Work camping and life.....

The pancake breakfast went off well....after we almost burnt down the pavilion with a grease fire. But then after that it went smoothly. We served pancakes, bacon, eggs and sausage. It was kind of a juggling act keeping them all going at the same time but it worked out.  The whole Memorial Day weekend went well and the park was packed. They had several activities including a DJ in the pavilion on Saturday night. Kids and adults were dancing and it was fun to watch. We spent a lot of time cleaning up when it was all over.

On our next days off, we went on another hike, this time on the other side of our first hike as we had never reached both lakes. This hike was longer but quite a bit easier as the elevation gain was much slower and not as great as we drove farther up to the trailhead.  We saw a few people this time since the snow has melted and the passage was much easier.

    Spooky knot in an aspen tree

    Great reflection in the lake

    A little snow snack

During this time off we also went on a 20 mile bike ride into town and looked around at a festival that was going on. And of course grocery shopping and laundry takes up more time.

We spent the four days after our days off working in the park. To be honest, it is not thrilling stuff....I clean bathrooms and cabins along with the other women work campers and Sean works with the guys doing basic maintenance stuff.  I also spent about six hours staining the cabins one day.  But, the days go quickly.  On our next day off our employers paid for us all to go river rafting down Browns Canyon. We had rafted down Browns about 18 or so years ago with our best friends Brad and Lisa and we have great memories of the trip so we were thrilled to be going again and this time for free!  However, Colorado experienced huge snowfall this winter and the river is at record breaking speed and height. So even though I was thrilled to go I had to admit I was a bit anxious.  And even though it is June, the water is freezing! Luckily Kathy, our boss, also rented full wetsuits to make the trip warmer.  When we broke into our two rafts, Sean and I were in a raft with a single lady we work with named Sharon. She is the most petite woman I have ever seen! Literally she is under 5 feet tall and easily under 100 pounds! But she is a great worker! She is retired school teacher and we have allot of fun chatting when we work together. The other lady is named Lora and she is married but her husband doesnt work with us and didn't want to go on the raft trip because he has a fear of water.  Both ladies are quite a bit older then us and I think they were glad to be in a raft with Sean. He is certainly the youngest and by far the strongest of our fellow employees. To be honest, I was darn glad to be in his raft too! He and I took the front rowing positions as that was the roughest spot.  I was nervous but knew I would rather be slightly in control of the situation then not, so off we went! Our guide Matt was all of 21 but had been guiding for four years. He was funny but did make quite the point of telling us all how dangerous the water was and how important it was to listen to his commands.  I certainly had every intention of obeying his every command....even if he is only 21!

The river and canyon were incredibly beautiful. We had some very thrilling moments and nobody fell out of the raft though the guide did grab our two employee ladies a few times and pull them back into the raft. I didn't even realize this until we looked at the photos! Poor Sharon...>100 pounds is tough to keep in a raft when going over rapids! For the first time in my life, I was glad to be a bit heavier then that....just a few pounds! Lol! And during the roughest and hair raising part of the trip Sean is laughing and grinning like I have never seen! He loves the adrenaline rush! I was just too busy praying for my life and frantically paddling to do much laughing. Sean also had our go pro video camera (his retirement gift from Brad and Lisa) attached to his helmet.  The video was really fun to watch afterwards and I especially loved hearing my husband laugh at the scariest moments....luckily you couldn't hear me gasping for air as we paddled frantically through the rapids. I think the best part of these type of adventures is when you can pat yourself on the back for doing something out of the ordinary and physically challenging and then go get a margarita!

       Notice the huge grin!

    Our two rafts. We are the second one.

 After our raft trip, we stopped at a local cantina and had a terrible taco lunch though the margarita was good but we sat outside and saw this pup. He is a Newfoundland and will weigh over 150 pounds.  He is only 12 weeks old in this photo but a HUGE giant fur baby!

The next day we did another 20 mile bike ride. We rode an old railroad path that went along the Arkansas river and through three old tunnels.  It was a good ride but I was still exhausted from the day before and I was glad to get home!

