Sunday, September 30 - Switzerland (Ouray, CO)

 

On Friday we got packed up and continued down traveling west on 50, then south on 550 to Ouray traveling 85 miles.

We arrived at 4J +1 +1 RV Park and Campground. We paid $32 per night plus tax.

There was no one in the office and a note on the door that said to park and come back at 3:30. So we parked and got set-up. Jesse had problems getting the satellite hooked up again and we just decided not to try any more. We knew we didn’t come here to watch TV.

Jesse got the grill out and we grilled chicken and I made a salad and left over pasta as side dishes. It was yummy.

I put the left overs away and we decided to walk around the little town of Ouray.

We walked in a few shops and went to the visitors center. We asked the lady behind the desk what she would do if she had one day to spend in the area. She told us to take a jeep tour of Imogene Pass.

There were many different companies to choose from, she told us the one to choose was Switzerland of America. She said they had the best equipment.

So we went by there to see about taking a tour tomorrow. It was just a short distance down the road and the girl behind the counter said they were full for 1/2 day morning tour. We preferred the afternoon tour anyway (thinking it would be warmer) so that worked out well.

We went home and read until time to go off to dream land.

We were up and out looking for a light breakfast. We found a little shop that sold bagels and we each ordered one. Then to took a drive to Box Canon Falls, paid the $4.00 entrance fee and walked the trail to the falls.

More wild life on the nature trail.

When we were finished with this we went back home to walk the boys and get ready to go on our tour. We were to be there at 1:20.

We arrived and met our guide Mike and our travel complains Scott and Camilla.

We were very surprised for the rugged ride that was ahead of us. BUT it was soooo much fun and BEAUTIFUL. We took about 150 pictures. Here is a sample

A gold mine that was shut down in 1980, until just this year when it was purchased and reopened. They are reprocessing the tailings in this 1st picture and the second is the opening.

A narrow drive way – looking back from where we came from.

 

The wild life we saw

It was awesome, awesome and cold!

We returned at 5PM and went home to the boys.

Grilled some brats for dinner and relaxed. We walked to the town again so Jesse could get some ice cream.

 

Today we continued to travel south on 550 on the San Juan Skyway.  It took us ONE HOUR to travel the 1st 25 miles, Jesse says nerve racking and very exhausting.

We had to stop for about 30 minutes so that the brakes on the truck could cool down. It took us a total of 4 hours to go 117 miles.

We arrived at 2pm in Cortez, CO staying at LaMesa RV Park. Passport America rate of $41.60 for 2 nights.

We had leftovers for dinner, then we drove into town and got a blizzard for dessert.

Thursday, September 27 – Not Grand (Gunnison, CO)

 

Thursday we had our coffee and computered. We wanted to wait and let it warm up a little it was about 47 degrees.

Then we got dressed in warmer clothes and headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

We paid our $15.00 to enter the park and headed to the visitors center.

There was a 20 minute introductory film that started in 8 minutes so we looked around while waiting for it to start. This is known as the Grand Canyon of Colorado with it’s over 2,000 foot high cliffs.

 

The wild life we saw

We were not as impressed as we were with the Grand Canyon but I think Jesse liked it more then I did.

Our site at

After returning back to the rig we walked and fed the boys and then drove back into Gunnison for some dinner. We wen to a local pizza place. It was good but not as good as Pizza Madness.

Wednesday, September 26 - Travel Day (Gunnison, CO)

 

We left Mountaindale at 9:15 this morning traveling west on Highway 50. As we passed the river on Hwy 50, I was reminded of what a good time we had riding the river on our raft trip earlier this summer.

We stopped in Salida so the boys and Jesse could tinkle.

We traveled up Monarch Pass and had some really beautiful scenery.

My traveling companion, isn’t he just the cutest!!

We stopped in Gunnison so Jesse could fuel up the truck and continued on another 11 miles down the road. We drove 162 miles and arrived at Gunnison Lakeside Resort, elevation 7,683 at 1pm.

We quickly got checked in at the Passport America rate of $42.27 (including tax) for 2 nights.

I made us a sandwich and we sat enjoying our lunch.  We got set up all except for the satellite which Jesse was having problems. He was getting very frustrated. He noticed some other dish set-up and it was pointing in a different direction, so he pointed ours there and finally got it set-up.

We had a nice evening just relaxing at home.

