Our Mothers always seem glad to see us when we show up in the panhandle of Oklahoma, and we're glad to see them as well! They are 89- and 91-years old, and they still like to be visited by their babies. Since we are hitting the pause button on our travels for a couple months, we hang out with our mothers as much as possible. We try to do some "honey-do" list items for them, and chaffeur them places. Mark took his Mother to visit her 93-year-old sister. We chaffeured Denisa's Mother to three doctor's appointments in three days. Two of those were in Oklahoma City, so we had a little stint in the city. That's a good place to visit more Oklahoma relatives. That would include one of our sons and his wife, and their puppy (that no longer looks like a puppy).
Our daughter-in-law's parents bought the other male in the litter, so we took the two brothers for a walk in the new Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City.
It was the grand opening weekend for this grand park. It gets its name from the scissortail flycatcher, Oklahoma's state bird. The scissortail is also the inspiration for this 200-foot metal sculpture over the Skydance bridge. This pedestrian bridge is over Highway I-40 that runs through Oklahoma City. It's quite a sight when it is lit up in multi-color splendor at night.
Scissortail Park is adjacent to the Skydance bridge, and phase two of the park construction will include the grassy area on the other side of the highway. For now, the completed section of the new park is filled with state-of-the-art playgrounds, including this over-sized splash pad.
Water squirting suddenly out of different holes was a very confusing concept for two golden retriever puppies.
We're only a couple miles from the site of the Murrah Building Bombing that rocked this city to the core back in 1995. Now a national memorial, it includes a very well-done museum and an impressive tribute to the 168 people that died in the explosion. At the highest point of the memorial is "The Survivor Tree." This 100-year-old elm "burned but did not break," and is a living tribute to the bombing victims. Scissortail Park includes a young clone of that survivor tree.
The puppies' favorite part of Scissortail Park was the all-new dog area. After being on a leash all day, they were ready for some off-leash brotherly romping.
After a cool and cloudy start to the day, the sun came out while we were in the dog park. When Mark found the little shade tree, he became very popular with all the dogs.
It got so warm that our golden retriever puppies turned the drinking water container into a doggy pool. They took turns soaking, much to the chagrin of other thirsty playmates.
We also enjoyed time with both of Denisa's sisters and several of our nieces and nephews that live in the Oklahoma City area. We played a friendly game of bean bag toss, and Denisa still is not sure why Mark was taking pictures of her throwing form. She might not get the most bean bags in the hole, but she certainly should get some points for highest backward leg lift.
Our family get-together included the oldest and youngest members of Denisa's side of the family. That would be our youngest niece's youngest daughter and Denisa's 89-year-old Mother (who will still get down on the floor to play with her great-grandchildren.)
We love seeing everyone, but the real reason for the stint in Oklahoma City was to take Denisa's Mother to a couple doctors' appointments. She had a heart attack this summer, and she was scheduled for a heart catheter procedure this week. They found a 90% blockage, so they inserted a stent to open up that artery. It is truly amazing what they can do from a quarter-inch incision in the wrist!
But that wrist can't lift anything for three days, so Denisa did some home-nursing and more chaffeuring when we got back to Beaver. Our days have changed from hiking in the mountains to walking puppies and chaffeuring our Mothers. It's a nice balance to our lives to come off the road for a while to spend time with family. Sometimes that includes a stint in the city to get a stent for a heart.
The last leg of our trip back to Oklahoma is through the eastern edge of Colorado, and then across the state line into Kansas.
We drove through the southwestern corner of Kansas on this cloudy day, where the horizon is totally flat and we can see for miles. It's a good thing that we enjoy the changing agricultural scene around us, because that's all there is to see in this section of the state. We love the rust-colored fields of maize that are almost ready for harvest in the fall.
The crop below was new to us, as we have never seen an onion field being harvested in Kansas.
We met countless trucks filled with silage, as the corn stalks were coming down in the fields on both sides of the highway.
It must have been a good corn harvest, because the grain elevators are full and the excess grain is being dumped into massive round mounds on the ground.
We didn't make any stops on this final leg, and we didn't pass through any cities. The only skyscrapers in this section of Kansas would be the tall grain elevators that are evidence of the importance of agriculture to western Kansas.
We always pick up speed as we get closer to our old stomping grounds. We've seen these little towns many times before, and they're not exactly on the tourist bucket list even for first-timers. It wasn't long before we crossed the Oklahoma state line into the panhandle.
We pulled into Beaver County, Oklahoma, where both of us were born and raised. Our mothers still live here, and we're planning to stay for a while. We tucked our motor home into its parking space on the ranch--between the house and the tornado shelter. Welcome to Oklahoma! Because of upcoming cold weather, we had to winterize the motor home sooner than usual.
Our motor home travel season is officially over until we head south after the holidays. So blog entries will be less frequent as we change from travel time to family time. We had a great time on our trip to the Canadian Rockies, but we like a little time in the plains of the Midwest as well.
