First Week In Colorado

We have been back in Colorado for nearly a week.  I'm still fighting off the cold I brought from Indiana and now the smoke here from the fires in Washington State have made for a stopped up head.  So many here are feeling the same effects.  It's nothing compared to the heartache of the people in Washington.  We are all praying that they get a gentle rain to end the drought and put out the fires.

We will be Volunteers here in the Cherry Creek State Park.  We hope to stay until sometime in November.  That will depend on how cold it gets.  Like most other places, the forecasters are having a tough time knowing just what the fall and winter will bring.

We have been retired for a couple of years now... or working without pay, would be another description.  In order to stay longer in the Aurora, Colorado area, we have volunteered to work 20 hours each a week at the State Park.  We did this for awhile down at the San Luis State Park in May.  We have a nice camping spot in the private Volunteer area of the Campground.

The port-o-garden was flourishing in Indiana.  We'll see how it does here at elevation. 

This is a picture of the campground with the loops.

The State Park is rich in history because of the Smokey Hill Trail that this is a part of.  The trail led down to Kansas City.

This is a private area in our loop.  We have Volunteer meetings on Thursday mornings here.

There is a large reservoir here that is great for boating and fishing.

We got out our fishing poles and tried fishing off the bank.  We didn't get a bite and then Craig wrestled this in.

We celebrated our daughter (and youngest of three) Tana's,  40th Birthday.  Her family of six are temporarily living in an apartment while they are having a new home built.

 I made a Strawberry Rhubarb pie from what I could pick from the Elder's garden in Indiana

There was also Ice Cream Cake.

The apartment complex has a nice pool and hot tub, so we took advantage of a warm day with an hour or so in the sun.

There are flowers growing all around because of all of the rain Colorado has had this year.

Saturday morning we attending a track meet across the Metroplex near the Rocky Mountain Foothills.

Kyra and Carter both run on the Cherokee Trails High School Cross Country Team.  Kyra is a Freshman and Carter a Sophomore.

They both had great times.  Below is Carter's finish.  He is in the sun glasses.

Here's Kyra racing a girl to the finish after 3.1 miles.  She is the one in Blue.

 Sunday found us at the Ball Park watching Cooper and Collin's team.  They won their double header today.

Both of the boys had hits.  This is Collin with one of his.

Cooper (Money-ball) at bat.

Collin and Cooper are on the same Baseball Team and also on the same Football team.

Cooper and Collin

So, that's been our first week in Colorado.  Tomorrow we report to the Entrance Gate for training at 9 am.


Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's back to work we go. The work will allow us to camp for free and stay here for a couple of months instead of a couple of weeks.

Blessings,
Kathy

Colorado

We are off the road again.  Maybe until November. We started out this morning in a sprinkle and then the sun came out.  There were storm, tornado and hail warnings, but it wasn't as bad in our area as they were saying.  We are thankful.

We got off to a rough start this morning.  We have to run the CR-V through a routine for the gears with the engine running.  The Honda wouldn't start.  So, we dragged it away from the other campers, since it was early.  Then, we had to disconnect it from the Whale, turn the Whale around and use it's engine to jump start the car.  We aren't sure what is running the battery down.

But, we finally got down the road and then realized the fuse for the dash gauges went out somewhere in the process.  Maybe they are related.  We pulled into a rest stop and Craig replaced the fuse and it has been fine the rest of the day.

We turned off of I 80 unto 76 and entered Colorful Colorado.  At first, it looked a bit drab because of the weather, but I don't believe I have ever seen east Colorado as green as it is.

We had a pleasant surprise with miles of sunflowers.  They were beautiful.  I tried to take more photos and then realized that my phone battery was dead.  It was a bad day for batteries.

We checked in at the office, but the Ranger won't be back from his vacation until tomorrow.  So, we told them what spot Carl had said we would be in in the Volunteer Loop #73.  They believed us and sent us over to get settled in.  We washed a few bugs off the Whale and headed over to Tana's apartment to check on the kids.  Tana and Barry have been in Las Vegas for her 40th Birthday.  Mom even baked a cake for her. They will be back home late tonight and we'll see them sometime tomorrow.

Grandpa trying to help Cooper (6th grade) with his homework.

Sam always remembers us and was glad to see us.

Collin (7th grade) getting ready to go to football practice.

Kyra (9th grade) and Carter (10th grade).  They are both way taller than I.
Driving back into the park, the clouds were building again, but we haven't had any more rain up to this point.

The Volunteer campsites aren't quite as large as the rest of the park sites, but it's nice, clean and well kept.  This may be home for a couple of months.  Once we jumped the car again and let it run, the battery seems to be taking a charge.  Not sure, yet, what is draining the battery while we go down the road. 

Some have been asking how I am feeling.  I had a cold hit me like a ton on Thursday.  I have been able to function and each day I seem a little better.  I'm still coughing if I over exert myself, but I'm trusting to be ready for work tomorrow. 

I have carried around this "garden" for over a year. It is trying to bloom, so I hope the altitude change from Indiana to Colorado isn't too much for it.

Not sure how much I will be blogging during this time here.  I'm not too sure of much at this point.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.  Right, Jay?

Blessings,

Kathy

Travel from Indiana to Colorado

We pulled out of Cedar Lake, Indiana campground on Aug. 15th, and planned a three day drive to the Denver, Colorado area.  We took I 80. The traffic was light yesterday, but today there was a steady stream of people passing us.

Day 1

We are on our way to Work Camp at the Cherry Creek State Park.  We are due in there on Aug. 18th.

We left early and made it out of the high gas prices in Illinois to a nice $2.59 through Iowa.

We are now west of the Mississippi

Iowa is green and the crops look great.

There's a hot air balloon getting ready to lift off that's in the center of this photo.

We stayed in Kellogg, Iowa on the first day.

I caught a cold and I have been pretty under the weather.  I was able to help drive, but I wasn't good for anything else.  It was so great to have these left overs from the dinner out with Jim and Marie!!!

Day 2

We felt we should eat a bowl of cereal in honor of Kellogg before leaving the campground.

Coming in to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

We crossed over several branches of the Platte River once we got into Nebraska.

We stopped tonight in North Platte, Nebraska.  There's a small lake that's a part of the park.

There's a toad in the middle of this shot.

Craig pulled out his fishing pole and caught 15 Bass and 1 Bluegill while I was fixing supper.

 He said the fish may appear larger than it is in the selfie.  Sounds like a good fish story to me.

Tomorrow, Colorado,

Blessings,

Kathy