Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tuesday July 31, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

In case anyone noticed, I changed the name of this place to the Mountain View RV Park instead of Resort. The resort is on the other side of the road in the high dollar side of the park.

It was another cool morning yesterday and today but it warmed up a lot yesterday. It got up to about 84, which is way hot for here! It should start cooling off soon and by September it should be cold at night. I'd love to get snowed on, but not while we're driving in it. The folks that have been coming up here for a long time say that there's normally a nice dusting of snow on the mountains. We'll see.

I want to talk about our pets for a bit. Cassie and Tramp are fine, but we're worried about Darwyn and Becky's little dog, Jake. Remember I told you that he ate some rat poison and then had a bloody stool a few days later. They took him to the vet yesterday but we haven't heard from them to see how he is. One of my fellow bloggers, Sam and Donna took their Lab to the vet for a tumor removal and got the results back today. The test was benign, so I know that they are much relieved. Its amazing how attached we get to these animals!

Tonight we had a hail storm. I had been out for my evening walk and had stopped off to talk to some of our neighbors that were having some watermelon when it started to rain with big old drops. I made a hasty exit and came on home just in time. The "rain" got louder and louder and when I looked outside I saw the little hail stones. its still raining hard so I haven't had a chance to go out to check for any damage but I hope nothing bad happened. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I'll let you know if I lost the roof on the trailer.

So long.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Saturday July 28, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

The day started with 50 degree temperatures, about normal for this area apparently. I slept in this morning and for the first time in a long time, watched my car shows on TV. Pat and Lori went fishing in the Rio Grande reservoir, so we just hung around the house this morning. It rained a couple of times in the morning and this turned out to be the weather pattern for the entire day.

We along with Darwyn and Becky had gone down to the rally hall on Thursday to buy some Amish pies. There is an Amish family that lives in South Fork that brings baked goods here every Thursday, so we braved the crowd and bought an assortment of pies. Pat and Lori had asked for an apple pie, so we had that, coconut cream, chocolate and peach to choose from, and had made plans for the six of us to get together this afternoon at Darwyn and Becky's place, but before we could go over, they called to tell us that their Jack Russell terrier Jake was sick and they had to find a vet to take him to. A couple of days ago he had gotten into some rat poison that the park had put out, but they thought that they had caught it early enough to prevent any problems, but this was very serious. 

The four of us got together at Pat and Lori's and had a salad and some pizza that Stella made. We had a good meal and watched some TV while eating. We had a nice visit with them and soon went home to eat our pie, since no one was very hungry after supper.

It rained off and on all afternoon, sometimes very heavily but amazingly there was little water standing. I guess it is because the ground is very sandy and rocky, but its still pretty amazing because it has rained just about every day. Let me tell you, when there are thunderstorms in the mountains, it is LOUD!! Cassie doesn't like thunder anyway, but she really freaks out when it storms here. At least the rain keeps the trailer washed off and there is no dust. Gotta look on the bright side...

So long.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Friday July 27, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

We had a nice day again today. It was another cool morning but I went for a nice long walk around the park. This place was a fishing camp to begin with and I walked onto the back part of the park, across the old bridge over the Rio Grande river to check out what was on the other side of the river. There have been bear sightings in this area, so I kept an eye open for any signs of a bear. I didn't see any bears, but the only thing I found over there was a storage area for trash and tree clippings and a couple of utility trailers.

Stella talked to Becky and Darwyn and Pat and Lori and we all got together in the afternoon for some dominoes at the small rally hall, the Bear Lodge. We had all bought some pies from the Amish lady that comes over to sell her baked goods and we wanted to have some pie and coffee during our game. Becky called the office to ask if this was permitted, but was told that the only thing allowed was water and that we would have to be careful with that! Wow, I didn't know that I was hanging out with a bunch of careless children!

We had a fun game of Mexican Train and when the game was over, we all were hungry and decided to go to the Cascada Bar and Grill for supper. The food was very good, not Tex-Mex as we are accustomed to, but still good. This is a pretty good place to eat and we will go back here before we leave.

We came back home and sat outside for a little while before the cool temps sent us back inside for the night.

So long.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Wednesday & Thursday, July 25 & 26, 2012, Mountain View RV Park

Thursday we drove over to Lake City, traveling over two high passes, Slumgullion Pass at 11,361 ft. and Spring Creek Pass at 10,901 ft. It was a drive of about 50 miles but took almost two hours to travel because of the many switchbacks and of course slow traffic ahead of us. It was a very nice day for a drive and we enjoyed it. I can't wait to come back when the leaves have changed on the millions of aspen trees.  I just hope that my Internet connection is better by then so I can add some photos.