We enjoyed some free camping to finish up our travels this summer. We spent one night at Cabella's parking lot in Colorado Springs for free. Our main reason to stop here was to visit friends. But we also did a 3-mile hike in the nearby city of Monument, Colorado. We got a late start on our hike, and the sun was already setting by the time we made it to our destination--Monument Rock. This is a sizable rock, as Denisa is looking pretty small standing at the base.
Even though it is wide from one angle, that same rock looks pretty thin when we took its picture from a different angle. It's fitting that Mark is standing at the base for this thin view, as he is looking mighty thin himself. We don't own a scale, but it will be interesting to see how much weight he has lost this summer with all our rigorous hikes. He has run out of holes in his belt, as he keeps having to tighten it. Denisa is going on the same rigorous hikes, but without the same dramatic results.
Then we headed to southern Colorado Springs to meet one of Mark's cousins. Jerry started Heidrich's Colorado Tree Farm Nursery many years ago. Now he has three of his children running the business while he is semi-retired.
We are visiting at the end of the planting season, when their inventory is at the lowest. But we could see that this is a big business.
Jerry gave us a personal tour of the nursery, and we also got to see Levi, Katie, and Joel at work. So we had another day of spending time with family members.
Jerry invited us to park our motor home at his house south of Colorado Springs, so we got two more nights of free camping! We were a little worried if we would fit under the entry-way to his land, so we measured before we got there. Whew! We even had a foot to spare.
The view from under that entry is of Pikes Peak, lit up by the setting sun.
We were surrounded by pronghorns, getting to see them in the yard and corrals and lounging around the motor home.
We had just witnessed elk rut season in Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we are experiencing pronghorn rut as the males seemed to be chasing the girls. Pronghorns are some of the fastest land animals anywhere, so this could be a very fast chase.
Jerry also took us to see his other 80-acres higher in the mountains. Covered in Ponderosa Pine, he bought this land to resell the trees at the nursery, and now he has a summer retreat that stays cool.
When we left Jerry's house, we headed south and east through the flat, flat plains of eastern Colorado. After spending months in the Rocky Mountains this summer, we are officially out of the mountains as we drive across Colorado. The land around us is achingly flat, with no mountains to be seen.
We have two more Colorado stops to make in this flat country. First is Bent's Old Fort National Monument.
Built by the Bent brothers in 1833, it was the center of trade with trappers and the local Indians. It also served as a great stop-over for pioneers heading west on the Santa Fe Trail.
Even though it looks like a military fort, it was privately owned and operated. The Bent brothers enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the area Indians that came to trade goods here. It was fun to tour all the rooms built into the walls of the fort, and to stand in the middle of its plaza imagining life here almost 200 years ago.
The fort's resident cat is standing guard over the merchandise in the general store. Just like Denisa, this cat often closes his eyes when photographed.
Our last stop was in Rocky Ford, Colorado. This little town is known for its sweet cantaloupe, and we were lucky to get some of the last melons harvested for the year. We stopped at a couple of the road-side markets along the highway in this area. We bought two watermelons, nine cantaloupes, a box of Colorado peaches, and some just-picked sweet corn. It's a good thing that we are heading where there will be people to help us eat all this!
For our fourth and final free night of camping, we pulled into the Walmart parking lot in Lamar, Colorado. As we always do, we asked permission and got instructions on the best place to park our motor home overnight. Then we went inside to do some shopping. That would include the RV antifreeze we'll need to winterize the motor home soon. Mark also boosted the local economy by stopping in for a haircut. We won't be stopping in Lamar for another cut, however, as Mark would tell you it is his worst haircut in our five years of travel. With all this free camping, perhaps we can afford a good haircut when we get to Oklahoma!
As we're heading south, we're getting into the territory where more of our friends and family live. So we planned several days around seeing them. We spent an afternoon visiting with Denisa's aunt and cousin's family in Highland Ranch, Colorado. We had a great time seeing their new house and catching up with them . . . but we forgot to take a picture.
The next day we stopped by Parker, Colorado, to spend time with Mark's 91-year-old uncle in an assisted-living center. We had a great time hearing old stories from him . . . but we forgot to take a picture.
The next day we traveled to Colorado Springs to spend time with good friends that moved there several years ago. We had a great day playing pickle ball and they hosted us for brunch in their lovely home . . . but we forgot to take a picture.
We usually take too many pictures, and now we're not taking any. We must be getting out of our usual travel mode as we are getting closer to Oklahoma. After being far away from anyone we knew for the last four months, it was so good to see people that we love again!
This might be the shortest post ever, and the first to not include any pictures. So as we're nearing the end of our travels in the mountains, we'll include a cloud-less sunset that includes the last of those Colorado peaks on the horizon. We might forget to take pictures of dear family and friends, but for some reason we remembered a photo of the sunset.
