Alamosa, Colorado

We arrived back in Alamosa Thursday, April 12th and parked on Jim’s brother’s property by the airport.  Thank you, Ron.

Friday we went to the 9 News Health Fair.  This is a wonderful health benefit to the state sponsored by channel 9 in Denver. The blood draw is worth about $600-700 and only costs $30. I also had my hearing checked, confirmed the dark spots on my neck are good old “age spots”, checked my height (didn’t shrink any) and learned about local health sources. 

The health fair is also a great place to see the folks of the community all at one time.  During the two hour wait in line till you advance to the blood draw you see folks we haven’t seen since last year.  You turn a corner and there was 3 people I worked with at K-Mart 14 years ago, met former students who took my computer class at the library, saw a gal from the book club I belonged to, etc. 

Friday we also learned that Terri Deacon’s mother had passed and the funeral would be Saturday. (Many of you remember Terri and Rich Deacon who worked with us at amazon.com in Campbellsville and also were at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, LA with us and the Mossman’s last spring.)  Then we heard former firefighter and city building inspector, Jeff Rilling had suddenly died at age 53 and his memorial service would be Monday.

So many of us fulltime RVers don’t carry dressy church clothes with us so I needed to go shopping.      I went to Rainbow’s End Thrift Store and found a black dress for $5 that was appropriate to wear for a Mormon church funeral for Terri’s mother and then went to JC Penny’s and found a brown and black blouse I could wear with black slacks for Jeff’s memorial service.

The funeral and memorial service gathered together more people we knew and hadn’t seen in a while, so we were able to see and talk to many people we knew.
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As in many small towns everywhere you go you see folks you know.  It makes for some exceptionally long trips to the grocery store LOL.  You go in for a couple of items for dinner and meet someone at the meat department and tell them where you’ve traveled since last summer; then you go to pick up some tomatoes and there is another person you know.  By the time I add a gallon of milk to my cart 45 minutes have gone by.  We go for breakfast and I see two former computer class students a couple of tables away. Go to buy some stamps and I run into a couple more library patrons who recognize me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing folks I know again.  But just how many times in a day can you explain to people how you get your mail, once they remember you are a fulltime RVer now? Or “I almost didn’t recognize you because you were in a car with South Dakota plates”. Other fulltimers know the routine we all go through.

But it has been nice to go to our favorite restaurants again and eat what we know as “green chili” which is a sauce you put over eggs, burritos or enchiladas that contains pork meat, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and Hatch green chiles.

Jim had a wonderful breakfast skillet with green chili at Ef’s , I had my guacamole tostado with green chili at El Charro, Salai and I had buffet lunch at Hunan’s, with Jim and I sharing chicken chow mein at May Wa’s with Spanish omelets at The Campus, sharing a pizza from San Luis Valley Pizza Company with Heinz and Angela Bergann and I had Chili’s Southwest Chicken Chili Soup and Cobb Salad with my BFF, Lory Sanchez.  It was all topped off with buffet lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant at Baldo’s in Monte Vista today.

Yes, we’ve eaten out a lot since we’ve returned to Alamosa, but we hadn’t gone out to eat for two months when we were in south Texas….yes, I’ve made up for it now.  Back to cooking at home from now on.

More tomorrow to catch everyone up on our goings on…. remember, you are loved, mucho!!!!!