Tuesday, September 25 - Extending a Day (Colorado Springs, CO)

 

Saturday we drove further down the road stopping in Colby, KS for the night at the Fair Ground. Mostly is was a dirt parking lot - full hook-up for $20.00 a night.

Sunday we were out by 8:15 and drove into Colorado. With the time change we arrived at Mountiandale right at noon. There was no one in the office, but no problem we knew which site we were staying in so we just parked in site 78.

After getting set up we walked down to the office to get our mail and my new Kindle Fire. A line appeared in my about 1/3 down the screen. Jesse called them and they said they would send me a new one and send me a return label for the old one.

We just relaxed then got dressed to go out for dinner. Today was our 33 wedding anniversary and we decided to go to Outback. We had a very nice meal. Afterward we stopped at the food store to pick up some dessert to take home.

Monday we were up and took our time getting showered and dressed. We stopped by the office and saw the gang then went into town.

Our 1st stop was at the UPS store to return the old Kindle. Then we stopped at Chili’s for some lunch. Then we went to Target. Jesse wanted to look for Bluetooth pieces to use with our phones when we are driving. They didn’t have anything that Jesse liked and the employee was not very helpful.

We went over to Radio Shack, the young man was very helpful and we purchased two Samsung units. I will let you know how we like them.

We stopped and got fuel in the car and got the car washed. Of course it started to rain on the way back to the campground. It rained for about 15 minutes then cleared up, but it stayed cool.

We took our sheets down to the laundry and I went into the office to work with Keith on a project. Chris was also in the office manning the phones and learning to take reservations.

We said our good-byes to everyone and we went back home.

There were new shows on TV tonight so we watched TV all evening.

Today were up and enjoying our coffee and computering.

Jesse looked at the weather forecast and it was suppose to rain most of the day in Gunnison which is where we were heading.

So we decided to stay another day and leave tomorrow.

Plans made in jello (always wiggle room)  Love it!!

Friday, September 21 - Good-byes and moving down the road (Lyndon, KS)

 

We were dressed and packed up some of our things for travel.

Then we went over to the hospitality room for the farewell breakfast. They served sausage biscuits, cinnamon and pumpkin buns, orange juice and coffee.

We sat with our group and visited. We got hugs and said our “see ya down the road” to all of our friends.

Back at the rig we finished packing up and left the fair grounds at 10:15am.

We had an uneventful day traveling 152 miles.

We are parked at Crossroads RV Park & Campground at the Passbook America rate of $14.00. Jesse said we had stayed here before, but I don’t remember. Some overnight campgrounds are just not memorable.

Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with this campground. It’s just a place to spend the night.

Thursday, September 20 - More Escapees Fun (Sedalia, MO)

 

Wednesday we took our time getting out for the day.

After showers were done and we were dressed for the day we rode over to event buildings to take a look at the craft sale that was starting at noon.

Then we walked around the hospitality room to see what was happening. We found not much happening so we were off to town to find a bank to get some cash.

Back at the rig we just computered and Jesse napped.

I made us chicken tacos for dinner then afterward we headed over to the  Mathewson Center for tonight’s entertainment.

First on the agenda was door prizes. I understand that there were several couples that have been in Sedalia for a while soliciting local businesses for donations.

They were able to secure all kinds of 10-25 dollars certificates from local eatery’s. Many of the participants in our market place donated their goods for prizes. There were gift cards from Walmart, Staples, tire centers, car wash places, health food stores and some local grocery stores. They said the value of the door prizes were over $15,000. WOW! (But non of us won anything) :~(

The entertainment was Ham-a-rama. Many of the talented attendees sang, told jokes, danced, played musical instruments and read stories. We were pleased and entertained.

Today the first thing was the pet parade. We took our boys as did many of the other pet owners to the front of the activity buildings and walked them past a line of dog watchers. You could dress them in costume or not..Your choice.

I had planned on ours being in costumes but I left them in the totes we stored in the car back in Colorado, along with the bike seats and seat posts. But we have the bikes!!!! At the end of the parade all the dogs got a treat and had time to exchange email address. LOL.

The parade was very cute and I was really happy with the way the boys behaved.

Jesse took the boys home to rest and met me back in the hospitality room for the HAIR RAISING CHILI COOK-OFF!

There were about 12 participants and you could walk through the lines and sample each chili. If you liked it you put money in their bucket and whoever had the most money won an apron and $100. All the proceeded went to Care. Our favorite was Hobo-chili.

