It's a 250-mile, four-hour drive to get to nearest spot with higher elevation and cooler temperatures. We spent that first night at the Raton Pass RV Campground. Our view out the front windshield showed the trees and mountains at 7,835 feet in elevation.
We cut the watermelon we bought at our grocery stop, and enjoyed an evening of cool weather outside. We had to change out of our shorts and into long pants. We love traveling where it is cool in the summer time!
The next day we stayed plugged in to our full-hook-up site until check-out time at noon. That's because we are headed to a Harvest Host site that has no hook-ups. We crossed another state line into Colorado this afternoon, then continued into Pueblo, Colorado. We wanted to make a stop in downtown Pueblo, but it's never easy to find a parking place for a motor home towing a pickup in any city. We actually stopped a policeman and got permission to park on a lonely side street where all the businesses were closed on a Sunday afternoon. He assured us that parking personnel were not working today, and he didn't have time to monitor parking.
From there, it was a short walk to the downtown river park.
This section of the park pays tribute to Zebulon Pike, who spotted a "small blue cloud" from here in 1806. After setting up camp in this area that later became the city of Pueblo, he and a small group of his men hiked closer. They discovered that cloud was actually a "grand peak." Even though they didn't make it to the top, that grand peak was named after him--Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs.
We enjoyed the sculptures that lined the walkways here in Pueblo. This section honored the founders of the Goodnight-Loving Trail that was used to move thousands of cattle to market. Mark is hanging out with Charles Goodnight and his horse today.
Denisa's favorite sculpture was of the very detailed Native American girl and her beautiful quilt blowing in the breeze.
Mark especially liked the one with the three groups of boys having a water fight with real water. Mark joined this group of boys for the fun.
Restaurants line this section of the river walk. For people not interested in walking, water taxi rides are also available. This was a beautiful place to be on a pleasantly cool summer afternoon in Pueblo.
After our walk downtown, we pulled into our Harvest Host's yard at 3:30 p.m. This was the first host that asked that we text when we arrived so they could greet us. We knew already that we were in for a treat! Jorgette came out to the motor home to let us know that her husband, Boris, would be starting the demonstration here at the Trolley Turner at 4:30.
We knew from the reviews that Boris uses his lathe to make beautiful wooden things. Each evening he demonstrates his craft to their Harvest Host guests. After introductions with us and one other RVer, he started with an 18-inch piece of cottonwood. Soon the chips started to fly from his lathe.
This is definitely an audience participation show, as he lets each of his guests get a feel for the lathe.
You might notice that Boris kept his hand on the tool while Denisa was carving. He's a smart man! But when it was Mark's turn, he had Mark setting up a new log on the lathe, and let him do the fancy grooving tool all by himself. Boris recognized who was the wood craftsman in the group. He's a smart man!
At the end of the audience-participation segment of the demonstration, we had a nice wooden mallet to take home that we helped make.
Then Boris brought out a big chunk of aspen to start a new project. Denisa took some "before" pictures so we would remember what it looked like when he started the magic at his lathe. He gets most of his wood from the dump where people leave them after they trim or cut down trees.
You can see the big curls of wood coming off the stump as his project spins in circles and then began to take shape.
It didn't take long before we could see the outside of a nice-sized wooden bowl.
But how is he going to get rid of all this junk inside?
He told stories as he began whittling down the inside. He makes this look so easy because he has 35 years of experience to gauge just the right speed for the lathe, and which tools are best to use for each step.
A minute later, he had finished his work on the lathe.
It will need some sanding later, but for now he wrote today's date and the names of the audience members that watched this bowl take shape.
After a coat of wax to slow down the drying process, Mark held up the almost-finished project. This bowl will go into a container to dry for a year, before it will be sanded and finished.
What a fun demonstration, and what great hosts we have found at our 4th Harvest Host stay! Since we don't have room in the motor home for large wooden bowls, we made a purchase from some of Jorgette's sewing handiwork that will become a present. After our two-hour demonstration and show, we took a break for dinner. During that time, we got a tour of our neighbor's RV. Corey graduated from college this spring, and he is spending the summer traveling in his newly renovated short bus. He did the work on the bus himself, with help from his grandparents. We loved getting a full tour of the many innovative ways he made use of his space.
We met again at 7:00 for social hour. Jorgette and Boris usually host a marshmallow roast, but the recent cold front made it too cold to be outside around a fire. We love it that we have found cool weather so soon! So they invited us into their home instead. Boris and Jorgette are the most gracious Harvest Hosts we have found! We got some good advice on possible things to do tomorrow that we are excited about. We are also excited to be on the road again--heading north out of the heat!
No comments:
Post a Comment