https://www.mountainviewsrv.com/

We found this hidden gem in Creede late summer of 2021 and immediately felt this was a place we would want to come back to year-after-year. The grandchildren thoroughly enjoy visiting and we have had friends and family visit over the past 3-years.

This summer we will have the enjoyment of our Pavilion that was built over the winter season. The first few weeks were busy setting it up, however, early into our arrival already have entertained friends for dinner, played games in it in the evenings, and had our 16-year-old grandson visit his third season.

Parker Visit (Sunday, 6/02/2024 – 06/11/2024)

This year we did not begin our trip to Creede until after Addison’s, our granddaughter, high school graduation, graduation party, and her 18th birthday dinner celebration.

Parker spent the night on June 1, after the birthday dinner, and we were on the road Sunday, morning, June 2. We made it as far as Tucumcari, New Mexico where we spent 1-night at the Blaze & Saddle RV Park.  Kix on 66, a local diner was recommended for us to have dinner, and we were not disappointed. The food was good, and they offer breakfast at any time which is what Parker selected. Arriving late afternoon after a long day’s drive, we ate dinner and hit the sack early.

Monday, June 3 we arrived early at Mountain Views RV Park, unhooked the 5^th wheel, and drove to Del Norte to empty our storage unit.   It was a blessing to have Parker, our 16-year-old grandson with us.  He was such a great help. While Nana stayed at the campsite organizing all the things brought in from the storage unit, Papa and Parker drove to our second storage unit where we kept the side-by-side this past winter.

On arrival at our site, it was our first time to see the Pavilion that was built through the 2023 winter season.  All we had seen were photos sent at the various stages of the building.  There was a lot to be done, but we did not want to work the entire week Parker was visiting, so we just did a little bit in between doing fun things.  Parker is officially able to drive the side-by-side as a licensed driver, he often took the side-by-side out on his own bringing Mayah along with him.

Parker had a few things on his wish list to do on his week’s visit and we were able to do most of them.  He wanted to do a group ride as we had done in his previous visits, unfortunately, many of the trails were closed due to late snowfalls, along with rainy, colder, windy days.  Bachelor Loop was partially closed due to a large boulder falling and blocking a portion of the trail.  We had pumped up Wheeler Geological Area/Trail hoping to take him to see the large spheres, but it too was closed. 

Although we were not able to organize a large group ride, one afternoon we did make it as far as we could up Rat Creek trail with our good friend Terry Cooprider.  Papa rode with Terry; Parker drove our side-by-side with Nana as his passenger.  We saw firsthand how thick and heavy the snow was still on the trails, especially as we climbed up to higher elevations.   Eventually, we had to stop and turn around before reaching the top of the Continental Divide because of the thick heavy snow blocking the trail.

We booked a river raft guided tour through the same place we booked with the granddaughters last year.  It is Narrow Ridge Outdoors Narrow Ridge | Rio Grande Whitewater Rafting | Rock Climbing | South Fork Colorado (narrowridgeoutdoors.com) located in South Fork, formerly known as Mountain Man Rafting.  This year we took the upper Rio Grande River ride starting at the bridge close to our RV park, last year it was the lower Rio Grande River, so it was nice experiencing both.    We highly recommend using NRO for rafting, and they offer other types of outdoor recreational activities as well, but we can only recommend what we have experienced which is their experienced rafting crew.   Curt Howell, the owner of the company, was our guide on this trip.  He and Bill both attended Texas Tech, Curt took his graduate courses at Tech and taught classes.   In fun bantering, Curt questioned Parker for his wearing a UT windbreaker.  Parker replied he has family on both sides of the college favorites, he wears attire for both colleges.

The guide told Parker he could ride bull style on the raft when we first launched, and later he decided that would be fun, so he moved up to the front of the raft and rode bull style most of the ride; straddling the rope and riding on top of the raft versus inside the raft.  The weather was awesome and we had a great time. 

Parker enjoys having the “Honey Pig” specialty pizza at the local pizza restaurant, Old Miner’s Inn Old Miners Inn – Creede, CO | Hand-Tossed Pizza, Fresh Toppings.  He said he could eat it every day and did have it several times during his week’s visit.    Another favorite of Parker’s is Nana’s egg/bacon/ham omelets for breakfast and she gladly made them for her awesome grandson a few times throughout the week.

A first-time experience for Parker was watching the Donkey Dash!  Papa and Nana saw it for the first-time last year, and it is quite the experience.  We have learned that it is a competitive sport, and participants “handlers” travel all over the country to participate.  The handler pulls his donkey throughout the race and prizes are awarded.  Donkey Dash (creede.com). 

Another item on Parker’s wish list was to go to the public outdoor gun shooting range to shoot our pistols (22LR and 9MM).  Papa and he went to the local sporting goods store, the Ramble House, to purchase paper targets, then purchased a heavy-duty stapler to staple the targets to the thick plywood at the range.   Arrived at the gun range and the staples purchased for the stapler did not fit the newly purchased stapler, and the targets would not hold up, but thankfully, we had brought water bottles filled with water and a few other targets.  Papa says we shot over 300 bullets between us, primarily Parker. 

