2012 comes to an end

Another year goes down in the books.  It was marked by my second retirement, the last one hopefully, and several of our friends' retirements as well, must be getting older :-)  Our son's marriage, visiting family that we haven't seen in a long time, traveling with both of Jan's sisters, and being fancy free on the road, a long time dream.  We dealt with our internet and phone issues and are very pleased with the results.  We changed from 2 MacBook Pro laptops and 2 iPhones to 1 MacBook Pro, an iPad, and 2 iPhones, and are happy with that set up.  We got a new mail forwarder and address which helped our motorhome insurance, but hurt our Jeep insurance, hard to figure.  We did not use our kayaks at all and are reevaluating our water needs.  In fact, I think I will be selling my kayak.  We both have bikes now and enjoyed them a lot, and continue to enjoy them.  We were quite active physically, but as Jan says and she's right, I could be even more active for my own good ;-)

Thought it might be interesting to post a few of our stats throughout the year:

We stayed at 52 different campgrounds, and only one would we not go back to.  We had wanted to increase our time in each campground for two reasons, one to slow down, and two to save money, and we did okay, but want to extend it a bit more.
We averaged $28/night, with zero dollars being the low, and $59.35 being the high, all in all a bit more than we wanted to spend.  

We drove 11,524 miles in the motorhome, and drove the Jeep approximately 15,000 miles.  Our longest day in the motorhome was 416 miles and the shortest was 20 miles between campgrounds.  We wanted shorter days and we did very well in this department.

We used 1900 gallons of diesel fuel with the average price $3.99/gal.  The most we paid was $4.35, and the lowest was $3.66.  Slowing down gained us more than 15% in fuel economy!

We slept in 12 different states.

We met our budget in terms of campgrounds and fuel.

Looking to next year I anticipate fuel to be a bit more, and the campground prices to go up a bit that we will try to offset by staying a little longer at each one.  Also we endeavored to stay at more State and National Parks, and we did, but their prices are creeping up as well.  We believe we will drive a little less next year as right now we are contemplating staying on the East coast for a change, and will try to get up into Canada.  We have about 75,000 miles on our motorhome now so will have to get the first engine service, a valve adjustment, but are not anticipating any large maintenance issues, but as you observed this year, sometimes things just pop up!  

All in all a very good year, and if our government doesn't completely fall apart, we are looking forward to another wonderful year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!!

Our winter spot

It occurred to me that I have referenced our spot in Nokomis, but haven't showed you where we are spending the winter.  We are in the back of the Encore Royal Coachman resort on one of only 5 pull throughs out of hundreds of regular sites.  What is unique to our site is we have quite a bit of room and privacy on our living side.  You can get some idea from the photos.  Encore is an old resort among many pine trees and it takes some imagination to figure out the sites, kind of like someone was playing pick up sticks.  Anyway here is our home sweet home for the winter.

Our Earthboxes in the foreground

This gives you an idea of the size of our site

Here they come!

Winter in Florida.  After Christmas the snowbirds start arriving in earnest.  The campground is about 2/3's full, but tons are arriving daily.  I'm sure all the bad weather up north has undoubtably altered a lot of plans.  Most of the people here are going to stay 3-4, and even 6 months.  Every site is full and reservations are already made for the next year!

Our tomato plants are growing well, and the basil plant is already overflowing the small Earthbox.  We are over the hump with my Mom for the time being, so we can't put off our projects any longer.  All but one part has arrived so we've got to get to it.  I haven't even washed and waxed the rig yet!  We got our bikes tuned up today, so since we are only about a mile from the Legacy Trail we will get back to riding as well as walking.

A Christmas Scare

After a very nice Christmas Eve dinner with my mom, spent visiting and talking about old times, we wished her good night and headed back to the motorhome.  We got a call later that night that she was in distress, and after many hours got her somewhat squared away, although at times we thought we were going to lose her.  Christmas day wasn't too much better, she was very weak, and pretty resigned to not being able to live on her own any more.  But at about 8pm, she surprised us by getting up off the couch, marched into the bathroom, and got into bed all on her own!  Today she woke and announced she was feeling pretty good, got up, got dressed, came out, had breakfast and lunch with us, and is feeling much, much better.  We don't call her the Energizer Bunny for nothing!  We are hoping there are many more ups than downs as the Bunny winds down.

Merry Christmas!

Here it is, Christmas Eve, wow the year has flown by!  A lot sure has happened this year, another retirement, a lot of travel, our son getting married, failing health of my mom, the upcoming retirement of a good friend, Larry, John's retirement from Delta, and early next year, Karen's retirement, the ability to have spent time on the road with Nancy and CT, and Karen, visits with Viv, a fantastic time seeing Sandy and Kris and their clan, a wonderful unexpected visit with Bruce and Cathie to name just a few of the things.  Christmas has never been a big holiday for me, the commercialism has almost destroyed it for me.  I cherish Thanksgiving and that's when I give thanks for everything and enjoy time with family and friends.  This Christmas is a bit poignant though, Kelly and the kids aren't coming, Jason and Jessica have plans with their family, mom isn't up to much, another part of the family is mostly together in Auburn.  We've spent Christmas apart before, but this time it seems a little lonely.  We are getting together for Christmas Eve dinner with mom, and will see her in the morning for brunch, then we'll have Christmas dinner with Ray and April.  I am confident it will be nice, but it will be quiet.  

Jan and I found out we are not as young as we once were.  We helped Jason and Jessica move on Saturday, and by the end of the day we were hobbling around, Jan might say I was hobbling around, but we both ended up in bed by 8pm, dead to the world.  But amazingly enough neither of us had any lingering aches or stiffness the next morning!  

So Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you are where you want to be with the people you want to be with, and send out wishes and prayers for all the folks that are away from their families, particularly our military that are far, far from home and family.

Happy Birthday to me!

Jan took me up to the Apple store yesterday and bought me a birthday present, a new iPhone 5!  Very cool, it has a lot of features that my old 4 didn't have, and now I have Siri which is frankly amazing.  You just talk to the phone, Siri really, ask questions, tell it do things, add things to the calendar, direct you to somewhere, almost anything and it does! How do it do that??

As to DirecTV, I had my doubts that it was possible to add a Whole Home System to our motorhome, but they assured me it was possible, and of course, when the installer got here he said no way can I install a Whole Home System, just what I thought.  So he exchanged our SD DVR for a new HD DVR, and we are happy campers, even more so since DirecTV with prodding agreed to take some money off our bill for our "trouble".  So now we have a much larger HD TV in the bedroom, with a DVR!

