The Honeymoon Is NOT Over!

Can You Tell How Happy We Are?

The month of July has flown by......and boy have we been busy! And the time has been spent in marital bliss.











My cousin Tim lives in Breckenridge so Joan and I decided to take a ride up to visit. We traveled thru South Park, past Fairplay to Como before turning towards Boreas Pass. The views are absolutely fantastic. As you can see there is still snow on the peaks in and around Breckenridge.

While we were there Joan introduced Tim to Geocaching and we looked up a couple of caches around town.

A few days later we decided to drive across Cottonwood Pass towards Taylor Reservoir and Crested Butte. Flowers, flowers and more flowers.

The team captain on my Salida softball team called me and asked if I would be interested in playing a tournament in Gunnison. There is a semi-pro baseball league in Denver and several of the players from the Denver Browns put together a team each year to play.....they had everything covered except pitching....I said yes! We had a great time and finished 4-2. We fell into the B bracket with an early loss and ended up playing 4 games back to back to back to back! I was whipped by the time we finished.

Jenna, Baylee, Blake & Karrena

We had a young family staying at the campground off and on for a couple of weeks and Joan got to know the kids as we saw them in and around the park. The oldest, Blake expressed an interest in Geocaching so we invited him to join us one morning. We took him to find/see 'Peek a Boo Alien', 'Eagle's View' and 'Mt Princeton Schoolhouse'. Joan also spent some time with the crew as they created some Duct Tape crafts. A few weeks after they returned home Joan got an email from Blake stating that he had already found several additional caches near his home.

Last week my youngest son Chris flew into Colorado Springs to spend a week with Joan and I. And we didn't waste a minute of his time. He de-boarded the plane at 2:16pm and before it was dark we had visited Garden of the Gods park, driven to the top of Pikes Peak and met friends in the Springs for dinner at their favorite restaurant.  The next day we drove to Estes Park and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. We explored the park again the next day before returning home to Nathrop. The rest of the week included observing some young bull moose, 4-wheeling up towards Hancock Pass, shopping for some souvenirs in Salida, lunch overlooking the Arkansas River, a drive over Independence Pass to Aspen, white-water rafting, a visit to Bishop's Castle and spotting a brown bear about 30 yards off the road while driving back towards the Colorado Springs. It was Chris' first trip outside the southeastern US and we all had a great time. I'm hoping when I ask him what he wants for Christmas this year he'll say..."How about another plane ticket to visit you next summer!"

Saturday and Sunday of this week was the beginning of the Triple Crown of Burro Racing in Colorado. On 3 consecutive weekends there are Burrro Days in 3 different cities; Fairplay, Leadville and Buena Vista. On Satuday there are llama races followed by burro races on Sunday. The llamas race about 3 miles, while the burros race 30 miles. We were in Fairplay for the llama races and it was a treat. The first group of llamas are the serious racers. The race begins with the llamas and their human runner racing about 100 yards through town before being 'saddled' with a standard pack. Then the runner and llama team run the 3 mile cross country course including ups and downs and a water crossing. Soon after the 'racers' come the themed teams where the handlers and llama are usually 'dressed' alike....some of the themes included Wizard of Oz, ballerinas, doctors and the Lollipop Guild. We're planning on seeing the burro race in Leadville next week.


I'ts hard to believe we only have 6 weeks left here at Chalk Creek. In 2 weeks our friends Richard and Susan are flying into Denver for a few days. We're planning a Rockie's game and several other site-seeing adventures while they're here. Joan's niece Mary will be here on my birthday (the 24th) to stay with us a couple of days. And we will wrap up our jobs around 9/8 and pick up my parents in Denver where they will spend 2 weeks with us while we travel in the MH back towards Lake Mead and our fall/winter job. We're hoping to show them many of the places we've been able to visit over the last 18 months.

That's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come.

PS.....Shout out to Joan's granddaughter Emily....Happy 15th Birthday