Silverton Fall Trip

 If it's the 3rd week of September, it's time for our annual fall trip!  Glenn decided he wanted to go to Silverton this year and that was fine with me - we could still do the Alpine Loop, it would just be from the backside of it!

I had checked online for cabins and there just weren't any to book!  But finally found a place in the actual town above a historic building - it was 3 units that had been completely remodeled and were rented out on a nightly basis!  Being in town does make it easy for meals!

We headed out on a Monday morning - stopped for coffee at our usual spot in Johnson Village and headed on our way - I was a little concerned as the aspens on Monarch Pass were NOT yellow yet!  And nothing had turned over our way so I knew fall was arriving a little later this year!

SO we got to Gunnison and I happened to see one of those large flashing signs that said something about a road closure and some times but I couldn't read it fast enough!  Luckily there was enough service to check it out and oh gosh - up the road the highway was closed for blasting and only open certain times!  AND even if you sat in line to wait for the opening (open until 8:30 and then closed till 11:30 and open for an hour and then closed again until 5:30) it was not guaranteed that you could go through - it depended on how many cars were waiting on each side!

We talked about it and decided we didn't want to wait in line and possibly not get through so we decided to take the detour - we had forgotten that the road to Hodgekiss was twisty and loopy and you can't make any kind of time of it - 3 hours later we were FINALLY at the town we were supposed to be at from taking the detour!  On our way again and we pull into Ouray - only to find ANOTHER flashing sign that said basically the same thing as the other one - Red Mountain Pass was closed also except for certain times!  We had missed the noon time to go through and the next time we could get through was 5:30!!  OH MY!! Note to self - check the roads next year before we start out - we have NEVER in all the years we've taken our fall trips had closures!

I suggested we just go right outside the town and ATV Yankee Boy Baisin - we'd done it many years ago and it's a nice drive up a mountain.  So we unloaded and headed out!  Before we left though, I did call the contact number on our rental as we hadn't got a code yet to get in - got a recorder so left a message that we were going to be later than expected and to PLEASE get the code to us!

We had travelled about 5 miles up when the razor started sputtering and hardly going - are you kidding me?  It didn't sound good at all so Glenn said we needed to turn around and get back down. OMG - can anything else go wrong?

After loading up, we just went and sat in line to get over the pass......  And no word on our code yet.

Once we got over the pass, it was only 1/2 hour to Silverton - we pulled into the cute little town and Glenn dropped me off so I could walk in and see if there was another number to call - there was and it said to text too.  So I texted - and no reply - and then I called and left a not so nice message as we were exhausted from the days' events and just wanted to get into our place!  I started texting every minute also!

So decided to just park and go eat dinner - we were just walking to the restaurant when we FINALLY got a text at 6:45 with the code and an apology that she had been out of cell phone range all day!  REALLY???  If you're going to be out of cell phone range all day and you know you have guests coming in, why wouldn't you send the code out in the morning.  I was NOT happy!

But the place was cute as can be and exactly as described.  We had a separate bedroom with a king bed and a very nice bathroom.  It was a great place to relax in the evenings!

We had wanted to eat dinner at Handlebars - a place we had eaten at with friends Dick and Jane many years ago when we rode motorcycles with them over the trails, but the wait list was long - without much help in any of the few restaurants there,  they just weren't able to seat as many!

Heading to a BBQ place where there was no line, we ordered and it was excellent!!  I felt like I was back south in Baja as they had whole stuffed potatoes with all the trimmings like they do down there!

The next morning I snapped this picture out of the window before the sun had risen over the mountain!

And then it was Day 2....

Camping At Snowblind

 FINALLY we got to go camping and roaming the trails!  Somehow this summer just seemed to slip away from us and we didn't get to do much so we were both excited to head out!

We decided to just stay at a lovely forest service campground on the other side of Monarch Pass - it's in a perfect spot for us to ATV a few trails and we know the host of the campground from a couple years back!  I was totally surprised when we went over Monarch Pass to discover the leaves aren't really changing at all yet!!!!!!  Oh my!!!!  Our fall trip is next week to see the leaves!

We've had very cool nights the past few weeks but the days are still pretty warm - one never knows what kind of a fall we're going to have and I've always booked our fall trip for the 3rd week of Sept!  Usually on the western slope, the leaves turn earlier so I'm hoping!

Anyway, we got set up and headed out for a nice afternoon ride!

As you can tell, it was pretty hazy - we're still getting a lot of smoke from the western fires!

We had a lovely evening with a campfire and yummy roasted marshmallows!  I'm not sure where these marshmallows came from as they're in a plastic bag and not the original package but they puffed up like crazy!!  I was amazed!

