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.

Seeing Beauty Everywhere

 My job at the Lost Lake RV Resort takes me on about a 2 mile circle riding my little golf cart from building to building. I check everything and clean what needs cleaning. At this time of year there are leaves and more leaves to sweep up, not to mention millions of fir needles coating the walks, steps, porches, etc. On this day I ran out of things to clean till I passed by the little playhouse on my route. I thought to myself, "Surely that needs sweeping". It did, and I enjoyed "playing house" for a few minutes.

 While down at the lake checking the clubhouse and the library I spied these two happy fishermen admiring their catch. They were glad to pose for a picture. The man on the right is Harvey, our fellow workamper, and on the left his proud son, showing off his rainbow trout.

 Driving around the far edge of the resort property I was lucky to catch a rare glimpse of Mt. Rainier on this sunny autumn day. Usually in fall and winter the elusive, mysterious mountain is hiding behind clouds. When the clouds and fog do depart, the sight of this glorious mountain is awe inspiring. It  reminds me that though I may not see God I always know He is there and He will reveal Himself in special ways when I need Him most.

 Putt-putting on down Fir Lane I happened upon this sharp and shiny restoration of a 1939 Chevy owned by one of the resort residents. He usually keeps the car covered, so I was happy to get to see it unveiled. Wouldn't want fir needles and leaves coating this car!

 All life is precious and beautiful, no matter how small. Coming up the walk to one of the resort restrooms I became fascinated with this tiny snail as he made his way across the pavement. Many times I've seen tiny empty shells, which look like seashells, but I think this was the first time I had seen an inhabited "house" with its tiny creature moving it along, antennas waving. I placed a leaf next to him, watched him creep onto it, and put him safely on the forest floor out of the reach of giant's feet.

 Growth of green stuff is rampant in the wet, rich and dark soil of the old forest. After our recent rains, myriads of seeds are sprouting, though they may die off again with the coming frosts. I found tiny seedlings growing in a minute amount of soil on this rock. Where there's a will, there's a way!

 I remember as a child finding little ferns growing in the abundant, thick moss on the forest trees. Someone told me they were licorice ferns and showed me how to dig into the soft moss, pulling the ferns out by the roots. Biting into these roots does definitely produce a licorice-like flavor. The road here is the exit above the lake, seen as a patch of blue in the photo. It seems that there are more trees in this area covered with beautiful moss than in some of the other parts of the park, and I've noticed that the moss prefers the alders, maples and oaks, while the firs, hemlocks and cedars have very little.

At the end of my working day, heading up the hill from Lost Lake in my trusty little golf cart,  I am thrilled and impressed once again with the beauty I see everywhere; rich green Douglas firs and cedars, alders reaching to the sky, maples raining down huge leaves covering the road, the sword ferns, and everything else in their path. I am so fortunate to be here. The forest brings peace and healing to my weary soul, along with joy, gratitude and clarity in my prayers! One can hear the voice of God here!

Lost Lake Scenes

 It has been 5 years since we last worked, for a year, at Lost Lake RV Resort near Lacey, WA. The park is as beautiful as we remembered. This resort is not for overnight campers, but instead the lots are for sale for either RVs or for park models with a log cabin theme. In another post I will feature some of the prettiest of these lots. Today, as I was housekeeping, I used my trusty camera to capture some of the gorgeous scenery here. I love the vine maples, glowing red, a shrub we haven't seen for a long time, especially in our jobs out on the prairie!

 Yes, this is a restroom! It is sheltered by an umbrella-like maple of some unusual variety, simply one of the prettiest trees I've ever seen. The builders have cut a hole into the porch to allow the maple to grow unhindered.

 The yellow leaves look like stars sprinkled on the ground among the sword ferns, and on the porch and the steps leading to the restroom.

 The last time we were here I thought I'd discovered some redwood trees growing down by the lake. I researched and found that these three are indeed redwoods, probably brought here by a traveler. They are not native to this area at all. Judging from the size and height, they are quite old.

 Lost Lake, a jewel set in a circle of firs and cedars, alders and maples. It was a beautiful day for a clear reflection. The lake itself is small in size, but is filled with very large fish and overlooked by a resident eagle. Around the edges I saw colonies of pond lilies. I imagine they display some gorgeous flowers in the spring.

 This log cabin, an original building from the late 1800s, is now used as a library and sitting room. I don't know the history, but I intend to find out! It overlooks the shores and boat dock along Lost Lake.

