Highway Springs

Been a while since I posted a blog.  We stayed a couple extra days at South Fork Campground. Had Rich and Terri over for dinner one of those nights.

                  

even made an apple pie with a smiley face…yes, there are two eyes….look carefully.

                              

We moved up to Highway Springs National Forest Campground on June 15th, staying with camphosts, Russ and Patty.  We like this right off the highway place as it is small with only 13 sites and it is secluded and quiet. Most people only spend the night and are off the next morning.  Plus with our Golden Age Pass it is only $6.50 a night.  There’s no utilities here, not even water but we last about 7 to 10 days then Jim leaves me here and he takes the rig back over to Rich and Terri’s campground and dumps and fills up with water for $5.

We’ve just been lazing around.  Jim goes fishing most every day up to Big Meadows Reservoir.  I sit under the awning and knit or read on my Kindle.  Happy hour at 4 with dinner around 5:30….pretty laid back and restful.

Heinz and Angela came up and stayed at South Fork Campground (which Rich and Terri manages) over Father’s Day weekend and then came over to visit us at Highway Springs.

 

Jim took Heinz fishing and they did pretty good, catching their limit.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we all went up to Creede to try out the new Pizzeria 8825 (the elevation of Creede) that is housed in the old OMI building.  They only occupy the small dining area on the left of the building and they are building a retail shop in the old bar area.

They did take part of of the original bar and put in the new place…looks kind of funny chopped down.  The pizza was good with a very tender, flaky think crust.

Next we went to the former Old Firehouse which is now the Sweet Things (or is it Sweet Stuff?).  They have yogurt and hard ice cream by the ounce as well as buckets of “penny” candy we know from our childhood, which I am sure isn’t a penny any more.  At 69 cents an ounce for the yogurt and ice cream, our treat wasn’t a very good value.

         

We always enjoy any trip we take to Creede….beautiful old mining town, where Jim’s family had it’s start in Colorado.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, Jim enjoyed going out fishing

and then came home to grill himself a steak and baked potatoes.  Along with phone calls from our daughters, it was a very nice Father’s Day.

 

 

Last Friday we met Jim and Debbie Elliott for lunch at 3 Barrels Brewery in Del Norte.  We met The Elliotts at Betty’s RV Park a couple of years ago and they come up to South Fork for part of the summer every year.  We had a great visit and some good samples of beer and pizza.

         

Then Saturday we had our camphosts, Russ and Patty, over for dinner.  They winter in Tucson so we get to see them a several times a year….nice, nice couple.

       

Jim outdid himself on his ribs….his best ever!!!!!  I made cole slaw, potato salad, while Patty made deviled eggs and cucumbers in vinegar.  We had a feast!!!  We finished it off with my tapioca pudding with blueberries (eat your heart out, Heinz).

         

So that brings you up to date.  We move up to Big Meadows next Wednesday to celebrate July 4th with Heinz and Angela as well as Teddy and Roberta.  Should be a great time filled with laughter and a lot of good food.

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

South Fork Campground

As is our tradition, we spent the first few days in the mountains at South Fork Campground with our buddies, Rich and Terri Deacon, the managers here.

Our friends, Teddy and Birdie, came up from Espanola and were camping at Big Meadows.  They came over to visit and showed us the huge trout they caught at Road Canyon…a couple were 13 inch plus.  They offered us some for dinner….didn’t have to ask me twice!  We had Rich and Terri over and I made potato salad and cole slaw to fill out the meal.

Saturday Heinz and Angela drove up for a visit and dinner and soon here came Teddy and Birdie…so the Notorious Eight had assembled.

Jim discovered a pinhole leak in the ice maker hose, so he bought an ice maker instillation kit to trade it out.  So when the Notorious Eight came together all the fellas had to gather to give advise on how to finish up the repairs.  It was so funny for us ladies to see all the guys peering in the foot square hole to see what needed to be done.

                 

Everybody brought steaks and a side dish to share (I ate leftover trout), but I forgot to take any photos.  Maybe it was because I used a fresh pineapple to make some daiquiris….and they were good!!! 

But I did get a shot of the wonderful peach and cherry cobbler Teddy made.  This type of cobbler is put 3 cans pie filling (or several cups of fresh/frozen fruit) in the Dutch over followed by a box of dry cake mix and then pour about 8 oz. of soda pop.  One of his best was cherry pie filling with chocolate cake mix and a can of Dr. Pepper.  And, yes, we topped it all with ice cream.

