December 14, 2014 Copper Breaks State Park, Texas

Another 200 mile day. Way more than we usually do.  We are outrunning snow and heading to Louisiana to leave the bus plugged in so we can drive to Chicago in time for Christmas.

The absolute lowest we have seen diesel. We stopped and filled up. More cotton fields in the panhandle of Texas. In the center are cotton bales. Each one would fill a whole semi.

Panhandle, Texas in the Texas panhandle. Then through Memphis-see all their state champions? We looked for Graceland but it was not here. The little downtown is one of the many we went through, I couldn’t keep them straight. We arrived at Copper Breaks State Park with time to spare. It was in the low 70’s and sunny. I hula hooped. The structures behind the bus are picnic shelters shaped like Teepees. The one across the street from us was hit by lightening and all black. They closed that site.

 

They had poles with hooks on them at each Teepee. For lanterns or food or something. John thought it was for our new sex swing. He is enjoying it . . . The cover for the AC blew off in the strong wind, so John is reattaching it. The basil are sunning.

These guys really know how to travel, they are hauling a hot tub along on the trailer in the back with their ATV. The sun going down on our walk around the park.

  

Red cliffs and lots of juniper trees. Copper Breaks Lake is 60 acres. We saw photos of some huge fish caught here in the visitors center.

December 13, 2014 Lamar, Colorado to Lake Meredith, Texas

Continuing south we left Colorado, crossed the panhandle of Oklahoma  into Texas.

 

Beautiful downtown Campo, Colorado, the last town before the border. Leaving Colorful Colorado.

Welcome to Oklahoma.  Oklahoma was the reservation where they made all the Indians they didn’t want walk to along the Trail of Tears in the early USA. So now Oklahoma is the state that has the highest population of Native Americans in the US. I love this Christmas dinosaur in Boise City, Ok.

 

The Tin man is in Boise City. Seems a ways from Kansas. Lunch while we are on the road. I get up and make a PBJ while John continues driving.

 

Oklahoma vista. Welcome to Texas. Lots of agriculture in this area.

 

Stafford , the first town into Texas is the Pheasant Capital of Texas. It is also home to the Ink Slingers Tattoo parlor and the Ol’ Biddy Cafe, with comfort food and desserts. John wanted to stop and get coffee at the Ol’ Biddy, but she was closed.  Lots of windmill farms along this whole route from south eastern Colorado to Texas. They grow cotton here, see the big bales of cotton wrapped in yellow? They also had oil derricks in the cotton fields. The farther south we go, the cheaper the gas gets.

 

We arrived at Lake Meredith National monument in time to take a nice walk about before dark. There are groves of mesquite trees around the lake, which  is very low, Texas is having a drought.

 

A few photos of the bus at Lake Meredith. The roads into the campsites were not very good, so we boondocked in the overflow boat parking lot. The boat ramp is closed since the water is 3/4 of a mile from the lake now, so we are the only ones here. Nice and quiet and dark. Feels great to be on the road again. There is a 60% chance of thunder storms tonight here. Much better than the 60% chance of snow in Colorado.

Here is the lake, dam and Dam store.

December 12, 2014 Lamar, Colorado

On the road again!!!!!

Leaving Denver. So tired of driving to and from Denver, it is nice that this was the last drive for awhile anyway. Beautiful downtown Hugo, Colorado. Such a picturesque , homey looking town. The eastern part of Colorado is wide open plains country with farms and ranches.

John stopped in Hugo for some coffee. Long drive today for us, 250 miles. We are tired. This is the observatory at the museum in Kit Carson, Colorado.

 

We are no longer in the mountains of Colorado. We are making a quick exit since it is supposed to snow this weekend and we don’t want to drive the bus in snow. We arrived at Lamar, Colorado at dusk.  We are at ‘The Lodge”, country acres motel and RV park. It has the Island of Dreams in the middle of it. thatched tiki huts, fake grass and palm trees. Probably is cute when there are leaves on the trees and it is all open.

