Colorado Springs, Colorado

This is a post that's long overdue.  We were in Colorado Springs in early April and it's almost JUNE!  I might have skipped it altogether but the Springs is such a neat place to visit, I couldn't pass it up.


We found this piece of art in front of one of the Colleges, the boys loved going through all the little cubbies and rooms.


This was another fun place to visit called "The Garden of the Gods".  The kids and I renamed it "The garden of God"  :D


The Garden is just a free place to take a walk.  Lots of paved walkways, pretty scenery and the dog was welcome.


These were the cliff dwellings just outside of Colorado Springs.  We were allowed to walk all through them and climb around, the boys thought it was really neat.


This was taken from Lower Gold Camp Rd., up in North Cneyenne Canon Park.  On the outskirts of Colorado Springs...


...Great place to drive up on the mountain for beautiful scenery.  The little dirt road had a handful of neat mountain pass through tunnels like this one.

Then of course I can't go anywhere new without looking for neat old houses...


Very cute purple house we saw after going to church on Sunday.




A mansion to big to get in one picture.


And while I was driving around - we came across some deer - Pete was really excited to see them.  The kids had passed out in the back seat and missed all the wuff wuffing.


A shed?  A child's playhouse?  I'm not sure, but it had it's own address, lol.

Ordway, Colorado

I can't believe it's been since February since I checked in... 

We're still in Ordway, still doing our best to help our oldest son.  We've been very blessed to get connected to some amazing people who are working hard along side of us to figure out how best to help our son succeed in his life.  We would really love any prayers you care to send up concerning our boy.


In the meantime we've spent lots of time exploring this small little town and the surrounding area's.  It's a nice place, very small town America.  Whether we're out walking or out driving, folks around here always wave, people are amazingly friendly which has made us feel right at home.  As friendly and warm as it is though, I should probably add that we wouldn't pick this place to live, we really can't wait to get back out on the road.  We really miss the adventure..


This is a little house that always catches my eye, I think it's just outside of Swink, Colorado.


This is one of the local feed lots in Colorado.  These places are a trip.  Until coming to Colorado, I have never even heard of "feedlots".  This place claims to have 7,000 cows.  They raise them until their ready to be...  Harvested?  Killed?  Not sure the right term on that.  This is actually America's beef.  The people who run these lots are very friendly and let us go see the cows, but it was kinda sad seeing the cows so close up.  Too much cow plop and urine in one place is just not good, lol.  It took 7 washes and some really good smelling hand sanitizer to get the smell off my hands after being licked several times by one of the cows.  I love cows, both to see, pet, and to have for lunch, but having that many cows jammed into such tight quarters is not so good.  One of the downsides of staying in Ordway is the smell from these feedlots.  It carries on the breeze for miles, and if you have laundry out drying on a line and the wind changes to your direction, you have to pull it in as soon as the cow smell is detectable or it will permeate your fresh laundry until it's rewashed.

Bleck.

Some other cool things we've found on our exploration around here are several different abandoned houses.  I am always drawn to old abandoned houses, seeing them always makes me want to go find out why they were left or what happened to their family


This place is south of us, just down the street.


This place is just down the road to the west.


Another interesting thing we've come across around here is this, creepy looking isn't it??


The first one I ran across was hanging onto Pete's foot as he whimpered and limped over me.  I was horrified, I thought it was some type of creature or bug.  Turns out it's a seed pod from a dried up plant - it's called a devils claw.  Seems appropriate when you see it huh?

More Dutch Baby Variations

I tried making Dutch Babies today in a muffin pan for the first time. It turned out great! If you'd like the recipe just click here.

Denver

Before we went up into the mountains I had to drive over to pick up Marty from the Denver airport. That's another city that might have been fun to spend a few days in.

Lots of entertainment as I pulled up to get him... Did you know the airport looks like a giant circus tent?

Weird huh?

They also have a huge, HUGE bronco statue out in front of the airport.

That was cool to see, I love horses. The street lights in the background look small compared to that horse, don't they?

I wish I had been prepared for those and gotten a better picture of each. I guess I'll be prepared if there is ever a next time.

ETA: (I made it back and did another post on the horse!)

On our way back down south we went through Denver again, and just outside the city on the outskirts of Golden, Colorado we spotted the strangest house from the interstate....

I wish I had gotten better pictures but I spotted it just as we were about to pass it and didn't have time to stop, or go in search of a better angle.

Isn't it strange?

I guess it's called "The sculptured house". It was also in the move "Sleeper" with Woody Allen and sometimes referred to as "The Sleeper house". This website has some photos that actually do this place justice if your curious.

And if you wanna see for yourself, I found the directions online! The house is located about 20 miles west of downtown Denver at 24501 Ski Hill Drive in Golden. Head west out of Denver on I-70 to Exit 254, toward Genesee Park. Turn left on US-40 eastbound, then right at South Genesee Mountain Road. After about a mile and a half, turn left on Genesee Avenue, then left again on Ski Hill Drive.

Colorado

Well here we are in Colorado.

