent food, a T.V. where we watched the Vikings lose to the Giants, and of course….cold beer.  

We spent the night in the parking lot. A cold and restless night as it was windy and snowing. This is where we first ran into a problem with our camper. Not a big one but an annoying one nonetheless. We just had a new furnace installed last month and it works fine but when it kicks on it somehow cuts off the propane to the fridge causing it to beep. I turned the fridge off and back on and it seems to light up just fine. Until the heater kicks on again. It does not do it every time the heater kicks on but enough to make it annoying as hell in the middle of the night forcing me to get up and turn it off and on again. Does anyone have any idea what is causing this? The propane tanks were full when we started so that is not the issue.

Leaving Cold Beer we drove towards Taos, through Cimarron Canyon, Angel Fire and a few other snowy but beautiful towns.

We stopped in Taos for a couple hours and walked the town. A cute little town but too artsy for us, just not our thing. We finally arrived in Santa Fe where our first stop was the Santa Fe Brewing Company for a refreshment before we settled in for the night.

We spent the night at a trail head parking lot for LaCieneguilla Petroglyphs. Another cold night but the fridge only cut out twice, so we got a pretty good night’s sleep.

It rained and snowed throughout the night, so we woke up to a sage-covered and white backdrop. With the temps in the low 30’s Barb and I decided to take the 1-mile hike up to the petroglyphs leaving the girls in the camper. The trail is not very well marked, and nothing really tells you where the petroglyphs are, but we hiked up to the most likely looking rock walls and found a few. There was a bit of rock scrambling involved so it was probably a good thing the girls stayed home.

We returned to the camper with wet feet and a bit chilled. After warming up we headed into town to see a few things. It was still cold and rainy, so we looked for a couple of indoor activities. The first stop was a local antique mall. It is always interesting to see what antique stores carry in different regions of the country. Lots and lots of Southwestern Art and Décor. Pretty in its own right but would not fit into our house at all.

We then went to a place recommended to us by another Jim who commented on the blog last week. Now, I have never met this Jim, but he recommended the Sopapillas at Tia Sophia’s in the plaza area of Santa Fe. I had never even heard of a sopapilla before, but I thought what the heck, if Jim recommends it, it must be good.

 So, we go there, find a parking spot (which was not easy with the truck) and went to Tia Sophia’s. I ordered the Chicken Sopapilla while Barb ordered the beef and bean. The waiter then asked “red, green or Christmas?” I had no idea what that meant so I asked him what he recommended. He said, “Christmas since it is snowing outside”. Our food came and it looked delicious, and Christmassy, I guess.

I took my first bit and realized that Jim was trying to kill me! My mouth was on fire, my eyes were watering! The waiter came over to me and asked how we liked it. He took one look at me and said, “Let me get you some water”. After the first few bites the heat diminished (or I lost all sense of feeling) and I ate the whole thing. It was actually very good, and I would get it again, although with the milder sauce.

Barb, who is into all things hot and spicy absolutely loved it. The meal also came with two plain sopapillas that you put honey and cinnamon sugar on. That was even better than the meal. Thanks for the tip, Jim but next time warn me! Remember, I am a Wisconsin boy who thinks pepper is a spice.

We had more adventures planned for Santa Fe but most were outdoor based, and the weather was not cooperating, so we decided to leave a day early and head further south in search of a little less snow and a little more sun. 

Next up Albuquerque!

Big News This Week!

First, I have to apologize to all the schoolteachers out there. Apparently, I left several of them convulsing and choking on their morning coffee after they saw the use of the word 'funner' in a sentence. At least this was the reaction of my schoolteacher neighbor, Carmen, when she read it this past weekend. Sorry schoolteachers, I will try to do more better in the future. 

One piece of big news I totally spaced out last week.  Our son Forrest and his wife Somer sold their home, closed, moved out and are officially homeless (again)! It is bittersweet as they had a beautiful home nestled in a Klamath Falls valley. For the last 4+ years they made a lot of memories and put a lot of work into that house. Both Forrest and Somer have quit their jobs so now are officially among the ranks of the homeless and unemployed. 

What are they going to do? They are hitting the road of course! They moved into their 2020 Momentum and are headed west where Somer took a 12-week stint at a hospital in Grants Pass. Forrest will continue to homeschool Lily as they have been for the past couple years. From there who knows, the world is at their hands! 

They've got their place very comfortable and homey, right on the Rogue River. Parts of us envy them and parts of us are glad we fulltimed several years ago rather than starting now. We just hope they will come visit us at some point!

Speaking of neighbor Carmen, she and her husband Jim, came over last weekend where we watched a couple of football games while grinding up his venison for burger.  Would you believe I forgot to take one picture?!?! But now.... (cue the dramatic music) ....they have enough meat to survive the harsh conditions of the South Dakota winter. 

The other big news is that we are ready to roll! We spent the week packing the camper and getting it ready for our next adventure. My job is to get everything on the outside of the camper ready; propane, grill, lights, air bags, carrier rack, extra DEF, making sure all the fluids in the truck are good to go. Barb handles the inside; clothes, food, dog stuff. Either she has a lot more to do than me or I am really good as she has been pretty much constantly busy working on the inside throughout the week, while my tasks I took care of in a day. I am going to go with that she has a lot more to do than me. 

So, we leave Saturday (tomorrow morning). First stop Scheel's in Loveland Colorado. We plan on heading south into New Mexico. Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Gila and Chiricahua National Forests...then into Arizona; Tucson, Organ Pipe, Yuma and Quartzsite.  Most stops are for a day or two while others are a week or longer. 

