Exploring Englewood

We had my pre-op appointment downtown this past week so we took the opportunity to eat at the SAME CAFE.  It is a unique restaurant in that they have no menu and no prices!  All meals are paid for by what ever you can donate.  Each day they offer 2 salads, 2 soups and 2 types of pizza which changes each day.  It was quite fun.  All the dishes are hodge podge but it is very clean and well run.  SAME stands for "So All May Eat" and those who can not pay can work/volunteer to pay for their meal.

We also wanted to check out the Englewood Public Library.  Don't tell me you're surprised!  That took us to a revitalized  part of downtown Englewood.  The 55-acre public/private area connects not only the library with walkable streets, civic and cultural uses, the light rail transit station, retail and office space, apartments above the retail spaces, an outdoor perfornance space, art museum and several outdoor sculptures.  The area seems to be a gathering place.  We enjoyed watching the children run in the water that shoots up from the sidewalk around the fountain.

 
Inside the outer lobby of the library we were fasinated by the display of a large restored "horse car" with a statue of a horse in the back. 

Here is a brief story of the Cherrelyn horse car trolley.
The horse car was a central part of life in Englewood between 1892 and 1910, with residents riding it to work and shop in Englewood. The horse car was dubbed the “Gravity and Bronco Railroad,” as it was the only gravity-powered streetcar in existence at that time. The horse pulled the car up the steep hill on Broadway between Hampden and Quincy, a mile long trip. At the top of the hill, the horse was unhitched and loaded on to the rear platform of the car. The driver would give the car a push, and the horse car and its passengers would coast back down the hill to Hampden.

The 10 year old library is really nice.  We both got library cards then spent some time looking around.  A few years ago I started doing some genelogy history on our families.  I found just enough information to make us want to keep digging.  Dale has caught the bug now so we checked out a video series on researching family history.  As we travel we hope to spend some time doing some family research.   Stay tuned!

Our "Free" Campsite Pays Off!

Thursday, May 20th we arrived in the south Denver area to settle in to our temporary home at South Park Mobile Home Community.  We will be parked here for about 2 1/2 months while Dale goes to the doctor for his chronic pain issue and a shot/procedure we are in hopes will give him some relief.  I will also be having my other knee replacement while here.  If all goes as planned, we hope I will be ready to roll by the first of August.   We are parked here among the permanent residents.  This is the first time we have ever put on the 'skirt' that came with the trailer.

Even temporary residents are asked to take care of the lawn around their rigs during their stay.  They provide some tools as well as a push reel mower.  Dale has cleaned up the flower beds that were neglected over the winter.  He left the perennials that were coming back and added some annuals we purchased.  We got some more today to add to the bed below and put around the bottom of the bird bath.  

  

Today my clever husband made our 'free campsite' really pay off.  While we were parked up in the Pike National Forest, Dale spent some time cleaning up the area of various debris left by the not so ideal campers. Among the trash and junk he found was a bunch of used wiring someone had left as trash in the surrounding camp area.  He remembered as a young man his father would bring home wiring scraps for he and his brother to strip and sell for extra cash.  He ended up picking up a large bag of alumimum cans, a couple large bags of trash and a big bunch of discarded wire.  Today, while we were out running our errands we stopped by a metal recycling center.  Dale took his 'find' to the scales.  His efforts were rewarded with $35.95!!!  Needless to say we were both delighted and surprised.

This is an entirely different part of Denver than where we used to live. We have been trying to get aquainted with our new neighborhood. We are discovering several stores, the library, the church and other attractions within easy driving distance. We are finding we have NOT missed the traffic and fast-paced life of metro Denver. It is nice to be back to the Denver climate though.

Unless something extraordinary happens I will only be posting weekly for a while.  But please, stay tuned!

Wednesday, May 19th A New Backyard

Pike National Forest

We drove from Lamar, CO to Woodland Park, CO with intentions of staying in one of the National Forest campgrounds for a couple nights before driving into Denver on Thursday. A few years ago we had seen a campground we liked so we thought we would return to it for our stay. But, apparently we were just a bit early. The developed campgrounds we passed were closed. Just about the time we were going to look for a place to turn around we saw an ‘off road’ camping spot.