We stopped in the tiny town of Lake City, a city of only 375 permanent residents. Lake City is also interesting because it is the only incorporated municipality in the entire county, and of course is the county seat of Hinsdale County. I noticed that the average temperatures do not rise above freezing from November through March. That's probably the reason that there are only 375 people that live there!

We had a nice snack for lunch at Poker Alice restaurant. This place serves everything from breakfast (limited hours) to salads and pizza. We split a couple of slices of pizza and it was very tasty.

The story of Poker Alice can be found on the restaurant website. She was a very interesting lady, back in the day!

We returned to the park and went over to the Bear Lodge here in the park to meet with our neighbors for a delicious fish fry. They are all avid fishermen, so we certainly took advantage of the invitation to eat with our friends.

Thursday was another slow day around here. We went over to our friends Daywyn and Becky to play dominoes during the afternoon. Stella had put some chili on to cook in the crockpot, so when Pat and Lori came back down here from their home in Los Alamos NM, we had supper ready for the six of us. It looked like rain so we ate at Pat and Lori's place but it never did rain on us.Yesterday and today were the only days that it didn't rain since we've been here. We'll still take it over the Texas weather and another drought there. We sat outside chatting until about 9 o'clock, enjoying the cool night air.

So long.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Tuesday July 24, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

The other day, Miss Cassie got a haircut. There are apparently no local groomers, but we did hear of someone with a mobile grooming service, but we couldn't find anyone that had used it, so Stella decided to do it herself.
 Here she is, being groomed at home. She really did well and didn't give us any problems. I helped by holding her when she got nervous, but she was okay for the entire ordeal.

 She is just about done in this shot. She looks a whole lot better than she did and we saved some money, so it's all good!
Tramp didn't need to be groomed, but I guess he got in the mood to help me out. I laid down on "his" couch, so he took the opportunity to clean my head and hair. I promise that I've been taking a shower and washing my hair, but he cleaned me up anyway.

We're planning some local trips around the area, so please stay tuned.

So long.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Monday July 23, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

Another cool morning here and the weather forecast is for more rain that is much needed in Colorado. I went over pretty early and plugged in the big coffee pot at Pat and Lori's place next door, so that we could have plenty of coffee to drink this morning.

They will be leaving this morning to go back to Los Alamos for work. They have been doing this for a long time and I'm sure that Pat can make the drive in his sleep. I'm glad its him and not me...

Soon after they left I made my walk around the park and talked to a lot of folks. It is more than a mile around the park and there are many other walking areas, some of which I have taken. There is a trail that goes all the way into Creede, probably three miles, but I haven't done that one.

This place stays pretty full because of the long-term people that spend the entire summer here. We are scheduled to stay for three months, but I am already starting to feel the "hitch itch". I'm not saying I'm ready to leave, but it wouldn't take very much to get me going.

It rained all day, so we weren't able to get out to do much during the day. It has rained every day since we've been here, from a light shower to a pretty heavy rain like we had today. At least the wind didn't blow as bad as it usually does when the rains start!

I'm expecting my new wifi antenna in soon and I hope that will give me the ability to add photos so I can share some pictures with you. I hope it comes in tomorrow!

So long.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Sunday July 15, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

I can't get over the temperatures here in Creede. It was another morning of 47 degree temps, which is MUCH better than those at home in Texas. It rained a couple of times today which kept temps down during the day. It reached a high of 75 today but I'm not complaining! This is the reason that we're here.

We went to the non-denominational church services this morning. It was nice to see so many people come out on a cool morning. We came on back home and had a late breakfast and were just sitting around watching some television when our neighbors, Bill and Mary came over to invite us to eat lunch with them. We told them that we had just finished breakfast but would come over and visit. I took some of Stella's "fire crackers" over to snack on while the grilling was being done and they were a major hit! Everyone loved them and asked for the recipe.

While we were sitting outside, we saw a group of ATV'ers coming into the park. One of them hit the entry gate and broke it off when they tried to get in. The gate is a new item this year and has taken a lot of getting used to. It is especially fun to watch the 4 wheelers when they come in because they always try to get under the gate and frequently get hit or have a near miss. The gate is a simple 1 X 4 board that is painted white with a strip of reflective material and is easily replaced. Bill told me that this was the second gate to be replaced in the last two days. The other break occurred when the gate went down on a motorhome that hadn't cleared the gate when it went down.

Our new friends Darwyn and Becky later called us and invited us to supper at their place on the resort side. We went over and had some roast and potatoes with them and had a very nice visit with them and their little Jack
Russell terrier Jake. He reminds us a lot of Tramp, but is much more settled down than Tramp. Of course, he is 11 years old and Tramp is less than 3.

