Back Home in Texas

We made our way slowly back to Texas from Colorado, passing through Dalhart to visit Delton's brother and Stamford to visit Delton's Mom. We passed some very colorful country side on our way, although the picture doesn't do justice to the beauty of the land. While staying in Dalhart, we went to see our nephew Grayson, play a football game (shown).

We finally got "home" in Grapevine and quickly settled in for our fall stay.

Our church presents it's annual Christmas presentation called "Journey to Bethlehem" every year and we play the part of beggers loitering outside the village of Bethlehem. See past years for more pictures and information on the "journey". We had a very cold weekend for our outside presentation this year so we think that kept some of the crowd down. About 4000 people came though the journey this year trudging through cold temps and misty rainy conditions.

Due to a lot of rain this fall, the lake level was way up as you can see. Some of the sites were partly under water and you would have to swim to the picnic tables to eat! As you can see, some of the trees were underwater also.

While enjoying our stay at Lake Grapevine, we looked up and noticed some "cars driving through the lake". It was an unusual sight. Later on, Joni got to meet the guys who owned the water cars and they offered to take her for a ride. Some of the park host also got to ride. We really didn't ride around with a witch....... it was Halloween! The park hosts were in costume, so Lanny rode in the lake in her witch costume. The most fun was driving into and out of the water.

O coarse, we spend much of our time visiting friends and family. Pictured are us with John and Bev. We met them on our first outing in our motorhome at Lake Ray Roberts. They are also "full timers" and live in their motorhome.

We enjoyed an early Christmas with Delton's son Ken and his wife Shawna and their daughter Shauntal. Joni's son Chris joined us for diner and a gift exchange.

Also pictured are us with Kathy and Larry. We didn't get pictures of all the people we got together with or all the things we did. Seeing family and friends every fall is important to us as we travel around the country the rest of the year.

Delton's family got together during the Thanksgiving holiday and went to see Baylor play Texas Tech at the new Cowboy stadium. It was a sight! Big! We toured around the stadium before settling down to watch the game. We were up in the nose bleed section. You couldn't sit any higher. The most impressive part of the stadium is the huge screen!!!!!!!!

Too soon it was time for us to head to Florida. It's amazing how a little cold weather chases us south. See you in Florida.

Early Thanksgiving in NH

Early Thanksgiving in New Hamphire with Joni's Mom was a special time for Joni's Mom.

Joni's boys flew up to New Hampshire to see their grandma and spend some time with Joni's brother Rich, his wife Adele, and their son Justin and his fiance Amanda. Joni's son Chris couldn't make the trip this time because he was a groomsman in the wedding of a friend that weekend. We missed having him there.

Rich cooked us all a delicious ravioli diner at his house in Dover. He's a good cook!

Then we all joined Joni's Mom at her "home" at the Spruce Wood Inn for a special early Thanksgiving meal the next day. The Spruce Wood Inn provided a delicious turkey meal in the private dining room for special family get togethers.

During the weekend, Justin and Amanda became our guides and showed us around the area. Even though it was cold, we all enjoyed being together and seeing the sights.

Wish we could all get together more often. So many families live so many miles apart from each other. Our next get together will be in August 2010 in New Hampshire. Justin and Amanda will be getting married then, so we're all looking forward to a great family reunion and celebration in August.

Pikes Peak

This is our 3rd trip up to Pikes Peak. The first time was many years ago before we bought our motor home. It was cloudy and we drove up in a van. Joni's son Chris was with us. Joni was not a happy camper back then. The road up to the top was very narrow, dirt, and had no guard rails. Joni doesn't like ledges and height.


The second time we took the train and again, it was a cloudy day, so we didn't see anything. That was about 3 years ago and we were only in Colorado Springs for 2 or 3 days.



This time we made sure we were going to see the beautiful view from 14,000 feet elevation.
Earlier in the week, Colorado Springs had a early snow. There was a dusting of snow on the ground, but the top of Pikes Peak got about 6 to 8 inches of snow with 10 foot drifts. The train could not get to the top and had to return part way up. Our trip up was the first day that the train was able to get to the top and as you can see there was still plenty of snow up there.

This time we picked a day that was perfect. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was warm. Of coarse, it wasn't warm when we got to the top.

We felt like we went from summer to winter and back to summer in a matter of a few hours. It was interesting to see how the terrain changed as we passed the tree line.

The view was beautiful. The train ride up gave us lots to see and once at the top we could see all of Colorado Springs.

Joni on a Motorcycle???