A jeep would have been a little better for maneuvering the steep slope up to the top of the knoll but we made it. Here is the view of Pikes Peak from our dining and living room windows. Do you think it was worth it?

Here is Dale getting off the hill and navigating the ‘jeep’ trail pulling our ‘house’.   I am in front of him guiding him via walkie-talkie.  He says that’s as adventuresome as he wants to get.

On our way out we saw the campground we wanted to stay in was now open! 

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, May 18th Lamar, CO

Well, we are becoming quite the “church campers”. After arriving in Lamar and looking around for a place to park for the night we ended by driving by the local Church of Christ on College Rd. The minister, Bill Ferris, happened to be there so we stopped and introduced ourselves and chatted with him a bit. The building there is a work in progress. They are in the process of adding a large auditorium to the current remodeled structure. The original building was a bar they have converted into a nice worship area. The new addition will expand their seating capacity then the current seating space will be used as a fellowship area. Anyway, since the building had lots of space around it, we asked if we could spend the night. Bill was very gracious and told us that would be fine. We were even able to plug into the electric at an outside outlet. There was an RV park just down the road called Country Acres that was a cross between a gravel pit and a dust bowl. We opted for the church parking lot. Gotta love being self-contained!

After getting settled, we went over to the ball park a short distance away and took in part of a Little League baseball game! We came back to the trailer, fixed some popcorn, tethered the phone and brought up the PBS website. We watched the building of Hoover Dam, an episode of An American Experience. I bet that sounds boring, huh? :o) Actually it was quite interesting and we just added Hoover Dam to our ‘must see’ list. Not much to report on a travel day, just another 200 miles of driving.

Stay tuned!

May 16th Heading across Kansas

Yesterday, we left our campspot early heading towards Pratt, KS, a town of about 6000, where we planned to attend church services and spend the night.  It was kind of nice to leave all the rain behind as we had an uneventful day of driving.  We arrived in Pratt to sunshine and nice weather.  After checking out the church location, we made our way to the Super Walmart.

Life on the road is taking some adujusting for me, in a good way though.  I have been in the habit of keeping too much food on hand so I didn't need to go to the store very often.  Since we left Denver 5 weeks ago, I have been trying to use up all the odds and ends of things I originally packed.  My goal is to buy less, more often and keep a minimum of meals on hand.  I have actually been doing quite well.  Since January, I have scaled down my freezer space considerably.  I used to have a small chest freezer and the side-by-side refridgerator/freezer in our condo.  When we sold the chest freezer, I got everything out of it into the side-by-side.  When we sold our condo and moved across the hall I scaled down again to a smaller fridge with a little top freezer.  I probably don't need to tell you what it was like to move into the trailer and have a 10 cubic foot refridgerator/freezer.  But, believe it or not, I am liking it and managing just fine. 

After stopping at a little local park to enjoy some ice cream and watch some little kids playing in the mud we headed back to the church.  We 'boondocked' in the parking lot behind the large church building.  Unfortunately, we 'did not get the memo'.  The sign out front as well as the answering machine and their website said their evening services were at 6 PM.  Six o'clock came and went and no one showed up!  It appears to be a very active church for such a small town.  Quite different than the church we attended last week in West Fork, AR.  They only had 30 in attendance.  The church where we attended with the Elliotts in Rogers, AR is very active.  For a long time they had too many in attendance to fit in the auditorium so they had different services and split the congregation into the auditorium and the large fellowship hall.  They have now 'planted' another congregation on the other side of town and still have 2 services at the Southside, the main congregation .  We are looking forward to attending different churches around the country but are also wanting to settle in somewhere down south this winter for several months and be able to find a chuch home where we might be of service to the brethren.

Today we are don't have a definiate plan on how far we are going to drive.  It seems that for the first time we are going to 'fly by the seat of our pants' with no plans of how far we will drive and where we will stay tonight.  See you next time! 

Catching up on a Couple Busy Weeks

Wow!  I am finding it a lot more difficult than I thought it would be to keep up with daily or even weekly postings!   So, here I am playing catching up again!