We plan on seeing the sights, do some hiking and catch up with a few RV/blogger friends. If any of you know of any "must see" or "must hike" or "must eat at" places along our route, please let us know.  We have been in touch with a couple of people, but others we do not know how to get a hold of other than comments on each other's blogs. So, you are on our travel route and want to get together, send us a note in our comments with your contact information and hopefully the timing works out. Don't worry, we will not post the comment with your information to the world. 

You may have noticed all that lumber in the middle of the garage. Well, I picked up my order from the local sawmill for an upcoming project. The 8x8's were just cut this week and need to dry for a couple of months so they will be ready late spring/early summer!

The girls are pacing the house following Barb around, wondering what's going on. They know something is up but are not quite sure what yet. 

That's it for this week, the next post will be from the road!

Surprise Visitors!

 Now that I have left my quinquagenarian and entered my Sexagenarian decade I think it might be time to act my age instead of my I.Q. No more late nights for me, my new bedtime time is 8pm, meaning I will be up at 4am. Time for me to get an EZ lift chair where I will sit all day watch TV and blog about all my ailments. Oh wait, apparently you do not need to hit 60 to do that. I just happen to know someone who has been doing that for years and he is still a quinquagenarian! 

Screw it, I am going to act my I.Q., it is much more funner, yeah, funner is a word. For example, when used in a sentence it looks like this. "Lisa is a lot more funner than Dino cuz all he does is sit in his EZ chair all day and watch daytime soap operas". Stick with me, you will learn a lot of things. 

I had a great birthday though. Barb made me strawberry crepes, delicious! Then I went over to Kevin's to help him set some floor trusses for one of his neighbors that is starting to build a house. 

After that it was back home where Barb broke out the pasta attachment she got for Christmas. She had never made homemade pasta before, so it was quite the interesting process. The end result was the best pasta we have ever had. It may have been a first, but it certainly will not be the last!

This was followed up with a delicious supper of crab legs and steak. Umm, this turning 60 thing is not so bad after all!

For several months now Dan, Bonnie, Kevin, Cheryl, Barb and I have been planning a get together for New Year's Eve. We were each to bring 3 jars of Ole Smokey Moonshine for a taste testing. We added a few jars and bottles of stuff we had already as well. 

Oh, what a night it was! We each had a scorecard divided into two categories. Straight alcohol and creams. We had some pretty tasty moonshine and some pretty nasty stuff. The nastiest of all was the Ole Smokey Apple Pie. It was so strong and so sour that it let this expression on Kevin's face.

The winner for the night was not an Ole Smokey product at all, it was our very own Apple Pie Moonshine from the J-B Distilling Co! 

The moods got goofier throughout the evening, culminating with Barb laughing uncontrollably and arm-wrestling Kevin. She put up a good left-handed battle but did not win. 

The party ended abruptly when Barb said she was not feeling well and went to the bathroom for an important meeting. When the meeting was over, she quietly slipped into the bedroom. We cleaned up, hung out for a bit and everyone quietly slipped out of the house. The next day was very quiet, we were supposed to have a few people over for the Vikings/Packers game but when Barb had not emerged from the bedroom by noon, I canceled the festivities. Just as well, the Vikings did not show up to play. We spent a quiet day on the couch watching football and a few movies. 

Kevin and I did get out mountain lion hunting one morning after a fresh snowfall. It was a beautiful morning; we drove a lot of miles in some remote country but never cut a track. 

The next day we had a surprise visit from Farmer Bob and DeAnne! Well, Barb knew they were coming but I did not. They spent 3 days, 4 nights with us. Bob told me to do whatever I was going to do this week, so I did and put him to work!

We burned brush piles, we cut and split firewood    

We worked on putting some boards up on the outside of the workshop.... 

And then he....

Each day we did pretty much the same thing; burn brush piles, split wood, stack wood and nap. I did get out on a couple of adventures. Barb and DeAnne stayed inside and played accordions. DeAnne also worked on a couple of quilt tops. She brought her sewing machine and everything she needed to make the tops. 

Bob and I drove through Wind Cave NP and Custer SP one morning and saw some of the park creatures. We saw elk, bison, antelope, mule deer, whitetail deer, coyotes, prairie dogs, I think that was it. Oh, and a bunny!

The four of us went for a jeep ride on some forest service roads through some remote country. I think Bob and DeAnne were questioning the wisdom of our decision as we cut fresh tracks through the forest. We also stopped by the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. We have lived here for 5 years and had yet to stop by this popular tourist attraction. We pass it almost every week and it is always crowded during the tourist season but on this day, we were the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th visitors for the day and had the place to ourselves! Barb and I always wanted to stop but it was not very high on our list and we had low expectations. It far, far, exceeded our expectations. 

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The story of how this site was found and how the mammoths' met their demise is tragic. It also makes you realize how short a lifetime is in the scheme of things and leaves you wonder how many other similar discoveries are buried just below the surface waiting to be found. Well worth the $12 entry fee (Senior, the first time I claimed to be over 60!). 

Short-nosed Bear stood about 8' at its shoulder

Overall, we had a great 3 days. Thanks, guys, for coming down and surprising me. Thank you also for the mugs and the vintage ammo boxes. They are a great addition to my collection! 

If all goes as planned, we will be spending the week packing the camper and getting ready for our next great adventure. The plan is to be on the road a week from today!