Turquoise Lake, Leadville

Always one of the COLD spots in Colorado because of its' elevation, you just know if you're going camping in Leadville, you need to dress warmly!

We'd had a camping trip with friends Dick and Jane on the calendar for a long time and we met them at Turquoise Lake on Monday morning!  Now don't die of shock but we actually camped in a campground!!  And were completely surprised by what we had to pay - $18.00 per night - no electricity, just a spot with a picnic table and a campfire grate - wow - guess we're behind the times on what it costs to camp since we always do wilderness!

But the campground was very nice and even though we didn't have a view of the lake from our campsite, we could see the mountains!

Dick and Jane ride motorcycles so they brought an extra one for us to ride as we weren't doing ATV trails, but blacktop and some highway and gravel roads.  The first bike we tried was just too tall for Glenn and I - his legs wouldn't reach the ground and it was tough every time we stopped, hoping the bike wouldn't tip over before Glenn got his leg down to the ground.  We solved that problem by switching to the other bike that Dick and Jane were riding - it was a lot lower to the ground and was much easier to drive!

 We saw lots of beautiful country in the 2 days we rode the motorcycle!

 We went to the fish hatchery one day and that was interesting!  Here Jane and I are reeling in the big one!!

 The lake was gorgeous - nice and calm and we wished we would have had a canoe!

 Can you tell how many layers of clothing I have on?  Try 5 - long underwear, t-shirt, hooded pull over sweatshirt, zip up sweatshirt and the jacket I took off for the picture which was a lined raincoat!  Believe me, it was chilly riding those bikes as the sun wasn't out but a few minutes!

Here's an evening picture of the lake!

 Glenn and Dick on the bikes - Jane and I would get off at times and walk a little - my legs and butt weren't used to riding a motorcycle!

 Monday night we grilled tenderloin steaks that Dick had brought - he raises cattle and boy were those steaks good!  We finished up in time to have ice cream outside before the rain started!

Tuesday night we drove the truck into Leadville and ate at the Tennessee Pass Cafe - they had some strange items on their menu and the waitress talked us into ordering one of the appetizers which was deep fried brussell sprouts served with a spicy sauce.  I did try one but one was enough!

 It rained most of the night on Tuesday - and it was COLD!  The furnace kicked on several times and we weren't surprised when we woke up on Wed. and the mountains looked like this!

We had a great time with Dick and Jane and have already picked out our lake spots for next year!

Girls' Weekend

After planning a girls weekend for a LONG time, it had finally arrived! No guys - no kids - just we 4 girls for the weekend!

I shipped Glenn off to Buffalo Peaks with the camper so he could scout - and the other guys were all babysitting!  The frig was stocked - the beds were ready -  and the hot tub was hot!  Let's get it on!!

Jill drove to Denver to meet Jaime and Jessi and they made great time heading down to our house - I had peach fizzies waiting for them!

Since they had all told me they did NOT want to sleep with each other but wanted a bed to themselves, I decided to make it happen!  As soon as they walked in the door, they drew numbers - #1 was the guest bedroom which Jaime drew, #2 was the 5th wheel which Jill drew, and #3 was the mattress on the floor in the lower level which Jessi drew.  They all seemed happy with their choices.

  Jaime actually got to open a late birthday present from the girls, a cute hat that says Volleyball Mom!

We headed to the hot tub Friday night and it was beautiful out!

Everyone slept good that night - I was up early and went for my morning walk and met Jessi coming down the driveway as I was coming up!  We enjoyed a Cinnamon Butter Braid and bacon for breakfast and all got ready for the next event - tea in Cripple Creek!  Any spare moment the girls had found them reading!

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We had a lovely drive to Cripple Creek and a wonderful time at the tea!

We spent almost 2 hours drinking tea, eating finger sandwiches and tarts and scones!

After tea, we headed over to the Butte Theater to see the melodrama, "The Spoilers" - it was delightful as usual, especially the Olio!

Saturday evening was our feast - cheese fondue and shrimp for dinner - along with Moscato champagne that we were all laughing about as Jill popped the cork!

Dinner was delicious!

But dessert was even better - chocolate fondue with all the trimmings!

Sunday was our relaxation day - after a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage casserole, we settled in to read - the deck, the living room and the family room were our spots - wherever we decided to sit!  Jessi and I had coffee and it was a nice, relaxing day!