We have been spending quite a bit of time with my Mom trying to take care of lots of little things as she gets her affairs in order.  Sounds a bit morbid, but if more people took the time and effort to do it ahead of time, life would be easier for those who remain.  It's a very responsible thing to do, and one Jan and I have and will do for ourselves.  Unfortunately death is a part of life.

We have been having a good time getting together with family and friends, the weather up til last night has been fantastic.  Last night a cold front moved through with thunder and lightning, pouring rain, and wind, wind, wind!  It is still very windy now and is supposed to stay with us until later tonight, and get this, a low of 40 tonight!  Don't laugh, here in Florida, that is really cold.

Pretty uneventful

Yesterday I made my foray to Atlanta and I have to admit it was no big deal.  My first contact was at the Sarasota airport at the unGodly hour of 5am, so it wasn't busy at all, big surprise, huh?  They were friendly and once I knew what to do it was a piece of cake.  Onto the airplane, good ride, good weather, and the rental car waiting for me with a free upgrade to a brand new Taurus, which was quite nice by the way.  Took a while to learn to even turn on the radio, but very nice.  Into the dentist's office right on time, then for some unknown reason, he had some difficulty getting me numb.  In fact when all was said and done it took almost 40 minutes to get me ready, but after I was numb, the rest of the process only took a few minutes.  Back in the car, turned it in, and even the security in Atlanta was palatable although busy, got to the gate 40 minutes before departure, right on the plane, and back by 2:30!  So that's all done.

Jan took the opportunity of me being away to wash all the windows on the coach, so they are gleaming this morning as we wait for the DirecTV guy to show.  I'll let you know how it goes.

New TV and Flying???

Jan and I went back to Costco to see if we could exchange the first TV which was too big.  We found a Samsung 27" 1080p HDTV that would fit.  Funny it was more money than the 32" we returned!  With some engineering and messing around we mounted the new TV just in front of the cabinet instead of in it and it looks quite good.  Presently we have a SD DVR in the bedroom so part of this process is getting a HD DVR.  I talked to DirecTV for about an hour and on Wednesday they are coming to install a new HD DVR in the bedroom and adding a Whole House System that will enable us to watch programs that have been recorded on either DVR in either room.  Should be cool.  I tried to convince them to just send the equipment to me and I would install it, but no dice.

I spent in excess of 35 years in airports and flying all over the country.  I've been retired now for about 6 months and haven't missed it very much, except now and then the "flying" part, but on Tuesday, tomorrow, I have to fly up to Atlanta, rent a car, see the dentist, and fly back down to Sarasota, and you know what?  I am absolutely dreading it.  Going through the hassles of security, wondering if I'm going to get on the plane ( I ride space available), and getting the rental car is not exciting me.  But it definitely beats driving 10 hours to Atlanta, staying overnight and driving 10 hours back.  Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the benefit, the only one left, of being able to fly free.  I was always thankful when I was working that so many people, customers of the airlines I flew for, were willing to put up with the hassles of flying in today's environment.  If they hadn't I wouldn't have had a job.

Slowly starting in on the Projects

We have been here for 10 days and slowly getting into a routine.  A lot of the frenzy is over now, so we are starting to take a look at our Project list.  We want to replace the TV in our bedroom.  It is a small 19" flat screen that is not HD, so we are looking for the biggest HDTV we can put in that looks okay.  Jason and I ran up to Costco yesterday and were really excited when we found a 32" that we thought would fit.  But we only measured one dimension, no I don't know why, and after messing around awhile, Jan vetoed it and I agree it looked funny hanging out past the cabinet.  So back to Costco we are going this morning and Jan and I will see if we can find something else that will fit properly. 
Our Project list is long and made up of a "To Do" list and a "Wish" list.  We plan to work through the To Do list first and see what happens on the other.  Unfortunately we have had to do a repair here and there as well.  I told you we repaired our satellite dish the other day.  Well now our WiFi amplifier system is acting up.  We have an external antenna and amplifier that is not working properly.  I have been in contact with the manufacturer and together we have determined that it isn't a software issue so they want me to send back the antenna and amp so they can either repair or replace it.  So up on the roof we will have to go and tear off the antenna and wiring to send it back, a not planned on project.  But worth it as this system has been terrific in our travels so it's important to get it fixed.  Then Jan noticed her remote for our Sleep Number bed wasn't readable, she couldn't make out the digits, so I figured we'd just have to get a new remote, well, I find out it is hardwired into the pump.  So a call to Sleep Number was in order.  We love the Sleep Number bed, to make a bed adjustable is a great thing and we find it very comfortable, but we had never had an issue previously so wondered how their customer service would be?  It was terrific!  Turns out they have a prorated 20 year warranty, so they would cover 64% of the price of a new pump with wireless remotes!  They don't make a wired remote system anymore, so we get a brand new pump and 2 wireless remotes for a very little bit of money.  A good thing!

Once we get the bedroom TV done I want to replace the front TV as well.  This is something that is really on the Wish list but I would like to replace our 720p, 37" HDTV with a 46", 1080p HDTV and I think we can just shoehorn it in.  We'll see after the bedroom is done.  Then the list goes on........

Gardening

I have mentioned several times that there are advantages and disadvantages to this RV lifestyle.  We think it tips way in favor, but one of the things Jan misses most is not having a garden and being able to play in the dirt as she calls it.  We have used Earthboxes in the past with exceptional results. This is an example of a tomato plant we grew in an Earthbox in Atlanta.

We had about 6 or 7 Earthboxes that we used when we had a house, but we gave them to Kelly.  When we visited this fall we "stole" one of them back!  Also we picked up a new little Earthbox and have another small planter.  Jan planted 2 tomato plants, a pepper plant, about 5 different herbs, and some flowers, so she is happy, happy.

We've had a busy week, two birthday celebrations, lots of visiting, lots of errands and doctor visits, so we are hoping to kind of ease into the next week.  We had an unexpected repair needed to our satellite dish.  We had noticed on our way down to Florida that we weren't receiving HD signal, but wrote it off to some trees that we convinced ourselves were blocking the view.  But after we arrived we put up the dish and still had no HD signal with an absolutely unimpeded view to the sats.  After a satisfying call to Winegard, the dish antenna manufacturer, they found out the arm holding the dish in alignment was bad, so I ordered a replacement and Jan and I installed it yesterday, HD is back!  Sad, but gotta have HD and a DVR!