Parker fished in the stocked pond and caught and released this fish on an earth worm. Last year he and his brother caught enough to cook for dinner.

Friday night’s is the Elk’s Club weekly Bingo game.  They have a pot-luck dinner starting at 6 pm, and the bingo game begins at 7 pm.  It’s another fun activity Parker has enjoyed in his previous visits.  This time he won in the four corners game!  He had to split the $26.00 winnings since there were two bingos, but he was happy to have won $13.00 which paid for the extra cards he wanted to play for the blackout game.  (Parker was not really drinking, only poising a toast with Papa!)

The evenings were spent playing Rummikub and Texas Hold’em.  Parker talked about his friends playing poker, and that he wanted to learn to play Texas Hold’em.  The three of us played in the evenings and Parker picked it up quickly.  

There is a twice-weekly men’s poker game at the Elk’s Lodge in the park (Mondays and Thursdays), $20.00 buy-in.  Parker’s last night with us, he joined the men’s poker game.  Papa was so proud of him, luck or skill, he knocked out 5 of the men, including Papa.  In the last 10 minutes, Parker was in first place, a couple of bold lucky moves, and he finished up in third place.

We were so happy to have Parker with us again this season, and the week just flew by, and before we knew it, it was time for him to fly home.   His flight out of Alamosa, Colorado was scheduled for a 3:30 pm departure with a connecting flight in Denver, arriving at DFW by 9:45 pm.   We had an unpleasant experience last year at the Alamosa very small airport with the two granddaughters flying home but this experience far exceeded the unpleasant one last year. 

We arrived the required 2 hours before flight time, a lesson learned from the previous year that no matter how small the airport or that you have been getting updates that the flight is delayed.  Although,  there was no one at the check-in/ticket counter for another 30-45 minutes.   It became apparent from the suspicious actions of the two agents working on getting Parker checked in that something was awry.  After finally giving him his boarding pass, he went to the security check and the security agent asked him to go back to the waiting area to be seated and they would call him after checking in other travelers.   Only 3-4 other people were waiting to go through security.   Parker patiently waited with Papa and Nana, and after another 30-45 minutes, the security agent called Parker’s name.  It was then that all the craziness began.  Another security agent came to the entrance and explained to Parker that he would go through an extensive search of his body, his luggage, etc.  This agent went into detail about what they would be doing in this search, then proceeded to tell Parker that if he did not want to go through this search, he could turn around and leave, however, he could not choose to leave once the search began.   We thought this very strange, why would he choose to leave, he needed to catch this flight and had nothing to hide.

Once behind the security entrance, Papa and Nana were able to observe through the glass pane walls.  In all of years of extensive business travel, we have never witnessed a person going through what they were doing to Parker.   It had Nana so upset watching this innocent young man be put through what they did to him, unloading all of his neatly packaged luggage, patting him down, dusting his clothes, it was something.   Parker’s face said it all, he was embarrassed and humiliated.  He asked the agent why they were doing this to him, and the agent told him his ticket had him categorized as a Quad S security level.   The agent proceeded to tell Parker that most people who have a Quad S security level on their ticket know and expect this level of screening.  Obviously, Parker had no idea what the agent was talking about and sent a screenshot of his ticket to Nana on the other side of the security area to show the code on his ticket.   Nana immediately did an Internet Search to learn what this meant, but it was not much good at this point.  Parker finally got through the screening and repacked all of his things.

This was the beginning of a long, grueling day with a horrible flight experience.  Once Parker arrived in Denver, we immediately began receiving American Airlines delay flight notices.   When purchasing his ticket, Nana listed Parker and Amy, his mother’s email addresses for notifications, and she received them too.   When the latest cancellation delay showed the flight not leaving Denver until 4 am the next day, it was time to take urgent action.  Parker had already gone through the experience of security screening in Alamosa, and now being told he would have to sleep in the airport was not acceptable.   Amy was able to get him on a Southwest flight and he finally arrived in Dallas at approximately the same time he was originally due through the American Airlines flight.  

We all agree that we were happy it was not Blake, Parker’s younger brother having to go through this experience.  Parker’s mild temper demeanor, and patience helped him get through an experience many would have had much more difficulty.  It’s our prayer that we can learn why he was categorized as a Quad S through our inquiry with the Transportation Security Administration, and that he never has to go through this type of travel experience again.

It was a great visit with Parker, and we are blessed to be able to have our grandchildren visit us in Creede, Colorado. Our age and the age of our 5th wheel may eventually cause us to stop coming, but we hopefully have a few more years. This summer Bill turns 75, but there are many regulars in this Resort that far exceed him in age.

God is good, He is good all the time.  II Corinthians 9:8