Late Summer Happenings

The weather in the latter half of August was unseasonably hot rising into the upper 80s and low 90s, although we did get some regular rainstorms to cool things off a bit. As I write this our weather has changed and today’s high was 60 degrees with rain off and on.

Our single tomato plant was slow to ripen this year, but we are finally getting some smallish tomatoes. We will only have a couple weeks till we get a freeze so the green ones better hurry up.

Steve and I participated in “Convoy of Hope” when they came through Cheyenne. They hoped to serve 2,000 people and over 4,000 actually came through. Disadvantaged folks got shoes for the kids, haircuts, family photos, career services, counseling, health services, a meal, groceries to take home and a whole bunch of games and fun for the children. It was all free. It was hosted by a cooperative effort of over 20 churches. Steve helped to record video and I was his assistant, we got to interview people.  Here is a link to a short video that Steve made for one of the organizers. https://www.facebook.com/ConvoyOfHopeCheyenne

 

I had a nice birthday. Our Colorado family came up and took us out to dinner and Steve baked me a cake. They all sang to me and Maverick sort of got the idea that it was my birthday this time with a little pointing. Ha.

I got some great books about New Mexico as we are looking into a vacation rental for the month of February this winter.  Emily had a role in the selections I know and we now have information on scenic drives, 100 hikes and places off the beaten track. Now we just have to secure the right house to rent that we can also bring Penelope along to. The first one we tried for was great with a wonderful view of the mountains but was already rented for February.

Another birthday gift was the decorated “garden stones” with handprints of Callie and Maverick. They are too cute to put outside so they are on the wall shelves in the “grandkids” bedroom/sewing room. I love them! One dainty girl handprint and one wider boy handprint, so fun. Of course the moms helped get the imprints in July.

One day Steve and I took a drive just for the heck of it and ended up in Chugwater, Wyoming. We enjoyed chocolate malts at supposedly the oldest soda fountain in Wyoming. The rolling hills and huge expanses of sage and prairies are beautiful and still mostly green this year. The skies are truly dramatic with the thunderstorms and lightning strikes.

On Friday we spent the night in Loveland so Erin and Chris could go on an early morning long hike up Longs Peak. They left before dawn and we got to spend the day with Mav. We took him to the Greeley Train Museum full of “little trains.” http://www.gfsm.org/pcindex.html  It was quite a set up of model trains and lots of train memorabilia. They had probably ten men running trains of 50 or 60 car length traveling around a huge assortment of scenes. We wore him out I guess, he took a four hour nap when we got home!

P.S. I think if you double click on the pictures it will enlarge them a bit.

Hiking off-trail in the Snowies

After a couple weather postponements we were finally able to do our planned hike at the base of the Snowy Range this week. The area is not a good place to be when the clouds build up and the lightning starts.  During the recent monsoon weather pattern the early mornings are sunny but then the heat brings on the clouds by midday. Wednesday was the first day that was forecast to be drier.

We started our hike about 10:30 am and it was beautiful and clear and just a little cool. Our hiking companions were a couple we know through our church and our youngest associate pastor who had not been to this part of Wyoming before.

The destination was the debris area from a plane crash in 1955. A plane carrying 66 passengers veered off course somehow at night and flew straight into the face of the mountain range and of course all passengers perished instantly. After all the remains and personal effects were recovered the site was also blasted. Today all that is left is the twisted metal parts of the fuselage and bits of the wings strewn over a boulder field below the immense rock face.Rick had grown up hearing the tale and had always wanted to visit the site for himself. The rest of us went along out of curiosity. 

We started out on the Lakes Trail and then almost immediately veered off that trail to skirt around the end of one alpine lake then over a ridge to face a daunting boulder field that had to be crossed to get to the crash site.The boulders were especially challenging for me as some of them wobble and there are deep gaps between them that seem to go into the depths of the earth. The best strategy is to just plot a course and keep going, if you stop you don’t want to move at all it is too scary.

We did make it over to the debris field near a beautiful mountain meadow full of flowers. Most of the debris is hidden in the boulders though. There is a mangled engine and lots of aluminum parts with rivets strewn over a large area. Rick hiked up higher and found some landing gear.

I found an old Pepsi can but not from the wreck as it had a pop top so it was too modern to be from 1955.

After finishing that hike we drove down the road to Lake Marie and I took the classic Snowy Range picture with the lake in the foreground and some pictures from the area where the water spills out from the lake and cascades on down creating a waterfall. The flowers there were vibrant.

Another beautiful day in God’s sanctuary.  

Tie City Trailhead

We hiked from a new to us trailhead recently. Driving up to the Lincoln head monument at the summit of I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie and exiting there and taking the Happy Jack Road, it is the first trailhead parking area that one comes to. We were there on a weekday so there were only a couple other cars there. We passed (or rather they passed us) a few mountain bikers on the trails and one trail runner. 

It was great to get up hiking again close to home. The different kinds of yellow daisies were in bloom as were the purple asters. The grasses were tall and lush from plentiful moisture.  We kept to the higher trails and avoided the low lands not wanting mud or insects to be a factor. There were long stretches through open sage and also through the fragrant pine and aspen forests.

There were bright orange arrows spray painted on several trail junctions and orange streamers tied on trail markers for some kind of event that was apparently coming up to mark the route. I got a kick out of a trail called “Phil’s Pholly” and took a picture of it.

It was quite warm in the high 80’s so we all drank a lot of water including Penelope. If we don’t give her water she will seek out whatever nasty pool of standing water that she can find!

It was a lovely day. We hiked for a few hours with plenty of up and down to get some good exercise. One trail is called "Roller Coaster."Penelope tried out her new footstool that S. made for her to climb back into the car when she is worn out. She needs to get used to it still, isn’t sure she can step on it officially yet.

A “Cars” birthday and a mini family reunion

This past week we have had our son and his family visiting from Kansas. We were able to do a few Frontier Days activities while they were here. We took our little granddaughter to her first parade and both of our grandchildren to the carnival and rodeo grounds the following day. They were a little too young to ride even the kiddie rides except for the little train and old fashioned cars. We all rode the ferriss wheel overlooking the whole area.

On Friday our youngest daughter arrived late and we all celebrated Maverick’s second birthday on Saturday in Colorado. He is obsessed with cars from the Disney movie “Cars” and knows all the characters by name. He always has two or more cars in his hands when he is running around the house and usually takes them to bed with him also. Mom made him cupcakes with traffic lights and Gremmie made some little cars out of candy bars for treats. There was a road with a white dotted line running on the floor from the front door around the dining room.

Grandma Denise was visiting from California. Mav’s friends from the babysitter’s house came as well as his good friend Sammy. Daddy Chris obtained an electric Corvette recently for free and had gotten it working again. Cousin Callie practiced her driving skills around the backyard. Poor Mav has to grow a bit before he can work the accelerator!

We had two extra days after the Kansas family left with our youngest daughter before returning her to the airport on Tuesday.

It was a wonderful blessing to have our family around. We treasure these times.