The weather so far has been absolutely fantastic!  It is Florida winter weather that you hope for, sunny skies, low 80's in the daytime and 50's at night with very acceptable humidity.  Here's hoping it lasts the rest of the winter.

FLORIDA!

We made it.  We are now at Royal Coachman Encore in Nokomis, FL, and pretty settled in at site PT5.  It's going to be home for the next 4 months.  It dawned on Jan and I as we were nearing that we have never ever spent this much time in one place.  While it's true we were in Atlanta for plus or minus 6 years, we were on the move every chance we got even if for a few days.

We knew it would be hectic, especially this first week until we settle in to a more normal routine.  We went over first thing to see my mom, she put on a brave face, but is very tired, just plain worn out.  We took her to two doctors yesterday, and then took a few minutes at the jetty, a beautiful day, then left her at home pretty wiped out from the day.  Said hello to Ken and Carole, and Pat and John at her park.  Then hellos to Jack and Betty, and Harvey, unfortunately Jean had a fall and is in rehab for a few more days.  Our son Jason and daughter in law Jessica are coming to dinner, then plans with Ray and April, and what do you know, every evening this week is penciled in.  Also we met our mail forwarder and picked up some mail, have to go to the DMV today and get our address changed, then change our address in order to vote next year.  Ordered a part for our satellite dish as we lost our HD channels.  Started our subscription to the local paper, but are having a lot of problems getting it started, I guess they don't know where we are!  Need to get new glasses, have to work in a trip back to Atlanta for my permanent crown.  We need to see Dick and Ann soon and see how they fared staying in Florida for the whole summer, and, and.....

And we need to get lobsters for dinner for my birthday, and Jan hinted she is going to get me a new iPhone for my birthday.  Lots of stuff happening.

What a small world!

We were running some errands yesterday to be ready to head out this morning, and as we were going south on I-75, Jan yelled to look at that!  And sure enough going north on I-75 was our identical twin motorhome.  We have never seen a duplicate of ours before, same model but never the same color.  We didn't think much more about it, and as we pulled back into the campground, lo and behold, there was our twin parked right across from us! We wandered over to tell the owners what great taste they had in motorhomes:-)
Now for the small world part.
When we were negotiating with Lazy Days to buy our present motorhome, we had taken a little trip to Hendersonville, NC, and while we were there we had stumbled across the same motorhome and tried to buy it.  It had a Cummins instead of a Detroit Diesel, and I didn't know much about Detroits at the time and we tried and tried to make a deal on the one in NC with the Cummins, but they couldn't meet our price so we bought our present motorhome from Lazy Days.  Well, talking to these folks, it turns out their motorhome is the EXACT motorhome we tried to buy!  How weird is that?

Us in the back

Our front end

Our twin in the background

Still here

Just a quick post to let you know we all still here, but busy, busy.  We have seen doctors, the dentist and had great times with friends, Brett and Sandra; and John and Diane.  The dentist has consumed 3 days instead of just one as I have a couple issues that need to be taken care of.  He has fit me into his busy schedule and it is most appreciated.  I am having a problem with an existing crown and just to be sure I didn't need a root canal, I had to see a specialist, thankfully he didn't think I needed it, so I have to get a new crown installed and a bad filling taken care of.  Glad to do it here with a dentist, Dr. Mulkey that I trust completely.

So off to spend several hours at the dentist and revisit our storage unit to get the few things we need out and put in a few items we don't need to be carrying around.  Before we know it Sunday morning will be here and we will be southbound towards Florida.

The Second Top 10, Campgrounds

As I promised, here is our list of our favorite 10, really 11 campgrounds, again in no particular order.  Over the years we have stayed in hundreds of different places, so these really stand out for us.

Boardman Marina Park-Boardman, OR
This is a city run park and marina.  Absolutely pristine, paved sites, large with privacy, but the kicker is, it is right on the Columbia River with a western view, so the sunsets across the river are spectacular!  And you can wash the rig.

Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort-Las Vegas, NV
This is a top shelf resort just off the strip on the south side of town.  It is a condo park in that each site is owned, and can be rented out when the owner is away.  It is totally landscaped and most sites have outdoor kitchens and bars, fire pits, cabanas, etc.  The sites are large, and the resort is large but with the individual landscaping it is also quite private.  There is a Par 3 executive golf course, numerous pools, activities, live entertainment many nights, a huge club house, and very friendly people.  We actually had signed on the bottom line for a lot here, but due to unexpected circumstances, we had to back out, that's how much we liked it!

Big Bear Shores-Big Bear Lake, CA
This also is a condo park with all lots owned and in addition to gorgeous landscaping and outdoor patios and kitchens and fire pits, it is right on the shore of gorgeous Big Bear Lake in California!  The view and scenery of rising mountains across the beautiful lake are breathtaking!

Grizzley RV Park-West Yellowstone, WY
This is a fairly large campground in the town of West Yellowstone just outside the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  All sites are paved with paved patios, large and have considerable room between sites with green, green grass.  It is a manicured park with all the amenities you expect in a high line park.  It is dark at night, close enough to walk into town, and is well managed.

Willow Tree Resort-Longs, SC
This is a fabulous large campground fairly near Myrtle Beach.  It is park-like, and most of the sites are right on the shore of a fairly large lake, some even with hot tubs!  There are tons of paved trails including all around the lake.  It is quiet and dark with huge sites, all paved with patios.

Alpen Rose RV Park-Durango, CO
As long as you stay in the sites out front, particularly the large pull-throughs on the south side, this is a fantastic campground.  Large sites, the ones on the south side are enormous!  Lots of green grass, killer scenery with towering mountains all around, fast wifi, good water pressure, and dark at night.

Riverbend-Hiawassee, GA
This is a small family run campground right on a small river in north Georgia.  Big, big sites, lots of grass, very private, and nice people.  It is dark at night, and feels very comfortable to us.

Caney Creek RV Resort-Harriman, TN
This is a large resort right on the shore of Watts Bar Lake in Tennessee.  It is all paved, landscaped with large sites, some of which are right on the shoreline.  They also have a marina and lots of paved walking trails.  Even as large as it is, it is quiet and dark at night.

