Tuesday August 25, 2015-Mountain Views at Rivers Edge Resort

We've been just hanging out and relaxing and enjoying the great weather. We've gone for a couple of rides out into the mountains and I will have some new photos to post soon.

Yesterday a neighbor came in pulling a 2012 Landmark with the exact same floorplan that we have. Dana and his wife Carol are from Austin TX and are here for a short time. 

Today our friends Mike and Peg arrived here. They were escorted to their by a park employee who also offered to help Mike get parked. After a bit of time I went over to see if I could help. The park employee soon gave up and in short order, Mike was parked. Soon after beginning the set-up procedures, Mike found that his batteries were low but he found a circuit breaker that he reset and everything seems to be working now.

Stella had fixed a large pot of soup, so I invited Dana and Carol to eat with Mike and Peg and us and we had a very enjoyable meal. It was nice to get to know Dana and Carol and I expect we'll spend more time with them in the next few days.

A Cyclone toy hauler trailer came a couple of days ago, but I haven't been able to catch them at home to introduce myself. There are lots of outdoor activities here and people with a short time to spend here don't spend a lot of time at their trailer. When Mike and Peg pulled in another Bighorn pulled in right behind them, so there is another person that I will try to meet. Hey, it keeps me out of the saloons...

So long.

Saturday August 1, 2015-Mountain Views at Rivers Edge RV Resort

We had a great Last Supper with Dave and Nancy last night at the Cottonwood Cove. This place is a guest ranch, cabin rental and RV park, as well as a very good restaurant. The business was established in 1943 and the building appears to be original. Stella and I have eaten here before but Dave and Nancy had not. We enjoyed our meal with our good friends and we came back home where Stella fixed us her recipe of fried ice cream and it turned out stupendous! We stayed outside until the daily rain clouds threatened.

Dave came out a little after 8 to finish up his putting away and packing to leave this morning and I just watched him work. He had done most everything last night, so it didn't take him long to get finished. They were hooked up and ready to go a bit after 9. After hugs and handshakes, they were on their way out of the park and on their way to New Mexico for the night. We are sorry to see them go, but they've been gone from home almost 4 months. We'll make full timers out of them yet!

We had so much fun with them this month! We explored lots of scenic areas and saw awesome sights including moose and deer. We will definitely return here at some point in the future. They still have some things, like their Internet service that needs improvement. I complained about it the last time we stayed here and they have made some progress but it can still be better.

Stella made some great corn chowder made with fresh Olathe sweet corn. Colorado is about the only place that we've found Olathe corn and we always love it. Thank goodness for Internet recipes!

So long.

Thursday July 30, 2015-Mountain Views at Rivers Edge RV Resort

We went over to Durango a couple of days ago to scout out some RV parks that we may want to stay in on a future trip. Along the way we stopped at the Wolf Creek Pass scenic overlook and took some pictures.

A view down into the valley below.

This little guy was looking for some food.

A beautiful waterfall near the top of the pass.

Yesterday we took a trip to Deer Lake that is near the Slumgullion Pass. We had heard of several moose sightings there and there they were, a moose cow and her calf. She stayed in the water, munching away while the calf wandered off into the woods.

                           

We had a good day of wildlife sighting with this deer.

She came out of the woods about 30 yards from me. I don't know which one of us was more surprised.

She said "I'm out of here" and off she went!

Beautiful area!

We love the mountains of Colorado and pictures don't do them justice but I do the best I can. 

So long.

Sunday July 26, 2015-Mountain Views at Rivers Edge Resort

I just want to let everyone know that we haven't fallen off a mountainside. We're enjoying the cool mountain air and the multitude of beautiful views. Tom and Marti left on the 9th and made it home okay. Dave had lots of trouble with his truck (again) and we had to take it back to Alamosa for some work. While there, I took my truck to the Dodge side (this is one of those multi-make dealerships) and had a fuel heater recall performed on it. 

This is one of the reservoirs along the Rio Grande river. There are a LOT of split rail fences in Colorado. Very picturesque...

A couple fishing on the reservoir. Lots of folks do this.

This is a picture at the Windy Point Scenic Overlook. Just gorgeous, with tall aspens in the foreground with snow covered mountains in the background.

This is one of those photos that don't do justice to the actual area. The Weminuche wilderness covers almost a half million acres.

This is a photo taken from a wildlife viewing area above Creede, which can be seen below in the valley. 

Since this is a wildlife viewing area, here is a doe and two fawns. Can you see the fawns?

Can you see both fawns now?

This is a gorgeous view from near the top of Pool Table mountain. This is a very popular area for Jeeps, ATV's and bicycles! We met a knucklehead riding a bicycle down the mountain on our way up.

We met a large herd of mountain goats on the top of the mountain. We're not sure if this is a privately owned herd or wild, but they were not bothered by the truck or some folks on ATV's nearby.

Another view down the mountain.

Breathtaking!

I guess someone occupies this tent. They have a very nice view from their campsite, but there is lots of chances to encounter dangerous wildlife up here on the of the mountain.

Looking down at the road we had just driven. Like all mountains, a windy and bumpy road. We met someone bringing a small travel trailer up when we got near the bottom. It certainly does take all kinds...