The bus at our site. Full hookups. Half price with Passport America. John dewinterized the bus here since we are now in it and plugged in. Didn’t want the plumbing freezing when we were not in it. But he did it in the dark and cold. Sunset and our view from our site. Nope, we are not in the mountains anymore.

December 10-11, 2014 Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado

Selling the sticks and bricks house. As we say in RV language. Making life simpler. 

The tiles are done. Came out great. Reed loaded his possessions into this pod in front of the house. Here they are picking it up. They lifted it, then backed the truck under it. It will go to Maine and they will store it until Reed finds a house to move into.

 

John spent 2 days cleaning out the garage in the Denver house. I never realized it was this big when it was full. I never remember seeing it this clean. Two car garage, room for a workshop and a green house, with 4 stained glass windows. This other piece is in the basement of the house in what was my studio. I had John remove this piece and I took it home.

I underestimated how long it would take to clean up. I called Katie and Katy at the last minute and they came over and helped clean up the yard. Then rushed back to Fort Collins for the annual ladies Christmas pot luck and white elephant gift  exchange. Karen and Claire host the party. They are pictured here with the coveted ( for dreaded-depending on who ends up with it) sex swing. It has been exchanged since 1992. It even comes with a history of who has had it. Along with a moldy shower curtain, a stretched out swim suit and many other unwanted gifts. I was the lucky recipient of the sex swing this year . . . We will have to take photos of it all around the country now.

 

Back to Denver to finish up. The house is as empty as it will get. This is the master bedroom upstairs. The couch was moved up there before I had a door put at the bottom of the stairs, so it is staying.  The bathroom has stained glass windows I made .

The living room and dining room. All of the woodwork is fir and has never been painted. I had the carpets taken up and the floors refinished.  Stained glass in the front door and window on the left.

This is the kitchen before I moved out. I love the butcher block counters and knotty pine cabinets.  I hate to think that the new owners will probably remodel and modernize the kitchen. Of course that is better than what is happening to most of the sold houses in the neighborhood, they are scraping them off and putting up modern square monstrosities to the property lines.  I put up Christmas lights on the fence. I think it will go on the market the first of next week.  It was a good house, but another chapter of my life and I have moved on. One of the neighbors made an offer on it already to the realtor. Lower than the asking price. Most houses in this neighborhood are going for more than the asking price. Guess we will see what happens.

December 1-10, 2014 Fort Collins, Colorado

I got a new stencil cutter. It is like a printer but has a blade instead of a pen.

It is called a Silhouette Cameo. It is made for scrapbooking. My plan is to use it to make stencils for  sandblasting.  It makes all kind of cute things, like this camper van candy box. . . I am loosing my mind, I spent the morning making it. I also cut some cool stencils, skiers, bikers, snowboarders and sandblasted them into dichroic glass and made these cook pendants.

 

It is warmer and sunny, but still cold. Here is what looks like a crop circle on McMurry pond by the bike path. We are getting serious about moving things out of my Denver house. John is reassembling my king sized bed in our bedroom in Fort Collins.

 

Here it is, he did a fine job. We had to figure out what to do with the queen sized bed that was in there.We are saving it for if we ever stop traveling and move into the front bigger house on the property. So the mattress is in the living room, disguised as a shelf. John thinks it looks like a sacrificial alter. . .

Back in Denver, after picking up another load we all went out to dinner to Bon voyage Reed. He really is leaving for Maine on Monday. Katie, John, Bill, Katy, Morgan and Reed.  Back in Fort Collins the next day the almost full moon rose over McMurray pond. The ice  shown earlier is at the other end of the pond.

Still busy in the studio. These small pieces are sitting on molds and will be slumped into soap dishes. John and Mandy are back from Australia, we met for dinner at Coopersmith’s and heard about their travels.

 

The Christmas lights in Old Town Fort Collins are lovely. Mandy took this shot of John and I at dinner.

 

I cut these stencils on my Silhouette and tested them on luster fired onto glass. Look very good.