The Ocean!

 I had a hankerin' to see the ocean again, mostly for Mr. Keith, but for me also. Keith was raised in Santa Rosa California and got to go to the seashore regularly. He's been missing it since we've mostly been inland in our workamping jobs. So...the sun was shining and off we went! We made a stop in McCleary for a soda, and I enjoyed this mural on the grocery store wall.

 Another mural, this time in Elma.

 We decided, as we got to Grays Harbor, to go up the north side to Ocean Shores and then back around the south side to Westport. At last! The Ocean! The sand was packed so hard that many vehicles were driving on it, and the local seagulls were having a lucrative dining experience. We contributed a few bites of Keith's pretzels, of course! The tide was out and it was raining a tiny bit, so we didn't get out. We did relish the view and the brisk air.

 We traveled back around the Harbor to Aberdeen and got on the highway to Westport. I was determined to have fish so we found a little place called the "Fish Shack" in downtown Westport. I was not disappointed in this cod and fries meal. Mr. Keith, why on earth did you order chicken and fries? What were you thinking? I did let him have a bite of my cod, though.

 Before we started full timing in our 5th wheel I had a large collection of lighthouses. I found homes for most of it, and now  my lighthouse viewing is of the real thing, rare though it is. This is the Grays Harbor Light, and a popular tourist stop. I discovered it is the tallest lighthouse in Washington and the third tallest on the west coast.

 We talked with a workamper lady inside the Lighthouse and sighed, wishing that we could work at one of these beautiful historical icons. I stood in the center of the entryway, looked up, got dizzy, and snapped this photo. You can see a couple of hardy folks making the climb to the top. We didn't try, as I wasn't sure my legs would make it. 

A parting shot with me standing by the sign. Copied from Wikipedia: "Construction of the Grays Harbor Light began in 1897 and was first lit in 1898. Thirteenth Lighthouse District officials selected a site facing the Pacific Ocean, about 400 feet from water’s edge. Massive amounts of accretion, due in large part to the jetty system at the entrance to Grays Harbor, have since built up, and the lighthouse currently stands approximately 3000 feet from high tide." This lighthouse is still in use, though automated now. Seeing the ocean today was the high point of our trip, but seeing this lighthouse was certainly a close second.

Chugwater, Wyoming

 Today we wanted a short trip that turned out to be about 160 miles round trip. The town of Chugwater beckoned because of the odd name. Though Chugwater is just off I-25 north of Cheyenne we opted to explore a back road, the Horsecreek Rd. becoming the Iron Mountain Rd. It was fairly desolate, with only a few ranches here and there. We were traveling through the Laramie Mountains, elevation up to 6400, a little higher than Cheyenne. Here is a ghost ranch with only the outbuildings still standing. I imagine the house was in the grove of trees to the left. I wonder what caused it to be abandoned?

 We loved this sign at the entrance to Farthing Ranch. When the kids and I lived in Vancouver our neighbors and friends were named Farthing. I wonder if there is any connection? We didn't see a ranch house or other buildings. They must have been down in the draw.

 The town of Chugwater has a population of 244 and the elevation is 5288 feet. We were greeted by this ruined grain elevator next to the railroad track.

 The whole town had an air of days gone by. I'm sure this bank is an old original from long ago, still being used.

 We had planned to eat lunch in Chugwater so we chose, of course, the only place to eat in the whole town. That's Mr. Keith out in front of the Buffalo Grill. We wanted to ask someone about the name Chugwater. We figured it had to do with some thirsty pioneers, but didn't know for sure. It's pretty dry around this part of Wyoming. Upon being seated, we found ourselves at a table next to an old codger who began to talk to us and continued to talk all the way through our meal! Sure enough, he knew the story, and it proved to be kind of gruesome, not what I wanted to hear.

