Vacation time and back home!

Vacation time was absolutely fabulous! Fishing...friends...food...flowers...fun. We drove to Colorado with our good friends from Wichita, Bev & Richard Spann (if you remember last summer's blogs, we also went to South Fork together then). Their big Dodge van made the trip most enjoyable - though I have to admit to having some serious doubts about it when we drove up to the American Basin outside of Lake City on what should have been a road only for 4-wheel drives! But the American Basin was well worth it--wild flowers that were just out of this world, or a little bit of heaven right here in Colorado. The fishing was excellent - Jerry and Richard didn't miss a day while we were in Colorado, including stopping to fish on the road home at Silver Plume! They fished the Rio Grande, Beaver Creek at South Fork, the Taylor & Gunnison rivers, and many more--anyplace they could find to drop a line, actually! We were able to see many olds friends--Barry & Nancy Beal from Midland were just the best hosts ever! While the men put in hard days of fishing, we gals had the joy of doing a lot of reading on their gorgeous porch, watching the cloud formations over the mountains, shopping and eating in quaint Creede. Jerry and I had the good fortune of having a visit with one of my high school classmates who was camped in an RV park in South Fork--Jim and I hadn't seen each other in 50 years, so that was a delight. On our way to Gunnison we spent time with a new friend from Eastminster Church in Wichita, Joan Olander, who summers in Lake City, and drove up to the American Basin--put that on your "must-do" list! We moved on to the Gunnison area, occupied a cabin on the banks of Spring Creek and were able to spend time with Abbe Mahone from Oklahoma City, and her son David who got out there in time to do some fishing with Jerry and Richard. Worship at Tin Cup is always a highlight and this year was no exception. Best of all was crossing paths with folks who were serving as camp hosts at one of the national park campgrounds, and whose parents were members of our church in Enid OK. We spent an evening with Eastminster friends, Fred & Sue Berry, in their lovely home in Mt. Crested Butte...what a spectacular view--another little glimpse of heaven! They graciously included our friend Abbe, who it turns out had toured their home several years ago when it was on the Homes Tour. The Gunnison area also gave us the opportunity to spend time with Kirk & Nancy Fry from Enid (now from Hotchkiss)...many years ago, when we lived in Enid, they first introduced us to this area of Colorado by offering us a cabin for our fall vacations--and we've been hooked ever since! We completed our holiday with a few days at the Spann's time-share condo at Beaver Creek--which included two or three trips up the ski lift--one time we saw a bear below us, and another time a beautiful buck with a very large rack. Wow! On our way back to Midland with the RV, we were able to surprise our son-in-law at the Sunday Gospel Brunch at the Gruene Dance Hall in Gruene TX and celebrate his birthday, along with our friends, the Greens, from Midland; and special friends of Jo & Scott's, Naomi & Conner from Austin (who are moving to Colorado Springs, even as I write this blog--we shall miss their presence in Texas but thank goodness for cell phones and email.) Its been good to be back home--even unpacking boxes and settling in was joyous! Our year in Wichita was marvelous, but there's no place like home! By way of an apology for the long stretch between blogs, we have only just been able to get high-speed internet at the house! With the oil industry being what it is, you can imagine how things are booming in Midland...And its proved to be very difficult to get any kind of services installed, turned on, etc. We have become so dependent on high-speed internet that this has really been a time to try men's souls! And now - just when we are back on-line, we are preparing to leave! Tomorrow we head out to spend the Labor Day weekend with Jo and Scott in San Antonio. From there we turn the RV towards Missouri--we have lots of plans, which include the Gospel Fest at Silver Dollar City, Babler State Park outside of St. Louis; quiet R&R time on a farm outside of Rolla; and October camped on Table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri, taking in the Fall Festival at Silver Dollar City. We will be able to keep up with emails, so if you are going to be in any of those areas, please let us know. I've missed communicating with you via the blog these last six weeks - here's hoping I can do better while we are on the road. Love, Mary & Jerry