    

Today we went to Colorado Springs and went to Costco and a few other errands. Colorado Springs is two hours away so it was a long day. Both Sean and I decided that it might be a better idea to work camp closer to a bigger city then we are now. That way big grocery shopping and other errands would be easier plus it would be nice to go to a movie or something too. We will keep this in mind in the future.

As a side note we applied to Amazon again. We cancelled out last Christmas season because we just felt like the long drive to Nevada after Meghan's volleyball season wouldn't be worth it. So this time we applied to the Kansas facility.  This is only a days drive from Forth Worth so we could make the trip much faster. We probably won't be able to make it to San Diego for Christmas but we can be there a day or so after. We are feeling the need to restock our savings and working at Amazon will be the fastest way to do it.

We return to work tomorrow and Meghan will be coming out to visit soon so I will have more to write after her visit.

Getting settled in Buena Vista

The weather has warmed up a bit and the snow has melted in the low country. We ended up having several nights getting as low as 18! Our Montana is not really meant for those low temps, but we did just fine. Sean filled our tanks and we unhooked from the faucet to help prevent freezing.  Here are some chilly May weather photos here in our campground.

After the storms passed, we went walking behind the Rv park and found what looks to be a bone yard of dead deer. I am not sure where they all come from but it was kind of weird!

We have finally gotten to do a little hiking.  I had no idea how much the elevation can hamper ones breathing and then consequently, make ones heart go pitter patter!  We have done only two hikes other then walking around here.  Buena Vista is around 8000 feet and it seems most hikes go UP!  Our first hike was close to town and only had about a 500 foot elevation gain but it wore us out and it was only 4 miles.

    Kayaker practicing on the Arkansas river

Our next hike was quite a bit more challenging with a 1200 foot elevation gain.  We hiked up to beautiful spot called Harvard lake and it's final elevation was 10,200.  My ap rated it as a moderate hike but that rating must be by people who live here and are use to the elevation gain! I had to go very slowly to deal with the elevation. Sean is feeling it too but not near as badly as me. Remi seems to have no issues with any of it and loves all the forest smells!  Also most trails are not officially open here until June and we know why now. We came upon quite a bit of snow on the trail and since most of those parts bordered a creek, you had no choice but to plunge through it.  Sean and I had some problems here and there but poor Remi would break through sometimes and all four legs would be stuck in the snow drift. Sean would grab his harness and pluck him out. Ahh the look on his face when he was stuck was priceless! The follies of having only 6 inch legs!

    Harvard Lake

Our job is going well. Sean works with the guys doing maintenance stuff and I work with the ladies cleaning cabins and bathrooms.  I also may help out in the store from time to time and Sean and I have been made the official breakfast cooks.  We cook our first breakfast for the park this Saturday.  People actually will be paying for this breakfast so we are feeling a bit pressured.  It was one thing to cook free pancakes at the Riviera resort in Blythe and another to charge $6 or $7 for a pancake breakfast with eggs and bacon or sausage! Hopefully we are successful. If not, I guess they can ask another one of the couples to give it a try.

One of the couples that we started to work with ended up leaving after only the second day of work.  They were our age and from San Antonio, Texas and had been full timing for a year just like us. Turns out there 10 year old granddaughter was put into foster care and they had to go back and legally adopt her and her half sister so as to spare them from the foster system. So at 50+ they are going to start all over raising two little girls and in a motorhome as they sold their house before hitting the road.  I felt so bad for them! Not that we all don't love our grandchildren and we would do the same, but to start this lifestyle of full time RVing, then have to put it on hold for another 8 years or so..... It had to be hard.  I wish them the best.

Currently we are working 4 days on and four days off, however, we ended up helping out an extra day this go around.  It takes a lot to get a campground ready to go after being shutdown all winter.  This Memorial Day weekend is sort of the kick off to the season and the owners are expecting us to be quite busy.  However, Denver is getting hit with some weird hail storms and tornado warnings.  That might slow some folks down from heading out.  It is clouding up and thundering here now but I don't think the area is expecting the same issues as Denver. Or at least not to the same degree.  We shall see! 

    Deer out our window a few days ago

BRRRRRRRRR!!

We have moved on from Moab and into Colorado! 