 This is the same story the old codger told us, but copied from Wikipedia.
Some historians hold that the name "Chugwater" is derived from a Mandan account of a bison hunt. According to this narrative, a chief was disabled during the hunt and his son took charge of the hunt or "buffalo jump". Under his direction, hunters drove the bison over nearby cliffs; when the animals reached the ground below, a sound of "chugging" was heard by the hunters. The story concludes with an etymology: since a stream was near the base of the cliffs, the site of the stampede has been called "the place" or "water at the place where the buffalo chug." Could these cliffs be where this awful massacre happened? Or some like them nearby? There is a creek running through the area, as shown by the trees in the photo. I don't like the story, would much rather it had been about some thirsty pioneers or ranchers. But that's how it was.

 We saw many of these lovely wildflowers along the way, growing in the sandy hillsides. The last time I saw these I was in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I was able to find them on my iPad app, "The Audubon Guide". They are White Prickly Poppies. The flowers are definitely poppy-like, and the greenery is like a thistle. They are safe from roaming cattle and pronghorns because of the stickers!

  We traveled home the same way we had come, to see the land from the opposite direction.  We came across this tiny school house, dated 1919 to 1936 and labeled Capitol Vista School. Children must have come from far to attend here!

 Last, but not least, a common sight in Wyoming is a field with horses. After all, it is the "Cowboy State"!

Almost to Nebraska

 Mr. Keith had a hankerin' for a short drive today, so we packed up the camera, the iPad and various other necessities and headed east towards the Nebraska border. The sign said it was 35 miles to Pine Bluffs, almost on the border of Wyoming and Nebraska. I'm always intrigued by water towers so when we saw this one about 2 miles off the I-80 freeway we decided to see what was in the town of Burns. Wow! Did we get a surprise!

 This little prairie town boasts 301 people. The whole town was pristine, so neat and clean, no shabby buildings or junk lying around anywhere. We toured the whole town just to see if there was a breach in the perfection. There wasn't! It was unreal! This beautiful park is right between both sides of Main Street, which is only as long as what you see in the photo. There was no sign of litter or disrepair.

 This classic church, a Lutheran, was one of several churches in town. We wondered where the cars were, since it was close to 11:00 on a Sunday morning. Maybe they met earlier. None of the churches had cars in front. Hmm!

 Proceeding on our journey, always on a back road if possible, we saw this stucco house made to look like Indian teepees.

 Finally, we saw the town of Pine Bluffs coming up. It's easy to see where the name came from. A long line of pine tree covered bluffs rise up from the prairie right there. We found not much of interest in town except this old gas station that seemed to be a museum for old gas pumps. No room for Pete to give service there!

 The outside of this restaurant is nothing special to look at, but here's where we had lunch. It's along the freeway at an old truck stop with nothing much else there. What drew us was the sign, "Indian Restaurant, American Restaurant". We were hoping it meant native American type food, but it was India Indian food. We thought that was kind of odd, way out on the prairie. There were several Indians there having lunch. We had plain ol' American food, though the other looked really good.

Another water tower — this one at a truck stop just up the road east from the KOA. 

Sapp Bros. boasts one of the best steak restaurants in the area, T-Joe's. We've eaten there once and will again. We recommend it to any of our campers who ask where they can get a good meal. We had a great, 3 hour, 80 mile trip today. Looking forward to more!

Silly Things

 Today I was in the mood to make a blog post! Didn't really have any recent trips to write about, so I thought of some silly things. Since we've been fulltiming and workamping I seem to have collected some teddy bears and other  "bearaphenalia". I don't remember having teddy bears as a child, though I probably did, but working at Bear Country USA in Rapid City gave me a love for the critters. Here are my bears sitting on my bed cover which also has bears on it. The first one on the left is Annie Bear, to remind me that one of the cinnamon black bears at Bear Country is named after me! I got to bottle feed the real little Annie. Included in this collection is a Pooh Bear, center, my son's first teddy bear. He's a little ragged. The others I've picked up here and there.

 My newest bear! I'm taking an online course in creativity from my cousin, a published author, and one of our recent chapter assignments encouraged us to find a "totem" to remind us of our artistic inclinations. I couldn't think of a thing, till we were instructed to empty out the prizes in one of the games in the entertainment center at our KOA. Digging through the stuffed animals I was surprised to find this small red bear with my initial on the front and KOA on the back. The red color goes perfectly with my red and black bedroom. What a find! I asked to buy it, but the owner said I could have it. So...here she sits on my computer to inspire me!

