Philipsburg Montana

We were thrilled to have our best friends visit us last week! They drove 550 miles just to spend time with us! Driving to Philipsburg along the Anaconda Pintler Scenic Route seemed like a good day trip for us. Of course we visited the famous Sweet Palace, a destination for many travelers. They make the best taffy! Long the county seat of Granite, Philipsburg has a rich history of mining and ranching. Officially registered as a town in 1867 and incorporated in 1890, Philipsburg was named after Philip Deidesheimer, a prominent mining engineer who hailed from Nevada. After the Silver Crash in 1893 the town became a ghost town, but over the years has been re-established as a thriving community and fun tourist attraction.

 It was a cold, wintery day, but filled with sunshine. Most of the restaurants in town were closed for the season, but we did find a great one just at the entrance to the town. Here are our friends standing by the iconic silver prospector.

 We passed by a typical "ghost" building just outside of town. There's snow in them thar hills!

 The hills around Philipsburg sported herds of cattle here and there. I wanted a photo of this scene. We noticed a lone cow standing behind a fence, away from the other cattle, but in full view of the road. Ted suddenly exclaimed, "That cow has just given birth!" We stopped to look, and sure enough, there was a tiny calf lying on the ground. Mama cow watched us nervously as we snapped pictures and told her what a good girl she was. She was hidden from the other cows but not from the cars driving by.

 We knew the birth had just happened, as mama cow still had the afterbirth to discharge. What a thrill for us to see this little miracle!

On our way back up the highway we passed by this old, abandoned church in the tiny, historical town of Hall. It looked quite sad. We couldn't have asked for a better day with our friends, sightseeing in this beautiful area! We never tire of seeing the awesomeness of God's creation, the best of which is love and friendship with special people to help us enjoy what we see and do!

Going Home

 Once again we're on the move. Our job in Oregon ended and we were anxious to travel back to the town we consider to be our "home", even though "our home is where we park it". We had no trouble moving in the slides, unhooking the water, sewer and power hoses, and hooking up BigTruk. A couple of the residents of the park in Fairview, and one employee, came to say good-bye and to wish us well as they saw us preparing to leave. In the last few days 4 people have given us money to help us on our way! What a surprise, and what welcome gifts! People are good. We needed to stop by the Tire Factory in Gresham and get a minor valve repair as well as having the right amount of air pumped into each of the 12 tires on the 5th wheel and on BigTruk. We felt happy as we left rainy country and traveled into sunshine.

We had a scary time a few miles past The Dalles. Mr. Keith told me, over the walkie-talkie, that the orange fuel warning light had gone on. We were positive we had 70 gallons of diesel on the day before our departure. Our thoughts were that maybe someone had stolen our diesel during the night. We were near Biggs Junction so we carefully pulled into a Pilot Truck Stop and got in line. Mr. Keith turned off the motor till time to move up, and when he restarted, suddenly the gauges shot back up to say we had 61 gallons of diesel. Big sigh of relief! Back on the road we went, and happily crossed the bridge into Washington. The photo above shows us traveling down the highway into the Ellensburg valley.

We stopped for lunch and a potty break, for us and for the cats, somewhere over Satus Pass, then continued on. Before we got to Tonasket I saw the awning for the bedroom slide shoot up in the air and begin wildly flapping in the wind. Oh, no! That awning was just installed in October! We didn't stop because I could tell it wasn't detached, just unrolled somehow. We will get that fixed while we're in Wenatchee.

Here we are heading towards the Columbia River and the beautiful Vantage Bridge. We usually travel over Blewett Pass to Wenatchee, but we were unsure of the snow conditions, and we wanted to try the less mountainous route for a change. Later I figured out mileage and discovered the route through Vantage and Quincy is about the same, within a mile, as the route over Blewett Pass. Good to know!

We were so happy to pull into East Wenatchee about 5:00. The sun was still touching the foothills and the gorgeous, snow covered Cascades. The Columbia River was glowing with a reflection of the sky.

Setting up at the First Fruits Produce Market went smoothly. We love being right beside an orchard, though at this time of year the trees are bare and have just been pruned. We've stayed here a couple of times before, once for about 5 months in the winter of 2009 and again for 5 days last October. Our dear friend Bob has put in a 50 amp hookup for us. We are thankful to God for a safe trip and for this wonderful place to park for the next 2 months! We have family to visit to our heart's content, as well as the many friends we've missed since we've been workamping. Though we've made many new friends in our various places of employment, we always have to leave them when the job ends. Old friends warm our hearts and we are glad to be with them again.

