Alive & Well in CO Pt 2

Hello Family & Friends.
This is a continuation of the previous post that catches you up with what the heck the Pendergast's have been doing the last couple of weeks!!!!  If I don't write it down, I would not remember the next morning.

OK, hunting and prospecting for gold requires lots of stamina -- we are wimps and come home really tired.  We did take a day off to explore today after most of us getting really wet in the upper Park Creek I mentioned in the last post --- here we go:

OK the first thing we found after hauling all the equipment down the bank, was baby bear paw prints!

This one is a little blurry, so I kept an eye out all day along the meadow edges, looking for mama bear and baby bear to return!

Less water to more difficult to set up the sluice for Darrel, anyway!

We, of course, had a rain shower and huddled under the big pine trees, but you can see, it cleared off nicely and of course, we continued to sluice for gold!

Peek a Boo, Darrel is around the bush, with the sluice, hard at work, running material, which Susan digs, then classifies and hauls in buckets to his location -- sometimes, it can be several hundred feet?

I put 12,000+ steps on my Fitbit one day hauling "material" to sluice 😝

We usually take a "break" day after working either in the stream or if you are dry washing -- need a body break day to relax and not feel so worn out when you go the next time.

We headed up the back road to Summitville, it is really a nice drive --- we were checking out the snow melt which we saw in early June.  Very little of what we saw the first time was still on the ground.

But the rows and rows of Aspens is amazing -- it should be awesome spectacular when they change colors in the fall -- I think it will become one of my favorite drives!

They are so thick when you look out the window, it is one big stripe of white.

You can see the pines squeezed in between, I wonder how they get enough sunlight to grow?

We stopped at this really big pine -- yes, that is me at the base and no, we aren't in the Redwood forest in California 😄

I told Darrel to zoom out and get the entire tree with me at the bottom, see what I mean??? The picture is kind of dark as we can dark clouds behind us as we were driving towards the sunshine skies.

We took a different county road from Del Norte (County 15) and caught an Antelope grazing -- he/she didn't want to cooperate for a fact pic but I managed to catch his/her white rear end.

It was a lovely day and Darrel caught the sunset highlighting the mountain in the background.  No, I don't know if it has a name or not as I can barely figure out which direction I am standing -- but it was a pretty sunset.

NOTE:  Darrel was trying to capture it without the RVs in the foreground but we weren't high enough to get over the tops of them. -- it is beautiful anyway!

So I close with the sunset and wish everyone a wonderful July 4th weekend coming up!  I hope to get another post up but we are having some intermittent Internet/cellular issues again with the holiday crowds descending upon South Fork.... if you don't hear from me, you'll know why.

I hope you are enjoying your sunsets wherever you are!

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Alive & Well in CO Pt 1

Hello Family & Friends,
Last week seems like a blur and we are already on Wednesday of this week???  Where does the time go?  I guess quickly when you are having "fun" 😊

This is a two part post to keep them from being so long that you don't want to read them (ha ha).

Here we go:

Since it has been dry here we are searching and searching for spots to pan and/or drywash.  We have hit Embargo, Park Creek (by the Hwy) and upper Park Creek (which is more mountainous, is that a word?? -- more on that in Post 2)

Heres the pics you'll enjoy more than my ramblings!

Darrel running the sluice off the log dam by Embargo

Wildflowers are out and even with limited moisture, they seem to be survivors!

A mountain Iris -- lots of them had already bloomed

Not sure, but pretty

NOTE:  Mickey took the wildflower pictures and sent them my way!

Next was a panning trip to Park Creek that flows along Hwy 160 to see if we could find any gold as that creek seems to have lots of flowing water.

The aspens along the road are amazing and seem to be thriving.

It was a girls' hike to the falls upstream a ways -- Mickey (left) -- Susan (right) and McKenzie (who is the daughter of Mickey's RV park owners).

The falls were amazing but difficult to get down to any closer.

Susan and Darrel were using the sluice to run the material, hoping for gold!

Next we headed to Buena Vista to the peruse Roc Doc's (which is a prospecting establishment).  We made a day of it and also went to Salida before heading home.

You can still see snow on their mountain tops -- ours is pretty much gone now.

We had a busy week and still post #2 has more adventures.

Blessings for the road,

Susan & Darrel

Two Years on the Road

Hello Family & Friends,
No, I didn't forget that we made our two year anniversary on May 28 (yep, 2 years) -- but with the plans to depart from the hot Arizona weather to the cooler Colorado weather -- we were busy packing and putting things away to get ready to haul.

