It's been awhile since we've updated, guess we've been so busy seeing this beautiful state of Colorado! We throughly enjoyed our time in Woodland Park and the mountains in that area are stunning. The drive from Colorado Springs to Woodland Park is one I could do everyday and not tire of. The mountains are HUGE, the colors are wonderful, just so many shades of green! We moved on to Buena Vista last week and spent four nights in a nice little park, Valley RV Park with an Escapee discount. From there we day tripped to Leadville and saw such astounding beauty from the turning of the aspen leaves, followed the Arkansas River as far as we could and got as close to the headwaters as possible off Hwy 91. I would go back to that area in a heartbeat! There's a lot of history in Leadville and the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum is located there. Just outside Leadville off CR 4 is Turquoise Lake. I was standing on the "Matchless" boat ramp when I took the first picture and can't believe how amazing it is.
I must've taken 200 pictures of the aspen, thank goodness for digital cameras! The colors are beyond description and unfortunately the camera cannot capture the boldness of the color and bring you to tears. The real thing left me in tears through my smiles, for pratically the whole drive. The last pic was taken at one of the Twin Lakes, south of Leadville. Talk about Rocky Mountain High, now I understand!

Colorado

This is our current RV site in Woodland Park, CO. This is a nice park, nicest in the area for the space and money. The people are friendly but it rains everyday so being outside doesn't happen very often.

We took a drive Wednesday, stopped for a wonderful BBQ lunch which we ate in the truck to stay dry. The little BBQ place didn't have inside seating and the rain came, of course. What looks like snow ( and 43 degree temp) is actually hail and was a few miles ahead of us on our way to the mining town of Cripple Creek. Cripple Creek now mines tourist wallets when they visit the many casinos, guess the gold in them thar hills is all gone!
(We did see a lot tailings from the mining that still goes on and they do still get gold.)

The third pic is of the South Platte River, about fifteen miles from Woodland Park at the 11 Mile Canyon.
This is a gorgeous area and appears to be a favorite spot with fly fishermen. The road is dirt and narrow, in spots the edge has washed away, a concern when passing another vehicle and the dually's on our truck. Made me nervous anyway. Hopefully we'll get back there in a few days and Dave can try his luck with the fly rod. I enjoy the scenery and getting to the river's edge.

Til next time, be safe and may God Bless!

More from Pikes Peak

You can see the visitor center and our railcar at the top. I feel light headed just looking at the picture, haha. This is one of several waterfalls and I got lucky to get the picture at the last moment. Last photo is of a rock that I think looks like a smiley face but more like the man in the moon.

COG RAILROAD

Yesterday Dave and I crossed another Colorado Springs adventure off our to do list, we took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak. The round trip was a little over 3 hours and took us 14,115 feet above
sea level. In case you've never done this, let me tell you, the air is THIN up there! We sipped water
all the way up as a friend had advised, that helps with the light headed, nauseous feeling a lot of
people experience. We were both light headed but managed without taking oxygen that's available at the
summit. We didn't see any wildlife but the scenery was interesting, gigantic boulders, tall, tall trees and
fragile tundra, even a waterfall or two. Our rail car had to pull over and allow a train heading down the Peak
to pass at Windy Point, that's only 12,130 feet, we still had a ways to go. We saw vehicles on the road
that's used for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. There's no way I'd want to be in an automobile going up that
narrow dirt road, and people race up that road! (The Hill Climb is scheduled for the week-end of July 18.)
Maybe tomorrow or the next day I'll post some pictures from the top and coming down.

Colorado Air Force Academy

We've been "settled" in Colorado Springs since the 19th of this month and we're here til the 19th of July. After
that we must find a new place to park, the rules say we can only stay 30 days at the Air Force Academy in the
summer. It's beautiful here, tall pines, cool days and pull up the covers at night! We've had the AC on maybe twice, AND used heat once, yep, and it felt real good! Took Dave four hours to set up the Dish, he didn't care about the tall pines that day. Our site is on the end of a row and really spacious, lots of wildlife around. There's black bears here so the feeders must be brought inside every night, don't want to intice the critters to come into camp. A Ranger told us he saw a bear on the roadway by the lake where Dave was fishing
yesterday. Made me take notice of my surroundings after that! The birds have me trained to get up and
hang the feeders, they make so much noise there's no more sleeping. There's Black -headed
Grosbeaks, Magpies, Stellar Jays, Pine Siskin, Cowbirds, White-breasted Nuthatches, Pygmy Nuthatches,
Cassin Finches, Western Bluebirds and of course the hummers, Black-chinned and Broad-tailed.
I love this picture of the female Broad-tail, best hummer picture I've ever snapped. These little birds are
consuming a half gallon of sugar water everyday at our four feeders and other people have feeders up
as well. Now we're up to date, I apologize to anyone that's been checking in to find I haven't kept my word.
Until next time, love and hugs to anyone reading this.