Friendship!

 I just recently, sadly, missed my 50 year high school reunion in Mossyrock, Washington. We were just too far away, working at our job at the KOA, and getting Mr. Keith's chemo treatments. Imagine my joy when my friend Mari, former neighbor and classmate from our school days emailed me to say she and hubby were coming to Laramie to visit their son and family, and could we come there and meet them for lunch and visiting! I was overjoyed! We arrived early in Laramie last Sunday morning, so had time to tour around the town. It's a lovely city — the University of Wyoming is there. We also found the Ivinson Mansion, built in 1892. It is now the Laramie Plains Museum.

We'd heard about the Wyoming Territorial Prison so we located that. The prison was built in the 1870s and was the only prison to actually incarcerate Butch Cassidy. We will definitely plan another trip to Laramie so that we can go inside both of these historical buildings, and maybe we'll find even more to investigate!

We met the family outside the Catholic Church, then went to lunch with Mari and George at a local restaurant, where Mr. Keith had his usual shrimp, and I had my favorite, a buffalo burger. Most of all, we enjoyed catching up with our friends! We had last seen them in 2007 when we were workamping at an RV resort near Olympia, Washington. After lunch we were invited to go out to the "ranch", where we met the grandchildren (there are 7 in all), as well as lots of rabbits, goats, chickens, horses, and even a friendly dog and a shy cat. Here is a photo of the youngest grandson, Jeremiah, who proudly acted as our tour guide. These goats are for milk, which the family consumes, and I believe also markets. John, Mari's son, is an extension agent with the University.

I did snap one photo of our friends, Mari and George. I wish I had gotten more! What a wonderful day we had with them! They are truly a  special couple, full of love and kindness and memories! We will try to see them again when we make our fall trip back to Washington. Our visit was truly the best day we've had all summer! Thanks, Mari and George!

Friends & Fun

 One of the happiest aspects of workamping is that we get to meet wonderful people! While we were working at the Denver East/Strasburg KOA we had the privilege of encouraging Tom and Leah to become workampers, and they began their journey at the Strasburg kampground. Two weeks into our new job at the Cheyenne KOA they came up for a 2 day visit. Our first stop in showing them around Cheyenne was the historic Depot, several times slated to be torn down and as many times rescued from destruction. It now houses a tourist center, a gift shop, a museum, and a restaurant. Cheyenne has these beautifully decorated cowboy boots all over town, several at the Depot. Here are Tom and Leah posing for us. This boot was displaying the names and dates of all the former governors of the state, artistically arranged.

 

 Once again we drove by the majestic Wyoming State Capitol without going inside. We'll do that eventually! I loved the view of the dome through the blooming tree. The Capitol is right downtown, easily seen from many viewpoints.

 "Oh! There's a billboard advertising a Sanford's Grub & Pub! I thought the only one was in Rapid City. Let's try it!" We did, and, sure enough, it was just like the one in Rapid City, which we frequented while working at Bear Country. This restaurant is jam packed with junk all over the walls. Junk of all kinds, old car parts, license plates, old pictures, tin cans, bicycles, you name it, it is on the walls. Our table was right beside this sign, "Garth Brooks Rd". The menu is huge and all the items have unusual names. I knew I should have copied some of them down, because as soon as we left I couldn't remember any of them. This darn "oldtimers" disease! Leah and Tom are from Mississippi and were delighted to find that sweet tea was on the menu. They said they hadn't had any good tea since they left MS, and it was very good here. We all had it except Mr. Keith who loves his Pepsi.They also had deep fried pickles, which is a southern delicacy. I had mine with peanut butter. That's a memorable taste!

 When Tom's dish came, a chicken fried steak, he was astonished, as we all were, at the size of the plate! It could have fed a family of 4! He doesn't know where to begin!

Well, dig in, Tom! He did, and he loved it. Needless to say, he took home over half of it. We all loved our meal. Mr. Keith had a big plate of deep fried mushrooms, and took home most of it. We had a great time with our friends, and were happy they took the time to come visit us. We're hoping for more visitors from our former home down in Strasburg Colorado, not far to come!

A Few Last Shots

The KOA in Strasburg is turning green! We're beginning to see some grass, and some budding trees, mostly elms and cottonwoods.

  I love this beautiful tree, right outside the store. Not sure what it is. Crabapple? Flowering plum? It has a wonderful fragrance!