The first year I did a post on the "pros and cons" of being on the road -- this post will be a little different on the reflections on year 2 --- it has definitely become a lifestyle with so many other people doing the same thing.

There are many different ideas of full time RVing --- we are not so traditional as that we live in a RV fulltime --- we split our time between two locations (for now).

With a large rig like ours, traveling and finding places to fit is a challenge.  It can be done, but I find that what some people think a 43' RV will fit in and in reality what a 43' RV will fit in, doesn't always match.  Remember, we are the size of a semi-trailer -- if you see the 53' stamped on the trailer, with our truck (20' long) we are at 55'+ since the RV hangs over into the truckbed.

One of my favorite shots of Beau and Zoe

actually when we purchased the RV in Kansas -- our stay at Glen Elder State Park near Beloit, KS

Many times, I have been thankful that we had our first year to learn so many things without the COVID-19 impacting our decisions.  It was stressful enough to know if we could leave AZ and head to CO for cooler temps or if we were going to have to tough out (and I don't think I could have) the heat of AZ in a RV -- I keep telling Darrel if I could find the perfect place that stayed 68-75 degrees year round, that is where I would love to be.  RVs get cold and they get hot -- you try to find the in between with spring like temperatures that are not always consistent.

I still miss family and friends -- part of my life that was in Topeka for 30+ years.  I enjoy meeting new people and have made a lot of new "transient" friends -- you never know when they will move on and you enjoy the time you have.  One of the RV ladies explained to me that people come in and out of your life for a lot of reasons -- this is part of the RVing lifestyle I mentioned above.

I am getting better at traveling to stock up on supplies -- I can't really say I dislike it or like it, I guess mostly ambivalent -- it is the reality of living away from "bigger" towns.  In Arizona, we can get to groceries in 20 mins or so, but bigger shopping needs are either online or a trip to Surprise or Prescott. In Colorado, we have 50 miles one way to have better prices and more choices -- a Dollar General and a local grocery store are within 10 mins.

I miss not having a smaller vehicle than wide-hip Beau (F350 dually truck) at times -- he just doesn't fit in small parking lots and definitely doesn't do "drive thru" at all.  I am blessed to have UTVs in Arizona to traverse the desert and I can even go to the Post Office off road if need be.  Also, the drop in fuel prices has made Beau more affordable, with diesel as low as 2.07, we were ecstatic with the savings in fuel this past year.

The first year I remember about 5 times that if someone would have offered me a home for my RV/Truck, I would have said yes, I am done -- I don't recall having any of those moments this year so I guess I have adjusted to my RV home.  I get to see some awesome scenery (yes, the desert can be beautiful and mountains, need I say more?), try to stop and smell the roses, and appreciate the day God has given me.

So I guess I am settling into the RV lifestyle, as a person who was always schedule oriented, I have learned to be more flexible, someone comes along and says, "hey, want to .....", I think yep, what I had planned can wait until another day, and off we go on a new adventure.

Here's to new adventures that may come our way,

Sending blessings from the road,
Susan & Darrel

Back Road to Summitville

Hello Family & Friends,
After mostly settling in, we took the backroad to Summitville -- there are a couple ways to get there -- so we call this the backroad since we usually take the route out of South Fork.  It has been cold here in the mornings (not chilly, but 32 degrees cold) -- so just before lunchtime we headed toward the new route to see if it was any closer than going through South Fork.

It is a county road out of Del Norte where you take 14 up until you hit Forest Roads.  It was paved a little longer on the climb up then the turn off from South Fork -- the road seemed a little smoother but it is early in the year.  Anyway, it was nice to try it out to see how it differed!

Here's a few pics of the journey:

Not as much snow as we saw last year, but you can find the capped mountains in the distance.

As you can see, really melting off under the summer sun.

Such a lush green mix of Aspens and the darker green Pines.  This year is the beginning of a drought and they could use rain.

Beautiful scenery and it seems more open than the other route.

Darrel caught this picture of pines in front of the snow ridge.

We stopped for a stretch break and I found snow (along with pinecones) under some of the shaded trees that were along the north side.

Not a lot, but noticeable from the distance.

Darrel tried to catch a Marmet sunning himself on the rock ledge, but he didn't zoom quick enough and missed his dissent into his burrow near the culvert.

We took a hike up one trail and discovered more snow along the mountain tops.

A better view!

And along our path, was snow tucked in the tree line, not seeing much sunshine yet -- temperatures were chilly, probably mid-50's.

We headed home the original route and found things pretty quiet in the campgrounds.  I think things will pick up soon, but it is still light travel and the crowds aren't here yet.

