Dealing with Holiday Weekends

Hello Readers,
Holidays on the road are something Darrel and I are still trying to figure out how to manage.  When you have a home, you hunker down and stay put....however, when you are living in a RV and staying in a RV park, that is where the city dwellers go for recreation.  So the crowds get larger and the roads and tourist spots get busier.

One thing we've learned is that you want to be there before the holiday weekend (or day) and you want to plan to stay for several days after -- remember, we made that mistake in North Dakota staying at a busy spot and trying to depart on July 5 ?!?!?!?

So we have finally decided that we do chores or activities around the RV that need attention like cleaning and reorganizing, cleaning out the truck, etc.  Yes, we still do have to clean bathrooms, clean the refrigerator, clean floors and throw rugs, sweep out the rocks and dust off the dust....plus there are always bills to pay and I can take a few minutes to blog (ha ha).

But we did go get our walking sticks at a place called Pool Table between Creede and South Fork, and saw some beautiful scenery.. so I'll share some nice pics

Darrel sitting on the tailgate peeling bark off our Aspen walking sticks....looks simple, right?

Notice he is using a utility knife and we already had one slice to the thumb!!!!

This is the road we drove up and the mountains in the distance.

We nestled in between mountain ranges and the trees lined the road up the mountain.

We were probably near 10,000 feet elevation and on the way down, looking over the 

Rio Grande River snaking through the valley.

Darrel thought we ought to try mountain climbing, yeah, right, maybe next time!!!

Believe it or not, we have 3 weeks left in Colorado and then head out for North Ranch Escapees Park -- where we are lot sitting for the winter.

We wish you a Happy Labor Day, sending hugs and kisses,

Susan & Darrel

Exploring the Amish Community

Hello Readers,
Well, aren't I the chatty one???  Here's one more post to catch you up with some sightseeing we did to the Amish community near Monte Vista, CO --- talk about some great food!

Rack and racks of pies, cinnamon rolls, breads, pastries --- smells so wonderful.  They offer a free donut and coffee when you arrive.

These little gems are "fried pies" and they are to die for -- come in peach, blueberry (my favorite), cherry and apple!  So good but I am glad we don't have them right next door!

The bakery is called "Worth the Drive" and this is the Amish lady that rang up our orders!

We also visited the General Store and the Grocery/Bulk food store --- what a community and it is truly amazing to see all the farm land they live on.

OK, I think I am done catching up for now -- we are enjoying warm days and cool nights --- and even though we look are bundled up -- we are enjoying the temperatures of Colorado!

Darrel, Susan --- Mickey and Brad, who have helped us on this journey of Rv'ing.

So we will say good-bye from the Ute Bluff Lodge teepee --- 

Wishing you all health and happiness,

Love,

S & D

Gold in them thar' mountains!

Hello Readers,
You've head me talk about looking for gold, so here's what we know about the process (which is very little as we keep learning about how the equipment to use and even just how to look for it)!

Basic Equipment for creek/river/water gold panning -- which means you sit in a stream (mostly on a stool or bench) and you use the water to wash away the mud, rocks and silt to find gold -- which is usually in small wire shapes or "pickers" which are flatter and look more like nuggets??

• Pans -- see the green roundish bowls
• Scoops -- to get at the dirt and rocks
• Buckets to carry all the "found dirt & rocks"
• Oh, forgot to mention --- boots to keep your feet dry!!!
• There are additional items you can get to speed up the pan process -- like a sluice, snuffer bottles to suck up the small gold pieces, a classifier which sifts out the big rocks, etc.

 Here we are with Brad, Mickey and Darrel finding their spots in the stream.

Darrel at work panning

Processing the dirt from the stream beds to find that gold

Susan even had hip waders -- so I can get deeper in the water!

NOW comes the Dry Washing for gold -- that takes a dry wash "sluice" type device -- probably has an official name but it looks similar but uses a "leaf blower" to power the shaker to sift the dirt away from the gold -- you then look through the "ribs" of the tray to find the gold.

So you dig for dirt -- hoping gold is hiding in it -- then you classify it, but separating the big rocks and debris and then you run it through the "dry wash" conveyor belt.

Darrel and Brad setting up the "dry wash" tray and hopper -- my terminology is probably incorrect but that is what it looks like to me!

Both process are similar but I can tell you I enjoy the "water" hunting much more than the "dry" hunting -- you aren't nearly as dirty when you are using water!

As I said, we are still learning and it is definitely a process -- but lots of fun and the scenery is beautiful!

So now you know how we spend our days!  We aren't getting rich but we are enjoying ourselves and that counts for something!

Love to you all,

S & D

Over the Mountains....

Hello Readers,
Been a little while since I've posted some updates -- we headed to Windsor, CO to see Darrel's brother, Mike and wife, Johnette -- we traveled a really nice Colorado Hwy 285 and was able to skirt around Denver fairly easy to head north on I-25 to Windsor.