Wells Beach Resort-Wells, ME
This a large, high line resort right off Rte 1 in Wells, ME, about 2 miles from the ocean.  It is nice with huge very desirable sites way in the back that are enormous and have astro turf patio areas with fire pits.  That sounds a little tacky as I write this but actually it is very nice, looks good, and you can walk all around bare-footed and be very comfortable.  Very fast wifi, and very dark at night in beautiful coastal Maine.

The Ozarks Outdoor Resorts-Oak Grove, AR
This is one of the Outdoor Resorts facilities.  There used to be many of these very high line resorts all around the country.  It is near Branson, MO and perched on a hillside overlooking Table Rock Lake.  The campground is top shelf, again a condo park, with landscaped sites including outdoor patios, kitchens, fire pits, etc.  Since it is terraced on the hillside, virtually every site has a sensational view of the lake and the rolling green hills all around.  Big sites, lots of privacy, and dark at night.

I said top 10, but I'm going to include one more, our absolutely favorite campground anywhere, and unfortunately not open to the general public, I know, kind of a dirty trick, huh?  It is the Windenskye Farm in Louisville, KY!  It is Jan's sister, Karen and her husband Tom's farm that I have mentioned many times before.  It is on a rolling, green, treed, and open gorgeous 50 acres of Kentucky's finest land.  There are undulating fences and grazing horses, and total peace and quiet.  The "campground" is a full 1/4 mile from the house so it's like you are parked out there all by yourself.  Full hookup, lots of room, and the ability to mow to my heart's content.  Thanks Karen and Tom for making this available to us!

These are our top 10, but obviously other parks may appeal more to you than these.  We don't have young kids anymore, so these are not necessarily "kid friendly" campgrounds, they certainly don't all have playgrounds, or pools, or game rooms, but they do have a special appeal to us.

South we go

Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours!  It was a hectic fun day full of fantastic food and fellowship.  We all ate too much, but still managed to cram in some pie.  And Friday not to be outdone was sensational turkey sandwiches, are they really better than turkey dinner, followed by Kathleen's scrumptious shrimp gumbo for dinner!

Saturday morning started off with Kelly and Todd's departure at 6am followed soon by our departure at 730am with Ray and April following us.  After unfortunately ripping up our wheel well pulling out of Karen's driveway again, we were off for a pleasant day of driving back down to the Atlanta area to our old campground at Lake Allatoona.  And what a change there!  When we left in March, there were perhaps 35-40 folks who basically lived there including us, in other words long term renters.  For whatever reason the management has prohibited any stays longer than a month, so now there are only about 10-15 RVs here.  After a bit of a fiasco with our site that we had reserved and moving to a different site we are all settled back in for a week.  The campground has a completely different feel now, now that a lot of the "permanents" are gone.  It is so, so much better.

We had a nice evening with our houseguests, Ray and April, and of course, we ran over and bought a couple PowerBall tickets to win the $325 million, we didn't but no one else did either.  Ray and April left for Florida a little while ago, and Jan and I are getting ready for a busy, busy week.  Friends to see, doctors to see, the dentist, and a bit of time in our storage unit, are all on our agenda.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Everyone that is coming to Louisville is here now with Kathleen's arrival last night.  We are sure looking forward to the big day today and have had a great week already.  We sure are thankful for all we have, but especially for our family and friends.  Have a wonderful day!

Top 10 list

While we were visiting Larry and Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen asked a simple question that momentarily stumped us both, "What are your favorite places as you travel?"  Seems like it should have been an easy and quick answer, but both of us were silent and stammering.  We have never exactly looked at it like that.  We enjoy the entire experience, including the drive as well as the destination.  It's true we go back to many places again and again so that would indicate it would be a favorite, right?  Not necessarily, we may go back to the same place for other reasons, a visit, maintenance, fuel, particular food, etc.  Well, Jan and I have been talking about our favorite 10 places and decided to break it up into 2 Top 10 lists, one for the destination and area, and the other for our favorite 10 campgrounds.  As we made our lists it was apparent we could not put them in any particular order.  Also, we have many more favorite places, but these are what we would put in our top 10.

Yellowstone National Park
The diversity of the terrain, the wildlife, scenery, hiking, and breathtaking beauty.

Durango, CO
The topography, 4wd roads and trails, mountains, proximity to mining history and towns such as Silverton and Ouray to mention two, hiking, biking, and it feels good.

Las Vegas, NV
Odd one, but fun for a visit, intriguing, great people watching, shows, bigger than life, and great food.

Austin, TX
The whole area of the Hill Country, the ranches, the openness, great variety of food, and of course friends, and don't forget the BBQ.

Venice/Sarasota, FL
Our "home", feels like home, comfortable, nice weather, tons to do, family and friends, lots of great restaurants.

Santa Fe, NM
Scenic, artsy, in a good way, nice feel, great food, close to family.

Maine coast, from Kittery to Acadia National Park
Spectacular mountainous coastline down east to wide open beaches down south, the ocean, walking, hiking, biking.  Kittery with its shopping and food, Wells with its superb beach, Freeport with its harbor and shopping, Portland, a fantastic city, Casco and Penobscot bays, absolutely beautiful, Bar Harbor, a cool touristy down east town, and Acadia National Park with its scenery, biking, hiking, and Cadillac Mountain.

Banff-Jasper, and the Canadian Rockies
Awesome scenery, rugged, rocky, severe mountains, glaciers, aqua colored lakes, high class town, and quite remote.

Denver, CO
Mountains, scenery, nice comfortable city, lots to do and see, hiking, biking.

Alaska
What can you say?  It has it all, scenery, wildlife, fishing, hiking, exploring, absolute serenity, solitude, mountains, glaciers, bald eagles, salmon, halibut, wilderness, extreme  weather and topography, the last frontier!

So this is our list, and as I said we have many more favorite places, in fact, everywhere we've been we have been able to find something interesting to explore or experience.  But this is a start.  Thanks Mary Ellen for making us think about this.  What are some of your favorites?

Our top 10 campgrounds will follow soon.

Anticipation

Monday of Thanksgiving week and anticipation is building.  Ray and April are more than half way and will arrive later today.  Tom will get back from work this afternoon. Kelly and Todd are preparing for a very early departure tomorrow for their 780 mile drive!  Rachel is supposed to arrive today, but the jury is still out :-)  

Lots of folks descending on Kentucky for a great week together with good food and friendship.  This is my favorite holiday of the year.  It's nice to be with family and friends to remember how thankful you are for all you have, and try to erase any of the bad times.  You are buoyed up by good feelings and fellowship.  We do wish more family could attend and will be missed, but everyone is so dispersed across the country, it gets harder and harder.  Even Karen and Tom's boys won't be here this year, nor Jason and Jessica.  As the families grow it is difficult to have a large gathering over a holiday as everyone, especially the younger ones are pulled in many different directions at once with other family obligations.  Everyone will be thought about and missed if they were unable to join us.

