The Latest from HERE!

For where ever we go there we are. So here we are!
We stayed in Denver for 10 days. We had a blast there. We visited Colorado Springs, some 70 miles to the south, twice. Once to go to Pikes Peak and The Garden of the Gods (the second picture shows the rock formation park with Pikes peak in the backround)







and the second time was to visit the Olympic Training Center

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We also went to Golden, Colorado which is where Coors Brewing Company began its business and still operates today some 150 years later, but we did not get to do the Big Brew Company tour. Instead we visited the highly celebrated 2nd largest brewery in Golden, a great little micro brewery by the name of Golden City Brewery. We went there with a friend of a friend Jim who has a share of ownership in the place. This was just the finest beer I have had in a long while and the buzz was enhanced by the altitude. Much easier to get high when your already high! We had fun there and hung with some really nice folks who teach at Metro State College. (Congratulations Jim on your retirement from professorship.) and others who live in the town of Golden.
While in CO we also got the opportunity to visit with D. Picard's brother and sister in law in Boulder. We had a fun visit and great supper with them and determined that we will leave our RV with them in Boulder when we return home in early July to get ready for the family wedding later in July. They will keep it and store it in the hanger David uses for his plane but best of all, we found that they have been planning an RV trip for years and have just been putting it off for one reason or another and never got the chance to rent one and go. So this year they are going. As soon as the kids get out of school they are going to head out in our RV for a super three week traveling vacation up thru Wyoming, into Montana, Oregon and California and then back to Boulder. We are very happy to be able to make this possible for them and also real glad that we get to keep the RV indoors while we are away in CT.
We left Denver, Thursday morning. We had such a warm and wonderful stay with Jim and Mary. We ate like Kings and Queens, had hot showers everyday in a bathtub/shower (unusually spacious when you are used to shower stalls every day), did our laundry with ease and with out having to find a laundry mat and were able to hang our clothes outside to dry on the line without being white trash. (you'll have to get the distinction here... When you hang your clothes out any where when you are in an RV park, aka trailer park, first it is not allowed and second it is really ugly and moves you rapidly into white trash realm. Now if you are in Denver and hang your clothes out on the line your are part of the coveted environmentally conscious elite throwback hippie crowd), either way your clothes get dry by solar power and save the planet but you just get more credit in certain social circles.
But DRY, Denver solar power, seemingly constant May breeze and definite lack of any real humidity to speak of, drys clothes in record time. Particularly if your have the good fortune of using a high speed spin front loader machine, like we did, where the clothes come out virtually dry from the washer. No kidding, Clothes were dry on the line before the 2nd load was done. I was a washing, hanging, folding, washing fool that morning. I loved it. The ultra clean, fresh, crisp, sharp feeling and scent of sheets hung outside and the considerably extra absorbency of the towels is a pleasure to behold.
While in Denver we also got the opportunity to meet Mary's daughter Jenifier and her children (Mary and Jim's grandchildren) and have supper in their beautiful home in a new planned progressive subdivision that was built on the previous site of the old Denver airport. In some cases they built right over the tarmac. Wild concept, nice planning, intense density and real nice houses. Great lasagna supper too. Megan, Jazz and Cooper made awesome desert that evening and had some fun doing it too as you can see. Poor Jasper had to be beat up just before supper to get him in line for the evening. Funny, he didn't really seem to mind the beating! As we were leaving for the evening, Jazz got the chance to play on and in one of the planned open space parks within the housing development. This was a real nice aspect to living in this development.

A couple of other things we got to do while in Denver was see the Imax film The Alps. Holy crap do I want to visit Switzerland. We also visited the Natural History Museum and had the rare and wonderful opportunity to see a living speciman of the rare and unusual Jazzalope, live and on the premises.




Also while in Denver......., Jim set up a visit with friends of theirs outside of Fort Collins, CO. This was intended as a special trip for Jasper because his friends there own and operate a horse farm. They own and house about 26 horses and this gave Jazz another really personal opportunity to ride and get a private lesson from their daughter that afternoon. Donna and Norm were simply awesome folks. Not only did they provide this for Jazz but also had us all for supper and warm conversation. (Even though he is not a UCONN fan)
Thanks Jim and Mary for your wonderful Denver hospitality and oasis in the high desert that you call home. I'd bet that it seemed real quite after we left.


As I mentioned previously, we left Denver this past Thursday and headed North to Wyoming. We made it to Lingle the first night about 250+ miles north of Denver and just a bit north and east of Cheyenne, WY. This entire area of southeastern and central Wyoming were so significantly important to days of old. The paths from east to west via wagon train and horseback all converged and passed on thru this country side. The pony express followed along the cart paths cut by the thousands on emigrants and there carts as they made their way to Oregon, Utah and California from out east. It feels old and important here in WY and much of the old west flavor and memorabilia and ways of being still remain.







We left Lingle, WY and drove to Casper, WY yesterday (Friday) and plan on camping here until Sunday. There is a high school annual rodeo going on here this weekend and we specifically designed the trip so that Jazz could be here for that event. We will be leaving here tomorrow, Sunday, some time and heading northwest again into Jackson Hole and the Teton Mountains and then into Yellowstone Park. After viewing Old Faithful and the wildlife there in the park we will drop west into Idaho and begin trekking south again stopping in Utah at Salt Lake City for a day or so and then on into Boulder to park it, remove the car from the back of the RV and begin heading east for the month. More on that later. Great to be back writing and sharing again!