 The maple tree hanging over the cabin, seen in the above picture to the left, is shedding some huge leaves. I was amazed by the size of them so I put down my glove for comparison.

 Here is another view of the ancient log cabin, seen from the exit road above. I love the setting, the abundant trees, and the sun and shade dappled surroundings. The forest here is dense and actually has many firs that I believe are old growth, never logged. It is strange to be inside the resort, surrounded by deep forest, quiet, lovely, peaceful, and then to go out the gate and be right off the incredibly busy I-5 corridor! What a contrast!

Home, sweet home for us for the next few months. The firs here in the workamper area are very tall but they let in enough sunlight on a bright day. The rainy season has set in — we are lulled to sleep and awakened again to the soothing sound of rain and fir cones dropping on our roof most mornings. We will love it here!

The Trolley

 Something we've been meaning to do since summer began was to ride the Trolley in Cheyenne, a touristy attraction complete with tour guide. At first we thought maybe we'd take the horse drawn wagon, but since the ride was only 20 minutes long we decided on the Trolley, a 2 hour jaunt through town. We purchased our tickets here at the Depot, which is Cheyenne's visitor center.

 We had an excellent tour guide, a native to Cheyenne, who is also a school bus driver come September. He was full of stories about the origin of Cheyenne, the railroad, most historical buildings in the city, and even some tales about famous people who'd been in the town. I didn't get any pictures as we were riding, only at our one stop, the Old West Museum at Frontier Park, the site of the famous Frontier Days. I remember one story he told, as we drove through another park, Holliday. He pointed out some big, old cottonwoods and said that Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw had gotten married there, just because Steve liked the city of Cheyenne. He'd starred in a movie about an area outlaw, the infamous Tom Horn.

 The museum was full of old wagons of various uses. I liked this milk wagon, restored, and featured in the parades that take place during Frontier Days. There was also an extensive display of the rodeo history of Cheyenne. We plan to return and take our time going through this museum. There is so much to see and learn!

 But we were most impressed with this wagon, one of the original stages used for the journey between Cheyenne and Deadwood. It has been beautifully restored. It's difficult to imagine going the 300 miles between the towns sitting on the narrow though luxurious seats we saw inside. We were told it took about 55 hours for the trip, which was fraught with the perils of robbers and Indians. We've made that same trip in about 7 or 8 hours with our 5th wheel. On one memorable trip the stage was robbed 3 times and the passengers arrived at their destination wearing only their underwear!  Since we've had workamper jobs in both Deadwood and Cheyenne, it was interesting to us to hear about the towns' connections way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

At the museum we saw one of Cheyenne's famous boots. There are many of these boots scattered around town, each one with different art work and featuring a different part of the city's history. This one was decorated with gambling paraphernalia. Here we are boarding the trolley for the second half of the trip. Mr. Keith is in the tan shirt in the left of the photo. He had found a man from San Francisco to swap stories with about the old days of living there.

One last photo, the other side of the boot at the museum. These are works of art. You can take an auto tour of all the boots with a pamphlet that tells about each one. We may do that on another day out!

Around Town

Mr. Keith and I took a Sunday drive just around Cheyenne to check out some places we'd earlier driven past. In late April we visited the Botanical Gardens, but the grounds had not been planted yet. This time there were lovely plots of flowers everywhere. I didn't take any photos of the flowers, not sure why, but we did love this walkway through a swampy area next to a tiny, reedy lake where some boys were fishing. The signposts had little blurbs about life in the marsh. It was a delightful place to walk, teeming with dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds along with other wiggly critters in the deep grass.

There is a larger lake near the Gardens, also. Small groups of people, adults and kids, lined the rail fence with their fishing poles propped up, hoping for a catch. I liked this view of some of the many ducks and geese keeping cool on a hot day. Old, gnarly willow trees shade the shoreline, and huge cottonwoods add to the beauty of this place. I've read that the cottonwood is the Wyoming state tree.

The Wyoming Governors' mansion, built in 1905 at a cost of $33,000 and used to house the Governors and their families through 1976, is a commanding sight. It's open to the public, restored to its former glory to the tune of $1,000,000, and is right near to the majestic State Capitol building, which we will tour on another day. The tour guide showed us a video about the history of the 4 story mansion and then left us alone to wander through the rooms as we liked. Here's a funny - I've begun using my cane when I know we'll be doing lots of walking, just to give some stability to my old arthritic hip, and when she saw it, she told me I could maybe just make it up to the second floor but not the third floor or the basement because the staircases were narrow and steep. Hmm - throw me a challenge! The stairs were indeed steep, but we had no trouble, and it was well worth the climb. The rooms are beautiful. I especially liked the grand piano we found in the library!