As promised, here are a couple more pieces of art by SHAWNA!  She has sold several so far and these are a few she had sitting around in her dining room while we were there.  Mind you, I took these with our camera so it does not do them justice.  She uses beautiful bright colors.

May 3-After a wonderful few weeks of being 'camped' in Shawna's backyard area, we decided to go a little south of Fayetteville to Winn Creek Rv Retreat for a few nights.  As we were getting packed up to leave, one of our slides was not wanting to come in.  Actually, a couple weeks earlier I had heard a loud pop as I was putting the slide out.  Dale had not heard it, so when I told him I was very skiddish about trying to bring it in, he volunteered to do it.  He immediately noticed that the gears on one end were not moving.  With Doug's help, he and Dale pushed on the outside of it while I manned the power button inside.  We called several RV repair places in the area but being a Monday, no one could even look at it until Thursday.  So, we set up an appointment and took off for the camp ground.  Very fortunately, one of the things we like about our 5th wheel floorplan is the fact that, crowded as it is, we can still access the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom area with the slides in.  We were able to camp the 3 nights without extending the one slide.

We took some time to visit Terra Studios home of the original glass "Blue Bird of Happiness".   It was started by a couple as a hobby and has grown into a unique place to create and display various artistic skills.  That is Dale standing among the tgiant "worms", just one of the funky art pieces around the facility.

May 6- On Thursday, we headed up the road to New Hope RV.  After inspecting it, they discovered a weld was broken on the slide mechanism.  But, as usually happens, they found several other things, too.  :o(  We had noticed an odd clunking when we used the jacks to move the trailer up or down.  Dale had asked them to check it out.  They found a 'tooth' was broken on the gear on one side.  Since the jacks we had were no longer in production, they would need  to replace both of the jacks.  Or, we could have chose to use them as they were and just hope we did not get stranded somewhere with jacks that would not function.  We are not sure how the gear in the jack may have gotten damaged, but we opted to have them replaced.  They also noticed the roof was in need of some maintenance.  Now, we knew the roof was needing some attention as it had been sitting for so long unused before we purchased it.  Expensive as it was, we decided to have them recaulk and apply sealant to the roof.  And, were we ever glad we did.  It seems that it has rained every night since we had it done.  We spent  2 nights at New Hope RV.  They were a very accomodating host giving us a key to the gate so we could come and go after they closed up at 6 PM each evening.

May 8- Our second trip back down to Winn Creek campground Dale took me to the Little O' Oprey in West Fork, AR for a Mother's Day treat.  West Fork is a little town of about 2000.  The building is very old and incredibly in need of some TLC.  But, each Saturday for over 21 years they host a Country Music Showcase of local talent. The musicians were incredible.  The participants would step up on the stage, give the band the name of the song and in most cases the key they wanted it played in.  Some of them just sung a couple bars and the band picked right up and joined right in.  For 3 hours we enjoyed the singing of performers from an 8 year old fiddler, some teens and seasoned regulars.

Everyone there was so friendly, you would have thought we were at a chuch event. No drinking, no dirty jokes, just good clean fun.  The couple who sat next to us have been coming every Saturday night for about 18 years! 

We had a wonderful evening and they treated us as honored guests.  During the intermission a lady gave Dale a Country Gospel music CD.  We were also presented a "Blue Bird of Happiness" from Terra Studios for being a first time guest who came the farthest distance.  As we were saying our goodbyes at the door, another lady came up with a bag containing two "Little O' Oprey" 20th anniversary polo shirts for us. 

May 11-  Having said our goodbyes to the Elliott family on Sunday afternoon, we left West Fork/Winn Creek Campground on Tuesday and headed north for Kansas.  We made another stop at the New Hope RV to have them double check the welds on our other slides.  They took a look and reenforced the key places at no charge! 

We drove to Independence, KS and found Mound Valley Campground, a Corp of Engineers Park near Cherryvale. Usually, COE parks have at best electric and water.  This one had two full hookup sites available as they used to be 'camp hosts' sites.  We selected one of them and decided to stay for five nights.