 On a totally different subject — driving home from Denver the other day Mr. Keith spotted this odd looking domed church and had to have a photo of it. He did a little zigzagging through traffic trying to find the entrance to the church, a feat he's pretty good at when he sees something out of the ordinary!

We found the sign telling what kind of church it is, and, not to be disrespectful, at first I thought it said "Dagnabit"! The language must be Ethiopian. That's one thing about Denver and the surrounding cities. We've seen about every kind of ethnic peoples and languages, stores, businesses, churches, schools, signs. We enjoy the education we're getting!

Winter Park & Granby, Colorado

 Today's drive took us across Denver (during rush hour!) and up to the 10,000 foot level in the Rockies. Winter Park and Granby were our destinations. We'd been to Winter Park, a premier skiing area, last winter, but no further west. There is still quite a bit of snow on the way up to the higher elevations.

 We found a wonderful restaurant in Granby. This monster moose was hanging right over our table! Mr. Keith bumped his head on the moose's nose when he tried to sit down. How would you like to have this fellow gazing at you during your lunch? (I mean the moose, not Mr. Keith!)

The restaurant, called Maverick's Grill, was superb. We had the best food ever! My choice was the fish (pollack) and chips, along with excellent coleslaw. Mr. Keith had the pollack on a bun with avacado on the side. It was perfecto! For dessert we had deep fried cheesecake bites, something I'd never heard of before. Yum!

 We were close enough to the south entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, so we drove on up to see Lake Granby. It's there, really it is! It's a huge lake, completely frozen over. We didn't expect that, but maybe we should have, at 10,000 feet. We could see snowmobile tracks all over in the snow.

 There were several ice fishing huts out on the lake, even some ramshackle little buildings. You can see a tiny hut out there. We were told by our waiter at the restaurant that ice fishing is a major draw to the area in the winter.

 Winter Park and Granby, along with several other small towns, are nestled in a valley in between the Rocky Mountain Peaks. On all sides we were treated to this gorgeous view.

 Just for fun — in Granby we found a "Zero" Street. As one might expect, it was followed by 1st Street, 2nd Street, etc. Click to enlarge.

Also in Granby — The End!

A Celebration

 Mr. Keith and I had, several months ago, decided that for Christmas we would go to dinner twice, to a restaurant of my choice, then to one of his choice. In mid - November he developed a compression fracture in his back, then later another one, which kept him house and chair bound for over two months. So much for going to dinner! Finally, the day arrived when I had my first real day off in three months, so we chose to celebrate that day, along with Keith's return to working fulltime, by going to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Ruby Tuesday's, out by the Denver International Airport. I am so intrigued by this airport. It's constructed to look like the Rocky Mountains, and it really does, out there on the prairie east of Denver. (Click to enlarge.)

 Yum! Mr. Keith loves seafood, especially shellfish, so he ordered this Shellfish Trio of lobster, shrimp and crab cake, with mashed potatoes. Truly a work of art!

 I chose the 4 Way Sampler platter, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, spring rolls, and buffalo wings. Our drink was Ruby Tuesday's wonderful raspberry iced tea. We stuffed ourselves and took home enough for a meal the next day. Oh, yes, we had 4 little cupcakes for dessert, carrot cake and red velvet. Double yum!

We took the back way home, to the north of the airport, and were treated to the sight of several large planes landing and taking off. It was exciting to watch these 2 planes getting lower and slower and then landing. It felt so good to be able to get back to our fun drives outside the campground. Mr. Keith is on the mend, and we will be doing more sightseeing in our remaining time here. God's world is full of amazing sights and experiences!

A Little Fun!

Here are some of our winter guests making the best of a cold, snowy day! This family has 3 small children. They are here for a temporary job in the Denver area, as are most of our monthly RVers. Mr. Keith had fun snapping several photos as he enjoyed their delight in their macho snowman! He, the snowman, will probably last quite awhile since the cold weather will be with us for days. We are getting lots of exercise tromping to work every day!