Hunger pangs hit us after our visit to the mansion so we headed for fast food. Frequently we will each want to visit a different restaurant. Mr Keith chose Taco Bell and I preferred McDonald's, so we drove through both, got tacos for Keith and an Angus burger for me, and headed down to Holliday Park where we ate and watched the large population of Canada geese and these domestic white geese, with a few Mallard ducks mixed in. I wish I had been quick enough to snap the hilarious sight of about 50 Canada geese following a little boy who was tossing pieces of bread to them. He truly was the Pied Piper! I did put my camera into action when these white beauties came up to the car. They quickly gobbled up the remainder of my hamburger bun, squawking loudly the whole time. We will come another day with plenty of bread crumbs and let ourselves be entertained by these seasoned moochers. There is lots to see in Cheyenne, enough to keep us busy for the rest of the summer!

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!

Rescue!

As I sat calmly at my computer in the KOA store I heard a ferocious yelling outside. Running to the door I spied my co-worker reaching under the pizza truck and grabbing something while at the same time trying to chase off a campground kitty. Her arms were full of campground supplies and...a baby bunny, which she put in my hands, rescued from the jaws of a hunter! Bunny was immobile from shock, and a little injured. We found a towel to wrap the little critter in. Minutes later the camp owner came in, saying the cat had just caught a bunny, the second one. That cat didn't waste any time! Other co-workers came in and admired and petted the baby. We all deplored the very natural instincts of our campground cats, our sympathies totally with the bunny, even though the owner said the cats do a service in keeping the rabbit population down. Part of our job description here is to pick up and dispose of the half-eaten carcasses, left at the office door, before the campers catch a glimpse of the small bodies.

In this photo we see one of our young campers, about 4 years old, thrilled to see and pet the bunny. Toni, the rescuer, a fervent animal lover, is keeping the bunny till it is big enough to escape the hunters. And, wonder of wonders, the owner asked another of our workampers to build Toni a little rabbit hutch so she could safely care for her charge. It was an exciting and hilarious morning! Never a dull moment at our campground!

Waltzing Matilda!

Well, here we are at the Roo Ranch! We packed up this morning, hooked up BigTruk to our 5th wheel, and left our pretty spot at the Happy Holiday RV Park. Two workamper couples who we didn't know very well, but wish we had, came to wish us well and happy traveling. One hour later we were here, definitely the shortest trip we've ever had to a new job. We pulled into our spot right next to the building that houses the small, nocturnal animals, and got lots of help setting up from the young man who is one of the owners of Roo Ranch. He made sure we had what we needed, and he and Keith spent quite a bit of time getting us on the internet, which we can't live without! We have a pretty open view of the surrounding hills on all sides, as well as the path where the visitors walk to see the 'roos. We will love it here!
I went out at my first opportunity to take this photo of Matilda. Fancy a kangaroo being named that! She is in a pen where people can go right in to pet her and photograph her. The other roos are in pens the visitors don't go into, but I got to watch an employee bottle feed several of them. That will be my job, too, as soon as I am shown how. Can't wait!! I will post more photos as I get them, and a description of our jobs.

No Worries!

See that grizzly? Now, that's how I'd like to be, completely at rest no matter where I am or who's looking at me! I read a Bible verse this morning that struck me anew. "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." (Matthew 14:27) That cheer and lack of fear are deep in my heart because I know who takes care of me. That grizzly, Cherokee, is at peace and relaxed because she knows where her next meal is coming from and she knows nothing is encroaching into her space to disturb her and her mate, Tank. All she has to do is eat, sleep, swim in her pool, climb on the logs, and watch tourists all day! Behind the scenes, the owners of Bear Country USA have gone to great lengths to provide her habitat, her food, and all that she needs. I know that my Creator has done the same for me—taken care of all my needs. These truths are especially comforting to me as I look for our fall and winter workamper job. I don't know where we're going or what we'll be doing in a month's time, but He does! He has it mapped out. All I have to do is knock on doors to see which one will open, and trust Him. It makes life exciting!