Blog Two, Dates: June 19, 2022 – July 15, 2022

Proverbs 17:17  “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”

Resort Neighbors have been overwhelmingly kind to us since we bought our RV lot at the end of last season. We have been invited over to their places for a birthday party, appetizers, and dinner, and to be introduced to their family and friends. We were finally able to entertain a little at our place after all the yardwork and settling in this season. There was dinner, a game of L-R-C (left, right, center), dessert, and just visiting together. Eight is about the maximum number of people we can entertain in our small outdoor space.

The neighbors told us about hot dog hill last season, and this year we were invited to join a group to go up to hot dog hill. It actually is up on a hill overlooking this beautiful privately owned farm. The group goes up to this remote spot, they make a bomb fire and everyone cooks their hotdogs or hamburgers over the bomb fire. The scenery is beautiful and it’s a fun time sitting around the campfire. Brian, a retired fireman is in charge of building the fire and putting the fire out which he does with diligence.

Our first full season at Mountain Views RV Resort has been fun-filled with visits from friends and family. We are happy to be able to share our experiences on all the trails, and the beautiful sites of this park with our visitors.

Good friends and neighbors from home, Bruce and Cindy were at their place at Copper Mountain, Colorado, and came for a few day’s visit. We were able to take them through the Bachelor’s Loop side-by-side (SxS) trail up to the Continental Divide their first evening, enjoying dinner in Creede after the ride. The next day we did a full day’s ride, trailering our SxS to Bristol Head Trails. It was a beautiful day, with beautiful wildflowers covering much of the scenic drive. We stopped to have lunch at the secluded Crystal Lake. The water is so clear, that you can see the many fish swimming close to shore. On our trip back down after Crystal Lake, we saw an adult female deer run away as we approached in our SxS, leaving behind this newly born baby fawn on the side of the dirt trail. Karen and Cindy could not get this small baby fawn out of their minds, thinking something might have been wrong with the baby, but others reassured them that the Momma Doe was probably close by, watching and waiting until it was safe to come back to rescue her baby.

After our Bristol Head ride, we drove over to the South Clear Creek Falls. It’s a beautiful scenic site, just across the street from the parking area to take the Bristol Head SxS trail. Bruce and Cindy brought Brody, their four-legged companion on our rides, and he was a real trooper. We thoroughly enjoyed the short visit with our good friends.

The day after our friends’ visit, Karen flew to Dallas to attend our sister-in-law’s funeral that was conducted in Silsbee, Texas. Thankfully, daughters Sandi and Mandy along with Lily, granddaughter, made the drive to Silsbee with her. The funeral was at 1 pm on Thursday, June 30.

After the funeral, driving back to Dallas the next day, Karen spent a few days at home dealing with squirrel problems, noticing the bark of our 15-year-old mature and beautiful Japanese Maple had been chiseled away and learning it was squirrels. This was something we had never experienced. Karen flew back to Creede on Sunday, July 3.

July 4 in Creede is a big deal. We had been told about the festivities last year, our first year at Mountain Views RV Resort, and personally experiencing it this year, we agree, that it is a big deal. So much fun! All the campers in the Resort have an opportunity to participate in the Creede downtown parade. Anyone who wants can get in line for the SxS ride through the entire park, afterward continuing to get into a long line along the road from the entrance of Bachelor’s Loop, riding through the curb-line of people. The uniqueness of all the decorated SxSs was a sight to see. SxSs pulling a flat-bed trailer decorated like a float, a fishing boat decorated and pulled by a SxS, all kinds of cool decorations. Next year, we’ll be more prepared. We learned that the SxSs throw out candy or beads to the curb-fill of people where many of the observers are children with hands reached out to catch the goodies. We had a few children come up to our SxS that slowly moves along the parade to pet Mayah, our Toy Aussie, and she was our most popular feature. That evening the owners of our Resort, the Zimmerman’s put on an awesome fireworks display from the top of the hill, just over the Rio Grande River.

The local Creede newspaper had a front-page article on the July 4th festivities, boasting the large crowd that has come to love the holiday celebrated in our little town of Creede. The town has mining competitions, a popular parade, vendors, shopping, and a wonderful place to visit on July 4, although parking is a challenge. Our great neighbors had their SxS decorated with a blow-up Uncle Sam July 4th that was one of the featured pictures in the newspaper article.

