Weather clears

All it takes is for the weather to clear and we head out on our adventures.
Our first adventure was to go to the Great Sand Dunes outside of Alamosa. Well as you can see by the time we got there the weather was not clear and the storms blew in.

We had hoped that we would have time to go down to the dunes before the weather got too bad.

We got this close and then a bolt of lighting split the sky which immediately was followed by a clap of thunder that would have startled a deaf person.

We did not get to walk on the dunes but we did enjoy the visitors center. There was so much information on the dunes and how they were formed.

I got to take Sherri and Kris to the falls at Clear Creek.

Kris and I got to do a little panning for gems in the river. We found some real interesting stones but no Gold

And last but not least I got some fishing in. I caught my limit at Brown Lakes and finished the day off a happy camper

All and all the good Lord provided us some time to enjoy the mountains and streams here...

Somewhere in Time  

We have plenty of rain here

Yes, once again it rained here. Sherri and I sat inside until the rain stopped and then ventured outside to load the clothes in the Jeep. We decided to go to the laundry mat today and get all the clothes washed. Seeing the weather was going to keep us indoors we chose to be indoors at the laundry and get that behind us.
We spent several hours getting that done and when we returned Sherri did some cleaning around the house.
We have to stop and think every once in a while...we are not on vacation. This is where we are living for now and we have time to do all the things that we need to do and still have time for site seeing.
Not to bore you with a nothing day I will tell  you we put on a crock pot roast and then watched TV the remainder of the day.
We are hoping for blue skies so we can head off to the Rio Grande reservoir to see what that area looks like. I am sure the rain will stop...

Somewhere in Time

Put up our screened room...without the screen

I forgot to mention that Elvis and I did a duet in Durango at the Serious BBQ restaurant

Being that we are here in Creede during the monsoon season we have not been able to sit out long in the evening. Every day about 6:30 we have a rain come through that forces us all indoors. During the earlier part of the day we have no shade so once again back inside until the sun goes down some.
We decided to put up our outdoor screen room to keep the noon sun off and the evening rains from putting us back in the MH. All the permanent residence here have the heavy duty...mounted in concrete patio covers that hold up well in a wind storm. Ours is not heavy duty and it is not mounted in concrete so we have to tie it off to the fence and picnic table. I know...how red neck is that! It may look red neck but it sure is nice when it rains.
I mentioned we did not put up the screen. We have little or no flies here...but a few mosquitoes do come around every once in a while. Not enough to warrant putting up the screened walls on the cover. Without the walls we still get the cool breeze during the day. Back in Texas we would have to have the screen to keep from being carried away by the bugs!
There is a rock hound show down town today and we are planning on going to it. Well I am torn between it and a fishing trip. Decisions decisions. Maybe we can do both...if the fish aren't biting then we always have the rocks to look at.
We have another month and one week here. I really dread heading back to Texas! We have to go back for my doctor appointments and that new great grand baby is due in October. After all that is done we will have to plan out our winter destination...

Somewhere in Time

Trip to Durango Co

Before we turned in last night we were sitting on the patio having some cold beverages and talking about a trip to Durango Colorado. Sherri and I had been there with our good friends Mike and Leslie John and Bridget several years ago and really enjoyed the visit there. Rodney and Becky have never been there so we decided to get up early in the morning and head over Wolf Creek Pass and see what we could discover in Durango.
Morning came and off we went on our 2 1/2 hour journey over the mountains. The weather was perfect and we had an uneventful trip...other than some of the gasp Sherri let out when we took the big curve on the pass that begins the trip down the western side of the mountain. I was thinking about that country and western song about the trucker who was going down the pass and lost his breaks! Don't know the artist or the name of the song but it did come to mind when I was going down.
We had a great time in Durango. Found our favorite place to eat there...Serious BBQ. This is a small chain here in this part of Colorado. Some fellows out of Texas came up here and opened up a BBQ place that served good ol Texas BBQ. I will have to say that outside of Texas this BBQ is the best I have eaten. If you are ever in Durango be sure to look this place up and try it out.

We posed on the deck over looking the river that runs behind the restaurant

We then went over to the train museum and spent some time looking at all the memorabilia of an age gone by. Old trains fascinate me. As a small boy in Childress Texas I remember hearing the locomotives coming into town blowing their steam whistles...such an eerie sound late at night.

Kris was taking the engine out of the museum on a journey up the mountains

The Durango Silverton train is something to see but I will tell you this it is very expensive to take a trip on. When we were here last it was $85.00 pp to take the trip...now it is $134.00 to go. That was OK we did not want to take the trip anyway. We did find a Jeep trail that goes across the mountains to Silverton from the Rio Grande reservoir. I don't think Sherri will be taking that one either.
We returned home and the trip back was as fascinating as the trip going. I had never been up the west bound slop of Wolf Creek so this was an adventure for me. We did stop at the top and get some pictures of the divide. Durango was in the 90's when we got there so we really enjoyed the 58 degree temps on the summit when we arrived. The last time we were in front of this sign was 38 years ago. Well it wasn't this sign at that time but it was in this location.

38 years ago we stood here and had a picture, much like this taken

Down the mountain we went and through the...New to us...tunnels to South Fork where we turned north up the Silver Thread Highway to Creede.

What a wonderful day it was...full of memories here...

Somewhere in Time

It's the weekend and time to kick back

When you live like this you realize that you don't have to rush and do something every day. We will be here another month and a half so we have plenty of time to do all we want to and rest on the busy weekends.
We have chores around the MH that we need to do. So that is what we will do this weekend. while the folks that have the day off from work rush to the streams and lakes and plow down the Jeep trails in their ATV's.
It is so nice to have time to kick back read a book or just rearrange the bays in the MH.
That is what we will be doing today...

