Trip to Big Meadows

We took the Mossman’s to see Big Meadows Reservoir, which Jim and I consider the Crown Jewel of the Rio Grande National Forest.

See what I mean?  Isn’t it beautiful?  They are doing major renovations to the campground on the other side of the reservoir and we took the chance to check it out.  They have only completed the first loop (there are three loops), but what they have finished is gorgeous!!!!!  IF and that is IF there were full hookup (and there aren’t) Big Meadows would be a five-star resort!

Just take a look at some of the campsites on the first loop.

New kiosk, old pay tube
Pretty site by the water	This will be a popular site.
Wood outlines the site
Left side pull-thru	This site has the table up on the hill with steps

Lots of beautiful wood back drops--what do you call them?-- in the back. Nicely graveled with new treated wood picnic tables and fire rings.

But then we saw these two brand new tables destroyed by a fallen tree during the winter….tables had never been used even once!!!!!

The second loop is going to be worked on come April, but Big Meadows won’t be opened till 2013, hopefully!  Any one interested in coming to work with us up there in Big Meadows 2013 or 2014?  Camphosts will have water and sewer and a gas allowance for your generator.  There will be new restrooms, new water system and new water stations. I’m sure the campground will be full most of the time because it’s been closed since 2009 and everybody is excited about going back and seeing all the positive changes they are making.

Here are a couple more photos of the area.  There’s a 2 mile trail around the reservoir, many longer hiking trails in the area, great trout fishing (they stock the pond weekly) and the 9,500 foot altitude makes for cool weather all summer.

     

Am I tempting you????????  If so contact me and we’ll talk.

Remember, you are loved.

End of Season Prime Rib Dinner

We enjoy feeding our camphosts well during the season.  The week we open when we clean the winter debris, we feed them deli meat sandwiches and salads.  After the 4th of July we grill T-bone steaks to thank them for their hard work during that holiday.  At the end of the season we celebrate surviving the summer business with a big prime rib dinner that Jim grills on the charcoal grill.  That took place last Sunday.  Here’s Jim with his 8 pound masterpiece…..it was his best yet…..so wonderful.

We only have one camphost couple but invited the Mossman’s because they have helped us seal picnic tables in four campgrounds; we have a camphost in a neighboring campground from another district that we always invite; and then there is the couple who have been “watching over” another one of our campgrounds to help us out.

It started to rain so we had to eat inside the rig.  Thankfully all 9 of us fit inside.  We had a great time.

If all this sounds like something you’d like to experience, let me know.  We are looking for a few camphosts for next year!!!!!

Remember, you are loved.

Anniversary 2011

Today is our 30th anniversary!!!!!  Yippee, hurrah, yada-yada.  We went out to dinner with the Mossman’s to the Blue Creek Lodge.  The food wasn’t all that good, except Jim said his chicken friend steak was very good.  The highlight of the dinner was the Amish baked pies we had for dessert….yummo!!!

Here is a picture Linda took of us in front of the restaurant.

Yes, for those of you who might have noticed, that is the same blouse I worn last year and the year before on our anniversary…what can I say, I really like this blouse!!!!  Kathy Jo, do you recognize it?  It’s the one you bought me many, many years ago in Denver when I came up to visit.  I think it is the only blouse I have from before we went on the road back in 2007. 

Here’s our 2009 anniversary photo….gad zooks, Jim is even wearing the same shirt!!! We need new clothes!

We talked and decided we’ll try for another 30 years together!

When Jim and I got married he had custody of his two daughters, Beth who was 7 years old and Christine who was 12 years old.  I knew it would be a slow process to get the girls to accept me, so I decided to put a little fun into our lives as we all got to know each other better.

This usually centered around dinner.  Poor Jim, he never knew WHAT to expect when he got home from work (he’s not real sure even now). One night I had the table settings on the floor under the dining room table and we all had to sit on the floor and eat with the table over our heads.  Another night I turned the table upside down and we ate on the bottom of the table.  We also had backwards night where we ate dessert first, then the main meal and finished up with salad.  Of course, we had finger night when we all ate our dinner with only our fingers….this is the night I made sure to fix meatloaf with mashed potatoes, gravy and peas! Or another finger night was spaghetti and meatballs.  Add to that ‘left hand’ night when you had to sit on your right hand and eat only with your left hand. And it went on and on like that for the first few months.

Needless to say, I was the talk of the neighborhood and every morning the talk was all about what crazy thing did Bobbie do for dinner last night?  All this wackiness had the desire affect on the girls as they thought all these ideas were great fun and they rushed home from school every day to see what I had planned.  I was the cool mom on the block!  Nobody else’s mom acted like that!

Thirty years later Christine is a single mother of three grown children and a grandmother herself living in Santa Fe. 

Beth is single, also working in Santa Fe…in fact, she and her boyfriend, Tom, spent last week with us during her vacation. 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a crazy, weird, and fun trip the last thirty years with these three wonderful individuals.  We’ve all grown, changed and matured together.  We are all extremely close and I am happy to say, our daughters like us and choose to be around us and visit.  We relate to each other as adults now and Jim and I are very careful not to give advice or “make suggestions”.  We accept our daughters as they are and enjoy who they have become.

As for Jim and I ….. Jim is my rock, my stability, my anchor, my calm.  When I go to him and he wraps those big arms around me, I know I am safe…..I’m protected….I’m content…..all is well.  As for him, he still thinks I’m weird!  I’m his comic relief! I provide him a time to be a little crazy and off-beat and the chance to try some things out of the ordinary.  He’s the tortoise and I’m the hare, his mom use to tell me.  He walks slowly and carefully into the world and I just go, head long rushing into life. I guess we make a good pair…..opposites attract they say.

