COLORADO to NEW MEXICO October 10-15, 2017

With snow just two days before, we knew it was time to hit the road and find some warmer temps so we went south on I-25 from Boulder to Colorado Springs just a two hour drive.  There's a convenient, though just blacktop, stay at the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs and no problem getting a site for two nights. We set up and spent the afternoon seeing the beautiful Garden of the Gods Park, such amazing formations! A gorgeous blue sky made the rocks shoot into the sky with their sharp edges and colors. It's not a National Park but a National Natural Landmark...towering sandstone formations with Pikes Peak in the backdrop. We visited the Visitor Center but the beauty was outside not in the museum. Originally called Red Rock Corral by the Europeans until 1859 when two surveyors explored the site. One of them commented, "a capital place for a beer garden" when the other responded, "beer garden? This is a fit place for gods to assemble...we'll call it Garden of the Gods" The beauty is amazing and the name has stayed!!!

The following day we packed up picnic and found the route up to Pike's Peak- America's Mountain. It was another beautiful day to be out, especially with the top down on the car. I had originally planned to try the cog train to the top but with our new car we thought it would be just as much fun driving the 19 miles to the top, a gain of 7,500 feet elevation.  We stopped along the way Glen Cove Inn and Summit House, a very unappealing place.  The drive to the top was a bit scary with hairpin turns on a narrow windy road without railings! Those 19 miles took us almost an hour to reach the top. Quite the day, and so cold at the summit!

That evening we had such a fun experience at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center seeing Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, hysterical script and absolutely delightful!!!  All 40 characters portrayed by just five actors, amazing!!!! We returned the following morning to visit the art museum at the center for other fabulous exhibitions of New Mexian artists.

Leaving at noon from the Elks we drove another two hours south to Trinidad, CO staying at Trinidad Lake State Park, a pretty windy evening but with a wonderful view of the lake. Not so pleasant to be outside so we spent the evening trying to plan our upcoming months.

My brother, Kurt, had told me that if we were staying at the lake we should be sure to spend some time in the little town of Trinidad. So, we decided to have breakfast in town the next morning, which was at wonderful small cafe on Main Street. As we were going back to the car we saw a sign for the A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art..which meant nothing to me. But we had an hour before we needed to get back to the park and wow, I'm so glad we stepped inside! The museum displays the work of Arthur Roy Mitchell, illustrator and artist, who created over 160 Western pulp magazine covers during the 1920s a through 1940s. There were more than 340 original paintings on display. He never sold his work and left it to his sister when he died and so his work is completely in tact. Pretty amazing, and I loved the paintings!!!! So, if you ever find yourself passing through southern Colorado be sure to stop in Trinidad and check out this museum.

 Upstairs there was more of his work as well as other artists. These were landscapes and very different from the cowboy paintings for which he's best known.

Just one night in Trinidad and time to move on to Santa Fe Elks Lodge, arriving on the second weekend of the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, lucky us!!! It was about a four hour drive to reach Santa Fe and I figured with it being balloon weekend, we would have a hard time finding a place to camp at the Elks but that wasn't the case; only four other RVs there when we arrived and room for many more! It's just dry camping but with cooler days and nights we didn't need the electric anyways. So we found a site looking out over the valley and set up. Such a wonderful way to spend a few days in Santa Fe!!! For the next few days we visited  Museum Hill, where there are four beautiful museums and a botanical garden all in natural desert landscape. Also spent two evenings at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in town, a wonderful independent movie theater. 

Arriving that Friday afternoon and with the last two days of the balloon fest happening about an hour south of the city, I started researching how to get down there. The best of all options was to use the NM Rail Runner Train. Awesome connection but a really early departure...4:30 am to arrive in time for the sunrise Dawn Patrol. But, what an incredible experience! With the first light beginning to brighten the sky about 7:00 we spent the next two hours standing in a field watching as balloon after balloon ascended into the sky creating the most colorful experience. Getting up so early also meant we were back in Santa Fe by noon with time to scout out more of the museums near by.

My favorite of them all....

Once we left Santa Fe we were on a mission to get to the Grand Canyon and meet our newest little Grand Nephew, Max Coyote!!! So long, New Mexico.

DENVER DOGGIES and BOULDER SNOWFALL September 28-October 9, 2017

Recently I joined the website called Trusted Housesitters. After having pets in our life forever, living without that companionship is so hard, but we both knew it really wouldn't be the best idea to have a new puppy with our nomadic traveling style. Foster was such a sweet little buddy and adapted to the change in his lifestyle when we started this adventure.  

But, instead of beginning again with a new pup, by joining Trusted Housesitters we'll have the best of both travel and the love of pets. So, I signed up, set up our profile with photos and decided since we'd never spent much time in Denver, I'd look for our first experience there. And so began our stay with 3 sweet little ones in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver for 8 days late September.

And it was wonderful! We met the couple a week before they were leaving, had a tour of the house, and learned about the doggies and their care. The home owners were taking a very early flight to Hawaii the day we began so we drove over about 9am and let ourselves in, to be met with the happiest little ones. 

Meet Gracie, the youngest of the gang

Here's Mitty who loved the computer and TV, barking at everything that moved!

And here's Ariel with Gracie in her favorite hangout. What we really loved was to take these three out for long walks around their neighborhood. The houses and gardens were so beautiful, varied architecture and huge leafy tree lined streets.  All of this was within two blocks of a high end shopping district with plenty of restaurants and coffee shops mixed in. Such a  fun place to walk and with warm days we'd walk for an hour at least twice a day which the pups seemed to love...but once we were back at the condo this is what they looked like within minutes of finding a comfy place to rest.