Somewhere in Time

More Jeep Trails and More Fishing Lakes

Sherri and I were up early and sat in the living room drinking our coffee and discussing today's things to do.
She said that she really needed to get the house cleaned up and she would spend the day doing that. I on the other hand wanted to go to Love Lake and check out the fishing there.
Well as things would have it Sherri really wanted me out of the RV so she could clean without me being in the way. I can take a hint so I packed up to go fishing and exploring. Becky and her grand kids wanted to go so we took their Jeep and headed to Love Lake.

I was really disappointed in this lake. I had taken my fly rod and with the wind blowing so hard and the fact that the lake is only 10 inches deep 30 feet out...well it did not work for me. To fish this lake I will need to take my bait casting rig out there so I can get out 50 feet to where the water is deeper.
We spent some time frothing the water here with no results and decided to head up to Brown Lakes for a bit.

Here the wind was blowing non stop and fly fishing was out. We roamed around the shore line for a while. Spotted some deer and decided to move on to do some site seeing. 

We knew that down the road was some falls to see so we headed out to see them.

We had a lot of great scenery along the way to stop and look at.

Having these kinds of stops along the way 

We just had to stop and take pictures

When we got to the falls the views were even more spectacular! 

Once more our day ended with new sites and beautiful vistas to store in our memories...

Somewhere in Time 

A Day Lumber Jacking

We took a trip to South Fork and watched the lumber jacks out of the Rio Grande National Forest area go to battle at the time trials...

After the event we headed back to Creede to eat. We stopped out front of the Restaurant to have our picture taken at the Fork in the Road...

Another great day comes to and end...

Somewhere in Time 

4WD day

Just north of Creede Colorado is the Bachelor Loop drive. This road takes you into the mountains about 11,000 feet up. Here is where the original town of Creede was once located and all the mines that started Creede. The boom was in the late 1800's when this area was teaming with thousand of folks digging out Silver Gold and some fine gem stones.
We readied the Jeep for our 3 hour excursion through the mountains to explore all these mines and some of the abandoned homes along the way. We had not been 4 wheeling in the Jeep since we bought it so this was going to be an exciting adventure for sure.
One other thing about this area was the fact that the Lone Ranger was filmed here not too long ago. This would give us a chance to see all the scenery that soon we would see in the motion picture! Disney donated some of the props used in the movie to the Miners Museum here located at the foot of Bachelor Road.
The trip up the mountain was breath taking to say the least. If you are faint at heart I would not suggest the 4WD roads.  The roads are just wide enough to eek by one vehicle and sometimes you meet people coming the other way and getting by one another can be hairy!
There are many more roads on this mountain for me to explore and then we have all the other mountains around here!

Between trout fishing and 4 wheeling we should have plenty to do here...

Somewhere in Time 

Visit the Museum in Creede Colorado

Sherri and I slept until 6:00 this morning. I made coffee and we sat around planning our day.
We decided to head into town to visit the museum there. It is in the old train station as many museums are. It was well stocked with interesting artifacts that represented the towns history since 1892.

We had a fun day discovering new things. We took some time to sit in the park there while Sherri shopped at some of the stores in town.

Upon our return home we put some burgers on and had a good dinner and then we spent some time on the patio reflecting on all the things we had seen here...

Somewhere in Time

Words cannot describe

Sherri and I have been traveling to RV parks the biggest part of our lives. We will have to say that this park is one of the most scenic we have ever stayed in. We have a 360 degree...drop dead beautiful view of the mountains around us. More Jeep trails than we could possible travel. Fishing is out of this world. Just a mile or two up the road we have a full stocked grocery and the town has everything you need to get by.
Now ask me if I will come back here...
Probably for the rest of my traveling life. The temps here in the morning or cooool...no I think they would be considered cold by most Texans. I have decided to make this my home in the summer time. A bit pricey to say the least but worth every penny of it.
We took several days to get here...and when we got to Santa Fe we heard about the fires. This was a one week delay in our plans but well worth the layover in Santa Fe. I purchased a 5 day fishing license there and caught fish. Sherri got to shop in some of the stores there and we ate at some good restaurants too. All in all the wait was not bad.
I have been delinquent in posting but we have had spotty reception here with the WIFI and they finally got it back on the air. I will try to be more diligent in posting from now on.

Fishing here is great...but whether you catch fish or not the view is over whelming! Every turn in the river brings new beauty and more fish. This will bring me back here...

Somewhere in Time 

Really enjoying the cool days and nights

Sherri and I have been on hold here for the last week and will stay here one more week to be sure the fires and and smoke will be long gone by the time we arrive in Creede.
We called this morning to check on the status of the fires and the air quality. The folks in Creede are real nice in relaying information about the condition of things there.
We will hopefully be moving north in about one more week. I am sure that they should have the fires under control by then.
Of all the luck when we decide to head to Colorado they decide to have a wild fire! At least we found a real nice place to wait out the fires. We are at the Roadrunner RV Park just north of Santa Fe. This is a no thrill park but we have great views of the mountains...cool weather....and outstanding sunsets.

We have been trying to find some Mexican food here but with no luck. The Mexican food here is New Mexican food and is nothing like Mexican food in Texas. We did find a place in Santa Fe that we decided to try. They had some of the hottest hot sauce I have ever tried. The food was so so but we enjoyed it.

We went down to the square but it was so crowded we decided to go back Monday. We had no change so we could not have parked anyway. Most of the parking down there is metered and you have to parallel park in those spots. 

We headed back to the park and settled down on the patio for some refreshments and enjoyed the cool breeze that was blowing in. They said we would be getting some rain and sure nuff before we went in for the night we had some

This day is over and tomorrow we will start over...

Somewhere in Time