Catching up in Colorado......

No, we didn't drive off a cliff.....just enjoying family and our favorite Colorado views and places.   For all of you campers out there, be sure and check out Chatfield St Park for a first class camping experience.   Full hookups and stunning views.      Except, the foothills and mountains are totally obscured by wildfire haze from fires in other states.     This was the view early one morning 

from our campsite......!

We arrived just in time to share in the joy of Nicholas and Kelsey as they announce their engagement.   They have been together for over 6 years so it was no surprise but we are delighted to welcome Kelsey officially and look forward to the wedding next Thanksgiving.    And boy, do we feel OLD now......Nicholas is still a 2 year old with cute curls in his grandmother's eyes....not a 24 year old engineer !     And we loved reuniting with our own Fairy Godmother once again.   Becca is back at CSU and growing into a beautiful woman but still has that pixie dust twinkle in her eye.   Alex was away for the weekend but not before he played 18 holes with his grandfather.....who called for an infusion of Motrin halfway thru and then went on to play a really good round.     Lizzie, at 14 has blossomed and grown up......I remember well carrying her around the house strapped to my chest while I tended to her siblings when the parents were away.   Ah, time.....fleeting at this age but the memories are brilliant.  

Next week, we will head towards Albuquerque ( try typing that fast ! ) for the Balloon Fiesta.    Mike and Jenna and the kids have crewed for a family of ballooners for several years but we've not been able to meet up with them before......  on Saturday, we joined them, very early, to watch the process.

Chatfield has a designated area for balloonists so we didn't have to drive very far.   

Smooth landing.......The balloon is piloted by Marnie and her husband.....  she is the daughter of the famous balloonist  ( Dr Carol Davis )who was lost 2 years ago over the Adriatic Sea..... We followed the race and the devastating news  on our blog  during those sad days. (Sept 29, 2010 if you care to check my posts).     The balloon that they are currently flying represents the Denver flag.  

We have frequented favorite haunts and had some really good food.    This was my pizza the other night.....outstanding flavor from those little heirloom tomatoes.    Last night it was Mexican while watching the Broncos .............wonder if they still consider the $95,000,000 they are paying Peyton to be worth it !!
 

Today, we are heading into the mountains to take in the breathtaking beauty of the changing aspens.  

Taking a break in the middle.........

We're in the heartland of the country altho it's more like the FLAT land of the country......We've driven many miles these past few days and are able to see the landscape for miles and miles.    The corn is dried up and the flelds are fallow now and  we never seem to catch the horizon.    After New England hills and narrow windy roads, the straight interstates are a welcome change and the long distances don't seem so fatiguing.     I've had the camera by my side but haven't seen much that was blog-worthy.    Altho, at one rest stop, this racing boat certainly caught our eye.    Not sure if you can make out the painting but it is of the interior of the boat as if the skin was ripped away..    It also caught the eye of the Highway Patrol as they were walking around it with a measuring tape and later, wrote out a ticket or warning or something.    Assuming it was too long and too wide.    

We are currently loafing in Topeka, Kansas.    We've enjoyed the downtime these past couple of days.    Today it rained but weather looks good for our departure tomorrow.    We'll take two more days to cover the 550 miles to Denver.
We're staying at the Deer Creek Valley RV Park .    The first thing you notice when you get close is the hill you need to go down.....an 18% grade !!!   It gets your attention but it is short.    The next thing is the amount of concrete from the entry and throughout the park.    It is all very nice, with grass between the wide open sites.   We later found out that the owner also owns a concrete company.....!   Campgrounds in the East tend to be older and heavily treed and rather cramped at times.....but out here, everything has plenty of space.

Yesterday we had a visitor perched on the slick side of the coach.   He was about 2 inches long and a nice shade of green.

I had a couple more pictures to add but Google is telling me that I've run out of picture storage and need to buy more.....either $2+ or $4+ / month, depending on amount.    Has anyone else had to do this ??  Seems like there must be another way.....maybe if I deleted some .....  I'll have to do some searching around to figure this out.       

Time to put on my Bronco shirt and settle in for Monday Night Football................