Let the party begin!

What a set up!

We are just enjoying our time here in Kentucky, could be a little warmer though:-)  Got to mow for about 6 hours, got the motorhome washed, just in time for a day of incredible wind and rain, perfect, huh?  Jan got her hair cut, a big deal.  Been visiting with Tom and Karen, and Steve and Bobbie, just taking it easy and slow.  Retirement, right?

Thought I'd share just a couple pictures of the farm to give you an idea of where we are.

Front of the house

Back view

View over the pool closed for the winter

Looking out past the pond

Back pasture

Out front

3 of the 4-legged inhabitants 

Not too shabby, huh?  Our "campsites" are a full 1/4 mile from the house.  Quiet, dark at night, pretty darn peaceful.  Here are a few views from "our" place.

Home Sweet Home

We are starting to anticipate the Thanksgiving festivities next week, starting with some of the plans.  We are disappointed Jason and Jessica are not going to be able to come, but are very happy Kelly, Todd, and the grandkids are coming this year.  Can't wait for Ray and April to get here, they will probably arrive first.  Looking forward to seeing Rachel, and Kathleen, and to meet Joey.  Beware turkeys, we are coming for you!

A short post, but a good post!

The Energizer Bunny is still running!  Mom went back home today after spending the weekend in the Hospice House.  We are so happy!  She said she could get used to going away for the weekends and being waited on :-)  She is so much happier in her own little house and we pray she is able to stay there for awhile, certainly until we get there in December.  

Chillin, but ready to move?

We're in Louisville now at our very favorite "campground", Karen and Tom's beautiful Windenskye farm parked alongside friends and fellow full-timers, Steve and Bobbie.  We've had a nice get-together with everyone, and a good catch up.  It occurred to us that we haven't had the motorhome here since last Thanksgiving, and our last visit was a quick dash in the Jeep up from Atlanta in January.  It's sure nice being back, it is a quiet, peaceful, absolutely gorgeous place.

We got some packages too.  We finally replaced the horrible day/night shades in the bedroom with MCD blinds.  The day/night shades are a real challenge, hard to operate, hard to keep even, easily break, and oh did I mention, we hate them!  So MCD is having a sale, something they have never done before so we jumped on the opportunity and now have two new MCD shades.  The MCDs are nice in that they operate like a very sophisticated roller blind, except they go up and down with little effort, and retract with a very measured smooth motion.  They also have one shade for day time, and one for night time that completely blocks the light.  We are very pleased.

We also got the replacement air deflector for the Jeep that was broken on the interstate in Georgetown, and the diesel mechanic aka Jan, replaced that herself.  

Also while we are here I love to mow the grass.  There is plenty of it too!  Maybe 30 acres or so.  They have a zero turn mower, the "Z", that is a delight to use.  I like running it around mowing and just letting my mind go, it is so relaxing just looking at the beauty of the surroundings while going to and fro.  Unfortunately, the Z came to a screeching halt yesterday while I was on it:(  I have to do some investigation to see if I can repair it temporarily or whether it has to be taken to the dealer.  They also have a tractor with a bush hog that is enjoyable but not nearly the fun the Z is.

Into each day a storm sometimes arises.  My Mom who is seriously ill had a setback yesterday and was moved into a Hospice House to treat an acute situation that is unrelated to her cancer.  It could be a critical turning point near the end of her life.  We are praying that she pops out of there and is able to go back home, normally she is like the Energizer Bunny and pops back, but maybe not this time.  Time will tell, so needless to say we are ready to run to Florida at a moment's notice if necessary.

Finally, finally, finally fixed

The last two days have been challenging.  We ran down to Livingston, TX to meet Rudy, our Aqua-hot service man, a very pleasant gentleman.  We both thought my new control box was bad.  He checked our unit over, replaced the nozzle, seems there is an upgraded nozzle since I installed ours.  He tried to start it to no avail, put his test box on and it fired right up.  He concurred that my new box was bad so put on a new box and no dice.  It would not light.  Even tried another new box he had and no luck.  With much troubleshooting he determined the flame sensor was good, the ignitor and electrodes were good, the high limit thermostat was good, the fuel solenoid was good, but for some reason there was no current coming out of 3 new control boxes to light the burner?????  He conferred with the Aqua-hot guru and he was pretty stumped as well, but suggested bypassing the high limit thermostat, we did and no light!!  Getting very frustrating for BOTH of us!  We took a break, did some brainstorming, tried several more things, all with no luck until he finally called Aqua-Hot directly, gave them the situation, and they were perplexed as well, said the only thing left was to replace the control board, the circuit board brains of the system, and boom.....it lit!!  With great relief of finally fixing the problem I got the bad news that the control box wasn't bad after all, so $800 down the drain, as Roger Berke would not take it back.  Just to be perfectly honest it was made clear to me that the control box was a nonreturnable item.  Bottom line, we should have detoured over to see Rudy when we were in Georgetown and had it fixed then.  It would have saved me the $800 part.  So after 3 1/2 hours of which Rudy did not charge me all of it, I wrote another big check and off we went northbound and ended up in Texarkana after dark, a long, long day, but pleased the Aqua-hot was fixed.