New Guinea Singing Dogs

 

 Now this was a day I'd looked forward to for several days. I'd heard via Facebook that Tom, who owns and rescues New Guinea Singing Dogs, was coming to Denver, right past our kampground. I asked if he could stop here, and he agreed. He came with 2 pups and 2 adult dogs. In this photo we see Jeff, our KOA owner, holding a pup. For those who don't know, the Singer is a wild dog from New Guinea, a large island north of Australia. They are related to the wild dogs of Australia, the dingos, and look very much the same except they are smaller. The name "Singing Dogs" is appropriate because they howl like wolves, but the timbre and tone is much more musical, especially when a bunch of them are together. Their "songs" are quite beautiful.

 These girls are Audrey and Nikki, our pizza girls at the KOA. They were thrilled to see and hold the pups. We heard (and exclaimed) many oohs and aahs! and, "I want one!" When we were the animal caretakers at the Roo Ranch in Deadwood, South Dakota, in 2008 we worked with 6 adult dogs and 3 pups. I fell in love with them. Though wild, they are extremely sweet and affectionate when tamed.

 Here is Tom, holding a Singer. Though many are tamed, they are still wild dogs, and need to be confined carefully. Owners typically have large yards with high fences, as the dogs are escape artists. Their natural instinct as they roam the countryside is to catch and eat other critters, so they can't be let loose to do that. Many zoos around the U.S. have Singers on display. There is not a large number of these dogs in this country.

We all enjoyed our minutes with these beautiful creatures. I would love to have a Singer, but living full time in an RV definitely makes that impossible. I'll have to stick with my kitty cats!

Parker Adventist Hospital

 Recently Mr. Keith needed a spinal surgical procedure called a kyphoplasty, for a compression fracture, his second one. We were sent to the Parker Adventist Hospital, a wonderful place. We hated the reason we had to go, but we absolutely loved being there! The doctors and nurses are the best we've ever had, in their attention, concern, and diligence to make sure everything was okay. One nurse spent the entire time with us, about 4 hours. Keith felt like he was the only one there, getting the very best treatment.

 I walked around outside for awhile and found this metal sculpture named "Eden Restored". The snow on the figures added extra poignancy to this mother and child holding a bird.

 Here is Jesus, wiping tears from the eyes of the little boy examining His nail scarred hand.

 As soon as he was awake, Keith got to order some breakfast. His favorite is always pancakes, but this plate had an odd addition, an edible orchid! He was too chicken to try it. I should have eaten it! Guess I was chicken, too.

This is the view from the hospital, those gorgeous Rocky Mountains. I had a yummy breakfast in the cafeteria, and got to look at the mountains as I ate. We will most likely never have reason to return to this hospital, but it will always be a sweet memory for us.

A Conversation

 BigTruk: "I feel so alone and cold over here by the fence. No one pays me any attention. My big, beautiful dualies are covered up like they don't even exist. All the business and use goes to that uppity little blue Focus. My humans must like her better than me. What can she do that I can't do?"

Me: "Don't you fret, Mr. BigTruk! Your big, important job is just ahead of you. Or should I say behind you? You'll be out in front in the lead. Be patient. Miss Focus can't do what you can do then. She'll be following you!"

 Miss Focus: "We all have our role to play in life! I can do three things you can't do, Mr. BigTruk. I can save my owners lots of money by drinking gas instead of diesel. And I can get into a small parking space, and I can turn around easily, all things you can't do. It just seems to you as though they like me better because they use me much more often."

Me: "It's like us humans. God gives some an everyday kind of faith for the smaller, more ordinary jobs in life, and to others looking on it seems these people must be more important or more loved. Others, like Mr. BigTruk, may be in the shadows for part of the time, unnoticed, and then when the need arises, they come to the fore for the big jobs. We are all important to God! Each of us has a gift, not to be compared to others. Play your role as best you can, for Him!"

"And whatever you do in word of deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Colossians 3:17