Our friends, Steve and Sherry, joined us on Friday afternoon. They flew from Boise to Denver to pick up their new SAAB, our older one and drive it back home. What a fun weekend we had! Lots of talking, walking and dining.  

Lunch on the porch at the Chatauqua Restaurant

Sunday was gray and chilly so we spent most of the afternoon at the Denver Musuem of Art. Another fabulous exhibit. This work, part of the Mi Tierra exhibition by contemporary Latino artists was made completely of tissue paper pieces...amazing and beautiful filling an entire room, all walls and floor. What a experience that must have been to create it!

Sherry and Steve headed back to Idaho Monday morning in their new car, we took the afternoon to visit the Denver Botanical Gardens. Always beautiful in every season.

Earlier that week I'd made a spontaneous decision to fly to California and surprise a dear friend at her retirement party, leaving the doggies in PK's care.  Turned out the owners needed us to stay one extra night and I already had my tickets, it worked out perfectly. I flew over the snow-dusted Rockies into warm and sunny LAX with a four hour bus ride up to Santa Maria. A long travel day, but the coast route makes it all worth it. I had a wonderful overnight and beach walk the next morning with Sheri then onto Los Osos and a stay with Marcy. Again anther beautiful walk on the bluffs of Montana de Oro before meeting up with everyone in Atascadero for Jill's party and reconnecting with ALL eleven of my  Summer Sisters that usually only happens at our annual summer time together. 

The beauty of the surf at Montana de Oro 

Friend, Katie, Maria and Diane ready to party!

Our sweet retiree, Jill and her son Matt.

Celebrating Jill's amazing career in education with Debbie, Gini and me. Wonderful food and drink, a warm Atascadero evening with a fantastic live combo playing a mix of Caribbean vibes on their new deck, so fun!!!I was sooooooooo happy I'd made the trip out, and the luck of finding a RT ticket for a total of $120 helped make it happen.

While, back in Boulder...a surprise snowfall hit and covered everything in a lovely white blanket Sunday evening. Definitely the first time we've ever been in snow with the RV, most of it gone by the time I got back Monday afternoon.

                                              The same day I returned from California the devastating fires began in Santa Rosa and Napa Valley with fierce and heartbreaking destruction. We have family in the Healdsburg and Potter Valley and followed it all closely, praying that the winds would die down and fires contained. It finally happened but not before the area was devastated. Our family was safe, but so many others were not. How quickly life can spin out of control.

COOS BAY, OR September 16-26, 2017

After three weeks in Boulder we put the RV and car in storage for the next three weeks and took off for the coast of Oregon and the little fishing village of Coos Bay.  We had a friend's beautiful home for ten days, a rental car and nothing but time to enjoy the beaches and towns of the area. We flew from Denver to Portland with plans to rent a car in town when we arrived. It's become so terribly expensive to rent from the airport rental companies, that we chose a Hertz office we could reach easily using the MAX Rail. But, the office had closed an hour earlier than our paperwork showed...frustrating!!! Luckily, there was an Enterprise Rental office right across the street, with cars available and about the same price of the one I'd reserved weeks earlier. First order of business...pick up groceries at Trader Joe's then on the road for our four hour drive south and west to Coos Bay arriving about 9pm.

The next morning we bundled up in coats and went off to see some beaches, pretty much the same thing we'd do each day, always trying to find someplace new. Our first was a beautiful morning walk along Bastendorf Beach about 40 minutes from Coos Bay.

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Bright blue skies with the most gorgeous puffy clouds made the chilliness worth it all.

 Many mornings were foggy with sun by mid day, perfect for long walks and lunch in new restaurants. One of our favorites in town was the Blue Heron Bistro with a wonderful Bavarian menu.

 30 miles south of Coos Bay is the charming little town of Bandon with so many gorgeous beaches to walk, walk, walk.

Bandon's waterfront dining and boardwalks are so inviting with artwork set along the main street of town. Lots of crabbing going on out on the piers.

As always, we checked out all the state parks along our drives and spent most of one day at  Shore Acres State Park. It sits on high, rugged cliffs above a beautiful beach, once a grand estate of a timber baron. The gardens were lovely and how I'd love to see them in spring with bulbs in full bloom. There's a formal garden, Japanese-style garden, and tucked behind hedges and walkways, a rose garden that still had some off the most beautiful and fragrant roses. A trail leads down to a secluded beach so we hiked down and back up again before continuing the bluff walk for at least another hour and a half. It just kept getting prettier and prettier even with a light rain falling by the time we returned to the car.

Besides beaches and state parks there are also so many light houses along this part of the rocky Oregon coast, so another drive north took us to see the Umpqua Light and State Park and we were lucky enough to join a terrific tour. It was a perfect day with views all the way up the coast.

A  day in Florence, and hikes in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and we still had plenty of time to enjoy local fish and chips along the pier and tour the amazing new Coos Bay Museum.

In town there's a one place we didn't want to miss, the Egyptian Theater, built in 1925 and still showing classic films on the big screen. We went twice and each evening was fantastic!  The first was a showing of Mama Mia for a breast cancer support fund with the lyrics running across the bottom of the screen making for a fun sing along. Two nights later we saw Orson Welles' Citizen Kane from 1941.

Our home for the week and a half was this unique and beautiful house with a stunning view of the bay, surrounded by not much more than trees and woods. Cooking in this kitchen was absolutely the best, no matter there I looked all I could see was nature. The deck was so inviting, but a little too chilly too sit out much. What fun to have this amazing house all to ourselves

Before making our way back to Portland we took Highway 1 north to see one more lighthouse at Cape Arago, such a perfect ending to our time on the coast, though the winding river road east to I-5 was an experience we probably wouldn't do again soon. Beautiful,but challenging.