Not so fast!  We left the diesel on for our hot water and it was performing super, but it was cold in the morning so I turned on the heat in all 3 zones and...........nothing!  No heat, no fans running, no response of any kind.  What the hell?  I have a service manual for the unit so I went digging, still way too early to call Rudy.  I find out that there is a small jumper on the circuit board that has to be set a particular way for the interior heat to work, could it be that?  So in the dark at 40 degrees with flashlights, Jan and I go out to pull out the circuit board and check, and absolutely the jumper is not in position!  I correct it and boom all the fans come on.  Yippee!  We go back inside figuring we are done, although when it gets a little later I want to call Rudy and let him know.  Except that while eating breakfast we notice that the air coming out of the heating radiators in the front living area is COLD!  Now what?  It's light now so I want to determine exactly what is happening before I call Rudy, so with Jan inside adjusting the 3 thermostats I monitor what is happening at the control board.  Each zone has a set of radiators with fans that are heated by a loop with a circulating pump, and I can readily monitor the system as Jan calls for heat in each one.  First the bedroom, Zone #1 and Pump #1, ON, check.  Second the bathroom, Zone #2 and Pump #2, check.  Finally the living area, Zone #3 and Pump #1, what the heck?  Where is Pump #3?  No wonder there is no heat, but the fans run, now it's time to call Rudy.  He apologizes and apologizes, we were so relieved when the burner lit he didn't do due diligence on the new control board and I was remiss in not checking out the ENTIRE system before we left.  He said I had done the right thing with the jumper, but there were 3 other jumpers that needed to be positioned correctly as well.  I did that and this time I kept him on the phone until we had operated each zone, cycled the diesel on and off, and made sure the engine preheat loop was working. Then Rudy did a very honorable thing, he said he would send me back $50 to pay me for doing his job with the control board.  Everyone makes a mistake now and then, but very few people stand up and take responsibility anymore.  Rudy did a great job, was careful and meticulous and very courteous, and even though we had this issue I would recommend his work to anyone, and can be assured he will never let another repair go without a very thorough check again!

So after a 2 hour delay yesterday morning our plans for a 500 mile day vanished so right now we are in Sikeston, MO with about a 250 mile drive today into Louisville.  Oh yeah, the Aqua-hot is working like a champ!!!!!

NOT FIXED!

Well instead of heading north to Louisville so we could watch the election results with Tom and Karen, we are heading SOUTH 150 miles to Livingston, TX to meet Rudy who is going to try to fix our Aqua-Hot.  As I said we left it on diesel for the last few days and it had been working fantastic right up until I was taking a shower yesterday morning when the water got colder and colder!  Then it wouldn't light again.  Tried 5 or 6 times with no luck.  Got on the phone with Rudy a repair service in Houston and set it up for him to meet us in the Walmart parking lot in Livingston, TX to see if we can't save a little time.  He is about 1 1/2 hours away from there, so hopefully he will get us fixed up and on our way.  It sure is looking like our new $800 control box is bad.  This way we should arrive in Louisville on Wednesday.

New part's in

We ended up getting the new control box a day early, thank you UPS.  It went in this morning with great anticipation.  We turned the diesel burner on and..............nothing.  What????????  We cycled the switch and it lit right off, then we cycled it about 6 more times and it lit each time.  Is it fixed?  I called Roger the guru and asked him if this was normal, he said sometimes on the first attempt with a new box it doesn't light.  So we hope it's fixed, we are going to make all our hot water with diesel over the next few days and see what happens.  Keep your fingers crossed!

The grandkids went Halloweening and were very successful, about 20 pounds of candy each!  Jan and I aren't big on Halloween so we begged off while Kelly, Todd, and the kids went to a get together first, then trick or treating.  The kids were cute though.

Snow Queen and Harry Potter

We have had a great time visiting with our grandkids, they are growing like weeds.  Kelly and Todd have made their house a home and are surrounded with friendly neighbors with lots of kids.  It will be a great place to grow up.  

Jan and I went to the Eastern Texas Oil Museum and found out the biggest oil field in the lower 48 is right here in the Longview, Kilgore area.  More than 12,000 wells were drilled in this area and it is still producing and expected to produce for years to come.  Some 6 Billion barrels of oil so far!  It is probably responsible for us winning WWII as we had tons of fuel mostly coming from here to supply our ships, aircraft, and equipment as the Germans slowly ran out. The museum is in Kilgore and is fantastic, really well done.  It is a reenactment of a street in Kilgore at the height of the boom as they began pulling oil out of the ground some 3700' down!  They have many shops with extraordinarily realistic dummies that talk to you, like the banker in the bank, an electrical worker up a pole, the barber, you swear they are real people!  We spent a very enjoyable and knowledgeable 3 hours there.  

Even more food and a problem

It was a beautiful day so we decided to take a ride, and where better to go than Llano, TX, home of Cooper's BBQ.  Larry and Mary Ellen had not yet been there so it was a perfect opportunity to introduce them to perhaps our favorite BBQ place in Texas?  A very pretty ride ended in us parking at Coopers and finding just a small line at 1130 on a Sunday morning.  At Coopers you line up and go to a "serving" pit where you choose what you want and how much you want.  Choices abound, such as sausages, pork chops, brisket, both pork and beef ribs, prime rib, rib eye steaks, chicken, just to mention a few :-)  The server puts what you choose on a plain plastic tray and then you go inside where they slice and weigh it, you pick your sides, and be sure you get some cobbler, either peach, apple, pecan, or blackberry.  Then you pay and find a place to sit on the long picnic tables.  Make your way to the huge pot of pinto beans at the side of the room, add some pickled jalapeños and white bread from the table and you are on your way to BBQ heaven.  We made our way back through the pretty Texas hill country, sat and visited over a bit of the grape and waited til we, yes, decided to go get more food!  A light mexican snack was decided upon and we went and had some more great food at a nearby restaurant.  Our visit came to a very quick end, too short, but we will be back, and have more time as Larry enters the life of leisure we enjoy next year!

Once we got the hydraulic leak fixed we thought we were home free for a bit with problems.  We got a little clue about a month ago when our Aqua-Hot wouldn't light off one morning when we needed a little heat.  A bit of explanation is required.  We have a hydronic heating and hot water system in our motorhome.  It is a very efficient and effective unit at making domestic hot water and providing 4 zones of heat.  It is a combination unit that uses electric and/or diesel to heat a boiler.  In the warmer months the electric element provides all we need, endless hot water, as there is a domestic hot water loop immersed in the boiler.  If for some reason we need even more hot water or in cooler times we need heat, we turn on the diesel burner and then we have a 50,000 BTU burner as the heat source.  Other advantages of this system are 3 separate zones of heat in the living area, another zone in the basement area, unlimited hot water, a loop to preheat the engine on a cold morning, and the ability for the engine when running to become the heat source for the boiler.  So back to our little warning sign, we were in Ridgway, Colorado on a 32 degree morning and we turned on the diesel for a bit of heat, and it wouldn't light.  I checked the several things that might cause this to happen, low voltage, low coolant for example, but all was well.  I played around a bit, but it wouldn't light.  Roger Berke is considered the guru of hydronic heating and runs his own forum and service and parts company.  I contacted him and he had me do a couple more things and it lit off, and then continued to operate perfectly for a month, right up until yesterday morning when it was 35 degrees in Georgetown when we were supposed to leave.  This time I couldn't get it to light using all the techniques I used previously, so I contact Roger again, he says it's most likely a control box, and gives me contact info for a mobile service guy in Houston as the nearest to Georgetown.  I don't need to remind you that winter is coming, we're heading north to Louisville, and although we'll do what we can to avoid winter, we still NEED heat.  I call the guy in Houston, Rudy, and we discuss our issue and he is virtually certain it is a control box as well.  He very nicely offers to have me come over to Houston, will meet me, sell me the control box, let me put it in myself, and not charge me a service call or labor.  Jan and I consider this for a bit, but  detouring over to Houston will add almost 400 miles to our trip to Kelly's.  