All too soon, the girls had to head back to their families...................we have decided to make this an annual event - and I know the girls are already looking forward to it!

USA Pro Challenge

I stayed away from Woodland Park on Friday, due to all the people in town to watch the race!  The day started out miserable and got worse as the day wore on!  The rain came down pretty much all day and I was glad I wasn't out biking in that race!  I knew the bikers would be coming our way about 11:45 so I was watching for them!

I had a great view from the house and stepped out on the rainy deck to snap a couple of pictures - in a flash they were rounding the corner and gone!!  Not great pictures because of the rain but it was still fun to see them!

Backtracking..................

I fell behind in blogging..................retirement is just keeping me too busy.  I never believed anyone who told me I would be busier now than when I was working - but I'm starting to believe it!  So here's a little recap of the past couple of weeks!

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I joined a hiking club - it meets every Tuesday and there is a schedule done for the rest of the year - each hike is listed as easy, moderate, or difficult and lists the number of miles you hike along with the elevation climb!  The first week I hiked was a lot of up and down but I did it with ease - and I was excited to do the next hike since Glenn had given me the hiking poles to use!  The next hike was listed as moderate but believe me, it was NOT moderate!  It was HOT that day and the climb was switchbacks amongst rocks for a good portion of the hike - thought I was gonna die! But I did survive!  The next couple of weeks a friend and I just did our own hikes on Tuesday but I'll get back with the regular hiking group in a couple of weeks (after I decide to stay home on a Tuesday!)

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I also am doing a shift of volunteer work at a Thrift House in Co. Springs with 2 of my best friends!  The shifts are only 3 hours and the work is easy - distributing items where they belong - keeping the dressing rooms free of hangers - steaming - my, I get tired just thinking about this hard work - ha ha!  The best part of the job is checking out all the clothes and housewares!  Each time we've worked, we come home with a bagful of things!  I really don't think that was the purpose of doing this volunteer work but hey, I'm helping them out by buying things!

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Joleen and I FINALLY got to celebrate our late birthdays with a lunch at a new place in Co. Springs - it has a bakery attached and serves sandwiches and salads and wine and smoothies.  A great place and dessert was yummy!!  That's a mini key lime tart below and it was excellent with the fresh berries!

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I took one week and completely deep cleaned the house (except the windows) from top to bottom - I figured if I got it done now, I wouldn't have to do it this fall! In fact, I probably won't even have to do it next spring either - I've found that the older I get, my cleaning expectations drop.  Works for me!

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One morning I decided to make crepes - I haven't made them in a while and since we had a whole batch of strawberries in the frig, I decided it was a great time to make them!  They turned out excellent - mainly for the fact I have fought with that darn wooden "spreader" every time I make them and after reading through the recipe again, it actually states that after you pour the batter, just lift the crepe machine up and tilt it and rotate it and you'll have a flat round crepe - duh, you would have thought I could have figured that one out a whole lot sooner than now!

Anyway, they turned out excellent and I made a full batch which meant I had extras to take camping to use for sausage/egg breakfast burritos!  Now that I've had a sweet crepe with that mixture, it will be hard to go back to the regular tortillas!

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Building a house takes a lot of patience and a lot of waiting for people to return phone calls!  We have met with the architect a couple of times and FINALLY have the floor plan the way we want it!  Our contractor is bidding out the logs now and hopefully we'll have the final draft of the plans in a couple of weeks so they can go to the building department.  I think the plans for having the shell done before winter are slim but I'll try to be optimistic!

Camping In Style

It was the first time for just Glenn and I to take the new 5th wheel out!  We were excited to get away for a couple of days to ATV and test out the 5th wheel - and of course it passed with flying colors!

The best part was we BOTH could be in the little kitchen vs the camper when one person had to be sitting at the table while the other one cooked!  Everything worked great - we had plenty of water (I even took a shower) and we spent a LOT of time in the 5th wheel as naturally we had rain!!

I didn't mind the rain - I always have a good book with me so I spent a lot of time sitting under the outside awning reading or on the couch all curled up!  Glenn practiced shooting his bow in anticipation of hunting season which is coming right up!

The time we did get to ATV was wonderful!  I always love the aspen trees!