We've been all over the state already and have now nestled down in a quiet little town, on a farm with some great new friends to work on a plan. I have a dream for our oldest son. And to honor his privacy I'll leave it at that.

Spending time up in the mountains was amazing.

Since we've started traveling I can't tell you how many times I've thought "what a small world we live in"... But being up in these mountains had me thinking how small we are in such a big world!

Can you see the lines of Gods paint brush?

Can you see the red dirt?

We spent a week up in the mountains, it was very peaceful. I still can hardly believe it, but half way through the week I came down with altitude sickness. Bleck, that is no fun. Everyday sometime after noon my head started to ache and my tummy started to go all queasy. Not fun. For the first time in my life I went to bed everyday at 7pm!

Thankfully we're down on the flats now. Altitude sickness is gone.

The Hank & Trish, who we're staying with have a beautiful American Four Square house. It was built in 1915 (I think) and was amazing to get a tour of. We even found a couple of planks in the floorboards upstairs that were loose and had some child's treasure hiding under, that was so neat to find! I love this style of house and being here has been so much fun for all of us. They're an amazing couple with some great kids.

They have dogs, cats, goats, chickens, horses, and even a little pig. All of my boys, including the dog, love it here!

The pig is young and is just a giddy little thing. Every time we go by her pen she seems to plead for us to give her attention, and yet she's a tad leery of people. So the other day I thought I'd see if our dog would play with her. Pete didn't really know what to think of a pig, but was happy to play fetch in her pen. The little pig was SO HAPPY! She ran with Pete, her little tail wiggling the whole time. We took a video that still cracks me up every time I see it...

In addition to the pig, they also have 4 goats. 3 females and one male.

The male goat has my heart. His name is Whirly. He's big, sweet, lets me snuggle his big knobby head and seems to have a wisdom in his slow and steady way. He is gentle with the children and tolerates the dogs (so long as the dogs leave him be). He can be let out of his pen, and he'll either find the stack of hay, or stay near his ladies. He's a good boy.

I left Pete in the pen with Whirly the other day while I took the boys into the females pen. Mr. Jealous wanted to come with us. Oh my you should have heard him cry. It sounded like a loud dove cooing. LJ couldn't even concentrate on seeing the female goats because Pete was in such a dither. Doesn't he just look pathetic? That's Pete giving his best pout right there.

These are the horses. The one on the left is a filly who's about a year old. The horse on the right is a mustang, stallion they got for free. No one has ever been able to get a halter on this horse, he really doesn't let you get near him except to take some grain out of your hand and split. The fun thing is that since we've been here they've really begun to work with him and as of today, Hank was able to pet his neck for the first time. Huge step forward for the horse. I'll have to keep you posted on his progress.

Well I'm off to hit the hay. Hope you all have a wonderful night, sleep tight!

Playing Catch-up

Wow it's been a long time since I've blogged.

Last I checked in with the blog, we were headed out of Louisiana headed for Texas. We stayed at an RV park just outside of San Antonio for the last part of December and into the new year. The best part about the park was that they had a hot tub. Oh my do I love relaxing in one of those. We tried to make it down there for a visit AT LEAST 3 times a week. All 4 of us loved it.

They also had a pool, but I never got beyond dipping my legs in it (my legs went numb from the cold almost instantly, lol). The pool isn't heated. Marty and BJ on the other hand were insane enough to jump in several times coming up SHOCKED from the frigid temperature every time. Really, those two are insane. Actually we even had another camper come over and tell them they were insane, lol! It was kinda funny.

Just past the white fence in the photos is a huge lake the RV park surrounds. It's stocked with fish and lots of ducks. The boys and I got into a daily routine of taking bread down to the lake to feed the fish and ducks, they really enjoyed that.

The other awesome thing was, they had wild turtles! Well, maybe they aren't considered wild, but they weren't in a tank at a pet store, so I guess that means their wild right? Back when I was a child we used to visit my family in Indiana and see turtles a lot, we'd stop, pick them up and take them home whenever we saw one. These turtles are much faster than the ones we use to find in Indiana. We were never able to get close to these Texas turtles before they'd race back into the water. Texas turtles were still very exciting to see though!

Also while we were in San Antonio LJ and I were able to break away and see the famous River Walk. It was beautiful down there. It's a famous walk along the San Antonio river, sunk below street level, right in the middle of town. The section I was able to walk was lined with nothing but restaurants. I was wishing they had shops down there but was still a beautiful walk.

LJ even got to stop and enjoy a duck!

We took a little break from our "vacation" to do something special for our son BJ, which is why we headed for Colorado. More about Colorado in the next post....

Doh!

Grrr, my cell phone went swimming with me tonight in the hot tub....

Maybe a good way to start off the new year?

Happy New Year Everyone!

Oak Alley Plantation

After we left New Orleans we decided to swing by and old famous plantation I've wanted to visit for YEARS.

This is Oak Alley Plantation. Isn't it amazing?

Even now I still can't believe we actually were able to visit this place. Living up in Alaska I just got to thinking most of these neat places I'd dreamed of visiting would only ever be a dream.