Onward

We spent a couple of days in Pa, near Hershey, in order to wander the Hershey RV show.   We stayed at Twin Grove CG which is a wide open area with great spaces and internet and satellite...two of our must-haves.....but we aren't always so fortunate.    Anyhow, we spent much of the day at the show....it is overwhelming at times and would take days to take it all in.   Of course, we toured the newest and best at the Tiffin section (and still like ours the best) and viewed the Entegra brand....very very nice but we still like ours and peeked into a Newmar (if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it) and we still liked ours the best.   We window-shopped the vendors and found nothing we needed.   We sat in on lectures about satellites, solar panels and fitness.    We caught up with the Maritime travelers again and had lunch and laughs with Dean and Diane and Cay and Ron.    Cay's name was announced for all to hear that she had won a drawing !   Excitement reigned until she came back with a HAT !!     We did manage to get a 3 night stay at a resort on the border of Virginia/North Carolina that looks nice.    The owner was more enthusiastic about our interest after learning we had a new coach as they are restrictive on the age and type of coaches allowed in.   Actually, we weren't that interested, just stopped for a free pen and walked away with the free nights.  
We had a campfire with Dean and Diane and said "See ya down the road" and we headed West.   After  350 miles, we stopped at Wolfie"s CG in Zanesville, OH.    We have about 6 days to get to Denver and hopefully, can take a break or two along the way instead of driving 300 miles each day.   But with both of us driving, it's not so tough as long as the construction zones and narrow tunnels are kept to a minimum.   I was driving when we came to one of those tunnels....two-way traffic and about a foot between that huge truck in the opposite lane and me and the wall on the other side......I didn't look at anything except the blue tape on the windshield and the center line and kept them lined up......and hoped those trucks didn't move over even an inch.  
The nights are cooling off and it is delightful......we keep warm with a big fluffy down blanket.   But, I do like to crawl into a pre-heated bed.   I picked up an electric blanket and it worked fine....for one night !   Took it back and got another.    It worked just fine as well.    Then we disconnected from the electric at the CG yesterday morning and I walked thru the coach and smelled something very electrical.   Smoke was pouring out of both controls and it was making popping sounds.    It took just a minute to disconnect it and throw it all out the front door.     The electrical wizard that I travel with figured out that those outlets are powered by the inverter and the modified sine wave inverter that we have can't power the blanket in that mode (don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about?)    We'll take this one back as well and figure out what to do next.   Either never have the blanket plugged in except to warm up the bed while we are in the coach....or get a different inverter (read $$$) or forget about pre-heated beds and try a warm brick instead.  

September and the living is easy.......

We left the South to escape the heat and humidity.....we managed to lose the heat but the humidity seems to hang out everywhere.....especially this week in Connecticut.    The day we leave, fall is moving in and we'll just miss the perfect weather.   Hopefully, it will travel West with us.  

I neglected to show the Scouts in all their parade finery last week.   

 A highlight of our stay here was getting together with one of my very favorite people.   In another life, I think she would have been the daughter we never had......she would have been called Michelle as that was the name I had picked out for a girl and we would have called her Shelly (after a classmate in college) but instead, she became a friend called Nancy.      We don't see each other much nor talk as much as we'd like but she's just a wonderful mother, superb nurse and great friend.    And she and Michael really really need to come to Florida and play golf and relax with us. !!

We're getting ready to roll once again.....yesterday, with the knee behaving better , I cleaned and cleaned the MoHo from top to bottom and everything in it.....  We'll head to the Hershey area for the HUGE RV show and meet up with Dean and Diane around the campfire.

Labor Day Weekend......New England Style

We spent most of our  years in Newtown living across the street from Lake Lillinonah.    We had a ski boat and we spent many  hours  on the lake, skiing , picnicking, tubing and sharing it all with friends.  And now, we are able to return to the lake and it's familiar inlets and hillsides.     

 Jon has a new boat and two excited boys to share it with.  

 This lake was formed by a dam across the Housatonic River in the 50's.   It is long and narrow in parts but that only adds to its beauty.   This point is the famed Lover's Leap where  Princess Lillinonah leaped to her death when she was unable to be with her Indian brave from an enemy tribe .... (I'm sure it's a true story!!)

 Newtown has a long tradition of having a parade on Labor Day.    This year was the 51st year for this Americana event.    In all of the 34 years we lived here, I doubt that we missed more that a couple.   Seems like some of us were always marching or blowing up balloons or making floats for it.    AND , until last year, the parade had never been rained out..... but last year a hurricane made a mess of things.

 The chairs are carefully placed in chosen spots the night before and the crowds start lining up 90 min before.

 There were large bands.........

 And several bagpipe bands

 And Civil War reenactors....

 And fife and drums......

The Democrats followed the horses and had to side step a bit..........the Republicans had a good time with that .......

Our favorite Cub Scouts

 More fife and drums.....

 Portuguese dancers

 Moses showed up......

 As did the ever popular Shriners in their tiny noisy cars.....

 A beautiful stagecoach.......

And  the Septic Company's  large colorful truck was at THE END !!

Life in the slow lane.......