May 12-  We drove the 20 miles or so to the "Little House on the Prarie" site.  The land that the replica is built on has been in the same family for 100 years.  They have the 'little house', an old Post Office from Wayside, KS and an old one room school house they have brought to the grounds.  Next door, behind the old farm house is the hand dug well that Laura tells about Pa and Mr. Scott digging in The Little House on the Prarie.  In fact, the hand dug well is how they were able to identify the piece of land, as it is the only one in the area.

The remainder of our time at Mound Valley was spent continuing to get settled.  It is just like moving, putting things away is an ongoing process for a while until you decide what fits where.  In our case, we are still deciding what we really need to keep and what we need to leave behind.  I feel like the pioneers who had to lighten the wagon as they headed west.  :o)   We were also beginning for feel like Noah with all the rain.  Every night and sometimes during the day it rained!   We did meet some very nice people from Oklahoma while we were there and shared some time around the campfire with them.  They are hoping to go full time when their house sells.  We exchanged information and hope to meet them again 'down the road'.

Soccer, Movies and Art Work

This past weekend it was divide and conquer with the various activities going on here at the Elliott's.   With Doug out of town, we split the duties with Shawna.  Haydn had a soccer game in the morning, Maddie wanted to go to a movie with a friend, and Shawna and Davis were demonstrating their painting skills at an Open House.  Their art instructor, Nadine Ripplemeir, has just recently opened a new studio.  

Shawna was able to make Haydn's soccer game before she went to paint.  But, while Shawna and Davis were at the Open House, Dale and I took Haydn and delivered Maddie to the movie theater in Rogers, a few miles north of Fayetteville.  

Meanwhile, as you may already know, Davis has been painting and selling his artwork for a couple years now.   For the Open House demonstration he worked on finishing his "self portrait" that he had set aside for a while.  Of course, we are the grand parents, but we think it looks amazingly like him.  You can take a look at some of Davis' work at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/davis-elliott.html

Shawna is trying to make time in her busy schedule to paint as well.  We always knew she was artistic but had no idea how much until we saw some of her beautiful art work!  She and Davis both sold some of their work at a local art show a few months ago.   Here are a few photos of some of her work.  Arkansas and Razorbacks fans are one and the same; you can't be one without being the other!  :o)  Shawna is giving a feminine touch to the Razorback hog! 

These photos are a couple of Shawna's pieces on display at Nadine's art studio.  I will post some others later.

A Surprise for Maddie

With Maddie gone to the Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL, Shawna wanted to tackle her room.  For quite sometime Maddie has been needing some way to store and display some of her things.  She had a large desk with a hutch but it had become a dumping ground for so many of the things that did not have a 'home'.  So, we spent about 2 and a half days working like the HGTV show, "Mission Organzation", making her room a place a beautiful space to come home to!

I wish I had taken a 'before' photo but alas, I did not.  So, I leave it to your imagination that the transformation was indeed a wonderful thing.  Since Maddie has so many tee shirts from various sources (volleyball, track, school, etc.) giving her adequate storage for them was her first objective and secondly she needed a place to display items such as her trophies, Elvis collection, various track metals and teenage 'girl stuff'.

We started by completly empting the desk onto the bed, and removing the desk from her room.  Next, Shawna purchased 5 'six-cubed' shelving units, which we all, Grandpa, Shawna and me all worked at putting together.   Maddie had been wanting to display some of the art work Shawna and Davis had done for her, so those were placed on the wall in and around the cubicles. 

On the other side of the room, the desk was removed as she always does her homework downstairs.  Dale installed 5 shelves that Shawna had on her 'one of these days project' list.  Dale put up all the shelves and Shawna created a nice little reading nook by relocating the chair in her room.

Lastly, she had a couple of bulletin boards above her bed that were overflowing with her sports ribbons and momentos from her sporting events.  For her age she is very accomplished in Volleyball and Track.  We repositioned the bulletin boards and Dale put in the 'coat hooks' as an easy and accessible was to display her arrary of metals.  Above the dresser Dale installed yet another shelf.  We also put up tiebacks for the drapes.  So, the unfinished room is now a comfortable and functional space. 