Butchart Gardens

Finally I'm going to stick with updating the blog until it's done! Our grandson's graduation cruise was diverted from the Mexican Riviera to Canada because of the Swine Flu so we got to see the world famous Butchart Gardens. The gardens were started over a hundred years ago by Jennie Butchart to beautify a worked out limestone quarry, and they're still family owned today. The gardening became a hobby for Jennie and she worked long hours along side her helpers. The story goes that back in the early days word began to spread about the beautiful gardens and people would come wanting to walk through them. Jennie would graciously
provide "tea" for the visitors. Today there's fountains and a gift shop, even an ice cream shop. The gardens cover 55 acres, if a plant "looks sick" another replaces it immediately, the whole garden is continuously scanned. Canada is beautiful and flowers, flowers everywhere. Victoria, BC, and Vancouver, BC are both beautiful,
clean cities. Vancouver is definitely metropolitan. One thing that caught my attention was that even the
condos had planter boxes on the balconies. It's a gardeners paradise!

Along the way to TUS

We made it to Tucson this afternoon and we're all set at the Air Force Base through our grandson's graduation and the family cruise. It's a relief to know the rig will be secure and our friends will be checking in case anything goes wrong, ya just never know! The Horned Toad posed the morning we were leaving DreamCatcher in Deming, NM and the Quail were at the SKP Park in Benson this morning. We had a great visit with Rick & Terri, so wonderful to see Rick looking so good (even tho he's lost quite a bit of weight) and Terri a bit more relaxed. Hopefully we'll see them again before they leave to head to IL. The ESCAPEES and especially the Class of '07 are so special, we've formed what we hope are lasting friendships. Tomorrow is a hair cut for me and can't wait to get the appointment for a mani/pedi with the girl that sinfully pampers me, I deserve it and she deserves the big tip! I'll try to do better about posting if we don't melt in this Arizona heat. Til next time, safe travels / be happy!

Baby Bell's Vireo

Momma and BABY came Thursday evening to let us know everything was okay. The BABY flew onto the deck railing right in front of me, flew a little bit away and then disappeared, while Momma was in a nearby tree. Made me feel so much better ! Do believe these birds are Bell's Vireo (s.)

We're back in Texarkana at the COE Park, Clear Springs, since Monday. This afternoon we found a baby bird under the RV, poor little thing. The mother was wonderful, she kept coming to feed and encourage the baby. Momma didn't seem to mind that I was so close, got some awesome pictures! Never managed to snap fast enough to catch momma stuffing the worm down Baby's throat, tho. Haven't made an identification yet but won't give up. Will get "THE BOOK" and compare picture to picture. The little guy disappeared while we were having supper, hope momma got him somewhere safe.

Beebe Arkansas

We left our beautiful spot in Texarkana this morning and headed for my brother's place in Paragould, AR. We had good weather all the way and saw some pretty wildflowers along I-30. We pulled off the Interstate in Beebe, AR for fuel and quite by accident found the ROAD HOG BBQ place. The people were sooooooo nice and the food was the best BBQ we've had in quite awhile. If you're ever traveling I-30 thru Beebe, take x 31 and look for this place, we had to park the rig across the street at a motel (with permission from the "desk") and cross a busy street but it was worth any effort. They're open Friday 11:00-1:30, then 4:30-7:00 and Saturday 11:00-7:00 , two days isn't a bad work week. The owners are sooooooo nice and added a sample of Road Hog potatoes and their beans to our order. We arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's around 3:30
to find my bro laid sewer and water pipe to our rig. Don't have to run 100 feet of water and sewer hose anymore.
There's a lot of wood to stack from damaged trees in last winter's ice storm, so maybe Dave will do that to repay the accommendations. So far no bad weather altho the rain is supposed to start around midnight. We miss everyone.............Love & hugs, Dave & Kathy