We’ll stay here another night and leave Tuesday for Park Creek if we can get one of the bigger sites.  If not we’ll go to Highway Springs.

Remember, you are loved.

Moving to the Mountains

It’s been a busy last week in Alamosa before we move to the mountains.

I finished up the last of the 164 CDs I was cataloging and processing for the library. I also processed another 149 obits scans to make it 1,006 I’ve done. We celebrated with a couple of pizzas I bought for the staff to say ‘thank you’ for all their help during these last four weeks I’ve been with them.

We had Salai over for dinner one last night…serving her ribs, of course, which she loves.

                     

We also had Heinz and Angela over for happy hour last Wednesday…..no picture as I have taken so many of them in our RV on the same couch, looking out the same back window, with the same outside background….I figure you remember what they look like by now.

This morning Jim and I will go out to eat breakfast one last time at the Campus Café, then “break down camp” and head for South Fork Campground for a couple of days as is our tradition.  Sunday we will move to one of the national forest campgrounds and start our summer in the mountains, camp fires, fishing and lots of relaxation.

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

Lucky LaRue

Last Sunday was the last day of the Summerfest on the Rio, which we old timers still call Sunshine Festival even after it was renamed.

Closing out the festivities was a band called Lucky LaRue (nobody remembers why) that is made up of our previous next door neighbor from our “stick and brick” days, his son, and others.  We remember hearing them practice on weekends in their garage and Jim and I would take lawn chairs and sit on their lawn and enjoy listening.  They haven’t played together for ten years….so this was a reunion of sorts.

They had a good crowd, some sitting on the hay bales while others opted to bring their lawn chairs for a little more comfort.  After a ten year absence it was so good to hear them play together again.  It was good to hear their old songs being played again….good memories of parties in the past with good neighbors.

Remember, you are loved.

Busy Week

Over last weekend Heinz and Angela came over for happy hour.  Thankfully it was a nice, sunshiny day…and Jim remembered how to set the camera for time delay.

I’ve had a great, but busy week.  I continue to volunteer at Alamosa Public Library six hours a day. I am processing 170 CD audio books to have them ready for the shelves.  I can only do about 22 a day, so it is a long project.

Monday I met Judy for lunch at Super Taco.

Judy retired last year as Alamosa City Clerk.  She is now a free lance consultant and advises other towns and cities on their liquor laws and elections.  In between she travels all over the country to multi-day bicycling events…she and her husband recently bought a travel trailer so they no longer have to sleep in tents along the way. We had a great time catching up on our activities this last winter.

Tuesday I received a call from Landi, who along with hubby, Richard, and son, Nathanael, camped with us when we were camphosts in South Fork.  They were visiting from the Dallas area and wanted us to come up to Big Meadows for dinner….to help them eat the mess of rainbow trout they had caught.  Don’t have to ask me twice, since we haven’t eaten any fresh trout yet this year.

Nathanael is graduating this year. He loves Jim’s rib.	Landi served mashed potatoes, salad and fresh green beans along with the trout, yum.
Nice to be in a campground in the mountains again.	Leaving we saw the handicap fishing dock got loose and fell down the spill way.  See it in the middle there?

Wednesday was the start of the Summer Reading Program at Alamosa Public Library.  I took a peek outside to see how many kids and parents showed up.  Gad zooks, there was 174 in the audience!!! The Salida Circus School was the main attraction and was so cute and amusing.

Also on Wednesday I took a little time out from the library to take photos of the Alamosa Women’s Club delivering a Little Free Library and books to the food bank.  I love the idea of Little Free Library and there are several other organizations in town that are sponsoring some more Little Free Libraries.  That makes me happy.

Thursday Heinz and Angela picked us up and we drove to Del Norte to have dinner at Three Barrel Brewery.  They have great beer (Trashy Blonde is a favorite) and wood-fired pizza.  This is their new location right on Highway 160 and they did a good job with renovation from a gas station.  It seats 60 folks now and has a much larger wood fired pizza oven.

The guys both had “Bernie the Axe” pizza with all the meats, while Angela and I had the lasagna and Caesar salad.  Always fun to be with Angela and Heinz.

Friday was the start of the Summerfest on the Rio, our local arts and crafts fair at Cole Park.  We went to hear an old favorite band of our, Tumbleweed.  Then on Saturday we returned to the park and walked around.

And then we had some pretty good sunsets this week.  Here’s one of the best.

Today is Sunday and we are watching NASCAR race, gave Poncho a bath and Jim is preparing to grill a nice T-bone steak.

Life is good!!!!  Remember, you are loved.