On July 5 Cathy, our sister, Dean, our brother-in-law, and their good friends Kevin and Karen arrived for a visit. They were due on July 6 but decided to come in a day early. We had been trying to get them a rental site near us in the lessee area of the Resort since they first made their reservations several months ago. A few days before they were to arrive, a lessee spot opened up two over from our site. They rented a 4-seater Mule SxS on a day with no rain predictions, and wow what a beautiful day it was. The Creede Adventure rentals are across the street from our Resort, and they allow you to pick up the rental after 4:30 pm the day before your rental begins. As we did with our good friends and neighbors, the night we picked up the rental, the six of us took a ride through Bachelor’s Loop. We didn’t go all the way up to the Continental Divide, just did the loop. There were lots of deer seen running through the fields, a few seen close up. The next morning we trailered our SxSs to the Platoro Trails, outside of South Fork. Platoro had been recommended by neighbors who had invited us earlier and we were unable to join them.

It was our first to visit, and our friends that we met last year at the Resort, Terry and Sue’s first time along with of course our family visiting’s first time the Platoro Trails. We thoroughly enjoyed this full-day ride. The roads are smooth, allowing jeeps, and regular vehicles access to most of the scenic places. People at the park who had been on this trail highly recommended it for a smooth, pleasant ride since Cathy’s friend who was with us has hip problems and was worried about a bumpy ride. Again, the wildflowers everywhere are always a bonus for Karen, it’s such a wonderful sign that God takes care of the smallest pleasures in life. God in all His wonder takes care of them with rainfall, sunshine, and through His mighty love.

In one area of the ride, we came up on a Private Lake and Property with warnings not to get out of your vehicle for like 3,000 ft. It was Lake De Nolda and it was really pretty. The guys had brought their fishing gear because the original plan was to drive to the Reservoir where the fishing is supposed to be good. They sure were wanting to throw their line into this beautiful private lake. Our Mountainview neighbors were going up the trail to the Reservoir to fish later in the day, but we never did meet up with them. We stopped to have lunch at the Sky Line Lodge, although the neighbors highly recommended the Reuben sandwich shop, we never did see it and found out later it was just a little further down the road from Sky Line Lodge. Having to get the rental SxS back by 4:30 pm, we were able to spend a little time at the Reservoir but did not have time to do any fishing. It was an awesome day and our group of eight thoroughly enjoyed our newly discovered trail.

Creede is well known for its Repertory Theater(s) Creede Repertory Theatre – Award-Winning Quality Productions https://creederep.org/ . Although a small town with only one family-owned grocery, only one gasoline station, and no Walmart or big retailers, this little town has great theater performances. Karen signed up to volunteer on Thursday evenings with Bill’s twice-a-week Poker games, one being on Thursdays. Volunteers get a voucher for volunteering, usually no longer than 1-hour, and every time you volunteer after earning two vouchers, you can get into a performance at no cost. Karen is a big fan of live theater and musicals. We bought tickets for the “Always Patsy Cline” performance, attending when Cathy was visiting. Cathy bought the tickets for all of us, and they were great seats although there are not any bad seats in this small theater. The stage in the main theater where this performance was playing is very small, but what great use they use of the full stage that included a full band. It was so good and we highly recommend it. It was not just singing, there was an actress who plays Patsy’s real-life best friend, Louise who narrates the story of Patsy Cline. The Louise character was funny and brought much entertainment to the stage. The actress playing Patsy Cline had a really good voice and mimics Patsy’s voice in many of the old songs. What memories it brought back of our having heard her songs through our Mother who played them when we were very young. We had not known that Patsy died at just 30 old from a small plane that crashed on her way home from Kansas City to Nashville, yet her music is still remembered today.

Karen was a little star-struck when she ran into the actress who played Louise, Caitlin DiAntonio, at the Kentucky Belle Grocer (the only grocer in town). Caitlin plays many characters in various theatre performances and is married to the Producing Artistic Director, John DiAntonio. She was very recognizable off stage with her red curly locks and a big smile. She introduced Karen to her young son who was shopping with her. Caitlin previously played Lucille Ball in a theatre performance which is easy to imagine with her personality and physical appearance.

Visiting family and friends wanted to see the South Clear Creek Falls that we usually visit when we take the Bristol Head SxS trail, but this time we decided to drive to the Falls, Kevin following us on his motorcycle, the other five of us in the truck and afterward drove on through to Lake City. We were told it was a cute little town with a beautiful lake. The Lake was very nice, the water was so clear, and you could see lots of fish swimming around. However, there was lots of road construction in town, so we basically filled up our gas tank, then turned around and went back to the Resort after visiting the lake.