We did make it to Camp AndyMason despite a slide issue.   After a chat with the Tiffin guys, a fuse replaced solved the immediate problem and we were on our way.    But, it blew another fuse when we got here so it will go in for some work while we stay in the stick house.    

Just throwing up a couple of pictures of favorite things we saw and did on our 5 weeks ......

Love the Cape Breton area and especially, the quiet, quaint town of Beddeck.

I'm slowly finishing up two sweaters while we lumber down the road.....I tried to knit around

the nightly campfires and now the multi-colored sweater has a decidely smoky flavor.....those who know said to leave it in the sun and air for awhile.  

Here's what I've been reading for the past 3 weeks.........Not recommending, just saying that it is working for me.    And aside from a pizza looking really really good the other night, I don't feel deprived.    So far I definitely feel better, have more energy,  and I'm thinner altho that was not the purpose of this experiment.    I may stick with it until the next meal, tomorrow or next week.....I may have some ice cream with chocolate on it or not......I'm liking what I'm doing and I will go with it for as long as I want.      So far, I've given up meat (including fish) , sugar, dairy, most oils and most processed foods.   I'm really good at reading labels and surprised at what I do eat without counting calories.    I still eat eggs altho I've cut way back.    

   

This seems to be a fad type of thing right now with a lot  of press, numerous books and cookbooks  and enthusiastic blogs.   And even Rosie is touting a plant -based diet after her heart issue.    I've been wanting a change of some sort  for awhile but didn't know what I was looking for.     Weight Watchers has always worked well for me to drop some pounds but I didn't feel that "eating anything you wanted" was necessarily healthy.  And I was looking for a healthier way of eating and not just weight loss.       Initially, it sounded too radical and difficult but actually, it is very easy and the food industry is starting to come around with some good choices.    Don't worry, if you invite us over to dinner, I will eat whatever you serve.....except maybe a big steak....I didn't eat that before and meat has always been easy for me  to ignore (except maybe for bratwurst ! )

The knee is coming along......walking unaided now but much too slow.    Don't know if I'll ever want to give up the brace.    And  I miss my morning walks.

NAS Brunswick Airshow

We moved on down to an area of Maine that is very familiar to us.    P was based at NAS Brunswick for about 3 years.    I lived there for about 36 months and he was gone for 2/3rds of that time.   We have a lot of memories of the people and places, some good, some difficult.   The squadron lost 2 P-3's and 26 young men at the height of Vietnam .  

  We arrived with 2 active little boys and left with 3 !!

So yesterday, still very hobbled with the knee, we headed over to the base.  Decommissioned a few years ago, it still looks familiar.    This was the 2nd day of the annual airshow and the crowds seemed tolerable.    We got up close and personal, right along the fence....and also in the direct sun.   Luckily there was a breeze and it was mostly comfortable but I still left with a souvenir sunburn.   

We saw our share of upside-down airplanes, 

Lady acrobatic flyers..... Lady sky jumpers....Japanese zeros,  antique planes and even a truck with a jet engine.   There was a flight demo and ground exhibit about the Tuskegee airmen.

This was my favorite plane....a colorful bi-plane that wowed the crowd with it's tricks.

And yes, this plane did land on the truck platform while both were moving down the runway.

Of course, the highlight of the show, after SIX hours, was the Thunderbirds.   They came screaming  across and delighted and astounded the crowd.    There were 6 fighters, one of which was piloted by CAROLINE !!    

This is a good view of the paint on the belly of the plane.    They were going soooo fast that I didn't actually notice this until I saw my pictures.    I use the continuous shutter mode on the camera in order to get relatively in-focus shots and to capture quickly moving objects.....as a result, I end up with a large number of shots to go thru.......this day, I had 585 pictures !!

After the show, we headed to see some familiar places.......down the country road to Bailey's Island, we came across these kids on skateboards and bike, using the gently rolling roads as their playground.

Brunswick is on the rugged coast and there are many islands jutting out.    Years ago, there weren't too many homes, just lobster boats and  a shanty or two and a few year round residents.    In 40 years, it has really built up and we only recognized a couple of places.    One is this Cribstone Bridge connecting Orr's Island to Bailey Island.    Built in 1926, it is made of slabs of local granite and designed to let the strong tides flow thru.

The other is this view of this rustic cabin with the lobster buoys hanging off the shingles.    It used to have buoys on the other side as well and I have a picture to prove it that I took about 20 years ago on our last visit.    It is looking a bit sadder these days.

We are heading down to Connecticut and to Camp AndyMason for a week or so.      Or, we hope we are.......currently on the phone with Tiffin maintenance trying to figure out why one of the slides won't retract.    It's always something !!!