Karen flew home twice this season, leaving Bill with the two dogs at the resort.  It was the first time, and it was nice for her to be able to visit the grandchildren.  She misses seeing them, and it’s been determined that she will be able to come home at least once, maybe twice during the 5-month season.  This second trip home was to celebrate our granddaughter – Lily’s 18th Birthday on September 5. Isaiah 49:15-16

Good friends and previous Mountain Views RV Resort owners, Sherrie and Delbert Walt came for a visit, staying in Mountain Views rental cabins, and arriving when Karen was in Texas.  They decided to extend an extra day so we could all have dinner together when Karen returned.  They introduced us to Worth the Drive Bakery owned and run by the Amish outside of Monte Vista.  Delbert special orders a variety of their fried fruit pies to take back home in Texas.  It was a nice experience, and we purchased a few things.

Dinner was at Quincy’s Steak & Spirits in Monte Vista.  There was a group of eight, one couple we met for the first time.   Sherrie and Delbert sold their lot to Robert and Jennifer Johnson, our newly met friends last year, but they have decided to come back to Creede to visit, staying in the rental cabins.

A traditional birthday celebration concert is held at the Jenkins site by Bob Jenkins who hosts it in honor of his wife, Laura.  This is the second year, and he promises to continue it every year.  A notice is posted, and the entire RV Resort is invited, including the rental side of the park.  It’s a nice time with heavy hors d’oeuvres and sitting out in the beautiful Colorado weather, mountains as a backdrop, listening to live music.  Rivertown Folk is a local 3-person group that performs, and Bob is a songwriter/singer who we always enjoy hearing. Colorado Girl is one of my favorite Rivertown Folk song’s they sing regularly.

The Headwaters Music Festival was on August 24 and 25^th.  As in previous years, we were co-hosts with Bob and Margarite Holt for the Friday night kickoff dinner.  Fortunately, the weather was nice all weekend.  We thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Anthony Garcia Home | About Anthony Garcia Music — ANTHONY GARCIA MUSIC.  He performed a free concert on Friday night at the park’s Elk’s Lodge and performed twice over the weekend.  Curt Langford President and CEO of Texas Tech Alumni was a guest of Bob Holt’s attending the Music Festival.

This season started rainy and cold, and ultimately, we did not take as many side-by-side rides this year.  There was a berry-picking group ride to Reagan Lake which was Karen’s first time there, Bill had gone fishing there with a group of guys. 

We met a local couple at Creede’s Old Miner’s Inn one evening, and they assured us that if we went up Bachelor Loop towards Equity Mines between 7 – 7:30 pm, we would see Moose in the Beavers Pond.  One evening, the two of us decided to drive up, and sure enough, we saw a Cow and her Calf side-by-side, then a little further down, we saw the Bull.  It was so exciting that we brought a few other groups and each time, we were able to see the Bull around the same area, at the same time of evening, however, we did not see the cow and calf again. It’s always nice for us to see any type of wildlife and the deer are bountiful.

Our friends enjoy going up to Hot Dog Hill, and there are several scheduled trips throughout the season. This year, we only attended one of the many. It’s always great fun! It started raining halfway into our event, and we lost several people, but there were enough of us who wanted to wait out the rain and continue our fun together.

August was the last full month spent in Creede.  In September we traveled to Phoenix twice.  On the first trip, we went to see a 2018 Mobile Suites 5^th Wheel (Model 39DBRS3) that Karen had seen on RV Trader.  While on her trip back home, she received an automated notification that the price was reduced.  We were able to include a visit with Uncle Gerry in Tucson.  It was so good seeing him and enjoying a two-day visit.  He and Bill needed to go to Costco for new batteries for their hearing aids, and we had lunch at Outback.

On the first trip to Phoenix, we took a route that brought us through Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) and it is a place we would like to go back to visit for a few days.  Beautiful scenery.

The second trip to Phoenix was to take our 2016 Wildcat 5^th Wheel that we traded for the bigger, much roomier Mobile Suites.  Our Wildcat has been good to us, we have taken many trips across the USA in it and taken the grandkids on many trips to Beavers Bend as well as on a few road trips.  But once we started living in the Wildcat for 4-5 months at a time, it just did not have enough storage area or space for seasonal weather, the refrigerator was too small, and the bathroom barely had enough room for one person.

It was a busy, hectic travel schedule, needing to transfer everything out of the Wildcat, temporarily place it in our Pavilion, then transfer the things that stay with the 5^th wheel from the Pavilion to the Mobile Suites.  We were on a tight schedule, needing to have our newly purchased 5^th wheel in Creede winterized and stored for the winter in the barn early morning following the day of our return from Phoenix with it in tow.  Next year we will enjoy a bigger, and roomier 5^th wheel which will live in Creede, Colorado as our seasonal home.

Our 5^th wheel went into storage on Thursday, September 26, and we still had quite a bit to do, and the Park’s rental cabins were shut down for the season.  So, we stayed two nights in a cabin at Cottonwood Cove Guest Ranch https://www.cottonwoodcove.com/

It being the end of the season, we had to pack and cover everything being left at our site in the pavilion, take down the canvas coverings, cover the plants, and fence the Aspen trees.  Unfortunately, we did not get to enjoy any rides in the mountains to see all the beautiful Fall colors.  There were a few photo opportunities to capture the beautiful colors.

Saturday, September 28, we began our 14-hour drive back home.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day, and we took turns driving.  Gabby and Mayah are both wonderful travelers, but they were happy to be home.

Thanks be to God for His blessings and His protection over us during the number of hours we were traveling on the road the past few weeks of September.

Psalm 121:7-8: “The LORD keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”