We had one big cookout at our place with the visiting family and friends, inviting good neighbors Bob and Marguerite over. It was a nice evening sitting out in our covered patio area. Bob is an author of two books and personally autographed copies of his book for our family and their friends, Kevin and Karen Dillard. Karen Dillard commented that she had never met a real author, later saying she had started reading his book.

Our good RV neighbors across the street, Brian and Jim took Dean and Kevin fishing with their large raft. The four of them trailered their 4-seater SxS to the staging area and then rode the SXS up to the remote area of Reagan Lake. Bill did not want to go, as he was preparing for our trip back to Dallas. They came back with quite a few fish. They saw a Moose and had a great time, even though they had to briefly take shelter from rain and hail in an old abandoned cabin near the lake. The next evening we were invited over to their place for a fish fry. We all contributed something towards the meal and it was great food and a great time. After eating, we all moved outside to sit by a robust fire burning in the huge fire pit along the river and it was there that we saw our first large black bear across the river mulling around in the new RV site construction area. It was cool watching this large bear moving across the area and finally swimming across the river to our side. He was visible, but a way down from where we were sitting. It was a nice final touch to a wonderful evening.

The next morning these same neighbors left to go to their hometown in Florida for a few weeks. Before leaving, they offered to loan their 4-seat SxS and trailer to Bill, Dean, and Kevin so they could go back and fish again at Reagan Lake. The three of them were up by 5:30 am, loaded up the SxS, and their fishing gear, and left on the road early. They caught several nice-sized fish that day and Dean cleaned and gave them away since our group was leaving the next morning.

In the Spring 2022, Issue 17 edition of the magazine “East Texan,” the front page shows a woman fly fishing. The article titled “Fishing is more about being outdoors than anything,” tells the story of Judy who was interested in learning how to fly fish. She set out with a $100 beginner’s fly fishing kit, traveling with her husband to fly fish in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, but while the couple was backpacking the headwaters of the upper Rio Grande, not far from Creede, CO is when she got “hooked.”

Creede has an annual Rummage sale for the Women’s Aid Society Creede Ladies Aid Society, an organization formed in 1899. This organization has a long history of helping people in need. We had heard stories of things this non-profit group had done for others and also heard what an awesome rummage sale that was held for 2-days in July. Karen and Cathy were there early the first day, but not early enough, some people arrived before they opened to get in line for the bargains. We picked up a few items, but mostly it was an experience seeing all the things at the rummage sale, and all the people.

We offered Mandy, our youngest daughter, the option of either dog sitting at our home in Dallas or traveling to Creede and staying in our RV for a couple of weeks while we took our two granddaughters to Hawaii for their 16th birthday celebrations and she jumped on the opportunity to leave the Dallas hot weather and have the RV to herself in Creede. Her job allows her to work remotely and our place in Creede has really good Wi-Fi connections. Mandy arrived only a few days before the time for us to head home to Dallas. Fortunately, we were able to show her around the town and had enough time to take her on an SxS ride up to “Bachelor’s Loop” and on up to the Continental Divide. We returned down the mountain on the “Rat Creek” trail. The ride had a mix of trails with some smooth roads and rocky climbs. Mandy drove and she had such an awesome time since this was her first long trail ride on the SxS. Spending those few hours with Mandy gave us time for her to gain good experience mastering the SxS and it gave plenty of time for her to be able to see and enjoy the beautiful scenic ride.

On Friday, July 15, we left the RV Resort early morning to make the 780-mile, 14-hour drive to Dallas. Our next departure will be from Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport on Tuesday, July 19 with our two granddaughters, Addison and Lily, for our trip to Honolulu, Hawaii where will spend one week. When we return, we will spend a few days at home then it’s 14 hours driving for our trip back to Creede where we will await a visit from our son-in-law Karl and our 10-year-old grandson, Blake.

Thanks for all the prayers for our sister-in-law, Kathie Spivey. God took her home and took away all of her earthly physical suffering from terminal cancer on June 26, 2022. Our hearts are with our brother, Chris, now a widower, and for Kathie’s family.

Revelation 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death.”

In Memory of my Mom and Step Dad, this plaque was ordered and placed in our garden in Creede, CO.