Day 76-Finish - Salt Lake City, UT

This post will be "ex post facto" as we have already arrived home. However, I did want to close out this blog with two final photos.

One of our return nights was spent in Salt Lake City, UT. When we checked in at the campground, the attendant mentioned that there was an open rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that evening at the new Events Center in Temple Square. So we had dinner at the trendy new shopping plaza at the old downtown railroad station, and then walked over to the Event Center.

The Center is HUGE - it seats 21,000 people and is just beautiful. We stayed for three or four numbers being rehearsed, and it was great to hear this choir with their distinctive, organ-like smooth sound. We also got to hear the huge organ. The choir has an open rehearsal every Thursday evening for the Sunday radio broadcast.

Pictured here are the choir and a photo of the interior of the Event Center. This photo does not do justice to this space - the size is difficult to capture with a standard camera, but perhaps you get the idea.

We arrived home on Saturday, August 5th. It's been a hot summer in Santa Rosa as well as everywhere else in the U.S., but everything looked OK, both inside and out. Had a little "hiccup" with the dishwasher, but it turned out to be a clogged filter, and we soon had that going again.

Nice to be home, but it was a great trip!

Oh, by the way, we came home with some problems with the RV: the front rooftop AC is not working; the refrigerator may still have a problem running on electricity (although we are not sure but what the problem we had at the start of the trip wasn't an anomaly); & Gary has already fixed a broken drawer slide. The largest thing looming is a fuel leak which could be a really expensive fix, or something not so huge. Since this is the last post to this blog, if you want to find out what the fuel leak problem turned out to be, e-mail or call us and we'll tell you!

Until the next trip, goodbye for now! Thanks again to all who made our trip so special!

Days 73 - 75 - Continuing the Denver visit

(Note: Blogger has been very slow, so I am uploading some photos in the Small size - not sure it makes any difference but..... Click on the photo to enlarge - works most of the time!)

We had another lovely visit to the new log home, and this time I got some photos, although these do not do this lovely place justice.

The first is outside at the front entrance area.

The second is the great room and fireplace.






The third is the kitchen which is arranged just like the old cabin was, and I had to pinch myself everytime I was in it to realize that I was not in the old place. John, Joel and friend Josh carried the old Buck stove up the hill, in several pieces, to relocate it to the new kitchen, quite a job. The old place has a new, much smaller stove for heating, which they carried down the hill, and that, too, was a lot of work.

The last photo is of the loft. This high point in the house affords wonderful views of the front range. The day was not very clear and in any event my photos of the view were not very good.

Today we had a final get-together at the Highland Garden Cafe. This wonderful restaurant is in Northwest Denver, just three houses from where John and I grew up. This restaurant is housed in two old homes that have been extensively redone and cleverly connected. They have seating both inside and out, and it is highly regarded in Denver. Unfortunately the area, particularly our old house, does not look very good, and I chose not to photograph it. I prefer to remember it as it was. Truly, at this point, I hope that, like the house right next door, they will tear it down and do something good with the property.




We said our goodbys to John and family. It was a wonderful visit!

Days 69-72 - A Visit to Denver

We have been fortunate enough to have been able to include a Denver visit in each of the last two or three summers. Always great to visit my brother, John, his wife, Nancy, and usually their two children Amy and John Michael have been there as well as Joel, Amy's husband. More on this part of our Denver stay later.

Our second night here we went to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was great to, once again, be in a baseball crowd with a winning home team. The stadium is built in the popular new retro style, and it is one of the best. It was a beautiful evening and we had great club-level seats.

The next evening was the first event in a series of three to celebrate the 30th birthday of our niece, Amy Vaccher, and the 60th birthday of my sister-in-law Nancy. We had a lovely time at an extended happy hour at their home in Westminster. I was able to snap the family photo shown here of Amy, John M., Nancy and John before the other guests arrived. Those guests included some new friends and some long-time friends of John and Nancy's, and we have gotten to know them. We were delighted to see again Mo and Karen Sanstead (I hope I am spelling their names correctly). We first met them 38 years ago at John and Nancy's wedding, and had a really good time with them at that event. We reconnected with them several years ago. I didn't get a photo of them but I am hoping to see them again before we leave. It was also great to see Dick and Ginger Seeley (J & N's long-time friends from Virginia), Dorothy Zimbrick (Nancy's sister), Cec and Louise Brandon (Nancy's parents) and Char (John and Nancy's great neighbor).

