9/19/05 - 10/24/05
10/24/05: Great weekend here in Hondo. Still eating more than we should and exercising less than we should - you know what that means!
Discovered I (Len) have a couple of cousins living nearby - one in Austin and another near Fredericksburg. We will have to try to connect with them before leaving the area. Made a trip to Uvalde this afternoon and ordered new spectacles for the pair of us - now perhaps we can find our way down the road!
Talked to friends in Naples, Florida last night. They had evacuated the park they were in and were staying in a local motel (on the second floor) and waiting out the storm. They were fixing up their place there and were going to put it on the market for sale today. Hope all is well with them.
10/20/05: Still here in the Escapee RV Park in Hondo. Have been busy helping Walt this week. Changed out a black water tank today up in Uvalde - talk about a crappy job. Still enjoying the high speed internet with the new dish. Even getting into posting some notes on the "DataStorm" user group site.
Talked with our friends in Grand Isle today and they are somewhat frustrated with the SLOW progress being made. The National Guard had used their yard to stage equipment and men after Katrina and when Rita came in they abandoned everything. Weeks later they finally got someone in today to start cleaning up and removing the equipment. They indicated there is now power and water restored to the island and the grocery store is even open for business! Expect we will be heading that way in a couple of weeks and see if we can assist.
10/16/05: We remain here at the Escapees park near Hondo. Have had a wonderful week here with Chris and Walt.
Received our new satellite internet system last Wednesday evening and had it up and on line by mid morning the following day. Quite a simple system to setup and operate.
Had a wonderful evening last night at a Wild Pig BBQ in the town (if you can call it that) of Tarply about 25 north of Hondo. It is an annual fund raiser for the local community and they cooked ten pigs and about 200 people turned up. All donations and eat as much as you can - pig, potatoes, beans, coleslaw, desert - all of it very good! We were joined by Walt, Chris and their friends Marianne and Johnny from nearby Utopia. Even a DJ spinning country music to dance. Wonderful evening.
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10/6/05: South on Interstate 35 to Waco, Texas today. Uneventful ride - traffic not too bad through Fort Worth. Camped at a Corps of Engineers park on Waco Lake. Nice campground but close to heavily traveled route 6 so lots of traffic noise.
10/5/05: Took a ride up to Guthrie (about 35 miles north of Oklahoma City) for lunch today. Guthrie was the original capital of Oklahoma and most of the buildings in old town Guthrie date from the late 1800s so this makes for an interesting town to visit. Lots of antique stores to browse and at least one good restaurant for lunch. About five years ago when we were here we had lunch at "Grandma Had One" and enjoyed a great apple dumpling for desert. Two years ago we returned for a second helping and were disappointed when they ran out. Today we called to ensure they had some before making the trip up there. Great lunch with Dennis & Mary!
10/3/05: Left Fall River this Monday morning and headed south to Oklahoma City where we are camped in the Tinker AFB FamCamp on base. Will get some much-needed laundry done, some commissary shopping and maybe even hit the Post Exchange while we are here.
Will also spend some time with our friends Dennis and Mary while we are here. Len & Dennis worked together at Tektronix back in the late 80s and early 90s. Always good to see them when we are in this area.
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9/30/05: We departed Cimarron, Kansas last Monday and headed for Fall River, Kansas to meet our friends John & Donna from Alberta (who we met at Grand Isle in 2003) for a few days. On the trip over here we stopped in Wichita for lunch with Richard & Joanne (another couple we met at Grand Isle). They plan to be here at Fall River tomorrow so it will be Grand Isle reunion here at Fall River.
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We took a drive around the countryside today with John & Donna traveling to the towns of Fall River, Severy, Beaumont and Eureka. Had lunch at the Beaumont Hotel which is accessible by car or plane. Pilots land across the street on a grass field and taxi from the airstrip to the "Bent Prop Parking Area" near the hotel. They also have a fully restored 1885 wooden water tower - the only one left in the USA! (see photo left)
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Have had a great visit and a feast of BBQ chicken wings, veggies and salad on Saturday and then I fried up some good old Washington walleye Sunday evening. We are going to have to stop visiting friends before we get even fatter!
9/20/05: We left the Rocky Mountain National Park area this morning and traveled south to Leadville, Colorado, an old (circa 1880) mining town. The majority of the original buildings are still standing and in use. The elevation here is 11,000 feet and the air is very thin. One has to take it easy and breath deep when walking around. We toured two museums and an old house here in town - all very interesting. Still lots of mining activity going on around this part of Colorado.
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9/19/05: From Dinosaur National Monument we headed east to the Granby, Colorado area where we are camped at the Green Ridge campground just south of the town of Grand Lake near the west entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. The campground is located on the shore of Shadow Mountain Lake near the headwaters of the Colorado River. The campground is located at the right of the photo on the right. While here at Green Ridge I noted our neighbors (Gordon & Marlene) had a satellite internet dish set up so made it a point to learn more from them. When discussing where we spent our winters they asked if we had ever met Bill & Laura Hewitt down there. What a surprise! Indeed we had and even traveled to New Hampshire to visit them. Turns our Gordon and Marlene had hosted in Arizona with them. Small world! |
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We took a ride over the "top" of the park to Estes Park on the east side of Rocky Mountain NP. What a shot of a nice bull elk (left) taken by Sylvia from the truck!
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