We headed out the next morning for our "long" day of ATVing - it was beautiful out!  And yes, there's still a bit of snow on the top of that mountain!  

As we were heading towards Pitkin, we were amazed to see that one of our favorite camping spots (which is ALWAYS taken) was empty!  SCORE!!  We pulled in there and had our lunch by the stream!

This is the nearby tree with the face carved into it!  Always a favorite!

And someone has made this makeshift bridge across the stream!  I tested it out and it works fine - although I did hang on!

The stream there is running nicely!

Our plan for the afternoon was to come back down Tomichi Pass - we haven't done that pass in the last couple of years because it's been closed due to a death on the trail.  It was a LONG, bumpy, rocky trail to get up and down that pass - it's beautiful though!

And once we finally got down, we looked at each other and said the same thing - no more!  Take that pass off our list!!  Just too rocky and bumpy for us anymore!

I enjoyed walking around the campground morning and evening - we were the only ones on our side and there were only 2 campers on the other side!  It's nice to have the place almost to yourself!  The stream there is so pretty and in our spot you could hear the creek running!

Another campfire - nice and peaceful!

And one more stream picture!

We packed up the next morning and parked right outside of Sargents - there was a trail there that Glenn always wanted to do so that was our morning excursion!  The trail was fantastic - a couple of very steep parts but for the most part, very nice!  There are a lot of aspens between the 2 trails we did and we are definitely planning on either stopping there on the way home from our fall trip or heading over there the next week for a day and running that trail again to see the aspens!

Cross That Item Off My Bucket List

 I've always wanted to try paddle boarding!  Granted, I don't love the water and I don't like being cold and I have a deathly fear of drowning (even though I know how to swim) but paddle boarding always looked so peaceful and easy that I KNEW I wanted to at least try it once in my lifetime!  SO I DID!

I had suggested to Jessi that I would like to try it at Aurora Reservoir, knowing it's a peaceful lake and usually pretty calm.  Jessi and Gary had actually purchased paddle boards this summer so it was a perfect setup!

Glenn was out fishing and Gary headed out to the reservoir a little later.  About 2:00 he texted Jessi and said he was done fishing and had the paddle boards unloaded so to come on out!  And even though it was Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, it wasn't super crowded!!  So Jessi, Gwyn and I headed out there and I swallowed my fear of falling off (I mean really, you only fall into the water - what's there to be scared of?) and crawled on the board!

Yes, by the time I was ready to stand up, my legs felt like jelly but I DID IT!

Jessi actually took a great video of me but of course it won't download.....

We found Glenn out there fishing so paddled over to him!

Gwyn decided she wanted to fish with Papa for a little bit so she crawled on over and rode with him for awhile!

I actually stood up 3 different times and it was no problem - but my legs still shook when I stood up!  Gwyn crawled over to paddle with me for a while and we sure enjoyed our time out there!  Life jackets are a requirement on the lake which I believe is a GREAT idea!

Gwyn and I had spent the morning together as Jessi had to work so she took Kenzie with her - Glenn had dropped Evan off for cross country practice - and Gary THOUGHT he had to work but after going in, discovered he had a day off so then headed to the reservoir!

I had fun playing games with Gwyn and spending some special time with her - here's a photo of her with her elephant items!

Spiro is getting HUGE!!  I'm still not comfortable holding him but he looks darn cute on Kenzie!  She even takes him to Jessi's office when she has to help out on Saturday mornings!

That evening we headed down the street for their annual block party - wow was there some good food to eat!!  We enjoyed visiting a while and then headed back to the house!

Glenn fished again on Sunday so Jessi and I headed out for a LONG coffee together!  We tried a new place and even got to sit inside which was nice!  The coffee was Ethiopian and besides being quite strong, it was excellent!!  Always fun to sit and have coffee and solve the problems of the world - ha!

We headed home early afternoon - traffic was already once again backed up on I-25 so took the back way and it was a peaceful drive home!!  What a great weekend!

Labor Day Weekend At The Keppys

 It's time again for fall sports with the grand kids!  Glenn and I were excited when Jessi told us if we came up Labor Day Weekend on that Friday we could not only watch Evan run in cross country track but also hear him in the pep band at the football game that night - SCORE - 2 events on the weekend - awesome!

We headed up late morning, knowing the traffic would be awful later and ended up taking the back way as I-25 was already a mess!  Jessi only worked 1/2 day so was there to greet us when we arrived!  Of course when it was time to pick up Gwyn early from school so we could get to the meet on time, it started pouring rain - hooray for rain - but let's get it over with before the meet!