Remember, you are loved.

Bears in Tucker Ponds

We’ve had bears appearing in Tucker Ponds Campground since July.  Recently the camphosts set up some Wildgame cameras around the campground to see if they could catch some wild in action.  Look what came through.

First bear	Pretty good size
Is this a different bear?	Dumped the cleaning products in can
I see you!!!	Tipped over the dumpster
This bear a lot bigger	Looks like this bear has been hit with rubber bullets before.
Got pretty close to camera	Pretty close walk by

We have very good camphosts in Tucker Ponds who are not upset by the bears.  They think there are three different bears coming through. All campers are informed of the bears upon arrival and the camphosts educate all campers about living with bears through literature provided by the Department of Wildlife and the Forest Service.  With the great care our camphosts are providing, we have been able to keep the campground open and the campers safe.

The Wildgame cameras also caught a few other interesting wildlife.

Deer by day…..	and by night.
Fox checking things out	“ah, that looks interesting”

Hope you enjoyed a night at Tucker Ponds and the wildlife we have up here in Colorado.

Remember, you are loved.

Catch Up

There are so loose ends I need to tie up, so to speak, before it all gets away from me.

We only have two weeks left in the season and I have at least four blog posts I am in arrears.  Then there are several photos I’ve taken that don’t make up a blog post but I still want to show them to you……so here goes.

I thought this was a really cute photo of Poncho and Chorizo (Molly-that’s Beanie and Weenie to you) taken from the back.  They had spied a chipmunk and were watching it intently.

 

Here’s the chipmunk they were looking at.  Cute little fellow! Several campers “train” these guys to come and get peanuts (raw and unsalted, of course). They will start placing peanuts by their feet, then on their knee and soon they are eating peanuts out of the camper’s hand. One camper went as far as putting peanuts in his shirt pocket and this one chipmunk would walk right up his leg and up his chest and literally climb into the camper’s pocket to retrieve a peanut.  All you saw was a bushing tail sticking out of his pocket like a handkerchief!  Chipmunks are a continual source of entertainment in the campgrounds and are great substitutes for comedies on TV.
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Here’s an itty, bitty homemade camper that stayed next to us one night. You can see how small it was. Two people slept in it and the man was way over six feet tall.  Don’t know how they managed, but they did.

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We went to Alamosa the other day and were in time to see the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad train repositioning.  This is a steam engine that is used for tourist runs from Alamosa to La Veta, Monte Vista and Antonito.  They have many novel trips like one for Mother’s Day, Polar Express around Christmas, concerts in La Veta with a train trip thrown in, etc. The owners are very innovative and it is a big tourist attraction even for people staying in our campgrounds here in South Fork.
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Here’s a photo of Jim Mossman fixing a drawer in our rig that had broken. He’s laughing because he is wedged in between the bed and the drawers.  He has bad knees and can’t rest on them to pull himself up. So he’s basically saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”.  I couldn’t resist taking a photo before my Jim gave him a hand.
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This is one of our regular Sunday afternoon potlucks with our camphosts.  That’s Lynn and Linda Drain in the foreground with the Mossman’s in the back along with Jim and all the puppies.

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Leslie and Kathy came and camped with us last week.  They are from the Denver area.  When I stopped and chatted with them on my rounds, they mentioned it was both their birthdays.  After wishing them a “happy birthday”….twice…. I plotted an idea.  I invited them over to join us for “happy hour” at 4 p.m. and then I went to the store and bought a cake mix and baked them a birthday cake….you can see it by Leslie’s left shoulder there.  Boy, were they surprised!  I love doing unexpected surprises like this.  I just ask that they “pass it on” and do something spontaneous for someone else some time.
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The other day while in Alamosa we were driving down a side street in town and look what we saw sauntering down the road?  Deer have become very prevalent in Alamosa.  In fact there is a sizeable herd living out by the golf course north of town.  The deer have no fear of humans and bed down on front lawns all over town. 

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We had a great surprise yesterday when our friends, “The Two Lindas” drove 2 1/2 hours from Durango just to surprise us with a visit.  They work for a company that publishes maps for campgrounds and they are doing jobs in the Bayfield and Durango area.  They just recently bought a tricycle and wanted to see how it operated on the open road, so they took it for a ride to see us!

The bike is very nice.	I think Jim is Linda B.’s favorite guy.
On the way home.	And away they go!

They are coming to stay with us for a few days later this week and we will be so happy to have them around again.  Last time till next year, so I’ll have to spoil them rotten while they are here.
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This is Walker and Indy….the Mossman’s dogs.  Unfortunately, our dogs won’t play with them as our dogs aren’t very social, but they have all agreed to not kill each other and just ignore one another when they are together.

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Here we are last night peeling shrimp in preparation for making Coconut Shrimp with a pineapple/habanero chutney.  But then I forgot to take a photo of the finished product….dah!!!

 

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Later on in the evening Jim brothers, Ron and Don, came by to visit.  They were spending the weekend at their cabin up the road.  It is always nice to have them come by….we don’t see enough of them.


Lastly, here is a cute little “vehicle” ???? I saw in Monte Vista one day.  Talk about claustrophobic!!!!!!
Well, that’s it folks…..that’s all the odds and ends of photos I’ve taken that can’t stand alone for a blog post.

I’ll really try to post the other four posts I have of a few trips we made recently.  That’s in between raking, emptying fire pits and my daily swishing toilets.

Remember, you are loved.