We decide since Roger and Rudy are virtually certain it is a failed control box we opt to order one from Roger, have it sent to Kelly's, and I will install it myself.  All pretty straight forward, good stuff, except for the small fact a control box is $800!  But, as Jan says, we have to have heat.  So in case any of you thought things were going just a little too smoothly, you can breathe easy now:-)

Georgetown

We got a tour of Larry and Mary Ellen's beautiful new home.  It is a Texas beauty, open and welcoming, and absolutely gorgeous.  After several aperitifs, we made our way to the Hardtail Bar and Grill, a nearby biker bar for sensational burgers!  I had my second thoughts as they told us we were going for some of the best burgers in Texas, especially since we had fairly recently had the best green chili cheeseburgers in the world at Bobcat Bite.  I have to tell you they were awesome!  Cooked to order, no problem making them rare for all of us when so many places give you that crap about, oh no all our burgers have to be cooked well done.  Anyway they were huge, juicy, delicious hand formed burgers with all different toppings for each of us.  Sensational, and only a couple miles form their house!

The next day we went for lunch at The Noble Pig, a place we had seen on Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dives.  It is a sandwich shop for the most part, but makes it's own sausages, pates, and head cheese, yum yum.  It is a tiny place in a strip mall that was absolutely packed, lined up out the door, and stayed that way the whole time we were there!  I think Guy really hopped up their business.  We had a Tongue sandwich with smoked green onion, red pepper relish, and aioli, a pork belly sandwich , a pork shoulder with kimchi pickles, and the namesake, "Noble Pig", a spicy ham, pulled pork, provolone, and bacon sandwich.  They were fantastic!

Jan, Mary Ellen, and my apologies, half of Larry!

You know how much that first dent, scratch, bump hurts with a new car?  Well our first booboo was yesterday on the interstate.  We're cruising along minding our own business when we notice something coming through the air at us, it ricocheted off the hood of the car, but initially from inside we couldn't see anything.  Well, once we stopped we saw it shattered our air deflector, dented the hood, and then scratched its way up and over the roof!  So much for our virgin Jeep.  The good news is the brunt of the dent will be under the new air deflector that I just ordered.  Who knows, maybe one of those dent guys can remove it.

So as if we hadn't had enough great food, off we went for dinner at the Ho Ho Chinese BBQ, a place we had visited when we were here in the spring.  It was just as good, except Jan wanted roast duck. As we waited for a table, the ducks in all their glistening glory were hanging under heat lamps right near us, so it really had our mouths watering, unfortunately once we got seated, the ducks were all gone for the evening!  But we made do with other wonderful dishes, including BBQ pork and chicken, Shrimp in Black Bean sauce, Shrimp and Scallops in a spicy garlic sauce, and crispy Pork Chops!  Wow, it was gooood!!

So off we go now to see what other adventures await us on our last day here in Georgetown.

On the move

After a busy couple of days in Albuquerque, we're back on the road again, must be a song in there somewhere:)  We cheaped out and had our coach just washed, while Karen had hers washed and waxed, and man they both look good for a change!  But of course, Murphy has to raise his head because it looks like both Karen, and Jan and I will be driving through rain showers today, us on our way to Georgetown, TX, and Karen on her way back to Louisville.  So much for our beautiful clean coaches.

Her initial fiasco at Rocky Mountain Cummins in Albuquerque went from bad to worse, and barely ended up on the positive side.  After taking care of her oil leak and cleaning things up after leaving the oil cap off, it was discovered she had a coolant leak as well, from a bad coolant reservoir.  She was told by the service manager the part was ordered on Tues for a Wed delivery, BUT he never ordered the part at all!  Then after much back and forth including with the general manager the part was finally ordered on Wed for a Thur am delivery.  She was supposed to have the part installed Thursday so she could still leave right after.  She never ended up getting out of Cummins until after 2 pm so only got to Tucumcari yesterday.  I will say this, I would under no circumstance except an emergency go to Rocky Mountain Cummins in Albuquerque!  Even after all the assurances from the general manager on down, she still had to wait over an hour after the part arrived to have anyone even move her coach inside to be worked on!

We are on our way to visit with Larry and Mary Ellen and to see their new house.  It was under construction when we went through in the spring and is all done and moved into now.  Looking forward to seeing our good friends!

Birthday Girl

Thought I would share a picture of our 90 year old birthday gal, Vivian with her three daughters, Karen, Nancy, and Jan.

The girls

I just hope I can be this spritely if I make it to 90!

Short Extension

We've had some challenges the last couple days.  Not directly involving Jan and I, but close family.  Our son is going through some trials and tribulations, and is hopefully going to have good prospects ahead.
Another had a scare that turned out to be nothing.
Karen may soon be setting records in problems with motorhomes.  I mentioned she had her coach serviced and they found a leaking gasket that was causing the dripping under her coach.  Well, yesterday, I got looking and thought the puddle under her coach was too far back to be caused by some gasket.  I walk to the rear of her coach and first of all notice the entire rear cap and her tow bar is covered in oil.  I open up the engine cover and everything is awash in oil!  And right there in front of me is the cap for the oil fill sitting on top of a battery!  So it spewed oil all over the place all the way from the service facility to the campground!  She was tied up this morning so I drove it back down to have the gasket repaired and as I'm showing the service manger all the oil, we notice she has a leak in her coolant tank to add to the fun!  So now they are trying to find a new one that can be installed before she has to drive home.

We are really having a great time here with Nancy and CT, Viv and Karen.  We've been gathering at Nancy's house and having a nice relaxing time.  So much that we decided with all the other stuff going on we would extend one day to keep up with the festivities and issues.  It gives us a chance to see Viv some more as we won't see her for quite awhile once we leave.