We went over to one of the meeting rooms, the Elk Lodge, where the church services were held, to play a game of mexican train. We had a great time playing the game with our friends and played until about 9:30. The dogs were all glad to see us get back home.  It was another good day here with our friends and we will be sad to see them leave later in the week. We are trying to coordinate our plans to see them again in the future.

So long.

Sunday July 22, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

Good morning to all. First of all, I want to thank all those that left me "nudges" or messages on Facebook, reminding me that I have fallen behind again in posting here. The problem is that we've not been doing anything exciting or fun, if you take into consideration the great weather we are experiencing up here in Colorado. I wish you could be with us up here with cold mornings and upper 70's in the afternoon. We are out of the vacation mode and are very content to stay around the park and just hang out.

Then another thing that irritates me is the fact that we don't have good Internet here. It has become impossible for me to add photos and difficult to even do the mundane chores on the computer. I haven't been able to download videos or many attachments that have come to me in emails. I am irritated because this park advertises wifi in their "resort" and it is impossible to access. They tell me in the office to come up to use the DSL lines which are free to use, but they wouldn't like it very much if I brought my recliner and sat there in my underwear, surfing the web. No, I want what is advertised, decent wifi in my own trailer. Why don't I just use my own aircard you ask? Because it is worse than the wifi! I just got the 4G mifi card from Verizon, the latest and greatest available, but we are in a dead spot and good service is not available. Verizon is sending me an antenna that is supposed to improve the service, but I am doubtful. Sorry for another rant, but I am tired of paying for a service and then hearing lots of excuses for why it doesn't work.

Now on to current events. I was horrified to hear of the shootings in Aurora Colorado. My heart goes out to the families of those injured in this incident and to the family of the killer. We may never know what caused this young man to do what he did, but I am more worried about the resulting overreactions by lawmakers. We are living in changing times friends.

We are planning to take some day trips to see some of the beautiful mountains in the area. I wish I could share them with you, but we've already gone over all that. If and when things improve, I'll put up a lot of pictures to show you.

Until then,

So long.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Saturday July 14, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

This is a picture of Stella making pancakes for us to eat breakfast at Pat and Lori's place last week. I had planned to add more photos but the computer and the Internet still won't cooperate, so it will have to be done later.

Since my last post, we haven't done very much. We did meet a new couple, Darwyn and Becky, at the park breakfast yesterday. We went over to their place in the afternoon and they cooked out. They are renting one of the high dollar sites fronting the river and it includes a very nice outdoor kitchen and dining area under umbrrellas. We had a very nice meal with them and then played a game of chickenfoot. It was a very nice day.

The weather has been lousy most of this week, with cold temps in the morning and rain in the afternoon. Today it rained off and on all day and the temperature never got above 60 degrees. This week has seemed to be more like Texas winter weather with 50 degree days and high humidity levels. The kind of cold that just goes right through you. I noticed this morning when I checked the weather that we are expecting rain every day for the next week. Lets hope the weather guessers are wrong again.

Pat and Lori didn't get to come back down from Los Alamos this weekend. Pat had a large plumbing project that didn't get completed until today, which made it implossible to get down here. They will return on Wednesday. I guess we'll just have to find something to do around here.

So long.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Tuesday July 10, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

Another cool morning here, about 51 degrees. I had met the owner of a new Landmark San Antonio yesterday and had invited him over for coffee this morning, so we had made extra in case he showed up, but of course he didn't. Oh well, Stella and I drank much of it and I will use the rest this afternoon for iced coffee. I have grown to like that drink a lot. I add a shot of creamer and some ice and it makes a nice afternoon drink.

We drove over to Alamosa today to have a check engine light checked out on the truck. It came on while we were on the way over here from Pueblo when we were going up a long hill. Alamosa has the nearest Dodge dealership in the area, so we drove the 60 miles over here and found out that it was a Turbo Underpressure alarm but the tech and the service manager didn't think it was anything to worry about, so they cleared the code and told me to watch it. If it alarms again, I will bring it back in and have it checked further.

We went to Wal Mart and spent a lot of money there, but it was necessary! We haven't spent much, really since we left Texas and many of the items that we bought won't have to be replaced for several months. Things like vitamins, minerals etc. that we won't have to buy for a long time. We made the very pretty drive back over here to the park. After putting everything away, we decided to sit outside for awhile and read in our Kindles.

We were soon hungry, so I got out the Weber grill and Stella was soon cooking us some hot dogs. I came inside for a few minutes and was surprised to hear raindrops hitting the roof. I ran back out and helped her bring things inside and luckily she had finished our "dogs" before it began to rain in earnest! Wow, how lucky was that! It rained hard for ten or fifteen minutes and then, before we knew it, the sun was back out and it was a very nice afternoon. I went for a walk around the park before we turned in for the evening. Another nice day in the mountains!