While we were in Colorado, Joni visited her Mom in New Hampshire. Delton stayed in Salida at our friends house (Dana and Karen), while Joni flew to see Mom. It's always good to see Mom doing well. She lives in a beautiful independent living facility in Durham.

Joni's brother Rich and his wife, Adele, invited Joni on a Harley ride. They both have beautiful new Harleys. Joni isn't a motorcyle fan, but decided to take a leap of faith. So with Delton's blessings, she went.

Adele loaned Joni a leather jacket and motorcycle boots. She was part of the gang! See Joni sitting on Adele's bike during a rest stop. I will post more motorcycle pictures as soon as I can.

The ride consisted of about 20 bikes. We all met at a Harley dealership and rode about 2 1/2 hours, had lunch and then came back.

Joni rode double with Rich. He's a very safe driver, so Joni gradually calmed down and felt comfortable. There are a lot of safety rules to riding in a group and it ended up being a lot of fun.

Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs has lots of things to do. Only about 1 hour south of Denver, we decided to spend some there.

The Garden of the Gods is a national natural landmark full of big red rocks. The park has many hiking trails, mountain biking trails and horseback riding. The photo of the two big rocks with Delton are called the Siamese Twins. Many of the rocks have names depicting what they look like.

While at the Siamese Twins, we had a beautiful view of Pikes Peak. See Joni standing in front of the small hole between the Twins. That's where you get an interesting view of Pikes Peak in the background.

Many people enjoy rock climbing in this park. We saw quite a few of them. See the photo of the rock climber. He is a tiny speck in the middle of a big rock. Rock climbing is definitely not a sport we want to participate in.

Rock climbing is very dangerous and there have been fatal accidents in this park. Technical climbing is permitted with proper climbing equipment but you must register at the Visitors Center.

Another place we enjoyed visiting is called Seven Falls.. It's a group of seven small water falls that cascade down a beautiful mountain side. There are 224 steep steps to climb up to the top. Joni was a little uncomforable climbing up, but looking down is worse. She doesn't like heights. But she made it.


Also in the area are the Manitou Cliff Dwellings at the foot of Pikes Peak.
They were built more than 700 years ago. Alcoves in the rocks provided shelter from wind, rain and snow for the Anasazi American Indians.

You can walk through the "rooms" and travel through time and "feel" how these native Americans lived.

One evening we visited the Flying W Ranch and had a chuckwagon supper and way a western stage show. Pictured are the Flying W Wranglers performing their music and humor for all to enjoy. They are supposed to be the 2nd oldest cowboy band in the world.

In the past, we have gone to the Bar D Ranch in Durango which is also a chuckwagon supper and musical show. It is very similar. As a mater of fact, they sing a lot of the same songs with the same humor.

We've enjoyed our stay in Colorado Springs. Colorado is a state that has a lot of natural wonders and things to do and see. If you're trying to decide where you want to go on your next vacation, consider Colorado.

With Ken in Denver

Ken, Joni's son, moved to Denver last year. We've enjoyed being able to see him more often, since we spend most of our summers in Colorado.

Since Ken knows the area real well now, we totally depended on his expertise for what to do and where to go. He took us first to Boulder, just a stones throw from Denver, for a hike. And what a hike it was..... very verticle. It was a challenge for Joni, but she felt it was well worth it! See Ken at the top of our hike. What a spectacular view. Joni didn't go to the edge like Ken did, but she was close. Thanks Ken, for a wonderful day!

On another day, we went to Breckenridge, a very popular ski area in the winter. We picked the wrong day, as it was rainy and cool. Our whole time in Denver, the weather was beautiful, except the day we went to Breckenridge.

We still enjoyed our time there. See the photo of the summer time ski slopes. They look like stripes coming down the mountain.

We passed a restaurant that had a beautiful display of flowers and Joni couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. Aren't the flowers colorful?

We stayed at the Dakota Ridge RV park in Golden, which is about 12 miles west of Denver. Little did we know that we were right at the beginning of Ken's construction job. He was working just a few miles from where we were staying. He's working on a joint venture to contruct a lite rail system which runs from Golden to Denver. It made it very easy to visit with him, often!

One afternoon, the three of us took a bike ride into downtown Golden and rode our bikes past a section of Ken's job where a new parking lot is in the process of being built for the rail system. See the photo.

We had a great time with Ken in Denver and know we'll be there again next summer. Delton gave Ken a few golf lessons because ken bought himself a new set of clubs, so next summer there will be a golf game in the works. I tried to take a video of Ken's swing while he was getting pointers from Delton, but I got the record and stop buttons mixed up. I got a lot of video my feet!!!!!!!! Sorry Ken. We'll try it again.