Today we drove up to the new log home built by John and Nancy on what was the old turnaround and parking area at the end of the dirt road. The old cabin was reached by hiking down the hill a ways from the turnaround. Now this new home is conveniently reached by simply parking and walking in the door!! For those of us who have hiked up and down that hill a lot, this is really wonderful. Not only that, it is a LOVELY place with views that are incredible. I will take photos of the home and views tomorrow.

For this part of the blog I will show two group photos: the first is the over-40 crowd attending the open house at the log home. From top left Dick, Cec, Gary, Dorothy, John, Nancy. Front row from left Ginger, Char, me, Louise.

The second photo is the under 40 crowd. Pictured here are John M., a family friend Molly, Amy, Joel, two other friends of Amy and Joel, and Josh, another friend of Amy and Joel and Josh's little boy.

Day 68 - Last day in Colorado Springs, CO

We drove to the Broadmoor Hotel, pictured here, to see it and to have lunch. I don't remember ever being there, but Gary was there on business several years ago. It is a 5-star hotel with beautiful grounds and public areas -- the lobby, the restaurants, etc. Our lunch was in a conservatory-like area with lots of plants and flowers, covered by glass which was good because we had thunderstorms off and on all day, a typical event in the Colorado mountains. It was a way above average lunch!

While at the restaurant we saw Lynn Redgrave, seated at another table with several other people. She is currently appearing in a play here at the Colorado Festival of World Theatre. Peter Shaffer (author of Equus and Amadeus) is being honored at this year's festival. We thought maybe we saw him at the table, too. We wish we had known about this theater series going on right now - we would certainly have gotten tickets.
But we found out about it too late because we are going to Denver tomorrow.

Day 66-67 Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs, CO

I was born and raised in Colorado, but I have never been the places we visited yesterday and today. We drove to the top of 14,000 foot Pikes Peak. It is quite a road! The summit is 19 miles from the start of the twisting, curving road with one switchback after another. The view at the top is spectacular! Tourists can also take the cog railroad up which takes about three hours round trip. We opted to drive instead which took less time, even with the lunch break at mile 16.

We also did a run and a drive in the Garden of the Gods which is a Colorado Springs City Park. I loved the beauty of the rock formations set in the green foliage in the area. Colorado has had a lot of rain, and everything is green, even Eastern Colorado which can get very brown and dry this time of year.

Day 64 - Independence/Kansas City, MO

We ran the tour route to see the historic sites of Independence, MO. The Community of Christ (Latter Day Saints) temple, pictured here, is the single-most beautiful building here. We toured this building when we were here before - it is an architectural gem in every way. The Mormons and the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) also have buildings here. This is where the prophet Joseph Smith dedicated a site for the building of a temple. So all three of these churches have a strong interest in this area.

The Harry S Truman home is open for tours. This lovely home, pictured here, has been preserved just as the Truman's left it. We toured this previously as well. The daily walk that Truman took is mapped out and our running route followed much of his walk route. There are two other things to see in Independence: the Westward Trails Museum (documents the westward expansion and the trails used by the pioneers), and the Harry Truman Presidential Museum.

It was finally a cooler day, just right for the evening baseball game at Kauffman Stadium. We really liked this stadium just as it is -- feels a little like a spring training venue -- but it is soon to undergo extensive renovation, and a look at the new stadium Web site shows it will add the amenities that ballparks are currently providing. The Royals were in fine form that night against the Angels, and won 8-3. It was a really good game, and right after the game, a spectacular fireworks display was held. Since we felt a little cheated by the fireworks in Wisconsin Dells, this was great!

