Grandson’s Visit (July 30 – August 6)

Isaiah 55:12: “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Having had a wonderful, fun visit last summer, the boys were anxious to make another visit to Creede this 2023 summer.   With both in summer baseball leagues, it is very difficult to plan their trip until just a few weeks or even days prior to the trip.   The park’s rental cabins book up a year in advance, but we were fortunate to get a cabin for the first 3-days of their visit this year.  Procuring a cabin, (even if it was only for a few short days) made it a little more comfortable sleeping for our son-in-law Karl and grandsons Parker, 15 years old, and Blake, 11 years old.  After the 3-days in the cabin, they moved into our 5^th wheel and shared the queen sofa bed and the teen-size twin air mattress.

It was an awesome week, the boys had given Nana their wish list of things to do this year, and we were able to accomplish everything on their list, except miniature golf for Blake because there are no mini-golf courses in Creede and we cannot find a miniature golf venue anywhere near us, not even in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Our RV Resort has two event buildings, the Elks Lodge and the Bear Lodge. Bear Lodge has a game room with a pool table and hand-serve, dipped ice cream bar that is open every night 6 – 9 pm.  So, we started our first night hitting the game room, and continued that tradition almost every night at least for ice cream and usually a game of pool also. 

On Monday and Thursday night each week there is a men’s Texas Holdem poker game in the other event building, the Elk’s Lodge.  Papa and Karl played poker, while Parker, Blake, and Nana headed over to the Bear Lodge and played a couple of games of Rummikub. Then, the boys patiently waited to play pool while another family played up until closing time.

We took a few SxS rides as a family.  We still have our 2-seater Kawasaki and our good friend and neighbor, Bob, generously loans us his 2-seater ODES SxS.  Since there were 5 us, we had to make some concessions.  For a few rides of the week, Nana stayed at the park while the boys and Karl took rides in the two SxS. Parker was able to drive most of the time and usually took turns with his Dad.  There was still snow, in some areas thick snow into July of this year.

One ride, our good friend Sue Cooprider joined us and Nana rode with Sue so that meant all of us could go. We rode the SxS’s out of the park and across OHV trails on a long ride to Copper Creek Falls and Love Lake.  This was the same ride we all took last year with a large ride group and so this year the boys wanted to go again. As before, we were anxious to see the red, strawberry-looking mushrooms “fly agarics” that we saw last year, but unfortunately there weren’t any blooming this year.   Even though the area had record snowfalls this year, the Copper Creek waterfall was barely visible, but still the views were magnificent and there were picturesque small streams that cascaded down the hillside.

Last year we visited Pagosa Springs, Colorado for a shopping spree and the boys saw people swimming in the San Juan River that flows through downtown. So, this year, swimming the San Juan was on their wish list. The river has several hot springs that flow into the river along various spots thus making the water a little warmer than the Rio Grande River that runs through our RV Park.   Karl stayed with the boys while Papa and Nana made a Walmart run, and Papa thought to pick up a few plastic float tubes.  By the time we got back to the river, the boys were finished swimming until they saw the float tubes we had brought back, then they were back in the river for more fun!  We thoroughly enjoyed watching them have so much fun in the river, Papa was wishing he had brought his swimsuit.

Parker was so disappointed that last year when we stopped at Treasure Falls, a scenic outlook and hiking trail, we were all too tired and did not have time for him to hike up to the top of the falls.  This year, as his wish list, we stopped again at Treasure Falls.  Parker and Blake took the hike 1/2 mile loop trail, and it only took them approximately 25 minutes, he was happy!  Hiking is one of his favorite things to do with Nana.

This year we went to the Visitor’s Center and gathered up all the nearby hiking trails.  The Deep Creek Trail is the closest to the RV Park, so we decided to take this trail.  It is an 18-mile roundtrip hike if you take the full trail up the mountain, but for this our first time out, we hiked out about 3 miles to the bridge and then turned around to head back to the trailhead where we had left our truck.  We were told by another hiker we met on the trail, that some people park their vehicle at the top end of the first 9-mile portion of the hike and then when they reach the end of the 9 miles, instead of hiking back down for another 9 miles they have their car waiting to take them down.

One of our group of friends from Florida traditionally schedules a large group ride up to a nearby destination that they affectionately refer to as “Hotdog Hill.” Brian organizes and leads the Hotdog Hill events.  He is a retired firefighter and sets up the bonfire with accommodations to cook hotdogs and roasted marshmallows on the open fire.   We weren’t sure if it would happen this year, and the boys were surely hoping it would.   The last night they were in Creede, the invite came to join the group at hotdog hill.   Parker and Blake had such a good time, and everyone speaks highly of the boys . . . how polite they are and what a joy they are to be around. Of course, hearing these compliments always make Nana and Papa proud!  The boys decided to entertain everyone by staging a roasted marshmallow tossing contest that had them competing in tossing roasted marshmallows in the air and catching them in their mouths.  Everyone enjoyed their entertainment!

It was a wonderful week, and they are looking forward to coming back year after year.  Next year our pavilion will be built, and we have told the boys that we are buying cots for them to sleep outside in the covered pavilion, after all, it will be better than a tent.  The construction contractor’s grandkids all sleep out in a tent for the several weeks that the grandkids spend with their grandparents every summer.

One morning during my quiet time, out of my peripheral vision, I saw something right outside the window of our RV, to my pleasant surprise it was this beautiful deer. As I called out to Bill who was outside, the deer calmly turned around and walked away. What a blessing that made my morning so special.

James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”