 Taken out the truck window

We spent a few days in Grand Junction trying to sit out some colder weather farther north and were somewhat successful not knowing we were going to get hit with a cold blast once we got to Buena Vista. As I sit cuddled up and cozy writing the blog, a storm has rolled into the Buena Vista area and could drop up to a foot of snow on us! But I digress a bit. First, Grand Junction, Fruita and the Colorado National Monument. We had originally only planned on staying a night or two but after we started looking around and seeing all that there was to do, we added a few days to our stay.

After we got settled in, we wanted to do a hike with Remi, and the Colorado National Monument, like the last few national parks we have been in, was not pet friendly. So I used a new ap I downloaded called AllTrails. It uses GPS and locates you then comes up with a list of hikes with details, directions and some reviews. I found one that sounded interesting as it was a canyon with a creek, a waterfall and many sightings of mountain sheep AND it was pet friendly so it seemed to fit the bill.  The canyon is called Dominguez Canyon and it was a little over an hour away. The drive was nice and we hit the trailhead with great expectations. However, other then it being a nice day and a well worn path, the hike was a bit disappointing. You only hiked next to the creek for about a mile then it veared away. We stopped and looked frequently on the rocky side for mountain sheep but we never saw any. Lastly we kept waiting to see the waterfall and we never did see that either. We thought that maybe what the ap was referring to was what looked like could be a waterfall during a rain or maybe once the snow pack starts to melt, but for now it was just a rock carved out.  Even Remi seemed a bit disappointed since we were the only people on the trail and he didn't get to see any other dogs.  But it was 7 miles of sun and forest so one really can't complain!

Nice path

Maybe that was the waterfall?

Some guy I picked up on the trail...

The next day was very windy and chilly so we did some grocery shopping and a drive by trip of the Colorado National Monument. We stopped and looked at a few things but after having just been to the Grand Canyon and Arches, this monument paled by comparison. 

We saw this rig in Arches too. We think he may be ready for the zombie apocalypse.

The next day we decided to check out Fruita and some of the local winery's.  We wine tasted at two winery's (however there were many, many more) and shared a calzone at a local eatery. We also walked around a bit and checked out the local architecture.  Fruita had some really cute old Victorians and many orchards. I would like to be here during the harvest season as I know you can get some great fruit and other produce.  My sister in law Yvonne, grew up in the area and I remember her and my brother coming here and getting tons of fruit she would take home and then can. I have not canned and certainly won't start now, but I would love some fresh peaches!

The next day was our final day and the weather was still iffy so we decided to stay close for our hike and did one in the monument. It was a beautiful hike and as we were almost to the end and we thought we might get cheated on the wildlife watching again as there were about 60 or so kids broken into three groups hiking and mountain climbing. However we lucked out and spotted this snake. He was going pretty slow due to the cooler temps so we could snap some photos.

We pointed him out to a couple hiking behind us and he actually picked him up. We stopped and chatted with the couple a bit. They were on a one year camping trip in a smaller travel trailer. They were very interested in our full time life so we chatted for a bit and moved on the trail together to then spot the holy grail of animal watching....the Colorado Rocky Mountain big horn sheep!! Yeah! Our hike was a complete success!!

Me being eaten by another rock monster

The next day we packed up and headed onto the final leg of our trip (at least until September) and were shocked to see so much snow on Vail pass! Colorado got plenty of snow this winter and on into spring. The locals are hoping for a banner rafting season.

Brrrrr.........! Hard to believe it is May

We got to our summer work camping job at Arrowhead Campground and met our summer bosses Joe and Cathy.  They are close to our age and very nice.  We moved into our spot and got set up and ready for the snow storm that is here today and tomorrow.  Yesterday we drove to Buena Vista and Salida to just reacquaint ourselves with the area. We lived in Canon City which is about 80 or so miles away back when the kids were little.  The area hasn't changed too much and it was sort of weird being back where we had camped so much with the kids.  We saw this sign in Salida and thought it was words to live by!

We should be starting our jobs tomorrow so the blogging may slow down a bit but meanwhile we are staying cozy in front of our fireplace! Happy Mother's Day to all!!!