Catch-up time!

Wow! I really have been neglecting this blog, haven’t I? I’ll try to play catch-up, but will just hit the highlights and hope I don’t forget anything major.

Here goes:

We had a really wonderful summer last year in Ouray, CO. Our job at the Ouray KOA was great fun and our co-workers were awesome!

John & I worked in the “Creekside Café” starting with Wednesday dinner & ending with Saturday dinner (no lunches – everyone is out playing during the daytime!).

There was live music three of the four nights we worked and what fun! If you’re ever in the area in the summer, be sure to at least stop by and eat – David’s BBQ is amazing!

Here are a few pictures of the campground and surrounding area…

We didn’t have any TV reception here, so we bought a hummingbird feeder and had many chuckles watching the three varieties in this area fight over the sugar water. There were even babies that we got to watch grow up (and get very nasty to each other!).

And, there was more wildlife than just birds. A young “teen-age” bear showed up every few weeks and actually damaged a few tents in the process of finding his next meal. Too bad people couldn’t read the signs posted all over the campground about how to store food properly!

We worked hard and played hard – just what our bosses, David & Deborah, recommended! Most of our free time was spent with daughter-in-law Kari, grandson Jacob, and son Eric (when he wasn’t off working). They introduced us to some of their favorite places, hikes and friends.

We loved going for walks with Jacob (i.e. picking up rocks!) and even did a few hikes and bike rides on our own.

We also enjoyed seeing some of the surrounding areas. Telluride was one of our favorites and the Durango-Silverton train ride was amazing!

The scenery in southwestern Colorado isn’t quite Alaska, but it does have an incredible beauty of its own!

We did sneak away from our jobs for a few days in June to attend the Folkerts Family Reunion in Priest Lake, Idaho. We had a fantastic time with parents, siblings and their spouses and lots of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews – 43 of us in all! Everyone enjoyed boating, volleyball, hiking, eating or just visiting and watching the little ones play. We especially enjoyed seeing our grandsons Sebastian and Jacob together!!

We left Ouray on September 7th and headed north to Cheyenne, Wyoming. While overnighting on the way at Wal-Mart in Craig, we enjoyed a brief visit with Derick, our honorary 3rd son. We left the motorhome at a campground in Cheyenne and drove the car back into Colorado to see Eric, Kari & Jacob at the house they had just moved to in Allenspark (near Estes Park). We spent several days with them, enjoying hikes out their back door in the national forest and also in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it was down the road again headed east…

Nebraska was fairly uneventful, except for a fun lunch with RV’ing friends Greg & Jean in Lincoln. In Iowa, we made a snap decision to take a slight detour off the interstate and look up my cousin, Larry, whom we hadn’t seen in many, many years. He guided us to the local Wal-Mart and we had a fun evening catching up on family news and getting a guided tour of Atlantic. From there it was only about a 4-hour drive to Dad Newby’s farm near Steamboat Rock where we stayed for the next three weeks, visiting family and friends.

On October 5th, we headed south stopping in Springfield, Missouri to visit our Alaska friend, Mary and to meet her fiancé, Steve. Then it was on to Fayetteville, Arkansas to catch up with an old college classmate of mine, Joe. We had fun exploring the area, including Devil’s Den State Park and touring Joe’s commercial photography studio.

We enjoyed a leisurely trip south with a stop in Houston, Texas for some routine RV maintenance. We arrived in Weslaco mid-afternoon on October 12th and settled in for the winter….

We’re almost done with our workamping job here now. It’s been a good winter with the exception of John’s dad spending time in the hospital on three different occasions. We flew out to Washington to see Vance, Jody and Sebastian in early December.

Our Doolaard nieces and nephews and their families all came for the Christmas holiday and Eric, Kari & Jacob came to visit for a few days in early January.

And now, we’ve just finished a six week project remodeling the motorhome. But, I’ll tell you more about that in my next blog entry…