I really do love our life. God has blessed us incredibly. Even the boys had a great time.

These trees are 300 yr old "Live Oaks" that were planted sometime in the early 1700's. They have a life expectancy of 600 years.

600 YEARS.

Seems like a long time doesn't it?

I wondered why they were calling them "Live Oaks" - I guess live oaks don't go dormant in the winter but stay green and growing all year long. The person who planted them in the alley formation that stretches over a quarter of a mile didn't build this house and never got the benefit of such grandeur. Bummer for that guy.

The house is a greek-revival style antebellum home. The strangest tidbit we learned was that one of the owners use to open the front and back doors and hold horse races where the horses raced right through the main hall of the home. They raced in the front and out the back door (or vice versa, I'm not sure), totally destroying the original marble floors. The guy must have been insane.

This was absolutely worth the side trip, if your in the area you can't miss seeing this place.

New Orleans, Louisiana

We were able to stop in and spend a few days in New Orleans. Wow. What a town that is!

We stayed at an RV park inside the French Quarter called "The French Quarter RV Resort". Although it was more expensive than we would usually pay, 1.) it was within walking distance from the center of it all, 2.) it was a bit like a fortress with high walls and 24 hour security, and 3.) they had loads of amenities which worked perfect for a 2 night stay. Getting to sink into a steamy hot tub was SO nice. One of the few things I miss about our house is my soaker tub. I took some photo's around the park if you're curious, click here to see the first photo and then hit "Newer" just above and to the right of the photo to see the rest of the park.

When we rolled into New Orleans it was getting dark but as we drove by the back wall of the RV park we saw a high brick wall with crumbling tomb roofs peaking out over the top. I have never seen a New Orleans style cemetery with tombs, it was even weirder to see such a little peak of decay.

In New Orleans the water table is said to be to high to bury people underground, so they are laid to rest in above ground tombs.

I really wanted to go see the cemetery the next day. When I asked the receptionist at the RV park about it she and another guy both said we should not go into that cemetery AT ALL. Not even in the day. I have to admit I was a bit annoyed at that answer. We were really in awe with the sneak peak we had seen, how could we not see the rest?? She explained that the RV park was right on the edge of the French quarter, the other half of the park faced "Tremes", one of the worst area's of New Orleans (according to her). She said the projects lined the side of that cemetery and was full of crime. She repeated back to me like 3 times, "do not go over there".

That wasn't what I was wanting to hear.

I went back to the RV and googled and googled and found the cemetery is called St Louis Cemetery No. 2. and dates back to 1823. From what little we saw, it looked that old. One website said of all the cemetery's in New Orleans this one was in the worst shape, not because of hurricane Katrina but because of it's location. I also saw a few of the websites warned not to go into this particular cemetery claiming the location was in such a high crime area. I just couldn't imagine people just standing by in the middle of the day waiting to pounce on those wanting to visit a cemetery. Call me naive, call me stupid, call me sheltered, but I just kept thinking people must be making a mountain out of a mole hill by saying one shouldn't visit a cemetery in the middle of the afternoon. In the middle of broad daylight. In the middle of a city. After all I didn't run across any reports of people being robbed in the cemetery...

So the next day we drove by and saw people in the cemetery taking pictures and touring as we had wanted. One lady looked like she was from Wisconsin wearing a cute patterned sweater. So we decided it looked like a pretty safe crowd to join.

I'm so glad we were able to see it.

What a strange and amazing walk that was. We've really never seen such a place. We are not at all into cemetery's, the dead, or even horror shows - this just seemed different. Historic. I don't think I've ever been in such an old place - aside from the earth itself.

Beauty within disrepair.

Apparently each tomb doesn't belong to one person, but whole families. When a person dies they are laid to rest in the family tomb. After two years there is said to be nothing but bones left. One website said it can get up to 800 degrees in those things (wondering if that could really be true?) to explain the quick decomposition.. So anytime after that 2 years (some cemetery's only require a 1 year wait) the family can open up the tomb once the next family member passes away. I guess they just move the previous persons bones to the back or off to the side and put in the next person in. Wait the period of time deemed by the cemetery and you can add another deceased family member. And so on for centuries.

It was just mind blowing.

Some of the tombs were in good shape, but many were crumbling down. A few very old were even crumbled open and 2 even showed the bones. Not laid out, but a big heap. Left like that for years. One tomb we saw had so many buried in it the bones were a couple feet deep inside. I just couldn't believe such a place existed in the U.S. Our walk through the cemetery can be found here, but be warned 2 of the photos show the bones.

It was amazing, yet chilling, and sobering.

And I haven't even told you of all the strange voodoo practices that involve certain tombs. Such a different place New Orleans is....

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Anyway, enough of graves and cemetery's. We were able to tour the French Quarter...

The Garden District....

Tremes, which has so much beauty in the old buildings, many of which were abandoned.

Just about every part of New Orleans was like visiting a completely different world from Alaska. I'd love to go back and explore the city more someday.