MAN, IT IS HOT!

Well, I'm back in Texas and man is it hot!  It has been 99 or 100 degrees for the past 5 days.  You add in 90% humidity and you are sweating bullets.  The only way to stay cool is to stay in the water.  So, we are at our place we call "The Lake" and have been staying in the lake or the pool all week long.

Mr. W skied last week.  You know he turned 60 this year.  Anyway, he is a very good skier and never has any issues when he water skis.  However, the ski rope made a loud pop as he was getting up and it went slack and then jerked him really hard.  He fell.  The next attempt, the driver of the boat had the motor crooked and took off, he fell again.  Just so you know, I was NOT the driver of the boat.  Long story short, it took him 4 times to get up and he ended up injuring one of his pec muscles.  He has had a hard time lifting his arms, holding anything in his arm on the side he hurt, and even sitting in certain chairs.

To top that off, the day after he did this, I fell.  Yep, again.  The "patio" on our RV site is uneven and partially broken.  Mr. W had put out patio rug which covered up the broken part.  I was carrying some stuff to my car from the 5W and down I went.  It was one of those falls that you knew you could not do a single thing to help break the fall.  So, I just went with it.  I did use my hand to try to keep my face from hitting the ground, so my wrist swelled up and was hurting for that day and night.  I also have a bruised area on the entire side of my leg from mid thigh up.  But, I put ice on my wrist that evening and took some ibuprofen and it feels good now.  I just kept thinking, "Well at least I didn't fall in a cactus!"  Sorry, Barb, I had to go there.

Since I have retired, I don't see many sunrises anymore.  But, the day I fell, I had to go into Houston to take care of some things so I was up early.  I took a couple of pictures standing right outside my 5W of the sunrise over the lake and it was beautiful.

I will be working again for 4 weeks.  So, I may or may not be blogging for the next 4 weeks.  I guess I'll be seeing sunrises again for the next 4 weeks. :)

JULY 4, 2015

Saturday, July 4, 2015.  Happy birthday America!  What a day for a hike.  It seems every male person in our group had been anxiously waiting to do this hike.  We were going to hike to the top of Lily Mountain.  It is 4 miles round trip with a 1000 elevation change.  The 4 miles didn't bother me but the 1000 elevation change, now that was a different story.

We decided to be on the trail at 9:00.  SIL wanted to take a picture of all of us before we hit the trail.  He set his phone on a boulder and this picture turned out hilarious.  We all look like we are leaning.

Isn't this funny?
 

We all took off but Mimi and Pops started lagging behind.  I definitely needed more breaks. 

At one of the viewpoints on our way up

Mimi and Pops taking a break.

Son got a Go-Pro camera for his birthday.  At one point he climbed up on a boulder and stood scanning everything below so he could get it on his Go-Pro.  Like father, like son.

Now, who goes on a hike and doesn't get hungry and thirsty? 

DIL stopped at the viewpoint, also the 1 mile point, and Mr. W and I went on.  We made it 3/4 of the way up but all the grandkids and Son and Daughter and SIL made it to the top.  They are now known at the Top of the Mountain Club.  They thought it was awesome and were pretty proud of themselves.  They should be.

That evening, Estes Park had a fireworks show on Lake Estes.  We found a place close by to park and got out the lawn chairs and sat to watch.  The show was pretty good and the kids really liked it.  I must say that I think this was the first time I had to wear a sweatshirt and long pants on July 4th.

Well, it is time to head back to Texas.  We are making a stop in Chanute, KS to have some work done on one of our slide outs.  I hate to leave this beautiful country but I am looking forward to getting back to the Lone Star State.

TRAIL RIDGE ROAD

Last Friday we took a drive up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Summit House.  The last time I was at the summit house, the snow was half way up the windows and it was June.  It also was sleeting and snowing the entire time we were driving up and down Trail Ridge and cars were skidding on the road.  I couldn't wait to get down!  This year, it was much different.  I have never seen the weather so clear and so warm on Trail Ridge.  I am not complaining!

There were quite a lot of people in the park on Friday.  It was hard to find a spot to park at all the pull-offs on the way up.  It also took us about 5-10 minutes of driving through the parking area at the Summit House to find a parking spot.  We had planned on eating a picnic lunch at the Summit House but there was no place to sit down.  We ended up sitting anywhere and on anything we could and downing our sandwich quickly.  We walked through the gift shop and Mr. W and I ordered hot chocolate and sat down at the tables that are next to the windows. 

At the Summit House, you are above tree line so there is only tundra but the mountains and the little bit of snow there made everything beautiful.  We sat and enjoyed the scenery until everyone was ready to go. 

We started down and came up on  a traffic jam.  We knew there must be animals.  Sure enough, there were many, many elk out in one of the valleys.  I was surprised to see a couple of people getting out of their cars and walking right up the elk to try to take a picture.  Not a smart idea.  I would have liked to have gone on the other side of the mountain down to Grand Lake and Granby but it didn't work out.  Maybe next time.