When we left Estes Park, Colorado, we wanted to spend some time in Denver. The only problem with that plan was that everyone else must want to spend some time in Denver. After finding all the state parks already full, we were lucky to find a camp site at Chief Hosa Campground west of the city. That means that we have quite a drive to get to Denver, but we get the mountain views instead of the city views.
That also means we're only a few miles from one of Jefferson County's "Open Spaces." A one-cent sales tax was passed many years ago to fund these green spaces that are dotted all over this county. We went to the Lookout Mountain Nature Center to get a couple miles of exercise on the Meadow and Forest Loop Trail.
It's not exactly like the national park trails we have been enjoying, but it was a beautiful day to be outside. The praying mantis is also not quite as fun as the elk we have been seeing on our trails. But he is still the wildlife picture of the day.
Also just down the road is the Buffalo Bill Cody museum and grave site. We were surprised at how full the parking lot was on a weekday afternoon after Labor Day. Buffalo Bill obviously is still a well-followed figure in history.
People from all over the world still make the pilgrimage to come lay a coin on his grave. The tradition started with his Lakota Indian friends placing buffalo head nickels, but now any coin will do.
Buffalo Bill asked to be buried on Lookout Mountain, and we found that there are great views from here. From one viewpoint, we could see the city of Denver sky-line, and the smaller city of Golden in front of it. But we much preferred the viewpoint that looks out over the mountains. This signboard labels the mountains that we can see from here. Many of them are over 13,000 feet tall.
We zoomed in on one particularly interesting peak. Engelmann Peak is one of the tallest mountains in the area at 13,362 feet.
When we looked out over the horizon to spot Engelmann Peak, we found the smoke of a new wildfire instead.
On the news that night we would find out that this wildfire just started this afternoon. In fact, the road that we used today in our drive from Estes Park, was shut down soon after we passed because of the smoke.
We made another stop at a famous site just a few miles from our campground. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is well-known for bringing big name performers to this natural outdoor venue. From our parking lot, we walked up almost 300 steps to see it for ourselves.
We were surprised to see all the cars in the parking lot on a Saturday morning. But we would soon find out that all those people were here to exercise. Hundreds of people use this massive amphitheatre to run the steps . . .
or do yoga. It was amazing to see so many people exercising in God's wonders today!
Mark took a picture of Denisa standing in the row straight across from him. But the picture is really of the massive red rocks that frame this stage on both sides. If you look down to the bottom of all those rows of seats, you can see the stage. It must be a great place to attend a concert.
After making some neat stops that were close to our campground, we ventured into the city as well. We went to a festival in the park in the suburb of Aurora, and we went to the farmer's market in Golden. We also drove into downtown Denver. On all of these trips, we traveled east on Highway 70. There is a quite an elevation loss as we headed down into Denver, and we just had to take pictures of the highway signs that warn the truckers about this steep descent.
While cars can drive this section at 65 mph, the speed limit for vehicles over 26,000 pounds is just 45 mph. We will be driving down this steep section of the interstate when we leave in our 26,000 pound motor home, so we are taking note of the seriousness of the truck signs that will also apply to us.
We eventually found ourselves right smack in the middle of downtown Denver, with skyscrapers all around us. We're glad to be in the car instead of the motor home today. We're here because it is the annual Smithsonian Museum Day. Participating museums all over the country allow people to download free admission tickets on this special day each fall. Over the last five years we've taken advantage of Smithsonian Museum Day in locations all over the country, and this year it takes us to downtown Denver.
We had several choices in the metropolitan area, but we chose the History of Colorado Museum in Denver because of its many great reviews. We were greeted to the lobby with one of the highway signs that welcomed us to the state of Colorado.
They have some great displays about Colorado's interesting past and present. Some of the displays are interactive, like this one about one of the Denver Bronco's most devoted fans. Tim McKernan wore a barrel, boots, and a hat (and nothing else) on a bet to a game in 1977. He won the bet by getting on TV, and then continued showing up to the games in this non-traditional garb for thirty years.
We also participated in this display that demonstrated the look and feel of ski jumping. Mark landed his jump, while Denisa fell miserably.
We went to the 3D show about the dust storms of the 1930's. It was housed in a little theatre that looked like an eastern Colorado farm house that was hit hard by the drought.
We love the annual Smithsonian day, that saved us $28 today because it allowed us to go to this first-rate museum for free. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the History of Colorado Museum, even though it was bit rushed. We also had a very rushed trip to the Colorado state capitol that is just a couple blocks away. We just took a quick picture of the outside of the building, as we'll have to make another trip to Denver to tour the inside.
We would have loved to stay another day or two in Denver, but we couldn't extend our stay at the Chief Hosa Campground. That's because they are closing the gates for the season when we leave. We're feeling a little rushed as the camping season is coming to a close in the mountains around us. It must be time to head further south!