I didn't take pictures until we were ready to leave -- as we visited, saw Mike's and Johnny's girls' families and did some errands/chores while we caught up.   They have a beautiful house but with the haze from the forest fires in California and west, we had difficulty seeing the mountains from their deck.

Boys will be boys!!!

 Susan & Johnette -- yes, Susan got her hair cut short in Windsor!!!!

 Darrel & Brother, Mike acting a little more normal

The girls get in a funky greeting pose, egged on by the brothers!!

I finally got pictures of our campsite at Ute Bluff Lodge and some of the campground area.  The summer full timers are starting to head out over the next couple of weeks.  Believe it or not, we have 5 more weeks here in Colorado before we head to Arizona.

Here's Zoe and you can see we have the community area to the right in this pic

The bluff is to south of our RV and there are sites along the front of the bluff.

Ute Bluff Lodge has rooms, cabins and RV sites -- this shows the "lodge" rooms and is further west of the community area that we are next too.

Front office are the has a circular drive.  It is a nice office area and Christian and Maggie, owners, have their home in the same building and a 2nd level.

Rec Room is nice a spacious, with Potluck dinners on Tuesday thru the summer -- I think the last one was August 14.

Ok, if you look closely you can see the back end of Zoe thru the trees -- the community area has a Teepee and a campfire burn pit -- plus an area for outdoor games -- horseshoes and a bean bag toss.

This is the front of the Teepee -- you can see the fire pit just in the bottom right of the pic.

Zoe stretches out along the fence line of the community area -- today we had the awnings out, which is rare as the breeze generally is too strong for them to be out.

We see the foothill mountains to the east and north as well -- one day Darrel and I are going to hike the bluff and head up the mountain until we reach that top....

As I sign off -- plan to post about gold panning --- when we hike to top of the bluff behind the campground, we can see the most amazing views!!!

From the mostly happy campers,

S & D

PS  We miss you all -- and appreciate your prayers for our safe travels!

Ute Bluff Lodge, South Fork, CO

Hello Readers,
We have been busy with lots of activities and have some pics to show you.  I haven't taken one of Zoe in her new location, mostly because I don't think about it until I wish I had one to put in the post.  But I do have some pics of things we have done and seen -- so I'll try to add captions under the pictures so you can see what we have been experiencing (and not necessarily in the order we've done them??)

Darrel is the big fisherman of the day!

Susan gives South Fork bear a quick hug!

Darrel & Susan selecting their Aspen trees for walking sticks

Jim & Susie showed us where to find them -- they are from TX & stay in our campground

Cave in the mountain side in the Rio Grande National Forest

Darrel & Tom drywashing samples for gold

Madonna taking a break from setup

Tom & Darrel metal detecting -- they found a 1983 penny!!

Quartz fields where we were looking for gold

Gotta' be careful where you walk -- cactus abound!

Darrel tries to metal detect some gold

Darrel hiked all the way to the top and declared it Mount Pender

Up the trail to the Turquoise mine

Lots of Aspen as we search for turquoise

So you can see we've been exploring the area and having lots of fun!  The weather has been awesome, cool at night and warm (close to hot) days!  We had rain on Thursday (8/16) and overcast but Colorado needs the rain, we don't complain.

Thanks for reading and check back for more "exploration" in Colorado!

Love to all,

S & D

Traveling thru OK, TX & NM to CO

Hello Readers,
Here's a quick post to let you know we have arrived in South Fork, CO thru Oklahoma, then Texas, then New Mexico from Yukon, OK.

Oh, side note:  I was driving to the next available Rest Area inside Texas when it was CLOSED so the next one was the Information /Tourist Center so I'm thinking OK, this can work -- but it was not easily accessible so I am driving through Amarillo at lunch time -- Lucky Me!!! Darrel is reading the map and says, do you see Loop 335 and I say yes, right there so I swing the truck and trailer over 2 lanes to exit!!!  Exciting!!!!  But it did make the loop around downtown Amarillo.  I finally got to pull over near Dumas, TX and I said, once again, "I'm done"!!!

We overnighted at Clayton, NM and the best thing I can say about our stay was the 87 Diner which was a fantastic place to eat.  The campground had 50AMP service and an OK shower house but the amenities were few.

The next morning (Aug. 3) we traveled a 1,000 foot elevation increase over 80+ miles so it didn't seem to much of a pull (past the Volcanic Mountains) -- I have pictures that I took hanging out the window -- seemed the best way since you don't pull over with Zoe!!!

We gassed up at Renata, NM and then climbed into and thru Trinidad, CO before turning west on Hwy 160 at Walsenburg to head towards South Fork, CO.

We arrived in South Fork by 2:00pm (MT) as we changed to MT in Clayton, NM.  So gained that hour of drive time.  Of course, we arrived in rain from Monte Vista, CO (about 30 miles out), nothing new for the traveling Pendergasts!  Darrel drove the entire way, Happy Susan.

I'm hanging out the back window this time -- so you see the front of Zoe

So we are here, and I'll post another update of our location for the next 2 months.  We depart Oct. 1 for Congress, AZ.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy catching up with the....

On the Road Pendergasts