May 15-22, 2015 Fort Collins, Colorado

Spring time here is beautiful. We finally got some sun. It was lovely.

 

Spring green on the Poudre River bike path. Spring green in historic downtown Fort Collins.

More spring green in historic downtown Fort Collins. It is a cute little town.

John is putting a new screen/security door on the front house. It took him all day, including drilling into the cement to put on a new threshold. If we ever quit traveling in the bus we will move into this one. Now we just stay in the apartment over the garage in back when we are in town and rent this one.

 

Some of the iris blooming at the house now. I could not help it, I planted some tomatoes, basil and a jalapeno plants in the garden in the back. We won’t be around to harvest –hopefully we will be happily traveling in the new motor home by then. But it will be fun to have a few plants to play with while we are here.  There were already oregano, chives, sage and a couple oriental lilies in this bed.

Jeff Sambur, waving in the back, is in town. He worked with John on the fire department and is now retired and living in a van and traveling. We run into him on the road across the country. When Jeff comes to town he has get together to visit his friends, we are part of the crowd. It is good to see everyone. I finished this elk in the aspen piece this week. Making pieces of glass for the up coming show in November. Have to do it all when I am here in town, can’t do it on the road, not enough room for my studio.

One of the sights to see in Fort Collins is the Andy Warhol soup can. It was made by the art department here at Colorado State University to the specifications and directions of Andy Warhol  in association  with an exhibition he had here in 1981. When he opened his show here he signed the can.  Here is part of the trial gardens at CSU, across the street from the art center on campus. So far there are only pansy’s growing, but soon it will be a huge exhibition of spring flowers.

  

A sight you don’t see very often  in Colorado. Mushrooms. The front range is high desert, most of the growth here is from irrigation, but this spring we have had so much water, well mushrooms. We saw these Canada geese goslings by the river today. They are awful cute.

A cool statue in front of the Discovery Center museum in Fort Collins, I hope to go see the museum before we take off. We had dinner last night with Bill and Karen. They travel a few weeks each month in their Air Stream trailer. So far we have not run into them on the road, but hopefully will.

Today my second cousin Morgan graduated from high school in Golden, Co. John and I went to a luncheon after the ceremony with the family. This is Morgan and his parents Reed and Tammy. Morgan was valedictorian, one of 7, there were 7 kids in his class that had a 4.0 grade point all 4 years, straight A’s!! Congratulation Morgan. Justin his younger brother was guarding the cake.

The current piece of glass I am working on now. Needs some more work, then slumped into a mold. So far so good. The rain has made the river very high. This rock shows the 10 year high level of the river, and it is pretty close right now and run off from the mountain snow  has not even begun. Good for kayaking! But it would be nice to see the sun more. . .

We picked up the bus from Cummins today. It has been getting general maintenance done for the last couple of weeks. Getting worn our parts replaced, it is a 2002(just like our old bus). We got as far as the highway and it over heated, so we turned around and went back. Looks like it may need a new radiator. The radiator on the last bus failed, I guess that is one of the problems of these models. Guess it is better to get it replaced now than have it go out in the middle of Nevada. . .  Eventually we will get to move back in and go back on the road.