So long.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday June 9, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

Here is our site with the mountains behind. We are located in a valley with mountains on all sides of us. It is the perfect setting for an RV park. I was told that this was originally a fishing camp and at least one of the buildings on the property is an original for this site. They have added several new buildings
that are constructed in the old design.

This is our site that is right across from the front gate. We get to see everyone as they come in. One thing that we've noticed is that the gate only stays up long enough for one vehicle to go through. There are several people with four wheelers that go out daily to drive up into the mountains. It seems that it is a game to them to see if more than one can get through the gate before the gate lowers on them. We've seen several of them hit with the gate, but nothing serious has happened, at least yet.

We have not been doing too much of anything. Pat and Lori went back home to Los Alamos NM yesterday but will be back later in the week. I'm sure that we will find something to do while they're gone. I'll keep on trying to get more photos loaded up for you to see where we've been.


So long.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Friday July 6, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

The last two days have been bad for me. Wednesday night there was a big thunderstorm-although no one heard the thunder or saw the lightning- that knocked out power here in the park. It happened about 3 o'clock in the morning and was back on in about an hour, so you would think, who cares? Well, the power outage also knocked out my satellite dish and the parks wifi Internet connection. Remember I complained about the park wifi? Well it hasn't gotten any better but now it was down completely. My own Verizon MIFI is not any better because we are in a marginal reception area. So Thursday morning I had no television and no Internet.....BUMMER!

I went several times to the office to inquire about the wifi but was always told that "they're working on it". We decided to begin using our new 4G MIFI card but soon learned that it would only receive in 3G mode because that is all thats available here. Then today when we tried to use the new card, we were told by Verizon customer service that we needed to go to a better location to enable the new card, so we had to drive 20 miles to South Fork to get the card "turned on". We got it done and returned home, hopeful that everything will work better. Nope, didn't happen. The park's wifi doesn't even show up on the screen any more and the Verizon card is very, very slow. I just learned this morning that the post I made on Wednesday had not gotten posted, so I put it up for you to read, but I still can't post pictures because of the slow connection.

Don't worry though, I'll find a way to get them posted and keep you advised of whats going on with us.

So long.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Wednesday July 4, 2012-Mountain View RV Park

Today is Independence Day. I hope everyone had a good day to spend with friends and family. Please don't forget those that served in the armed services and the sacrifices that they made.

We had a nice potluck meal today. The park furnished hot dogs with all the trimmings and we, the guests, furnished side dishes and desserts. The food was great but the food serving could have been better. The serving line ran very slowly and it took us about 20 minutes of standing in line to get our food. Could have been done better!

This is a lovely park in a beautiful setting. I can't think of a thing that I would change in the layout of the park and the landscaping, and I can assure you that you won't find a prettier place. It is in a valley with mountains surrounding and a river running behind it. Of course, the riverfront sites are all on the resort side and much more expensive than most of us can/will afford.

While I'm on the subject of this park, I've got to vent a bit. As I said, this is a lovely park but some of the "amenities" need some work. Although it is common for parks in Colorado to not furnish cable, there must be a way to at least give access to some local television stations, even if its from a dish sattelitte that guests can hook up to. Some way for us to get local news and weather. And the wifi "service", not thats another subject all together! Many people rely on the internet for both staying in touch with friends and relatives (like a blog!) but also for work and keeping an eye on their investments. They could do much better in furnishing wifi, especially at the prices that are charged.

What started this rant is that last night the power went out after a rainstorm and knocked out both the wifi and sattelitte, so when I got up this morning, I had nothing to occupy me. No television, no internet! What am I supposed to do, talk to Stella? Soon after the sun came up we got things figured out and were back in business but it was miserable for a couple of hours. At least its back on now.

So long.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday July 2, 2012-Mountain View RV Resort

 Saturday we rested up from our trip here from Cody. Sunday morning we went to a patriotic church service here in the park that was very nice. After church, we went into Creede for lunch at the Blue Creek Inn along with Pat and Lori and our new friends Bill & Mary and Jim & Alice. The company was much better than the food but although somewhat high priced, the food quality was at best so-so.

Today was our first day of doing much of anything in the area. We went with Pat and Lori to the headwaters of the Rio Grande River and saw some beautiful country and rivers and a spectacular waterfall. I'm sorry to say that even though I took photos of our sights, the park wifi is so slow they wouldn't upload onto my blog. I am hopeful that when the 4th of July crowd is gone, things will get back to normal and I will add the photos.

The weather has certainly been cooperating for us. It has been in the mid  40's in the morning and mid 70's in the afternoon, except for today which has been damp and rainy with temps in the mid 60's. I know that some of you are in triple digit temperatures, so I won't say much more, but the weather has had much to do with where we choose our summers. Wish you were here!

So long.