Needless to say, Maddie was totally shocked when she returned home from her trip last night.  She LOVES it and was quite speechless when she saw it!  So, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa, a job well done. And for Maddie a well deserved "thanks for being a great young lady"!!

"Someday" finally arrived!

After a year and a half of selling off funiture, hauling loads of things to donation, and basically thinning out our belongings, we got down to the last several very busy weeks of getting ourselves ready to launch out on our adventure and actually hit the road.

Early in February, after selling the condo we have lived in for 5 years, we moved back across the hall to the smaller condo that we have kept to rent out.   With housing pricing being down, we decided to hang on to it and wait for prices to come back up a bit. 

It seemed that each day we had so much to do.  I had 40+years of photos to sort while Dale had several last minute modifications in the trailer he was tryng to complete.  He has added a few extra shelves for me which has helped immensely in the kitchen area.

April 1st, we moved the 5th wheel from the storage area to a trailer park with hookups so we could get all our things moved in. We set a target date of April 9th to leave.  We had wanted to get our condo rented before we left Denver but decided we would turn it over to our realtor if we did not get it rented ourselves.

God's timing is always the best!  That week of April 5th a very nice couple came to look at our condo and after checking all their references, we were signing a rental contract the day before we wanted to leave Denver.  Writing about it makes it seem so simple, but each day leading up to our departure was long, tiring and stressful.  We could not wait to get on the road just to have some time to rest from all the pre-trip activities.

As it turned out, we did not quite make the Friday, April 9th departure but instead ended up leaving on April 11th.  We wanted to go to Dodge City, KS but instead only made it to Garden City, KS (333 miles) before we were ready to call it a day.  We found a Super Walmart and joined 2 other RVer's who were 'boondocking' there.  (Boondocking is the term used to describe parking somewhere other than a designated campsite and using your self-contained capabilities.)  We parked the rig and went in to ask if we could spend the night.  They were very receptive and hospitable.  So, we spent our first night on the road in a Walmart parking lot!  See their big blue sign in the background?

The next morning we headed out for Kaw Lake near Ponca City, OK.  We arrived at a Corp of Engineers Campground called Coon Creek Campground (315 miles) and settled in for our 3 night stay of R & R.  It was so nice to be at a relaxed pace after all the hub-bub of leaving Denver.  Our campsite afforded us a wonderful view of the lake.  Here is my view out the back 5th wheel living room window............

And, as usual, always tinkering and fixing something, .........here was Dale's view...........
 

Seriously, he did not spend all his time fixing and constructing.  Our second morning there, Dale got up early and surprised me with hot tea.  He had turned our chairs towards the back window and we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise coming up over Kaw Lake.

One morning Dale and I were taking a walk around the campground road when we passed a guy pulling a boat.  In the boat were two other guys.  I kiddingly asked if they were enjoying the ride in their convertible?  Dale asked if they had any luck.  That was the only invitation they needed.  The driver stopped and hollered back, "Show um the big one Kevin!"  They pulled a big ole fighting catfish up out of the tub they had on board! 

The guy in the striped shirt is actually the one who caught it.  Kaw Lake is known for its big catfish.  This year they passed a regulation that you can only take one 'cat' over 30" per person, per day.  Tough rule, huh?

We spent our couple of days there just enjoying the quiet and getting settled in our new living space.  Neither one of us could quite grasp that we had REALLY done it.  We are now 'full-timers' with a 'little house' and a 'big yard' and we can change that view at any time!   This is a concept in living that is entirely new to us.

Our First Lesson Learned On the Road: After traveling two days of driving over 300 miles we found that it takes a bit longer to travel with a 5th wheel than in a car.  So, in order not to arrive stressed, crabby and tired, we are going to make it a rule to drive no futher that 200 miles in one day.  It makes sense, what's the hurry?

Thursday, April 15th we drove the 210 miles into Fayetteville, AR where the our daughter, Shawna and her family were awaiting our arrival.  We backed our 5th wheel into the rocked area at the back of their property.  The next day we helped Shawna get ready for the birthday party/sleepover she had planned for Haydn.   Maddie flew out of Tulsa with a group from school for a Leadership Conference. 