Day 62 - St. Charles and St. Louis, MO

The day started hot and clear. We ran along the KATY Trail (Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad - The MKT - which became KATY when the rail line was converted to a trail). This trail runs across much of Missouri. The portion we ran goes through old town St. Charles, just west of St. Louis.

We then toured the beautiful, heavily "treed" campus of Lindenwood University (pictured here), the alma mater of Marcia Giske. It is a lovely campus which is growing aggressively in number of students and curriculum.

We walked around the old town of St. Charles which was settled by the French around 1800. Many of the beautiful old buildings, like those pictured here, have been restored and converted to trendy shops and restaurants. St. Charles was the start and finish point for the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-1806). They returned from their two years out in September of 1806, so the past two years have been and still are busy ones for this small city, with many celebrations and commemorative work done in the parks. We saw many of the exhibits both in St. Charles and in St. Louis in 2004 on a previous visit. We think it is well worth seeing to appreciate the astonishing accomplishments of these two men and their team.

A pleasant but hot afternoon was spent in the Washington University area of St. Louis and then we drove in to St. Louis to the new Busch Stadium for the baseball game. It is a wonderful stadium which just opened this year. The first photo here was taken about 6:15 p.m. We had hot dogs for dinner and were seated in our left outfield seats (good seats in spite of what it sounds like), waiting for the game to begin, when all hell broke loose. Suddenly at our back a tremendous dust cloud swept over the stadium, sending debris flying. Most of the dust and debris was from the adjacent demolition of the old stadium. We were protected from most of it. The ground crew rushed to get the Mylar tarp on the field, and they finally got it down in spite of its billowing in the wind uncontrolled for a few minutes. The Mylar tarp photo was taken at about 7:08 p.m. (I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to snap the ballooning that this thing did at first!) Then the torrential rain hit and it rained for about 45 minutes, blowing hard for the first 15 minutes. Thirty people had minor injuries from the first "gust front", several windows were broken in the press boxes, and some flooding was sustained in the lower stadium levels. The speed with which this storm hit was just astonishing!

After a 2+ hour rain delay and home plate area repairs, the game got underway at about 9:20. We stayed till about 10:30. The Cardinals won over Atlanta 8-3.

We were worried about our RV because we had left the small awnings down. Gary called the RV park just after the first wind, and they said it was a chaotic scene there - people who had their big awnings out lost them. A park employee did put our awnings up in time, and when we returned we found that, by no small miracle, everything was just fine. We never did hear what wind speeds were clocked, but it was a furious storm. The bad news is that it is still hot - only a temporary cooling was achieved from the storm.

Day 60 and 61 - From Minneapolis to St. Louis

On Day 60 (July 17th) we drove from Minneapolis to Des Moines, IA, stopping during the noon hour in Forest City, IA, at the Winnebago factory. We lunched in the RV in the parking lot of the visitor center and took a factory tour afterwards. The bus tour consisted of being driven around the very large factory grounds, having various buildings pointed out to us. Then we were taken to a building where the side walls of RV's are made, and another building where we watched flooring being installed, which is done before any walls are installed. It was so hot in the factory that I forgot to take any pictures (the tour is on the catwalk up close to the ceiling, and it was HOT!) We took a tour at the Monaco factory several years ago, and we felt that it was a superior tour in every way - I remember seeing many different processes from start to finish. The Winnebago tour was pale by comparison. Nonetheless, we think they make a good product, although one man in our tour group, who was the owner of a new Winnebago Vectra motor home, was obviously not happy, and kept making remarks about how you could see how human error came into play!

The drive from Des Moines to St. Louis (Day 61 - July 18th) was pretty - I'll say it again, Iowa is a really beautiful state - but it is really hot! The temperature in St. Charles, where we are currently staying, just west of St. Louis, was over 100 degrees when we arrived. But we did expect it to be hot.

Our front air conditioner does not seem to be working tonight, so we will have to rely on the back one. Gary thinks it may have something to do with the quality of the power here in the RV park -- the quality of electric power can vary widely. We'll see..........