Yesterday we went to visit Dan and Ann at their new house in Pagosa Springs. We had a nice visit with our friends, and their house is beautiful. They just bought the place and haven't moved their furniture in yet and I'm sure it will be even better when furnished.

On our way back home, we stopped at the Continental Divide, the highest point of our trip today at 10,857 feet. Pretty high! Made our ears pop!

So long.

Sunday July 5, 2015-Mountain View RV Resort

Yesterday, July 4th, we began the day by going to the parade in town but when we arrived, parking was horrible, so we gave up and went for a ride toward the Bristol area, hoping to see the headwaters of the Rio Grande river.

 This is a reservoir on a ranch alongside the highway. It's a "scenic overlook" and has some beautiful views. These pictures don't do justice to the beauty.

 I'm told that these purple flowers are the Colorado Columbine. I'm not so sure, but they're very pretty.

We came back home and after afternoon naps, we met at Dave and Nancy's to use their new Traeger grill. This a pretty cool grill that uses wood pellets. It adds the correct amount of pellets to control the temperature and it works very well. All of the meat tat we put on the grill turned out perfect. We sat outside, waiting for the firework show that was scheduled for about 30 minutes after dark, but i
t began to rain and the temperature dropped, so we all retired inside to watch from our trailers. Apparently the rain delayed the fireworks but we did see some. It was different, watching fireworks from my recliner!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Today we went to church here in the park for a very patriotic message. I saw a few people that I remember from our last stay here and we all enjoyed the service. 

After church we decided to ride the 50 or so miles to Lake City. This is another small city in the mountains of Colorado.  

 This is Lake Crystobal, the lake that Lake City is named for. It's a big lake with a small waterfall (see below). 

I'm not sure if this is a swimming area in the lake, but as cold as the water is, I would doubt that anyone swims here.

As promised, the small waterfall. This water then spills into the Gunnison river.

The water is very green as you can see. It is beautiful and has some camp sites with no utilities on the north end of the lake as well as rental houses on the lake. I don't think any of us are interested in bringing our trailers up here, especially camping without water and electricity.

This is another shot of some of the small lakes or reservoirs formed by the Rio Grande. See that pointy mountain, way off in the distance? That the peak where the river actually starts in the Rio Grande National Forest. I think it's a bit far to drive to... Perhaps another time?

So long.

Friday July 3, 2015-Mountain View at Rivers Edge

I know I skipped right over Thursday, but we just stayed home and rested up. Even though we broke up the journey from Goshen pretty well, we were all tired when we finally got here. Tom and Marti and Dave and Nancy drove into town to look around at the quaint little village of Creede but Stella and I stayed home.

The weather has been great, with cool mornings and warm days. It has threatened to rain every day but so far, today was the worst rainstorm that we have had. I guess the worst thing about the rainstorms is the thunder. It is so loud up here in the mountains, almost deafening! We're getting used to it, and also getting used to the altitude. We are all drinking lots of water to stay hydrated and there haven't been any problems for us. 

Not so much for another couple down the street from us. Yesterday we saw an ambulance come in and stop in front of a motorhome. You know how I am, Curious Jay had to walk down there to see what was going on. It turned out to be a couple that we had met when we were here before and I learned that the lady had gotten short of breath. They took her away in the ambulance and I don't know anything beyond that.

There was another problem last night. Someone arrived about 10:30 and disturbed the neighbors as they got backed in and parked. The bigger news was that someone else arrived around 1AM (Stella heard them come in) and somehow they knocked one of the low rock walls down. It didn't take long for the maintenance crew to repair the wall, but there was still damage done and the Sheriff was called. 

Tom and Marti went to South Fork to visit friends there and Stella and Nancy washed clothes while Dave and I napped. Life is good!

So long.

Wednesday July 1, 2015-Moving Day-Pueblo south KOA to Mountain View at Rivers Edge Resort

We were up on time this morning but took our time and still were pulling out about 8:45. It was a great day to travel, light traffic, good weather and great roads. I must brag a bit about Colorado roads. They are the smoothest of any state that we've been in and seldom have rough patches.

We decided to stop at the Wal Mart in Alamosa, which is about halfway on our trip today. It's about 70 miles to Creede, so there won't be any "quick trips" to Wal Mart for the next couple of months. When we pulled in to the lot, the store was packed with cars and lots of RV's parked all over. One caught my eye, an older model Landmark that was being pulled by a Volvo highway tractor. We parked near it and later the owner came back to his rig and it was a fellow I know from our first Heartland rally in 2007! Randy W. and his wife are now retired and will be staying for the summer near the Fun Valley RV park that is not far from us. Perhaps we'll run into them again before we leave. Small world.

We made it to Creede and soon found our sites. We thought that Tom and Marti were going to be on the other side of the park from us but he managed to snag  a site right across the street from us. Cool!

We got all set and except for some minor details when it started to rain. Actually, it started to storm! Loud thunder and lightning and heavy rain but it didn't last very long. It continued to lightly rain all afternoon, so I went around to the others to check on them. We are all tired and just want to rest up tonight. We'll start over in the morning. Should be some good sleeping weather if the rain persists.

So long.