Friends and parents, all helping little John with his Easter eggs on the KOA playground.

And here's another shot of the prairie turning green, a relief from the winter browns. That may be a wheat field coming up, with last summer's crop for contrast.

Casa Bonita!

 One last fling in Denver! We had not planned on going into the big city again, since we are leaving Colorado in 2 1/2 weeks for our next workamping job, but wanted to take our friends out to lunch before that. We left the choice to them and this is what they chose, the Casa Bonita, in west Denver. Apparently it's quite a popular restaurant, one we hadn't heard about. To make our day even better, our friends are native Denverites and really knew where to go and what sights to see in the city. We got a wonderful drive-by tour of places we had visited on our own, but we hadn't heard the stories behind them. This lovely pink building has been operating since 1973 as a Mexican restaurant.

 What glorious weather, 80 degrees, we had for our last big outing! Here we are in front of a lovely fountain framed by blooming trees with exquisite fragrance, at the entrance to the Casa. After a long winter we loved seeing the spring flowering trees in the city. The loveliest creations were our friends Geoff and Tracie!.

 

 This amazing pink building has been operating since 1973 as a Mexican restaurant. The inside is huge, with seating for 1000 in all kinds of labyrinthian alcoves. Here are Geoff and Tracie posing at our table. There  was entertainment going on constantly to keep the diners fascinated.

 After a delicious dinner of  Mexican specialties followed by sopapillas for dessert, Tracie and Geoff gave us a tour of the building. Up an incline we found ourselves behind the waterfall which formed a gorgeous blue pool. We walked through cave tunnels, lava tubes, and many archways. There were tables and booths tucked into every conceivable space.

 Tracie led us to a scary looking monster whose mouth we entered and whose insides we walked through. It was dark in there! We almost felt like we were Jonah in the big fish!

 We found an artist who was doing caricatures for an affordable fee so Mr. Keith and I sat down to be drawn. I've never had anything like this done! How do we look? We gave the man a big tip for his talent. 

We visited the gift shop, too, where I bought a ceramic lotion bottle and a matching heart-shaped covered box with pine cones for decoration, and with "Colorado" painted onto the top.

One last shot of the pink tower with the spring blossoms framing it. So pretty! We completed our day by driving through downtown where Geoff told us the history behind some of the skyscrapers. We went through the old Lowry Air Force Base where Tracie had spent a lot of her childhood, and we learned some more history. It's been 12 years since the base was closed and it has been turned into a classy little "town" with shops, restaurants and apartments. We enjoyed visiting there previously on our own, but this time we learned much more about it. (See my post from November 17, 2010). All in all, we were treated to one of our most enjoyable days since we've been in the Denver area. What made it so much fun were the special friends who joined us on this day. We will miss the wonderful folks we've met here. It's always sad to leave the people, though it's exciting to go on to new adventures in a new place. Who knows — we may find ourselves back here someday!

Quiet Times

 Since Mr. Keith hurt his back and had surgery, we've stuck very close to home and led the quiet life. There have been no days off to take sight-seeing trips in our beautiful surroundings, so I've snapped photos where I can. Here is our itty bitty Christmas tree, complete with nativity scene, gifts from daughters, a snowman, and a festive bear.

 The workamping lifestyle is one of great fun and adventure for us, the only down-side being so far away from family. God has blessed us in this place with the nicest people in the world, it seems. There is a close knit country concern for neighbors and folks in need, which we are during the holidays! A co-worker invited us to join her family for a Christmas Eve dinner, a true blessing for two old coots without our own family nearby. On the way there, a 12 mile drive out on the prairie, we came across these buffalo foraging for food in the snow. I had to stop and get photos! These critters are raised on a ranch near Byers, Colorado. We'd seen them before, but not up close, and not posing so picturesquely in the snow.

 These new friends were our wonderful hosts for Christmas Eve dinner, the Gates, a caring couple with big hearts and an open home. They made us feel so included.

 Part of the afternoon's fun, props for funny photos!

 Christmas Day, another quiet time at home. I took a walk around the campground in the snow, and was intrigued by these semi-symetrical tracks, seeming to point towards the two trees in the background. Gotta take pleasure in small things!

I let myself into the closed office-store to check on our campground pet, Callie. (How many calico cats have you seen who are named Callie?) She wanted to go outside but wasn't so sure when she felt the cold air. I'll go back later to let her in again.

So passes another calm day while Mr. Keith recuperates a little more. Back to work tomorrow for me!