Our assistant coordinators Mark and Dortha Hall 

After all the chili was gone we went back to the rig for a short time until we met again at the Mathewson Center for closing ceremonies.

Our coordinators Bob and Molly Pinner thanked all the volunteers for their hard work to make the rally a success. We sang the Escapees song and they gave out a few more door prizes.

Back home again we feed the boys and then met up with Bob, Barb, John and Bridget and went to Denny’s for some dinner.

After dinner we decided to play a card game named “9 hole golf”.

We played in the same building that they were holding a  farewell dance party so we could here the music while playing. Good fun!!!

 

Talk about fun and funny…..What do you think Jesse and John are doing?

Tuesday, September 18 - Transportation, Crafts, and Adoption (Sedalia, MO)

 

Today started out early again. Jesse was volunteering for transportation and I volunteered in crafting.

Jesse shuttled attendees from the campground to wherever they wanted to go via golf cart. He said it was fun and he stayed busy from 8:15 – 11:30am.

I started at 8:30 and helped 5 different women make quilting wall hangings. I also showed others how to make bows from paper. The quilting was much fun and I was learning while helping. I think I may try making one myself.

After my shift was over at 11:30, Jesse and I met up and got some lunch. We sat with Glenn & Sylvia while eating. Jesse had a hamburger while I had a hot dog and we shared some fries.

We walked around the market again and stopped to talk with Miller Insurance. We are thinking about switching our residency to South Dakota and wanted to know the cost difference.

We are going to talk further about it and will let you know what we decide.

By this time it was 2pm, so we went back to the rig to relax before going to happy hour.

We have been think about adoption for a while now.

We really weren’t sure if we were ready.

We decided to go ahead and give it a try.

We were adopted by the class of 2007.

 

After the adoption ceremony and announcements, we broke up and went different ways.

Six of us all jumped into our truck in route for some dinner, by way of Dollar Tree and Walmart. John and Bridget needed to get some decorations for their table  -  for the chili cook-off.

We went to Applebee’s for dinner joined by Don and Suzie.

After dinner we went to Freddy’s for frozen custard.

We dropped everyone home and came home ourselves. It’s been a long fun day, and I am ready to just relax.

HUGS!

Monday, September 17 - Dyer/Smirnoff (Sedalia, MO)

 

Saturday when I left you we were on our way out to dinner with several other couples. What Jesse and I didn’t know was they were going back to Kehdes. Two of the couples received a gift certificate and wanted to use it. Jesse and I said okay and we just ordered different food than last night.

It was a bunch of us so we had to wait a few minutes to be seated. The waitress was very good and entertaining, so it was a good night. Lots of laughter.

 

On Sunday we took our time getting out of the rig then made our way to the market place. There were many booths set-up with just about anything you could think of. Although we didn’t find anything we couldn’t do without.

We also met up with Jeanie and Allen Webster. We hadn’t seen them since the 1st RV-Dreams Rally in Branson. It was fun getting caught up with them.

We also saw Ken and Cindy Frerick’s and their two puppies. They were just arriving so we only visited with them for a few minutes.

We attended the 1st-timers orientation and opening ceremonies. After there was an ice cream social.

Once we returned to the rig I prepared dinner. Jesse got the grill out and I made sides.

At 6:30 we drove up to pick up John & Bridget, Barb and Bob. Bob wasn’t there, he was still working transporting attendees to the Mathewson Center in the golf cart.

Promptly at 7:00 they started off with door prizes, then the entertainment was Yakov Smirnoff. He was really good and had the whole audience laughing all evening.

Today were up early. We had breakfast in the hospitality room that was given by the Knights of Columbus. You received pancakes, biscuits and gravy, ham, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs cooked to order, juice and coffee for $6.00 per person. What a deal! We also had the pleasure of Mark and Dortha as our companions.

After breakfast we were off to a seminar on RVing to Alaska. Since we are making plans to go to Alaska in 2014 we thought it would be informative. We really didn’t learn anything.

Then we made our way back to the market place to walk around some more before returning to the rig for some R&R.

We had leftovers for dinner and then went back to the Mathewson Center for more door prizes and entertainment for the evening. It was George Dyer, he has a act in Branson. He is a tenor and has a really nice voice. His show was pretty good, but last nights was better.

We came home to no electricity in the campground. Hopefully it will come back on soon.

Hope everyone has a good day!