Tonight, Sunday, the boys came over to the 5th wheel for a visit before they went in to go to bed.  It was nice, what all grandparents long to experience!

6 Days in Paradise

We certainly do live in the jet age.  After a 4 hour flight we went from THIS beautiful seaside resort in Cancun, Mexico.......

TO THIS!!


We recently retuned home from a wonderful 5 night trip to the Secrets Resort at Maroma Beach 30 miles south of Cancun, Mexico.   February 18th we left the cold behind and enjoyed living in the lap of luxury for 6 days in Paradise.  Our son, Jeff, invited us to join him on a well earned trip sponsored by Consoldated Supply, one of the suppliers for his construction business.  In spite of it being a very difficult year for Coate Builders, he managed to meet the purchase quota to be rewarded with this all expenses paid, all inclusive trip to Cancun.   Since we have a vested interest in the business we qualified to go along for the ride.  And what a ride it was! 

We were treated royally.  Our flight from Denver took us into Phoenix, AZ where we were greeted by a representative of the travel agency who planned the event.  There we met up with Jeff, and  the rest of the group from the Northwest, to fly on to Cancun.  There were about 200 of us in all.

The resort is hidden away in the jungles of Mexico.  They shuttled us by bus on a very nice highway from the airport to the resort.  Even when you got close you didn't realize it because it is still about a 6 minute drive back in from the main road.  The  photo to the right is the view from the main building looking down the center.  The buildings housing the 412 rooms are located on either side of this main walkway.  The curvy lines on the right of the walkway is a shallow water feature that is lighted up at night.







Our suite had everything a body could want.  It came equipped with a  king size bed, a large screen TV, 24 hour room service, a fully stocked wet bar, a jaccuzi tub, bathrobes, slippers, a beautiful view and more!

One of the highlights of the visit was our day trip to the Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins.  It was a 2 hour bus ride from the resort to the ruins location.  Very nice road but the scenery from the window is miles and miles of jungle!  On the way we stopped at this 'sink hole' where some of the Mayan people greet and sell items to the tourists.   Photo above: A picture does not do it justice but you can get a perspective of the size if you can find the man on the left of the pool getting ready to dive in.  The tour guide pointed out how tourism has given so much to the Mayan people in the way of sustaining themselves.  He said they are a very industrious people and you will never see them begging in the streets.   It is said that the Mayan's civilization disappeared but they are still in Mexico.  The Mayan's have a very distinct look about them.  They are very different from the Mexican in that they are smaller in stature and have almond shaped eyes.  The women traditionally wear beautifully embroidered dresses.  Left: This young lady was handing out keys to the dressing room lockers.

Our next stop was the Chichen Itza Ruins site.  There are countless opinions and speculations about the Mayan civilation and one can only guess which stories are true.  But, we do know that because of its grandeur, in July 2007 it was listed among the "New Seven Wonders of the World".  The photos cannot begin to convey the size and magnitude of these structures.  When you think that they were constucted about 500 AD it is mind boggling.  Again, you can get a feel for the size by looking at the people in the foreground. There is so much more to see than the camera eye can take in.   The photo on the left is the main attraction and the one on the right is a photo of part of the Market Place.

The Mayans were a very advanced civilization.  Above left is a shot of the observatory and on the right is one of the  many detailed carvings at the Ball Court, which is a large open rectangular sports center.

Our visit there really peaked our curiosity and made us want to read and investigate more into these facinating people and places.

And then there was the food!  Each day the big decision was what and where to eat that evening.  The resort offered several beautiful 5 star restaurants to choose from.  While there, we enjoyed Italian, Pan Asian, French, seafood and steak.  The night before we left we ate French cuisine (photo right) at the Bordeaux.  And, keep in mind EVERYTHING, including tips, was paid for by Consolidated Supply!  The only thing we had to pay for was our day trip to Chichen Itza.

They also had shows each evening.  We attended a Circus Cirque one evening,and went to see the movie "Avatar" another. 

It truly was 6 days in Paradise!  And thus ended a spectacular trip to remember!

Oh, by the way.  In case you do not recognize him, that really is Dale in the photo with me.  He's just gone wild on me!  :o)