Lots of high scenic places and Bob will probably recognize these views - yes, we went by your hunting camp and it looks the same!

There are a couple of steep places where Glenn actually asked me to get off and walk and I was more than happy to comply!

It's always interesting to see the old mining camps!

When we first arrived, we stopped at Dottie's (the only commercial place in the town of Sargent) and saw signs posted about the closing of Hwy 50 - I had seen a large lit up sign as we were driving over that said the Hwy would be closed for the bike race but I guess it just didn't sink in.  Yes, they were closing the highway from Gunnison to Salida (which included Monarch Pass) from 9:30am to 6:00pm!  Our plans were to leave early afternoon that Wed. so that wasn't going to happen!  We decided we would just wait till late afternoon and then head out.

Wednesday we woke up to rain but by 11:00 it had cleared up and was sunny so took the ATV down to Dottie's (which was closed of course since the highway was closed) and proceeded to wait for the USA Pro Cycling bikes to go by!  Met a couple of guys that were both doing the Continental Divide Trail - one on a motorcycle who had started up in Canada and was doing the trail all the way to the Mexican border - the other was on a bicycle and was just doing the state of Colorado!  Of course when you're biking and bicycling, you carry the least amount of provisions possible and depend on places along the route to stop and eat or to get snacks.  They BOTH were planning on eating at Sargents and were quite disappointed it was closed.

I had our picnic lunch with us so shared it with both of them and sent the remainder of what was left with the bicycle guy, since he had to travel so far to the next place.

The bikes finally came by (along with the police, EMT's, bicycle crews, photographers and all the people it takes to handle these events) and they went by so fast, I hardly had time to snap pictures!!  Boy were they rolling - but I'm sure that Monarch Pass slowed them down a bunch!!

It was fun to see them whiz by and then it was back to the ATVing and camping!

We did get to leave about 5:00pm that day - Monarch Pass was a zoo on top as that was the finish point for the bicyclists - but we were not done seeing them yet as Woodland Park is the start of the 5th round of the riders and that is to happen on Friday!

Breaking Ground!

Glenn is in his element - digging in the dirt!  He borrowed a large backhoe from our friend Dick and not only has started on the driveway but also on the house.  Of course first he had to cut many many trees...........that's always hard to do as we love our trees but he did try to transplant a few of them so we'll see if that works!

When Evan was here last weekend, he helped Papa and loved riding in the backhoe!

 It's hard to imagine a house sitting in this spot someday but the reality is -it will happen!! I just noticed that on the left hand side of this picture, I caught a rainbow!

 We have a huge brush pile and a lot of green wood for the wood stove - but it sure won't be ready to burn this year!!

Monday we have a guy coming to blast rock in our driveway - guess I better get my ear plugs ready!

Aleah and Kenzie - One Final Day!

The girls let me sleep till 6:15 on Saturday - wow - how can they have so much energy?  But we were excited that the sun was out and it looked to be a perfect day ahead!

The first thing we decided to do was to walk up to the new property - there are some neat rocks the kids can play on!  I had NO idea that the little girls would have so much fun up here - they picked mushrooms and pretended to make mushroom soup, making up a little song about it - they picked up pine cones and sticks - they climbed up and down the rocks - and I finally had to tell them we had to leave in order to get our other things done before the movie that afternoon!

Sidewalk chalk is always fun and both girls remembered the drawings that Evan and Kylan had made - they had fun drawing with all the different colors!

And then it was bubble time!  I LOVE blowing bubbles!

After lunch, we headed into town to see Planes, Fire and Rescue!  Luckily it was showing in the theatre where the seats are really angled so they didn't have any problem seeing the screen!  They both loved the movie, even though they're more into the "princess" movies than the "cars" movies!

Yes, we had popcorn and lemonade!

Jessi and Evan arrived late afternoon - up till that time, the girls had been perfect little angels - once Jessi arrived, of course Kenzie got a little whiny - typical situation that I have seen time and time again!!

The kids got back in the hot tub for awhile and enjoyed that before dinner and baths.  They looked so cute ready for bed!

Sunday morning we headed back up to the property for a while - for some reason, they didn't have near the fun they had the day before.  Evan went up with Papa and helped him for quite a while!

After lunch, it was time for them to head home!  What a great time we all had and I hope the girls have many memories of our excellent adventure!!