I didn't know much about cross country so Gary and Jessi filled us in on the way over - luckily we all brought umbrellas as we did have some rain while we were there!

The cross country team decided upon a Hawaiian theme as far as clothes go to wear on the day of a meet - I love Evan's outfit!

Getting ready to run!  At this meet, Evan ran on the JV team, even though he has qualified for the varsity team!  Because he has the fastest time of the JV team, he got to be the first in line for take off!

We put our chairs right by the starting line and WOW was there a lot of kids running!!  In fact there were 294 boys running this race!  After they left the starting line, we moved so we could cheer Evan on his way!

Then we raced to the finish line to watch the runners come in!  It was exciting to see Evan place 24th out of all of those runners!!  I think 43 schools were represented that day!

Don't you love Gwyn's toothless smile?  Yes, she lost one of her front teeth!!  

After the race, we grabbed Evan and headed back home - it would have been fun to see the varsity team race but Evan had to get home, shower and change into band attire for the football game that night!  We ate a quick bite and then headed out to the game!

We were plenty early of course but enjoyed listening to the band warm up and just enjoy the beautiful weather!  The band did a half time show and played 2 Beatles songs so that was wonderful!!  They all look so sharp in their fancy uniforms!

Gwyn decided the football game was pretty boring so she made a bed behind us with some of our seats!

Towards the last quarter, this fog (or clouds, who knows?) moved in!!  It was pretty eerie looking but fun to watch!

Here's Evan with his "cool" sunglasses playing saxophone in the pep band!!  They were awesome to listen to!  And Evan's band director?  Jason who graduated with Jessi - small world!!

 Here's part of the gang, minus Gary who was helping the band put on their hats and plumes for the football game!

What a great day enjoying Evan's activities!

August Photo Dump

 It's almost here!!  SEPTEMBER - MY FAVORITE MONTH!!  But before it arrives, let's finish up with the few photos from August!!

Pictures of Rayna and Matias are not as easy to get since they're in Co. Springs!!  But one evening Jaime's and I went down for pizza!!  It was great to see them!!

Check out this growth (which I assume is a flower) coming out of the plant that the girls gave me when I had my thyroid out - it looks like broccoli!!  But it's as cute as can be and it's the first time in 2 years that it has bloomed!

Also, I have 4 of these tiny little red flowers on the plant they gave me when I had the surgery on my nose!!  (Yes, the only plants I have were given to me!)  They are so cute!!

Best friend Joleen was out for a 4 day visit and brought me this darling fall towel and salt and pepper shakers!!

And Glenn has been working hard on the concrete!!  He's really got a lot done and in fact is pouring the rest today!  I can't wait till it's all finished!!

He still has to put color and the shiny stuff on top but the bulk of the work will be done!  I will post pictures when it's all finished!!!

And that's a wrap for August!

Picnicking and Soaking

 Lots of laughter and conversation on Wednesday and Thursday!  We picked up chicken and a couple of salads at the local deli and headed to another lake!  This one was Ruedi Reservoir - it was beautiful but the grass was all so high we could hardly see it when we stopped for our picnic lunch!

YUM - food always tastes better on a picnic!

There is a restaurant by the lake that Del and Linda have eaten at several times but it has been closed for awhile - beautiful views of the lake from there!

We had another campfire that night - and no, I didn't eat as much that night for dinner and dessert and I sure slept great!!

One last picture of Del and Linda before we all headed out!!

We drove both cars through Glenwood Canyon into Glenwood Springs to go to the big hot springs!  I had forgotten how beautiful Glenwood Canyon is - lots of construction going on and of course we saw the rock slides as we passed by!  When it rains, they do close the canyon off!

The hot springs pool was wonderful!  I didn't take any pictures - nobody wants to see OLD people in their swimsuits - ha!  They've also added a really fun slide that you go down on a rubber inner tube!  That was great!!

We took Del and Linda out to lunch at a place they like - Rosie's - it's a German place (but mainly run by Mexicans!)  I had veggie filled crepes and it was delicious!

We said our goodbyes to Del and Linda and headed towards Palisade - it was a lot drier over that way but a really pretty drive!

And it was a LOT hotter over that way!  We finally found the road that has all the farm stands on it and found a nice place that not only sold peaches but other fruits AND ice cream - yes, we both enjoyed peach ice cream and it was delicious!!  I ended up getting 2 boxes of #2 peaches (one for Jaime) for $28 a box - what a bargain!

We had planned to stay another night on the road home but since we made it to Gunnison by 6:00, we decided to just drive on home - nothing like sleeping in your bed!!