Tuesday, October 2, 2018

October 1 - 7, 2018, KS, CO

Monday, October 1.  Today's drive along US Hwy 40 and CO 94 took us through the barren lands of Kansas and Colorado (about 225 miles), the terrain was nothing like what we had seen in the north eastern part of the state.  There wasn't a gas station along the 70 mile stretch on 94, and not much else either.  We finally found gas at Ellicott, about 20 miles from Joyce and Burrall's house.


We got settled and when Joyce got home, we caught up on lost time, then when Burrell got home, we talked some more and then headed in to Colorado Springs for dinner at Chili's.  I had a yummy sirloin, topped with roasted avocado (never heard of it before) mixed green salad, and roasted tomato and garlic.


Wednesday, October 3.  It's been nice hanging out here, such a beautiful place with views of the Rocky Mountains, Aspen trees fluttering in the wind, Jackrabbits hopping around on the grassy plain, and the temperatures have been decent. In fact, a high of 85 degrees today was welcome.  It's not going to stay though, as it will be pretty cold until we get to AJ.


Yesterday, I got the itch to do some 'me' shopping, so I headed to Colorado Springs to browse Tuesday Morning, Ross, Marshalls, and TJMax. A little shopping therapy is always good for the soul.


Tom, Joyce, and I also did some shopping today, driving 60 miles to the IKEA store in Centennial to get the duvet cover that we had picked out back in August at the Minneapolis store but was out of stock.


The sunset was gorgeous tonight and we stood out  on the taxiway and watched it with Joyce and Burrall.   The dark cloud with lightening streaks that was hanging over us ended up giving us some much needed rain - probably not enough, as the area has been in a 3-year drought.  After our walk, we watched the movie, "Open Range" with Robert Duvall,  Kevin Costner, and Annette Benning with them. We have all seen it before but it was just as good this time around and it sure was nice to sit on a cushy sofa in front of a big screen TV for a change.


Thursday, October 4. Happy Birthday to my sweet brother, Bob!  


Brrrrrr! It is cold and windy outside today and my morning walk with Frisco was not nice. The wind hitting my face was so cold that my eyes were watering.  Later on, when Tom and I walked, it wasn't much better.  It was supposed to hit 65 but that didn't happen until 3:00.  


We spent the day doing house cleaning, airing out the rugs, laundry, and Tom helped Joyce with a gardening project.  When our chores were done, we went grocery shopping and that project took 2 hours, although the list wasn't all that long.  Safeway chicken was our dinner tonight.


After dinner, we joined Joyce and Burrall and watched Big Bang and Little Sheldon with no commercials - very nice!


Sunday, October 7. Happy 5th Birthday to my beautiful twin Granddaughters, Camille and Norah. I regret that I cannot be there to celebrate with them this year. Instead, I will be celebrating with Tom's lovely sister, Joyce.  Also, it's Happy 40th Anniversary to my brother Bob and his lovely wife, Penny. Many good things have happened on this day!


   Camille and her rainbow birthday cake.

   Norah and her unicorn birthday cake

Friday was a beautiful, sunny day and we spent it hanging around, went for a nice walk, and enjoyed the warmth.  It was predicted to make a drastic change later in the afternoon, and it did. It got cold and very, very windy.


We took Joyce and Burrell to Biaggi's Italian restaurant to celebrate their birthdays and we had a lovely dinner, good wine, a dessert to share, and lots of fun conversation.


It was about 40 degrees out when we got up on Saturday morning - BRRRRRRR! The wind wasn't quite as bad as the night before. We were trying to come up with something to do - there were no movies playing that we were interested in seeing, so we decided to bundle up and head out for a hike.  Joyce knew of a place nearby, so we headed to Homestead Ranch Park and had a nice 2+mile hike. The wind was still brisk but it was comfortable once we got moving and were not facing into the wind. The hiking path took us up into some rocky hills that were covered with Pine trees - beautiful Colorado.





    We climbed down this rocky hillside after missing the path that led back to the parking lot.

We mapped out our route to our next stop at Chama, NM where we will spend the next 4 days and take a tour on the Cumbres and Toltec Railway that goes from Chama by tour bus through the mountains to Antonito, CO and back by train with a stop for lunch along the way.  The problem is - weather.  A snow advisory is in effect for the mountaintops and we will be driving through some passes, the highest being around 10,000 feet. Burrall tells us that we should be all right, as these areas are not known for having extreme weather or road conditions.  We will be watching it and can always change our plans, if needed.


After dinner, we played a game of Scrabble and one of Farkel. A very nice day!


It was another cold one this morning, 37 degrees, but the wind was gone and the fog blocked our view of the mountains, but it sure felt a lot warmer.


We had a few items to get in town - I forgot dog food earlier in the week and Tom needed a stocking cap to keep his head warm and I needed some wool socks to keep my feet warm, so we took care of that this morning.