Texarkana, TX

We have a beautiful spot at Clear Springs COE, look at all the room we have. There's lots of birds so I'm a "happy camper"! Have to make sugar water for the hummers and get bird feeders up before Dave gets dinner, of course. We drove in and the "host" said go find a spot, then come back to pay. While Dave worked on the satellite set up I went back to settle the bill and lo and behold, Roger & Brenda drove up. We had a pleasant visit last evening and they stopped to say goodbye this morning. They're anxious to reach Ft Smith and see that new bundle of joy! The view of Wright Patman Lake out our back window is fabulous, as you can see. Oh, and if you have a "GOLDEN AGE PASS" the cost is $10 @ night for this spot. Some of the spaces along the water view have decks, that would've been nice except lucky people beat us to 'em. We'll check out some of the trails today and soak in the beauty surrounding us! Love and hugs....

Leaving "HOME"

We had to move on from Livingston yesterday, boo hoo! We had such a wonderful time with the Class of 2007 members that were there. We're preparing to leave, Dave is doing the final break down. Then we stopped at the office to settle up and get one more hug from Marcia, a classmate and "host" at Rainbow's End. Look forward to connecting with classmates down the road and via blogs/email.

Livingston Lake

Happy Easter to all of you!
Dave and I spent most of the day walking and touring Livingston Lake State Park yesterday, big and busy lake. It's so neat to see families out camping/rving with the kids. Texans sure seem to take advantage of the outdoor facilities available. The Cattle Egret (bottom left) was on the way to the lake, upper left is a pair of Eastern Bluebirds, some of the wildflowers in the park and a wonderful boardwalk that's a mile loop. The birds we saw on our walk wasn't new to us but so nice to see anyway, at least they didn't hide! Several places along the trail was posted yield to horses, didn't see any horses, just lots of other people enjoying nature the same as us. We'll be going to the Activity Center this afternoon for Easter dinner, taking an asparagus casserole as our side dish for our table.

Big Thicket National Wildlife Preserve

Dave, Marty and I went to Big Thicket Wednesday and spent the better part of the day there. It's located about 60 miles and a little bit southeast of Livingston. Big Thicket was established by Congress in 1974, is composed of 12 units with 97,550 acres authorized for protection. The birds were elusive, the ones we did see didn't stay long enough to be identified but they continued to haunt us with their songs and calls all the while. I especially like the colors in the tree that's upper left hand corner. Wish I could remember what the tree is..........memory fails again. The cypress (second row left) are interesting with their "knees", (center row under Dave.) Info for the Water Tupelo tree states that the wood of the roots has been a substitute for cork so Marty is trying to check it out. One could spend days and not see all of Big Thicket, it's so spread out. We had dinner Wednesday evening at Florida's BBQ with Joe, Marcia, Greg, Jean and Marty. The food was good altho the ribs were beef and of course my preference is babybacks. Jean had just gotten her hair cut and it looked cute, so we called Thursday and got appointments for later that afternoon. Finally got Dave out of the barbershop and into a salon! Miss Paula gave us good cuts and we're probably okay now til we get back to Tucson. Thursday night we played games with Joe, Marcia, Greg & Jean, one Greg brought (2 decks of cards) with pennies Marcia supplied. Never heard a definite name for the game, the first hand was poker, second was bingo, third hand was count out, fourth hand was take out, fifth hand was count for the dealer, you use the original five cards dealt to you at the beginning for all hands. Anyway my point is that it was fun. Then we played Mexican Train. Always with our love...

Texas BlueBonnets & other wildflowers

The wildflowers were so breath taking beautiful as we crossed part of Texas yesterday. I've now changed my mind about Virginia
being the most beautiful state because of the flowers, my HOME STATE of TEXAS is now top of the list. Sure would've loved to share this sight with all of you...................maybe next time with some of you???? Remember we love you!

Canyon Lake

Tomorrow we leave our spacious, bird filled parking spot. Sure will miss the birds but hope
there's many more at Rainbow's End. We're going "home" to visit our mailbox for a few
days and hopefully connect with friends. It's really windy today, a tail wind tomorrow
would be great but those head and side winds are killers.
Love and Hugs,
Dave & Kathy

We arrived at Canyon Lake this afternoon to find someone in our reserved space. There's only nine rv spaces here...........Anyway Dave went to the office and received permission to "move" to another space and this little fellow came along to welcome us. A whole herd of deer came thru, hung around waiting for a hand-out and weren't at all shy about getting up close. Got my bird feeders out and have a pair of cardinals, tufted titmouse, and chickadee. We extended our stay thru Sunday, will move on to Livingston Monday.