Moved back to Granby, Colorado

We hired and trained new area managers for Brainard Lake Recreation Area, so today we moved back to Stillwater Campground in Granby, Colorado.

Driving into Granby was like “coming home”.  We really like this area and feel very comfortable here.  We are back to being on top of the hill overlooking U.S. Highway 34 and can see the changing weather over the mountains near Trail Ridge Road and Rocky Mountain National Park.

I’m happy to have full use of internet and cell service here and not having to drive to get both, as we did at Brainard Lake.  Now I’ll be able to blog more often and keep up with our friends on Facebook again.  Yippee!!!  I also have scads and scads of restaurant reviews to post on Trip Advisor that I haven’t had time to post all month!

We will be staying here for the rest of the season although we will be taking trips to the other districts we are responsible for.  We’ll leave our rig here and stay in a motel for a few days from time to time.

So we are back online, folks, so get ready for more blog posts from us now.

Remember, you are loved.

Tribute to Naomi

I lost my dearest friend, Naomi Wing, yesterday morning, July 14th. 

I’m so very happy I got to visit with her last Wednesday when I went to Alamosa for my yearly physical.  I took her outside to feel the sunshine on her back and breath the outside air.  We chatted and laughed.  We picked a couple of flowers so she could see them up close and talked about the rhubarb she use to have in her yard and all the ways we use to cook it.  Naomi loved her garden, especially her peonies.

I met Naomi about 30 years ago when I joined her chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.  When she broke her hip 17 years ago I visited her in the nursing home where she was recuperating and then continued to visit her at her home.  Since she didn’t have any family in town I kinda watched over her taking her shopping to doctor’s visits, etc. About nine years ago it was safe for Naomi to be at home by herself, so she went into a nursing home. I visited her frequently and after we went on the road as fulltime RVers I sent her postcards and phone her.

Naomi was 97 1/2 years old and as sharp as a tack all the way to the end.  Although in a wheelchair, Naomi was a avid reader, especially mysteries and anything Jimmy Carter wrote.  She read the whole Valley Courier newspaper everyday, cover to cover….I think even all the classified ads!

Naomi taught me how to quilt, making me hand piece and quilt my first quilt…a miniature, but still a pain….Naomi required 10-12 stitches an inch and that wasn’t easy, or even possible in my case. 

Widowed at an early age she had difficulty finding housing as a single mother. Finally a gentleman rented her a small house that use to sit where the Boyd Elementary School garden sat.  Naomi would ride her bike from there to Adams Normal School (as Adams State University use to be known back then) to become a teacher.  As she rode she was trailed by her son, Paul, as he rode his bike along with her.  Naomi would put Paul on the floor under her desk with a coloring book to keep him occupied while she attended each of her college classes.  Isn’t that an extraordinary story?

Naomi taught school for 39 years, mostly third grade.  She was a stern teacher and exacting teacher.  But in the years following her retirement when I’d take her out shopping we always met one of her former students and they always praised her saying, “you was harsh but boy did I learn from you”.

Naomi told me of Evans school not having a cafeteria and how she walked home from school to prepare lunch for her and her children, eating and cleaning up and walking back to school to continue teaching the rest of the day.  Amazing.

Naomi loved to knit, quilt and dabbled in painting also.  She had exquisite taste in clothing and home décor….always partial to brown tones, but liked jewel tones in clothing.  In fact, she asked me to knit her a shawl in purple with some red stripes.  I bought the yarn two weeks ago but hadn’t started knitting it yet….I’m sorry about that.

I know I am rambling on, but it has been good for me to reminisce.  Naomi was such a lady and I learned so much from her about life and how to treat people.  I will miss her tremendously.

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There will be a memorial service for Naomi on Saturday, July 20th at 11 a.m. at Rogers’ Family Mortuary on State Avenue in Alamosa.  I sure hope many of her former students would attend.

 

 

Poncho and His Pillow

Our dog, Poncho, is very fond of his pillow.  He punches it, walks over it, moves it around until it is the right consistency and perfectly positioned.

 

All snuggled in and ready for his nap.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind this saying HERE

Another Hat for Lory

I finished another hat for my buddy, Lory. It came out so cute….I really like this pattern.

I gave it to Lory last time we were in Alamosa.  She really liked it.  The hat only takes a little over a skein of yarn so I bought six skeins and hope to get five hats out of them.  Those hats (complete with yarn braids) will go to chemo centers in Colorado.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind this saying HERE

Trail Ridge Road

This is a beautiful road up the road from the Stillwater Campground in Granby, through Grand Lake and then up the road.  Costs $20 to drive on it, but luckily Jim and I both have Golden Age Passes so it was free.

There was still snow up there two weeks ago.

The scenery up there is absolutely breathtaking.

The roads have a lot of switch-backs.  Look at the photo of our GPS and the three windy roads.

                         

A bike rider was nice enough to take our picture.

When you exit Trail Ridge Road you go right into Estes Park.  Cute town but very commercialized and touristy.  Not my taste.  I prefer Georgetown.

Remember, you are loved.

Survived July 4th

It was a long, full day but we survived July 4th.  The welcome booth ran smoothly with six of us taking entrance fees and directing traffic.

Jim drives back and forth from the parking lot two miles away and let’s us know how many parking spaces are available.  I count them off and add a “Yippee” and give them my “jazzing hands”.  Everybody smiles at that and gets a kick out of it.  Some join in and give me “jazzing hands” back or blow their horns as they pass.  It’s all in fun and everybody laughs and gets in a happy mood.

Wish it would stop raining every day about 4-6 p.m.  We’ve been trying for the past two days to have our staff over for a wiener roast at our site but it has rained.  If we don’t do it tonight I’m going to have to deliver it to everyone to get the hominy casserole and baked beans eaten.

Remember, you are loved.

Doing Fine in Nederland, Colorado

While returning from South Fork last weekend, we found out one of our area managers had to leave.  We returned to Granby hooked up the rig and drove to Brainard Lake Recreation Area about 12 miles north of Nederland and just outside of Ward, Colorado.

We’ve been here a week and got the large day-use area opened and running smoothly.  Jim developed a work schedule, I modified the daily forms, trained everybody and we opened.  Then by Friday the campground was ready to go. After a quick training we opened it up at 8:00 a.m. and by 8:39 a.m. it was full.

The weekend went very smoothly and all the staff are happy and smiling.

We’ll try to hire a new area manager for Brainard but will stay here until then.  I’m happy – I really enjoy Nederland.

Life is good.

Unfortunately we don’t have any cell or internet service up at Brainard Lake, so we drive to Nederland everyday to get messages and check our email.  So be patient – blog posts will be spotty.

Remember, you are loved.

P.S.  I looked at my post after it was published and noticed that Blogger took it upon themselves to put in some hyperlinks on my words “training” and “internet”. Can’t see how to remove them so all I can do is apologize for this advertisement.  I didn’t add them and don’t like having it added without my permission, but, oh well…….