Not sure what our next week looks like, but will try to capture some highlights along the way.

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

Wrapping up Arizona

Hello Family and Friends,
Here's a few pictures I found on my camera of the last couple weeks of Arizona.  I didn't want to discard them so I am adding this post to share my camera finds 😀

On our last trip out to the desert before it got to HOT, we left early one morning and took a quick ride on minimal use trails.  Darrel and Bob had found this bee hive in the cliffs of the wash  -- so of course, they had to show Susan (the non-bee lover in the group).

Big nest --- you can see better in the next pictures.

I don't even want to count how many are in this hive.  We were very quiet and didn't get very close an you can tell from the quality of my pictures.

More saguaro blooms

The blooms were amazing this year!

This saguaro is near the front entrance of North Ranch.

 One of my projects was to cover the bar stools that pull out from the island in the kitchen/livingroom area.  One day Susan T and Susan P. spent the time constructing the covers and added foam for a padded feel.  There are 4 seats and they do feel a lot better to sit on.

My sister Carol requested a picture of Rufus, the lizard.  He is really cagey.  When we were painting the shed, we disrupted his hidey hole and so he would kind of follow us around where we painted.  Then I didn't see him for awhile --- then he appeared and I tried to get a pic, but he was uncooperative.

You can see that he is a big boy, I think Bob called him a dinosaur the other day when he checked our lot, Rufus was still around.

And then before we left, Darrel decided to pour concrete blocks to put under our trailer jacks.  He has tarped was watering them as the concrete cured -- one morning he pull the tarp and found Mr. Toad -- burrowed into the corner of the cool, wet sand.

He was one big boy!  He was there about 2 days and then gone, it was the first toad I have seen in the desert.

So I think that wraps up my treasure finds from my camera.  I knew I had some pics on it but wasn't sure what was there. --  I hope you enjoy our wrapping up AZ ---

Sending blessings from the road,

Susan & Darrel

Colorado Coolness

Hello Family & Friends,
We have arrived in Colorado and staying at Peacock Meadows RV Park in South Fork, CO.  We drove straight through.  I don't know how many miles because Darrel reset the trip counter each time we filled but we think it is somewhere in the 700 miles.  With the riots and COVID, we were unsure where we might stop to overnight, since casinos in New Mexico are still closed.

So we bunked down in a campground drive and drove in as our RV tire went flat.  Not sure what happened there, but we have managed to get it repaired and it is back on the RV.

Here's a few pics of the campground --- they ware about 1/3 full -- I think 20+ campers, a few come in and a few go out -- the busiest month in July so we shall see how full it gets with all that is going on in the world.  I will try to get some better pics of the scenery but we are still settling in.....

This is out our front door -- you can barely see the snow on the mountain peak.

From our back door, we have a big "green" space to our right side.

Standing at the rear of the trailer, this is the back of the park that butts up to the Rio Grande River.

This is standing at the front by the hitch, we have nice scenery around us.

This view is straight ahead of our picnic table.

Our flag is in the green space by the rear of the trailer, we have a row of trees that border the west side of the park.  Our patio deck looks out to the trees.

The weather has been nice warm days and nights cooling off into the upper 40's - 50's -- it looks like next week we might dip into the 30's so brrrrr, we might need some heat that night.  We had a heck of a storm blow through on Saturday with rain, small hail and wind -- we still have the wind through Monday evening.

We are glad to be setup and I think mostly settled.  When next week warms up, we hope to hit the streams for some panning to see how they are running.  I don't think there was as much snow and the rain has been minimal too.  So it will be another interesting year!

Oh, have to brag a little, I still wear my fitbit and received my badge for walking 4,132 miles --- length of the Nile River!  Yay, Me!!

Oh and one last picture -- my last evening at North Ranch, strolling through the Saguaro Park at sunset time.

Very different scenery than I get in Colorado and will try to get a sunset picture from here soon.

Hope you all are staying healthy and cool, I know we are!

Blessings from the Road,

Susan & Darrel

PS  I didn't mentioned that we also had a water check valve go out (again) and we had to pull everything out of the front bin to fix it.... then Darrel decided that we need to move the RV back 3 feet so the deck has a better placement on the site... so we did that, too!

PPS  Also, we did some extra weather proofing/sealing on the AC in the bedroom because we could see daylight through the vents...

PPPS  And Susan gave up drinking Diet Coke 3 days before we traveled to Colorado -- call me crazy!  As hot as it was in AZ, it really didn't taste as good a a cold drink of water, so I have made it 10 days and if I can make it 21, that is suppose to be a habit???  We'll see..... but I am still eating chocolate for now!