Daughter and family (They are the daredevil family!)

They are all standing very close to an edge with a very deep drop off on the other side!

They are sitting and resting at one of the stops where we were taking pictures.  They wanted us to find snow so they could play in the snow.

My beautiful daughter and her husband

We found the snow!

The elk that caused the traffic jam

While I'm thinking about it, let me tell you about our campground.  We stayed in Mary's Lake Campground.  It use to be a county park but I don't think it is anymore.  It had all gravel roads and sites.  It did have full hook-ups in the area we stayed.  They have tent sites too.  They have a pool and a laundry.  As usual in the mountains, the mornings were very nice but it would rain usually every afternoon.  Most of the time we got just a short shower and it was done.  One day we got a downpour and it lasted about an hour.  The road in the campground had a very deep cut/rut in it after that rain and it just continued to get worse.  We paid around $40 per night.  Estes Park has about 5 campgrounds and they all are expensive and don't have the facilities I think they should have for the price you pay.  I guess you are paying for the view.  I would stay there again even though Mr. W liked a couple of the other campgrounds better.  He certainly couldn't like them for what they looked like.  One of them he liked looked run down with run down semi-permanent trailers in it.  Surely it was because he thought the views were better.  If we go back, he and I may be staying at 2 different RV parks. :)

HORSEBACK RIDING AND BEAR LAKE

Before we went to Colorado, we had planned to ride horses while we were there.  Everyone wanted to do the 3 hour ride.  We reserved our time for Thursday morning at 9:00, paid our money, and anxiously awaited.  Thursday morning arrived and we got to the stables.

When we arrived, the girl (one of the managers) told us that with kids, we didn’t want to do the 3 hour ride.  We wanted to do the 2 hour ride.  They agreed to refund the difference in the rides and took us to the horses and assigned us to one of the horses.  We were all a little bummed about only having 2 hours but we hauled our city butts on those horses and were ready to go.  There were 2 female wranglers that took us on the ride.  The 5 kids were at the front.  I was next because I had a tempermental horse named Sugar.  Sugar has to have a lot of personal space from the other horses.  If other horses got too close to her, she would kick the horse.  Of course, if she kicked, it would not be a good experience for me or for the other rider of the other horse.  Barb was right behind me so she made sure her horses kept its distance from Sugar.

The kids in front of me

Some shots as we rode along

My big kids were having as much fun as my little kids.

 

The kids did great.  Squeaky’s horse decided to start down a hill which scared her, but the wrangler got the horse back in line and Squeaky was a real trooper and kept right on going.  Popcorn’s horse kept wanting to get out of line to eat.  She kept trying to work the reins to keep her horse in line.  She knew what to do and how to do it but being as little as she is, the horse would win most of the battles.  That is until the wrangler got there.  Then the horse would straighten up.

Curly and Squeaky on their horses.  They had to ride right by each other.

 

Let me just say that when our 2 hours was up, we were all very glad that we had only been on a 2 hour ride!

That afternoon we drove into the National Park to go see Bear Lake.  I think Bear Lake is one of the prettiest lakes ever.  Many years ago, I fell into Bear Lake, sort of.  I fell enough that my feet and bottom part of my pants were wet and COLD.  It was June but there was snow all around the lake.  I had on slick shoes.  My camera fell into the water.  It wasn’t a good day.

Bear Lake

Family Picture

 Anyway, Son’s family, DWW and Barb went with us and we were going to hike over to Alberta Falls once we saw Bear Lake.

We only walked around part of Bear Lake and took a few pics.  It really is pretty.

The hike to Alberta Falls was a little longer.  On the path to Alberta Falls, there was a herd of elk that had made their home right off the path.  You and I know that when animals are spotted in national parks, everyone is going to stop to look.  There was a big “people jam” on the path and sure enough we were able to see and get pics of a lot of the elk. 



On our hike to Alberta Falls

When we got to Alberta Falls, there were some rocks you could climb up and see the back side of the falls. I just sat on some rocks and watched and listened to the front side of the falls.  Son and kids climbed the rocks and took a few pics on the back side before climbing down.

Alberta Falls

DWW and Barb were hiking with us.  They were walking a little slower than we were.  So, about the time they got there and were ready to rest, we were rested and ready to go.  I think that was the hike where they drew the line and said they were not hiking anymore. I can laugh about it because I wasn’t the one that it happened to……this time.  I think the horse ride and the hike were just a little overwhelming. They were good sports and laughed about it……after they were able to get some oxygen back in their lungs.  J

A really hard thunderstorm and hailstorm hit later that evening.  It was just about time for us to have dinner.  We were headed to town when the bottom fell out of the sky.  It turned much cooler after the rain and we finally were able to make it to a restaurant.  After dinner we walked the streets of downtown and found the salt water taffy shop where they actually make the taffy.  Yummy!  We were all very tired and called it a night early.  Well, maybe not early, but maybe earlier.