Fun

It's nice being around family, we've been having a great time just catching up and visiting.  Viv had quite a Birthday, an incredible dinner of Rouladen made by Nancy, Jan and I, a favorite of hers, after a Happy Hour where the saxophone player did a rendition of Happy Birthday for her. Everyone there wished her a happy birthday.  She talked to and skyped with all the grandkids and great grandkids and we were all there to enjoy it.  

Karen got her motorhome into Cummins for some work and found out the leak she has is an oil pump gasket about to go.  They weren't able to repair it Friday, but are going to take care of it Tuesday.  On top of all her other travails, she had a flat tire as she was leaving the campground for her appointment which prompted yet another service call.  She is certainly getting quite the intro to motorhome ownership!  Her coach sat for awhile and evidently wasn't serviced like it should have been by the previous owner.  I think after this leak is taken care of she will have caught up and will be able to really enjoy it going forward.

Yesterday we all drove 50 miles up to Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe and had absolutely incredible green chili cheeseburgers!  The best in the world.  Yes it WAS worth driving that far!

We are going out today for an early dinner at a mexican restaurant we all enjoy, El Bruno's.  It's one of the things we wanted to accomplish before we leave the Albuquerque area.  We were talking last night and it dawned on us that in less than 3 weeks, we'll be back east in Louisville.  Wow, seems like we just got out here.  Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving time, then down to Florida after stopping in Atlanta to see doctors and friends, then Christmas will be upon us.  Time flies!

Is our leak really fixed???

Happy Birthday!

First of all, Happy Birthday Vivian!  90 years on this earth is quite an accomplishment!  And to reach that age with your mental facilities intact, to be active and involved is sensational.  Karen flew in last night and came to Nancy's with Walker, Jan and I are here, and of course Nancy and CT live here near Viv.  We had a pleasant get together last night pre birthday, and plan a birthday party tonight after Happy Hour at Viv's place.  She is going to be honored there so we want to be sure not to interfere with that:-)  After all it's only Happy Hour one day a week where she lives so it's definitely a BIG deal.  It's too bad everyone in the family isn't able to come, but as I'm sure Viv would agree, life goes on and has to be dealt with especially when family is so far flung all around the country. Everyone will be here in spirit even if not in the flesh.

I think of all the things I've observed change in just my 60 years, just imagine all the changes in 90!  Just a handful that come to mind, computers, cell phones, aviation, even the airline that supported her family, TWA, wasn't even in business when she was born!  

In addition to Viv's birthday, today is also our son Jason's 33rd birthday.  We wish him a Happy Birthday as well!  

Fantastic!

We went to Cummins in Albuquerque to have them look at our hydraulic leak.  We got all checked in and were waiting for a tech to come over.  After about 30 minutes, we were very early for our appointment, a tech came strolling over.  He asked what we were doing there as if he didn't know?  I showed him the leak, he at first said, it looks like a bad fitting, duh.  Then he said they would have to put in a new hose, oh man, that is not what we wanted to hear.  The service guy on the phone when I talked to them to make the appointment said they would just put on a new end.  As I'm thinking of leaving, he says, can you give it some pressure?  I ran a slide in and out, he says give me a minute.  He comes back with some wrenches, loosens the fitting and is rewarded with getting sprayed down with hydraulic fluid, then really tightens it up, I mean he really leaned on it.  Wipes it down and says run the slide again.  I do and he says, "YOU"RE ALL SET".  WOW!  He says either something in the threads came out or you just hadn't really tightened it, either way it doesn't leak and there is no charge!  He wasn't even the regular tech, hence the fact he didn't have any idea why we were there, he just had a down moment while he was waiting on some parts and walked out to see what we were there for.  I bought his lunch as a thank you, he took care of the paperwork and we were out of there with a fixed hydraulic leak. Super!

So over to the campground we go, run some errands for Viv's birthday, then have a delicious dinner and super visit at Nancy and CT's.

Conundrum

We are enjoying our time here in Santa Fe.  We got to the Pantry for an awesome dinner.  We were supposed to meet Nancy and CT at Bobcat Bite, the home of the BEST green chili cheeseburger in the world, but they are closed on Monday:-(  We had a good lunch nonetheless at Harry's Roadhouse just down the road.

This is our last day here before we go down the hill to Albuquerque to hopefully get our hydraulic leak fixed, and then spend a week visiting with Nancy and CT, Vivian, and Karen who's flying in for Viv's 90th birthday, and to get her motorhome which she left here several weeks ago.  A good time will be had by all.  We have some other stuff to accomplish as well, we have to go to Tia Sophias for a meal, a big Triple D restaurant, have to go to El Brunos, a fantastic mexican place for dinner, get to Costco and Target, as you can see, some very important items.

Although we can't wait to see family and friends back east, we are not looking forward to leaving the west.  We really love it out here, but our kids and grandkids and most of our good friends are in the east.  And we enjoy spending the winter in Florida.  It may be our last winter with my mom so we really want to be there for her.

Good bye Colorado

The forecast weather wasn't as bad as they said.  Must be nice to have a job where you can be wrong ALL the time and still remain employed.  Instead of pouring rain turning into snow and accumulating an inch, we only got a little rain, and no snow except at the higher elevations and not much there.  We took a quick ride yesterday up to Molas Pass to see the snow on the mountaintops.  Very pretty, but also reminds us to get out of here before it moves down the mountains.  So off to Santa Fe this morning.  

Spud Lake

Doubt you remember but back in June we took a nice hike to Potato Lake, or Spud Lake as it is commonly referred to.  It was pleasant, green with leaves, great views, up to a beautiful lake that unfortunately already had 10-20 people there!  We wanted to do it again in the fall and see how much different it looked.  To pick your memory this was the hike that ended in the drive on out the road that absolutely terrified me, the one with the huge drop offs and the big boulder in the middle of the narrow road that Jan had to direct me around.  Needless to say we didn't come out that way this time!  It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, and about 65 degrees, about perfect for our 2 mile hike.  Oh yeah, instead of the crowds we encountered previously, there was one young couple with a baby in a carrier that blew by us like we were standing still.  So it was quiet and still for our hike.

Looking up through the now bare aspens

Across the valley to Purgatory

Views along the way

Up by the beaver ponds, climbing gently from 9,360' to 9800'.

Looking down to the beaver ponds

A Stellar Jay

Then to the lake!  What a gorgeous, peaceful, pleasant place far from the bustles.

Reflections

Just a bit of color left

Me perched enjoying it all!